Playbook
How to run warm outbound on LinkedIn.
Warm outbound is simple to understand and hard to keep doing. This is the setup that keeps it running when you're busy, which is every week.
The short answer
To run warm outbound on LinkedIn, set up your warm sources on day one (profile viewers, post engagers, followers and one competitor's engagers), collect new people from them every day, keep only those who fit your ICP, write each one a short message about their business rather than about the interaction, send within a few days, follow up once or twice, and keep posting so the list refills.
-
Set up warm sources before your first campaign.
Profile viewers, post engagers, followers, and the engagers on one or two competitors' posts. Do this on day one, because warm lists take time to fill. They start small and grow every week.
-
Run a targeted list next to it.
While the warm list fills, run a tight Sales Navigator search alongside it. The targeted list pays now. The warm list pays later, and more. Two campaigns, in parallel, on purpose.
-
Collect every day.
Warmth expires in days. A weekly export means you're messaging people who have already forgotten you. Daily is the whole game.
-
Qualify, then qualify again.
Drop your team, recruiters, vendors and anyone outside your ICP. Keep the top slice. A smaller list of the right people beats a big list of everyone who clicked.
-
Research, then write about them.
One specific, true thing about their company or their recent posts. Then one question they'd want to answer. Never lead with "I saw you viewed my profile." Examples here, and templates by source.
-
Send within three days, follow up once or twice.
Connection request with a short note or none, then a message once they accept. If they don't reply, one follow-up that adds something new. Two at most. Then let them go. How to write the follow-up.
-
Feed the orbit.
Post about the problem you solve, two or three times a week. Every post brings new people into your atmosphere, and tomorrow's warm list with them. Content creates the orbit; outbound collects it.
What a week looks like.
| When | What | Time by hand |
|---|---|---|
| Mon-Fri, morning | Pull new viewers, engagers, followers and competitor engagers | 15 min |
| Mon-Fri, morning | Qualify and drop the rest | 15 min |
| Mon-Fri, morning | Research and write for the keepers | 30-60 min |
| 2-3x a week | Post something worth engaging with | 30 min each |
| Friday | Replies by source: which ring is paying? | 20 min |
About an hour a day. Easy in week one. Most teams have stopped by week four, not because it stopped working, but because a launch or a hire or a customer fire took the hour. That's the real reason to automate the collecting, qualifying and drafting: so the warm list gets worked on the days you can't.
How to know it's working.
The metrics guide covers this in depth, and the twelve common mistakes explain most bad numbers. Running it for clients? See warm outbound for agencies.
- Reply rate by source. Profile viewers should out-reply competitor followers. If they don't, your messages mention the signal, or your qualification is too loose.
- Interested replies, not just replies. "Thanks, not now" is a reply. Count the conversations.
- New warm leads per day. If it drops to zero, something broke. A silent pipe looks exactly like a slow week.
