I M21 and my friend M23 have started a swimwear and activewear manufacturing unit, where we use sustainable fabrics like econyl, cravico, etc. I have been out there connecting to brands and their employees relentlessly for the past couple days.
Fast forward, I have exhausted my Linkedin weekly invitation limit, but only 1 person has accepted my connection request, even tried by adding connection notes (extremely concise and to the point one), which didn't seem to work aswell. I even messaged the brands on Instagram, even found the owners and higher ups Instagram account through Linkedin, messaged there and got no responses, out of the 1 from 100 who just replied and left me on seen afterwards. I tried signalhire but very few employees have their info there.
I am well aware that this is a lengthy process, and few people reply, but the conversion here is even lower than what I have experienced before for my smaller or other endeavours which I tried and failed because of the denial from the handful brands I am targeting.
Can you please help and suggest me, how could I increase my conversion rate for accepting invitation requests on Linkedin, if not, how could I target these individuals through other mediums? Or are there any other ways that you've used and have worked for you.
Please feel free to ask questions, and criticise me if you feel something (here to learn)
Started a new business, having trouble with outreach, need advice from people who have done it, and been through it before.
byu/shanebansal inEntrepreneur
Posted by shanebansal
3 Comments
Psychologically, an invite you send needs to be genuinely personal. Any whiff of genericism is going to turn an invite away.
If you’re going to send me an invite and say something like “I see you’re in the same business as me…” but not say what that is, I’m out. I know you’re BS’ing me. But, if you say “Hey, I see you’re a therapist in the UK. I can help you.” I’m more interested! You have taken the time to know me.
10 invites where you’ve personalised your message using research to show you know who they are, and specifically why you genuinely like what they do, is much better than 100 invites that scream ‘you’ve sent this same message to 100 other people, haven’t you?’
That said, maybe consider phone calls, in-person visits, IRL networking events? Perhaps LinkedIn is not the only/best way to make connections.
Its very hard. Id start with building a solid page and also moving to other platforms. Even just posting helps boost your seo.
Cold outreach to decision makers is tough. Focus on building a portfolio or getting warm intros first.