What Is LinkedIn Outreach?
TL;DR
LinkedIn outreach is prospecting through LinkedIn rather than the inbox, using connection requests with a note, direct messages to existing connections, and InMail on a paid plan. It reaches contacts who filter outbound email, and it operates under platform limits that email does not have.
What are the limits on LinkedIn outreach?
LinkedIn caps how many connection invitations an account can send in a week, and it does not publish the figure. Accounts that push against the cap are restricted rather than warned, and the restriction lands on the profile a rep has spent years building, so the downside is not symmetrical with the upside.
The LinkedIn user agreement also prohibits scraping and automated activity. Third-party automation tools work until the account is flagged, and the risk of that sits entirely with the person whose profile is being automated.
How does LinkedIn outreach combine with cold email?
As proof that the sender exists. A profile view or a connection request before an email gives the recipient somewhere to check who is contacting them, which is the question a cold email cannot answer about itself.
The copy has to change with the channel rather than being reused. A LinkedIn note is short and read on a phone in a social context, an email tolerates a little more structure, and the same paragraph pasted into both reads as automation in at least one of them.
Frequently asked questions
LinkedIn enforces a weekly cap and does not publish the number, and it appears to apply a lower one to accounts whose behaviour looks automated. The workable approach is a modest steady volume with a genuine note on each request, since a high acceptance rate is what keeps an account out of trouble.