LinkedIn InMail vs Connection Request: What Gets More Replies
When it comes to B2B lead generation on LinkedIn, sales professionals face a critical choice: send an InMail or a connection request? Both approaches have their place in a modern outreach strategy, but the data tells a surprising story about which method actually drives more replies.
Based on analysis of millions of LinkedIn interactions and real-world campaign data, here's what B2B marketers need to know about maximizing their response rates.
The Short Answer
Connection requests with personalized follow-up messages consistently outperform InMails for most B2B outreach scenarios. Data from SalesBread shows a 45% acceptance rate and 39% positive reply rate for connection requests, compared to the 18-25% response rate that InMails typically achieve.
However, InMails still outperform cold email by a significant margin—cold emails average just 3% response rates, making InMails roughly 300% more effective for reaching prospects who aren't in your network.
The winning strategy? Use connection requests as your primary outreach method, then deploy InMails strategically for high-value prospects who decline or ignore your initial request.
Understanding the Key Differences
Before diving into performance data, it's essential to understand what makes these two outreach methods fundamentally different.
LinkedIn Connection Requests are free invitations to join someone's professional network. Once accepted, the person becomes a 1st-degree connection, allowing unlimited direct messaging. You can include a note of up to 300 characters, though many sales professionals debate whether notes help or hurt acceptance rates.
LinkedIn InMail is a premium feature available through Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or Premium accounts. InMails let you message anyone on LinkedIn without a prior connection, include a subject line, and can be up to 1,900 characters. Sales Navigator provides 50 InMail credits monthly, with credits returned if recipients respond within 90 days.
What the Data Actually Shows
Connection Request Performance
Analysis of 500,000 LinkedIn connection requests reveals significant variations in acceptance rates based on personalization:
Personalized requests: 45% average acceptance rate
Generic requests: 15% average acceptance rate
Technology industry: 35% acceptance rate
Finance industry: 25% acceptance rate
A study of over 20 million outreach attempts by Expandi found that connection requests achieve a 29.61% approval rate on average, with personalized messages driving a 9.36% response rate compared to 5.44% without a message.
Research from Botdog analyzing 16,492 LinkedIn connection requests found that 63% of acceptances happen within 24 hours and 88% within 7 days, meaning you'll know relatively quickly whether your outreach is working.
InMail Performance
LinkedIn's own data on tens of millions of InMails reveals several patterns:
Average response rate: 18-25%
Open rate: 50-60%
InMails under 400 characters: 22% higher response rate than average
InMails over 1,200 characters: 11% below average response rate
Personalized InMails: 15% better performance than bulk sends
The Belkins 2025 LinkedIn study found that InMail campaigns achieve a 6.38% overall response rate, with all responses coming from the first message—highlighting that InMails are essentially one-shot opportunities.
Why Connection Requests Often Win
The Psychology Factor
Connection requests feel more natural and less transactional. When someone receives an InMail, they immediately recognize it as a sales approach—the "InMail" label literally marks it as premium outreach. This creates an expectation of a pitch, which many recipients mentally dismiss before reading.
Connection requests, by contrast, mirror how professionals naturally expand their networks. The recipient sees a peer reaching out to connect, not a salesperson trying to bypass the normal relationship-building process.
The Follow-Up Advantage
One of the most significant advantages of connection requests is what happens after acceptance. Once someone becomes a 1st-degree connection, you can:
Send unlimited direct messages for free
Appear in their feed organically
Build multiple touchpoints over time
Send follow-up sequences without additional cost
Research shows it takes an average of 8 touchpoints to close a B2B prospect. Connection requests enable this naturally, while InMails give you just one chance to make an impression—you cannot send follow-ups via InMail unless the recipient responds first.
The Cost Equation
Connection requests are free and unlimited (though LinkedIn caps them at roughly 100-200 per week to prevent spam). InMails require a premium subscription starting at $79.99/month for Sales Navigator, which includes only 50 credits.
For high-volume outreach, this cost difference is substantial. A sales team sending 100 outreach messages weekly would quickly exhaust their InMail credits, while connection requests remain free.
When InMails Make More Sense
Despite connection requests' advantages, InMails serve important purposes in a complete outreach strategy.
Reaching C-Suite Executives
Senior executives receive countless connection requests daily. Their acceptance rates are notoriously low, often below 10%. InMails can cut through this noise because:
They land directly in the main inbox, not the connection request tab
Subject lines provide a preview that connection request notes lack
The "InMail" label signals the sender invested in reaching them
Time-Sensitive Opportunities
When you need to reach someone immediately—about an event, a job application, or a time-limited opportunity—waiting for a connection request acceptance isn't viable. InMails provide instant delivery to anyone on the platform.
Declined Connection Requests
The most effective use of InMails is as a backup channel. If a prospect declines or ignores your connection request, a thoughtful InMail can demonstrate persistence and provide more context about why connecting would benefit them.
Open Profile Targeting
LinkedIn Premium members can enable "Open Profile," allowing anyone to InMail them for free. These prospects have explicitly signaled openness to outreach, making them ideal InMail targets without spending credits.
The Optimal Strategy
Based on current data and best practices, here's the most effective approach for B2B LinkedIn outreach:
Step 1: Lead with Connection Requests
Send personalized connection requests to 2nd-degree connections in your target market. Keep notes brief (under 300 characters) and focus on shared context—mutual connections, industry overlap, or genuine interest in their work.
The debate over whether to include notes remains unresolved. Data from Waalaxy suggests slightly higher acceptance rates without notes, but notes drive higher subsequent engagement. Test both approaches with your specific audience.
Step 2: Follow Up Strategically
Once connected, send a personalized message within 24 hours. Don't pitch immediately—thank them for connecting and offer genuine value or ask a thoughtful question about their work.
Space your follow-ups appropriately. The goal is 3-5 touchpoints over 2-4 weeks, not daily bombardment.
Step 3: Deploy InMails Selectively
Reserve InMails for:
High-value prospects who ignored connection requests
C-suite executives and decision-makers
Time-sensitive outreach
Prospects with Open Profiles (free InMails)
Step 4: Integrate Email
For prospects who don't respond to LinkedIn outreach, add them to an email sequence. Tools like Evaboot can extract email addresses from LinkedIn profiles, enabling multichannel campaigns that typically achieve 3-5x higher conversion rates than single-channel approaches.
Best Practices for Maximum Response Rates
Regardless of which method you choose, these principles consistently improve performance:
Keep Messages Short
LinkedIn's data is unambiguous: shorter messages get more responses. For InMails, stay under 400 characters when possible. For connection request notes, the 300-character limit enforces brevity—use it wisely.
Personalize Authentically
Generic templates are immediately recognizable and widely ignored. Reference something specific from the recipient's profile, recent posts, or company news. The CCQ method (Compliment, Commonality, Question) provides a simple framework for authentic personalization.
Optimize Timing
While LinkedIn data shows consistent response rates across most days, avoid Saturday sends—InMails sent Saturday see 13% slower response times. Monday through Thursday performs best, with Tuesday showing the highest reply rates at 6.90%.
Perfect Your Profile
Before any outreach, ensure your LinkedIn profile works as a landing page. Recipients will check your profile before responding. An unclear headline, incomplete summary, or lack of recent activity signals low credibility and reduces response rates.
Warm Up High-Value Prospects
For important targets, engage with their content before reaching out. Like posts, leave thoughtful comments, and become a familiar presence. This "warm-first" approach significantly increases connection acceptance when you eventually send your request.
Measuring Success
Track these metrics to evaluate and improve your LinkedIn outreach:
Connection acceptance rate: Target 30-40%+ for well-optimized campaigns
Message reply rate: Target 10%+ for initial messages
Positive reply rate: Target 40%+ of total replies
InMail response rate: Target 20%+ (industry average is 18-25%)
If your acceptance rate falls below 25%, revisit your targeting. If your reply rate is under 10%, your messaging needs work.
The Bottom Line
For most B2B sales professionals, connection requests should be your primary LinkedIn outreach channel. They're free, enable multi-touch follow-up sequences, and feel more natural to recipients than paid InMails.
InMails remain valuable as a premium tool for high-priority prospects, time-sensitive outreach, and as a backup for declined connection requests. The key is deploying them strategically rather than as your default approach.
The most successful LinkedIn outreach strategies combine both methods: connection requests first to build your network cost-effectively, InMails second for prospects who require extra effort, and email third to reach prospects across multiple channels.
What matters most isn't which method you choose—it's the quality of your targeting, the authenticity of your personalization, and the value you offer in every message.
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