Don't pitch in the first LinkedIn message

Short answer: the first message after someone accepts your connection request should do one thing: start a conversation. Thank them, say in one plain sentence what you do, and ask one easy question. No call request, no demo link, no case study.

In our first client's first month, that format got replies from 13 of the 51 people who received it (25%). Eight replies were positive, five neutral, and none negative.

Pitching and saying what you do are different things

This is where most advice gets muddled. "Don't pitch" doesn't mean hiding who you are. A message from a stranger that won't say why they're writing feels like a setup, and people are right to be suspicious of it.

The difference:

• Saying what you do is one sentence of context. "I run a small studio that builds booking systems for clinics." It answers the question the reader is already asking: who is this?
• Pitching is trying to sell in the same breath. Benefits, social proof, "would you be open to a 15-minute call this week?" It asks for time and a decision from someone who met you ten seconds ago.

The first one makes replying easy. The second one makes ignoring easy.

The format

Every first message we send has the same shape:

1. Greet them by name and thank them for connecting. Simple and human. Just don't follow it straight away with a paraphrase of their LinkedIn bio. Everyone has seen "Thanks for connecting, Anna! I see you're Head of Growth at…" a thousand times.
2. Say what you do, in one plain sentence. Our invites carry no note (we explained why in a separate post), so at this point they know nothing about you. This sentence is doing real work.
3. Use at most one real detail about them. One specific thing from their profile, company or recent posts shows the message was written for them. Stacking three details reads like a research dossier.
4. Ask one easy question about one topic. Something they can answer in a line without checking anything. If the question has two options, it's usually two questions, so pick one.

Length: usually 250–450 characters. It should fit on a phone screen without scrolling.

An example

Hi Jonas, thanks for connecting. I run a small team that helps agencies set up LinkedIn outreach so the founder isn't the one sending every message. Saw you've been hiring for a second account manager. Is new business still mostly coming through referrals for you?

It greets him, says what the sender does in one sentence, uses one real detail and ends with a question he can answer without thinking. There's no calendar link and nothing to decide.

What to leave out

• Meeting, call or demo requests. Nobody books a call with a stranger from a first message. Asking anyway turns a possible conversation into a yes/no they'll answer with silence.
• "Just following up," "circling back," "bumping this." Not in the first message, and honestly not in any message.
• A second question. Two questions means twice the effort to reply. One is enough.
• Padding. If the message runs long, it's usually because it's selling. Cut until only the four parts above are left.

What happens after they reply

The product comes up once they've answered. By then it isn't a pitch anymore, it's a conversation between two people who both know why they're talking. In our first client's month, that's where most of the 8 positive replies came from: people who answered an easy question and then asked what the sender actually did.

If they don't reply, the next LinkedIn message is a short reminder of the first one with an easy way out. It isn't a new pitch.

The honest caveat

Our numbers come from one account over one month, so treat them as an example, not a benchmark. What we're confident about is the direction. Across the whole month, messages that asked for nothing got answered, and nobody told us to go away.

How NudgeLink writes it

NudgeLink writes each first message for one specific person from their profile and activity, following the format above. It won't ask for a meeting in the first message, keeps to one detail and one question, and stays under a phone screen. In preview mode, nothing goes out until you've approved it.