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Ok, jail is nothing to joke about. But I got your attention, right? 

A question came in yesterday from someone who got the dreaded message: Your InMail response rate of 11.6% has fallen below the 13% threshold during June 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM - June 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM. If it remains below 13%, you will be placed in the InMail Improvement Period and will temporarily be unable to send bulk InMail messages for two weeks, starting on July 28, 2025.

 

Ugh! Now what?! Well, as this person wrote, they would love to increase their response rate. And they are Doing All The Things that they were told to do. How frustrating!

There are many things that can be discussed. Here are my Top 10.

  1. Let AI help you. AI-Assisted Search results that are then InMail-ed (is that a real verb?) are getting good response rates. Use AI to help you search. And use it to create that first draft.
  2. Use Your Superpowers. You have Spotlight filters at the top of your results. These are categories for people who will most likely want to talk to you.
    • Open to Work is good, but sometimes people ‘set it and forget it.’
    • Active talent is one of my favorites. These are candidates who may or may not be ‘Open to work’ BUT something else is going on. Maybe their company is having layoffs. Maybe they updated their profile recently… You might not know exactly why they are in the category, but Recruiter is handing you an inside scoop you should use to your advantage.
    • Interested in your company is also great. That’s where I start!
  3. Use AI-Assisted Messaging. Recruiter does an amazing job of drafting your messages. Use it! – You can edit anything you want. And if you have a job posted in the project from which you are InMailing, it will match the criteria of the job to the skills the candidate has. Each message will be personalized and you can adjust both the length and tone of the message by opening the ‘Draft settings’ beneath your signature in the InMail.
  4. Review each message. When you use Bulk AI-Assisted Messaging, it is a best practice to review each message, one at a time and then send it after you have made any changes. You can still work quickly, but this ensures that the message doesn’t get changed again by accident if you apply a change to all.
  5. Check your InMail reports. Take a look at your InMail results at least weekly. Reports > InMail. There are filters to choose the date you would like to review. Benchmark against companies in your size range and industry. Look for patterns. Are your responses better on a certain day of the week? Time of day? Keep in mind that different types of people may react differently. The lawyers I know like more info than the artists. And the lawyers are early risers but the artists aren’t.
  6. Personalize your messages. Use the info from their profile to show them you really want to speak to them. Luckily AI will help you with that. Make sure the tone sounds like something you would write. Give AI-Assisted messages you like a thumb’s up. – And a thumb’s down to those you don’t. That way Recruiter can learn from you.
  7. Keep track of great candidates. You can create a project specifically to build a pipeline of talent for the future. Keep track of candidates who were really great but just didn’t get the job. Check to see if there is anyone you placed a couple years earlier… are they ready for a job change? Over time you will meet many people. Keep notes on their profile to remind you of the discussions you have had.
  8. Use the Follow-Up feature. This will send a follow-up message to the candidate if they do not respond to your first message. You can specify as few as 3 days to as many as 28 days after the original message went out. This should be a short, light note just to show them you really do want to speak to them. It will cost you a credit, but it works remarkably well.
  9. Check out this amazing resources.
    1. The Secrets to Optimizing Your Outreach ebook: https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/cx/2019/PDF/4-1-ebook-final.pdf
    2. How to Improve Your InMail Response Rate: https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/these-inmails-get-best-response-rates
    3. Interpret the InMail Report: https://training.talent.linkedin.com/interpret-the-inmail-report/508265/scorm/2gt8no875mmmv
  10. Come to a webinar! We have a Boost Your InMail webinar that is very helpful. Also, if you come to our Live Q&A, we can discuss this in real time! It is an ‘office hour’ held weekly by me and my teammates around the globe. We love discussing this type of information and helping you strategize!

So that’s my top 10. What are yours??? – Would love to hear your thoughts below!

Try out the scheduler feature as well! Draft your message and schedule when you would like it to go out.

Is trying to keep InMails to 500 characters still a desirable goal in terms of generating responses?
I notice that whenever I have tried using AI to draft an InMail, it is much longer than my template.

Thanks again

Hi tee, 

What days/times do you find most effective for scheduling your InMails to be sent? 

John 

I’ve been there before!  When I was hiring Program Managers at ARPA-H, I quickly learned that job titles can be very misleading. These weren’t traditional PMs running timelines and budgets; they were executive-level visionaries, closer to mini-CEOs driving moonshot projects.

I had to make that crystal clear in outreach. A lot of great candidates would have scrolled past 'Program Manager' if I hadn’t reframed it in the message. I also started telling people upfront, 'This may not be for you; feel free to decline if it doesn’t fit, but if you’re curious, let’s talk.' Giving people permission to say no actually improved my response rate.

Is trying to keep InMails to 500 characters still a desirable goal in terms of generating responses?
I notice that whenever I have tried using AI to draft an InMail, it is much longer than my template.

Thanks again

Great questions, ​@John Spencer! While it is still a good idea to keep your initial messages brief, we are now seeing that personalization is even more important. You may have noticed that the character counter in the lower right-hand portion of the InMail message screen now turns red at 1,900 characters rather than 500. This change was made based on data we have seen on response rates to InMail.

In terms of the best  days/time of day to send your InMail. - It depends. Start noting when you are sending your messages. If you recruit for several different types of roles you may notice that they respond differently. As an example, I live in the SF Bay Area and have several types of friend groups. Now, generalizations are not perfect, but there are some trends I have found. My attorney friends like lots of details and they tend to wake up early. I might target them with messages in the morning in the early part of the week. The actors, musicians and artists I know stay up later. I might target messages to them in the afternoon. The software engineers… well, the ones I know are a late night crowd, so I might send message later. 

You will start noticing patterns. Take advantage of this info to help get the messages out at a time your target audiences are likely to look. One rule of thumb: Saturdays are usually the worst day of the week to send an InMail. Folks are busy with everything else from chores to relaxing! So, as ​@tee mentioned, schedule your InMails for when you want them to go out. Be sure to use the pull-down for their time zone. 

I hope this helps!  

Hi tee, 

What days/times do you find most effective for scheduling your InMails to be sent? 

John 

According to Linkedin 2022 data the worst days are Saturday and Sunday; with Sunday performing lower by 8%:  https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/these-inmails-get-best-response-rates 

​@John Spencer and ​@Najat Andreozzi I have been playing around with Tuesday - Thursday.  I will see how it goes!

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