LinkedIn outreach
How many follow ups? It depends on the relationship
By Asen Levov, co-founder of Sellinger. Reviewed by Viktorio Shopov. Published . Last updated . 8 minute read.
Send as many follow ups as the relationship can carry. For a warm partner base, one intro and two follow ups was enough: in the Shelly programme 76% of replies came only because of a follow up. For cold LinkedIn, an intro and up to three follow ups that each add something. After the third touch refusals rise to 15% or more of first replies, so a longer sequence mostly buys complaints.
Most advice on follow ups gives a number, usually between three and seven. We have the data from several campaigns that all ran with follow ups, and the right number was different in each. This post sets out what the campaigns show and how to choose for your own.
Do follow ups work at all?
Yes, by a lot. In every case study we have, the reply rate with follow ups was well above the rate for the first message alone.
| Campaign | Channel | First message only | With follow ups | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamothermic, US foundry | 17.2% | 30.9% | +79% | |
| Wealth advisor referral network | 29.0% | 43.3% | +49% | |
| Sellinger, own outbound | 26.5% | 38.4% | +45% | |
| Uberwood Agency | 19.6% | 27.9% | +43% | |
| ShortVibe | 32.0% | 42.2% | +32% | |
| Shelly Group installers | 3.3% | 13.6% | 4.2 times |
Each rate is defined as in its own case study, on different audiences and different bases, so do not average the rows or compare them as a league table. What the table shows is that in all six, stopping after the first message would have left a large share of the replies unwritten.
Does every touch pull its weight?
No, and the pattern is consistent. On our own LinkedIn outbound the reply rate at each touch, among people who had not yet replied, was:
- Intro: 26.5%
- Follow up 1: 9.8%
- Follow up 2: 6.8%
- Follow up 3: 5.6%
- Follow up 4: 4.7%
Lamothermic saw the same shape: 17.2% at the intro, 11.7% at follow up 1, 3.7% at follow up 2 and 3% to 4% after that. The first follow up is the big one. After the second, each touch brings in a few people per hundred.
The cost side is the share of first replies that were negative, meaning refusals and "stop":
- Sellinger: 0.9% at the intro, 8.5% at follow up 1, 14.3% at follow up 2 and 14.7% from follow up 3.
- Wealth network: 0.4%, 2.8%, 9.6% and 16.0%.
- ShortVibe: 0.7%, 9.1%, 19.2% and 20.0%.
So the later touches bring fewer replies and a larger share of them say no. That is the trade.
What does a warm base need?
A base that already knows you can take a gentler path. Shelly Group asked about 3,900 installers four questions by email. Share of replies by touch: first email 24%, follow up 1 37%, follow up 2 17%, follow ups 3 and 4 together 22%. The first follow up was the best single touch. But touches 4 and 5 also produced the only two "please stop" complaints, across 1,966 installers and more than 6,700 emails. Shelly capped the sequence at the intro plus two follow ups. The case study has the detail.
For a warm base, a reminder reads as care if it is short, self contained and carries the question again. When the questions were left out of a reminder, seven installers wrote back asking for them.
What does a regulated or small market need?
In small or regulated markets, people talk to each other and a reputation is at stake. The approach that fit was one formal letter plus one follow up that adds value, aimed at a named person, as in the Green Shield Logistics case study. More touches there risk the name of the sender with the whole market.
What does cold LinkedIn need?
An intro plus up to three follow ups, each with a new reason to answer: an asset, a new angle, a referral question, or an easy out. The patterns that worked on our account were a referral ask ("who on your team handles this?"), quoting the person's own words back, and a clean exit line such as "is it fair to assume this isn't a focus right now?". Pure bumps and reminders that dropped the question did worse. See follow up copy that worked and failed.
One of our own conversations shows why the exit line matters. A product leader who ignored two follow ups answered after an easy out on day 13, and booked on day 42 after a fourth nudge that made saying no easy.
How do you choose the number?
A simple rule set:
- Start with the intro plus two follow ups. It captures most of the gain.
- Read the later touches separately. For each extra touch, count the replies that are positive and the ones that are refusals. Add a touch only if the positive replies justify the refusals.
- Adjust for the relationship. Warm base: fewer, shorter, self contained. Cold list: up to three with new content. Small market: one plus one.
- Space them. Five days on LinkedIn was our gap. Shelly's email follow ups came about 8 days and then about 10 days apart.
- Stop on any reply. A reply on any channel ends the sequence for that person.
In Sellinger the defaults are a limit of four follow ups on LinkedIn before the lead moves to email, five on email before WhatsApp, with gaps starting at five days on LinkedIn and one to three days on email. Every value can be changed per campaign, and the campaign's own settings win.
Which sequence fits which relationship?
The table puts the numbers above into three starting points. They are starting points to test, not rules.
| Relationship | Touches | Spacing | What each follow up adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm partner base (Shelly) | Intro plus 2 | About 8 then 10 days | The question again, short and self contained |
| Cold LinkedIn list (Sellinger) | Intro plus up to 3 | About 5 days | A new angle, an asset, a referral question, an easy out |
| Small regulated market (Green Shield) | One letter plus 1 | Your judgment | Something of value to a named person |
The spacing in the first two rows comes from the campaigns themselves, and Sellinger's default gap on LinkedIn starts at five days.
How do you check your own touch data?
You can run the same analysis on your account in a few steps.
- Export the replies with the touch they answered. You need, for each person messaged, the touch number at which they first replied.
- Count replies per touch among people who had not yet replied. Divide by the people still in the sequence at that touch, as in the list for our own outbound above.
- Tag each first reply as positive, neutral or negative. A refusal or a "stop" is negative.
- Compute the negative share per touch. If it jumps at a particular touch, that is your ceiling.
- Compare cost to gain. Ask whether the extra positive replies from the last touch are worth the extra refusals. If the last touch brought 5 replies and 1 or 2 were negative, you may keep it. If it brought 5 and 4 were refusals, cut it.
Keep the small numbers in proportion. A touch with 40 replies per 1,000 people reads clearly, but one with 4 per 100 is easy to over interpret.
What if you run more than one channel?
Count touches per person, not per channel, and let a reply on any channel end the sequence. A person who got three LinkedIn follow ups and then an email has already had four touches. Sellinger's defaults count follow ups per channel, so a lead can move to email after four on LinkedIn, which means nine or more touches in total across LinkedIn and email if you keep the maximums. That is why we suggest using fewer than the limit. The multichannel sequence post shows a schedule that stays within a sensible total.
Should the last follow up be different?
Yes. The last touch is the one with the highest chance of a refusal, so make it the easiest to answer: a plain way out, a request to forward it to the right colleague, or a statement that you will stop writing. The pattern from our own conversations is that an easy exit invites an answer from people who ignored two earlier touches, and some of those answers were bookings later.
What is the one thing to take away?
Follow ups are not an option, since they carry roughly a third (on our own outbound) to three quarters (in the Shelly programme) of the replies. But more is not better. Measure replies and refusals touch by touch, and let the relationship set the ceiling. For the multichannel version, see LinkedIn plus email cadence.
Common questions
What is the best number of follow ups?
How far apart should follow ups be?
Do follow ups annoy people?
Should each follow up say something new?
How Sellinger helps
Read how it works on See multichannel follow up sequences, or see a real campaign in Read the Lamothermic case study.
