If you’ve been on LinkedIn for any length of time, you’ve probably been on the receiving end of cold messaging. You connect with someone, and almost immediately there’s a message in your inbox pitching their offer, often with a rather transparent attempt to pretend they’re interested in you first.
While you probably didn’t enjoy the experience, you might still be wondering whether you should be trying it yourself. After all, if so many people are doing it, presumably it must work for some of them?
And yes, there are coaches and courses teaching cold messaging strategies (I’m not one of them!), and some businesses do get results from cold outreach. But most people I’ve spoken to really dislike receiving these kinds of messages, and I think there are much better ways for freelance language teachers, trainers and coaches to find clients.
Here are four reasons why I’m not a fan.
1. It’s time-consuming and (probably) ineffective
Unless you’re using automation, sending large numbers of cold messages takes time, particularly if you’re making any attempt to personalise them. And even then, many recipients won’t respond. Some won’t even bother reading your message before deleting it.
That’s potentially an enormous waste of time and energy that you could be putting into more effective marketing activities. And there’s also the impact on your confidence to consider. If you’re already uncomfortable with selling, sending dozens of messages and getting almost no response is hardly going to make you feel any better about it.
Of course, some people will tell you that it’s simply a numbers game, and that you need to send hundreds of messages to get a few positive responses. Personally, I’d rather spend my time building relationships with people who have some genuine interest in what I do.
2. It creates a terrible first impression
There’s a reason people sometimes call this kind of approach ‘pitch-slapping’. It can come across as pushy, insincere and frankly rather unpleasant.
Imagine meeting someone at a networking event, introducing yourself and immediately launching into a pitch for your services. You haven’t asked them anything about themselves or established whether they might be interested in what you offer. You’re simply assuming that they’re going to want to hear all about your wonderful business.
Most people would find that pretty rude, yet somehow it seems to have become acceptable behaviour on LinkedIn.
And I’m particularly irritated by the messages that start with a supposedly friendly question or compliment, when it’s painfully obvious that the person is simply working their way towards a pitch. People aren’t stupid, and they generally recognise when they’re being manipulated.
The danger is that instead of making a good impression on someone who could potentially become a client, you’ve put them off you before you’ve even had a proper conversation.
3. It’s unlikely to lead to sales
Most people aren’t going to decide to buy a service from someone they’ve never heard of simply because that person has sent them a message.
This is particularly true when you’re offering something like language training or coaching, where the client is investing in your expertise and potentially spending quite a lot of time working with you.
They need to understand what you offer, why it might be relevant to them and whether you’re someone they can trust. They may want to look at your website, read some of your content or see what other clients have said about working with you.
Effective marketing helps people do all of this, so that by the time they’re considering buying, they already have a reasonable understanding of what you offer and why it might be valuable to them.
Cold pitching tries to skip much of that process. And even if you’ve contacted someone who genuinely could benefit from your services, the chances of them being ready to buy from a complete stranger are pretty slim.
4. You could be breaking platform rules (and potentially more)
LinkedIn has rules against spammy, repetitive and excessive messaging, and accounts can be restricted for behaviour that breaches its policies. Using automated tools to send large numbers of messages can be particularly risky.
There are also data protection and electronic marketing rules to consider, particularly if you’re using LinkedIn messages to send unsolicited promotional material. In the UK, the rules can differ depending on whether you’re contacting an individual or someone in a corporate capacity, so it’s worth understanding your obligations rather than assuming that anything goes.
Now, I’m certainly not suggesting that sending someone a friendly message after connecting is going to get your account banned or land you in legal trouble. But even if a particular approach is technically allowed, I’d still question whether it’s a sensible way to build a relationship with a potential client.
A better alternative to cold messaging
A good way of thinking about how you approach new connections on LinkedIn is to ask yourself whether you’d say the same thing in real life.
If you met someone at a networking event, you’d probably start by having a conversation. You might ask about their work, discover something you have in common or talk about an issue you’re both interested in. You wouldn’t normally start trying to sell them something within the first thirty seconds.
And I don’t see why LinkedIn should be any different.
Start genuine conversations
One of the advantages of LinkedIn is that you can usually see quite a lot of information about someone’s professional background and interests. Perhaps you’ve worked in the same industry, have a mutual connection or noticed something interesting they’ve shared.
Any of these could provide a natural starting point for a conversation. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting in touch with someone you don’t know, provided you have a genuine reason for doing so.
What I wouldn’t recommend is treating the conversation as a series of steps designed to lead inevitably towards a sales pitch. People can generally sense when that’s happening, and it rather defeats the point of trying to build a relationship.
Comment and interact
Another approach is to start by engaging with people’s content, particularly if they’re talking about subjects you’re genuinely interested in and have something useful to contribute.
I’m not talking about leaving dozens of generic comments to try and get noticed by the algorithm. I mean having actual conversations, sharing your thoughts and demonstrating your expertise where it’s relevant.
Over time, people begin to recognise you and get a sense of who you are and what you know. And if they’re interested, they can visit your profile to find out more about what you do.
This is why having a clear LinkedIn profile and occasionally talking about your services is so important. You want people to be able to understand how you could help them without having to send them an unsolicited pitch.
Make it easy for interested people to take the next step
I do think there’s a danger of going too far in the other direction, though. Some freelance language professionals are so determined not to appear pushy that they never actually tell anyone what they offer or invite people to work with them.
You can spend months having lovely conversations and building relationships on LinkedIn, but if potential clients have no idea what they can buy from you, you’re making things unnecessarily difficult for yourself.
There’s nothing wrong with talking about your services, sharing examples of how you’ve helped clients or inviting people to find out more. And when someone has expressed a genuine interest in what you offer, it’s perfectly reasonable to follow up and see whether they’d like to take things further.
That’s very different from contacting strangers and trying to persuade them to buy something they haven’t asked for.
Think about the longer term
Building relationships online takes time, and I know that can be frustrating when you’re struggling to find clients and really need the money.
But I think it’s worth considering what kind of reputation you want to build and how you want potential clients to experience their first interactions with you.
Personally, I’d much rather develop a network of people who understand what I do, have some confidence in my expertise and might consider working with me when the time is right.
Of course, simply being friendly and helpful on LinkedIn isn’t enough. You still need a clear niche, an offer that people value and a marketing strategy that gets you in front of the right people.
But there’s absolutely no need to resort to cold pitching if it isn’t something you’re comfortable with. And given how much most people dislike receiving those messages, I think that’s rather good news!
Want to find clients on LinkedIn without cold pitching?
If you’d like to understand more about how people move towards buying, and how your LinkedIn activity can help them make that decision, I’ve created a free video training specifically for freelance language professionals.
In How to Get Clients on LinkedIn Without Cold Pitching, I explain how your profile, posts and conversations can work together to build trust and attract potential clients who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
It’s about 20 minutes long, and you can watch it whenever you like.
Watch the free LinkedIn training