The Connection Note, and Why It May Not Be the Note

I send LinkedIn connection requests most weekdays. About 40% of them get accepted.

That number is the reason I keep doing it.

The simple idea

A connection request is a small ask. It is still an ask.

A bare request gives the other person nothing to decide with. They see a name, a photo, and a headline.

A note gives them a reason.

What that looks like in numbers

Across my own sending and the campaigns we help run, a bare request lands somewhere around 20% to 25%.

Add one specific line and it moves to roughly 40% to 50%.

Mine sits near 40% and has been stable for months.

That is a large jump for one sentence of work.

The part I might be wrong about

I don't think the note is doing all of it.

I think it also depends on whether your profile looks interesting to that person.

Someone gets your request. They glance at the headline. In about a second they decide whether you are the kind of person they want in their feed.

If the answer is yes, the note confirms it. If the answer is no, the note has to fight uphill, and it usually loses.

So the note is not a switch. It is a multiplier on something you already have.

I hold that as a theory, not a law. I have never run a clean test where the only thing that changed was the note. I don't know anyone who has.

There is also evidence against me. I've talked with people running LinkedIn outreach who get 50% to 70% acceptance on blank requests, with no note at all. Their profiles say exactly who they are and who they help. That fits my theory. It also means the note was never the main thing for them.

I might be wrong about which half matters more. I am fairly sure both halves are real.

Open your own profile on a phone. Read only the headline. Ask a person who is not in your industry what you do. If they can't say it back to you, the headline is the thing to fix, not the note.

How to write the note

Fix the headline first. It is free and it takes ten minutes.

It should say what you do and who you do it for, in words your buyer uses. Not your job title. Not a slogan.

Then write the note.

One specific thing. Something you could only say to that person.

• A post they wrote, and what you actually thought about it.
• Something their company just started doing.
• A person you both know, by name.

Skip the compliment. "Love your content" reads as a template because it is one.

Skip the pitch. A connection request is not where you sell. You are asking to be in the room. That is all.

A limit worth naming

More acceptance is not more pipeline.

Accepting you costs the other person nothing. It is the cheapest yes on the internet.

I watch acceptance because it tells me the targeting and the profile are roughly right. It tells me nothing about whether these people will ever buy.

If your acceptance rate is healthy and nothing happens after, the note is not your problem. Your problem is who you picked, or what you said next.

Fix those, in that order.