How to Write LinkedIn Messages That Get Replies

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Clinician Transition Podcast. You are here with myself, Emily Kelly and my two wonderful co-hosts, Emma Brady and Casey Francis. Hello. And this is our our second podcast in our re-emerging from podcast land after behind behind these beyond behind, beyond all around, all around behind beyond around all of those things. And with that little thought up, we're going to remind you that this wonderful podcast is us with our unfiltered selves. We are going to start today with a really fun little icebreaker with our hidden talents and then what else we have for you is we're going to go through some examples of LinkedIn messages and the the intent behind this is really to give you an up close and personal view of messages that have worked really well, that have peaked our interest and messages that you know there's nothing inherently wrong with them. They just didn't peak our interest enough to maybe respond to them. So we're hoping this delivers a lot of value to you as you reach out to people on LinkedIn and try to network your way into a non-traditional career. Casey, I feel like you have a response that I have no idea about. But let's see, I thought, you know, I feel like I used to have four children more time for talents. I feel like they've really minimized over the last eight years or so, but I will say I am very good at recognizing voices. I don't know if this is because I'm a speech therapist and like I just after years of being tuned in to vocal exercises and voice treatment, but oh man, I'm the first one I can play a game of like whose voice is that in a movie or an animated movie or something where you're not sure who it is or from the other room. I've got it. And I think to go along with that was the other one can think of some random song that like anything can remind me of a song. Just will pop into my head. So if there was ever a game that was like let me say this word or phrase and then you have to think of a song that it can relate to or tie into those pop in my brain all the time as do puns. So you know, you might hear some of that if you're a prompt customer ever come over to the educational training side and hear my videos, you'll hear a lot of my puns. But I don't know if that's a really talents, but just corks. Yes. But what about you, I'm oh, y'all are both. How am I going to how am I going to mk and Emma, Emma, what about you? I'm going to tell a funny story as I think back to my days of my career transition, where I was I was all over the internet. I'm hopping on random webinars. I'm in all sorts of networking groups and I found myself having a lunch. I don't remember the exact event and it was this exact question. Go around, go around and find your hidden talents. And of course I get called on first. It always happens to me. So I tell them I hit in talent. This is something I'm very proud of where, okay, you know when say you've hosted a dinner or you have take out or something like that and it's time to put everything in a Tupperware. I always choose the right Tupperware the first time. Oh, no, no, no, nothing's too empty. I'm not choosing something that's way too big. It always goes right to the line. And when you put the top on, nothing's coming out. And so I say and everyone just looks when I say this and everyone's giving like that nice little golf clap. Okay. And then the next woman goes and it's I am raising the next generation of feminist men. And then and then the next person goes and it's I am helping women in Africa get access to bank accounts with Bitcoin. And then the next person, I know not appropriate clean water. And oh, my God, it was so I was so embarrassed you guys. So the reason I'm telling this story is just if you're get put in yourself out there, just be who you are. And it's all going to be fine. And if you mess up, don't worry about it. And if we have leftovers, we know who yeah to talk to. I'm just going to FaceTime you, you know, like help buddy, phone a friend, be like which one should I pick it up? I'm just as excited about it as I was, I was then I'm still really happy about right. Everything's giving it comes in handy. And you know what Emma, I bet every single one of those women thought of you the next time they get one with. I will. I'm going to really is. That's fantastic. I was thinking about this ahead of time and I was going to go with like something just very basic, but I like what you guys did with like it's more off the wall. And is it off the clinic wall? Is it behind or behind or beneath it's up the wall? Um, I have a talent and Casey can vouch for this. I have a talent of coming up with an idea five seconds before a meeting ends. Oh, that is a good one. I thought you were going to say showing someone like, gosh, I saw someone who looks just like you and then you show them a picture and it's a bad talent. It does not look like them at all. Yeah. And you're like, and I should mind. Yeah, don't do that because then it's offensive. If it's not someone who they agree looks like them. But, uh, but I like that one at the end of the meeting. Emily, you'll be the first one to be like, Oh, one more question. Yes. Let me let me end on this everyone. I don't actually don't think that's a talent at all is just more annoying. I have a talent for associating things like, Oh, what we're doing here. This concept reminds me of this other concept and linking things together like that. Nice. But that's too high brow for this. Emily, we need a tougher one. But I do, I do appreciate it. That is Emily is going to bank accounts for people. All right. Let's get into it. We are going to go through some messages. Should we make it a game? Should we have? Should we say if we want to, if we would, so Emma, do you want to read some and then Emily and I will say if we would respond to that or not? Yep. And a little bit more context to this is not meant to shame anyone. This is a learning experience. We're not going to dox anyone. And when we say, would we respond? We're not even saying it for ourselves personally. We're representing anyone that you're talking to. And do we think that person? What are the chances this message is going to get a response, whether it's us personally or anyone on the internet you are responding to. And this is a topic we've wanted to do for a very long time. So hopefully this is helpful to you all because we know it takes a lot of guts and effort to put yourself out there. So hopefully this will make your time more fruitful while you're doing it. Yeah. That's a good point. So I'll read one first. So hi, Emma. I am interested and prompt and came across your profile. Your background as a PT now transition to an account executive caught my attention. I'd love to connect and possibly gain some insight into your experience at the company. Thanks and I look forward to connecting. Oh, you can't see my thumb. I put a thumbs down for that one. Everyone listening. I don't think that I would. I think that one would get lost in the shuffle. Emily, what about you? I was going to point out some things. So please do. Okay. So I want to like dissect it a little bit. I like that they said, I don't want to compliment sandwich though. So let's cite her. I'll just say like what I like and then maybe why it's not as compelling. I like that they did a little bit of research on you. They know you work for prompt. They probably looked into prompt and saw, oh, Emma Brady works here. They see that you have a similar background. And they want to connect less compelling parts of it are. They could have gotten I guess a little bit more specific in what they were interested in. And what they wanted to maybe like connect on. So I kind of my opinion kind of blends into the rest of the messages that I get. I think that makes it stand out or that makes you feel like they're showing you themselves a little bit more, you know, like what, what is there authentic self in that message. I can't find that. I like that call out because sometimes it's hard for me to know like what is it about messages that makes it compelling. I think that is that's what you try to do Casey. And I think that's that's a great call out. Another thing to think about too when you're sending this out. I am interested caught my I would love to connect. I look forward to you have to think about the I to you ratio. This is a very I I I message and that's going to make people glaze over to kind of similar to what you all have already said about make it about the person you're sending into. And another thing is I am not an account executive at prompt that is not my title. So again, I don't I give grace for people with that. But again, as you reach reaching out to people if you're getting their title wrong way less likely that someone's going to respond to you. So true. So, okay, great. Give us another one. I'm gonna put my hand up first. Oh, sorry, yes. Okay, when we're going through these, this just popped into my brain. I also don't wanna discourage you from reaching out to people if you don't have like the perfect message. Like reaching out is always better not reaching out. And what was it? Like 66% of people just won't get back to you. So like just keep on keeping on, try to keep it quality, but also like just persevere. Anyways, okay, I just wanted to get that out. Let's keep it going. I came across the associate customer success manager Rollit prompt and was really excited because it aligns well with my background in healthcare, client-facing work and digital operations. I've spent the past few years running a healthcare-focused platform called Name. I would love to hear more about your experience at prompt and see if you might be open to a quick call. I have already applied and will be truly grateful for any insight or the chance to interview if the team is still hiring. - Thoughts Emily, I would say that's a little bit better, I feel like than the last one just because they've actually already applied, which I feel like is a good thing to take the initiative and look at the actual open position. So you're doing some of the legwork and saying you know about the company and about the position. It's still obviously very eye oriented this message. So I would eye Casey would love to hear less eye in this message, but I'd give it like a medium to not as likely to respond, but what do you think Emily? - Yeah, this again kind of falls into the category of it. It sort of like blends into the rest of my messages and to your point before Casey, it doesn't really sound like a person. It just kind of sounds like a teacher. - Yeah, you know? And yeah, I agree with that. The ice, it's very focused on them and not, how can I help you? - What did you think Emma? - I agree this is better than the last one where the area for opportunity for me is I would love to hear more about your experience is so broad. When if I'm reaching out to people, I have a ton of content about many things on LinkedIn. So what would take this from like a B to an A would be, I applied to prompt, I saw your post about this, could you tell me about that? Just take a tiny bit more to Emily's point. If you think of it like a school of fish, this you're just looking like every other little fish. You want to be that giant tuna that's coming through and breaking up the school of fish. This isn't quite that. It might be, but it could be with just a tiny bit more effort. So to Emily's point earlier about, don't give up, send out messages. In this day and age, when it's really easy to copy and paste and spray and pray a message, you're much better off doing just slightly less touch points that are higher quality. That's much more likely to yield you a response than any message that could be sent to any person out there. - That's so true. And I love what you said about. Like do some of the, I just really appreciate when they do some of the research. Like watch some of your material, use some of the resources that you've publicly shared and show that and then you've already got a head start. I mean, you've already connected on some level, even if it wasn't directly, it was like through at the resources we've sent. So that's such a good point too. - Yeah. And it shows that they're really invested. Like they're time and to really like reading one of your articles, Emma, or reading one of your LinkedIn posts. - So should we shift Casey to wanna read yours? - Yes. So I, oh, well I'm gonna give away my, okay, y'all tell me. Is this what you respond or not? I'm not gonna say anything else. - Thank you so much for reading this message. I know you're probably very busy. I get a lot of messages from strangers. I appreciate your time and any advice you may offer. Thank you. I see that you're a speech-language pathologist like me and have transitioned to non-clinical roles. I love that you're in the education realm of things and I have been looking to similar roles myself. I'm currently redoing my resume and networking. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on how to stand out for any education training, implementation, or customer success roles. Is there anything that you would recommend? Also, if you have time, I would love to hear more about your day-to-day activities in your role or similar roles within your department. Do you have time to share more about that? Again, thank you in advance for any advice. I would love to hear advice from you. I have been following prompt closely and they seem like an amazing company to work for. - Oh, I like that. Am I do wanna go first? - Yeah, so I'm gonna tell you a story about the Stonewall Kitchen, which is very similar to William Sonoma, if you haven't heard of it. And they saw all sorts of kitchenwares and some food. And a long time ago, they used to sell, I don't know what the number was, 50 different types of jam and no one bought it. They had a whole wall jam known spying it. So then what do they do? They go down to three flavors of jam. And what do you think happened? - People could buy it. - They could chew. - They could chew, yeah. So this message is reminding me of that a little bit where there's a lot of asks coming in a single message out of the blue. So it's more specific. It shows enthusiasm, but to the person who's receiving it, you're, this is a lot of work. And that's something for when you're messaging people like us or whoever else you're messaging, you're someone who's gonna respond, isn't gonna give you a lazy answer. So they're more likely to say, I'm not gonna respond and give this person a lazy response. So set the person up for success by asking one question. What, and I'm not looking at the message right now, but pick one message, one thing from the message, and then if you get a response back, then maybe go for the dialogue. 'Cause you also think about, most people are opening this thing up on their phone. So if you're on your LinkedIn, you open up a huge block of text on your phone. That's also gonna just, eyes are gonna completely glaze over, mostly. - Right, that's how I felt. I felt like you said, like I'm gonna fail this person because I don't have the time to write out from A to Z all of this stuff. So I don't even feel like I have time to start trying. That's exactly, you nailed it on how I felt. - Yeah, Emily, did you have any, oh, I have one more. Do we have time for me to do one more? Because this one I thought is it's a good contrast. Hi Casey, hope you're doing well. I came across your profile in LinkedIn and wanted to reach out. I connect with your background and with prompt health's mission. I actually had really hoped to visit the prompt health booth at ASHA in DC a few weeks ago. I'm a medical SLP with a strong adult neurogenic background, and I recently noticed the posting for Associate Client Success Manager position over the past several years. I've been navigating a career transition that blends clinical expertise, academic experience, and learner-focused program development. I love the chance to learn more about this role and explore whether you think my skills might be a good fit for your team. If you're open to a brief conversation, I'd truly appreciate the opportunity. Thank you for your time. I look forward to connecting. - Bought? - Then lead you, or Emma, anybody? I'll give you all mine. - I liked it. It was a little bit shorter. Followed the same pattern as the other ones of like lots of eyes. But yeah, overall I would say more on the positive side. Something that stuck out specifically is the one you read before. It said thank you in advance, comma. It was their sign off. That is essentially saying, "I already know you're gonna answer this." It's very asumptive versus this message said, "If you're open to it, would you be open to a brief call?" Either way, thank you. It was of an expectation that you're going to respond. - Yeah. I really liked this one, and I'll tell you why. One, she knew we were in. I wish it would have been really great if she had stopped by the booth, but she didn't have time. I get it, everyone's busy. But she knew we were in DC at the ASHA conference. She knew we had a prompt health booth. She'd done some research about the role that was already posted. She had me a specific ask of like, "Do you think we could connect and talk about this role in my skill set?" Like that's a specific ask that I can wrap my brain around and go, "Yeah, I could totally do that." And then she said, "A brief conversation, love that. Set me up for a brief conversation, please. Anytime, I'll say yes to that one too." And then again, it was like low pressure, and it was just, she was open to it, and she felt like it was just like a cheerful open ask, and not necessarily. It didn't make me feel bad. Like it didn't feel guilty if I didn't respond either, right away. So that's always good too. So yeah, those were mine. Did you have any others you wanted to share Emma? - Or Emily. - Do you have, or any frequently asked questions, y'all get? - I have one, I want to do one more. Okay. So it's, this is an email I got. This isn't even a LinkedIn message, instead. My name is Casey, and I was an attendee at the Rehab Tech Summit. I actually got to see you speak about working at startups with these three people. I'm an SLP at heart specializing in adult cognitive communication, but for the last three and a half years, have entered the business side of healthcare in utilization management, because I have a passion for personal and professional growth. I really identified with a lot of what y'all spoke to, and it was wonderful to be with like-minded people in the rehab world. Anyway, I really enjoyed the whole weekend and joined your clinician transition group shortly after. A few days later, I saw your post about the job opening at Prompt for the customer success manager position. I felt the timing was too serendipitous to pass up, so I applied last night. I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for the inspiration and let you know your session at this summit was my official segue into finding this role, which I mentioned in my cover letter. Regardless of if our path and of crossing in the future, just wanted to say thanks for being a leader in this niche and helping to create a community where we can come together and celebrate and support each other. I mean, a way. That is a throwback. That almost made me tear up because I look at where it led. I feel I feel that so much still to my core. Oh, that's the tuna. That's like the Mac daddy tuna right through that school of fish. You guys, where do we begin on probably if top three, if not the top cold outreach I've ever gotten big top that where do we get with so amazing. And I'm not saying you have to go to the text on and butter me up. That's not the point of this message. Like that's not what I'm trying to say right here. What I'm trying to say, it's very personal and it what while it showed Casey's relevancy and what she was excited about it very much wasn't about her. It wasn't as sumped to and it still had a very clear enthusiasm. We're, you know, regardless of what ended up happening. Oh, yeah. Feel like I can hear your voice saying it. And it's kind of like Emma, you taught me so much about, I mean, sales and I don't know if this, but like something in life too is like to just detaching from the outcome. Like that's kind of how I feel when I send, I mean, I truly did just like send it out just the universe and that's how my feeling was and I detached from the outcome whether or not I got a job. It was just a meaningful experience for me and I wanted to put that out there. So I think that works too. And you're not necessarily having, I don't want you all to think about this as selling yourself, but it feels like it's better. If you release your expectations and detach from the outcome when you send these messages out and just be present in that little box in LinkedIn and say what you feel and what really did draw you to that person and what you are hoping to learn and just be who you are and what you bring to the table too in that way. Yeah. And I would respectfully challenge that a little bit too. But we don't have to sell yourself. There's nothing wrong with sales. If you believe in what you're selling, that's right. I'm talking to the sales queen. You are selling yourself. Everyone selling yourself. You're going in. You're selling yourself. So there are ways we're being honest. We believe in what we're saying and there are certainly ways to get it out there. This is a master class on all of you have the same very similar background to Casey Emily. Me. There is nothing holding you back from sending a message like this. Besides just a little bit of effort and putting something out there. You don't have to go to a tech summit to send this email. You just have to listen to a webinar read a LinkedIn article. Do some research on a company and you're more than capable of sending a message like this. And this was sent before AI or maybe AI existing. We weren't using it. Like this is this is all think about having AI now to help you get started. Get started. Right. You know, here's Hey, Hey, a Gemini or Chachi PT. Whoever your AI friends are copy and paste the job in copy and paste and stuff from their LinkedIn copy. Hey, I want to write a nice message to this person helped me draft it. This is like home. Like I don't know. Yeah. Talk to you. Or some true. That's true or or take the this message and say help me write a message just like this one. Take a good one and have it modeled. Oh, yeah. There you go. Well, like I'm hearing a couple of concepts show through one is from sales, which is like if you want to sell something, you have, which in this case is yourself. It helps to focus more on the like the other person in case. See. I have an authentic voice. So I think that's just like sales too. Like people aren't going to connect with you if you're not the, the attuna, not a school of fish. And the like you said, Casey, the detaching from the outcome. I feel like if, if you know, there's a job opening that opens up and then you message someone at that company about that job, it just feels a little bit more robotic, which brings me to another point of like you don't only have to message someone. If there's a job opening at their company, we can just message someone to network. And a lot of times it's even more effective if you're networking and there's not this. Sometimes I get messages and I'm like, I'm just feel uncomfortable because there's an opening. And is there no expectation of them to like, for me to pass their name along and stuff like that. There's a lot less pressure if there's actually no openings at the time. You see that too. I just want to say to Emily's point, keep after it, you know, like just keep messaging, put yourself out there. Emily has a great post somewhere in her LinkedIn history of grit. And I think that's the word too is just you got to have grit and you got to, even if you have how, how many did you all say 30, 60% some percentage don't get responded to. Don't take it personally to touch yourself and keep sending messages, keep feeling inspired and keep after it. And you can experiment. It's just like an experiment. Like send one out. Oh, that didn't get one. That's data send another one out. That's a little different. And then you can kind of find your voice as you practice. Yeah. The bar is low guys really will not just a little extra. And you're going to stand out and be super successful. Yes. And if you like this episode, make sure to share it with your friends. Thanks for remembering that. Find it along. Yes. Until next time. Bye. Good luck out there. Bye.