How to Improve Your InMail Response Rate, According to LinkedIn Data

Recruiters monitor their InMail response rates closely, and for good reason. 

More responses mean recruiters get more bang for their buck from their InMail allotment. That’s because recruiters earn an InMail credit back if their message receives a response within 90 days (even if it’s a negative one). So, response rates not only reflect candidate engagement but also recruiter efficiency.  

But what kind of InMails actually drive higher response rates and how can recruiters improve their own InMail response rate? 

To find out, we took a close look at LinkedIn data to answer the following questions: 

• Do longer or shorter InMails tend to get better response rates?
• Does it matter what day of the week you send an InMail? 
• Are personalized InMails more likely to get a response?  
• Are “Recommended Matches” more likely to accept an InMail?
• Are “Open to Work” candidates more likely to respond? 

Read on for all the fun charts, context, and takeaways — but we won’t keep you in suspense. Here’s what we learned: 

• Shorter InMails perform significantly better than longer ones 
• Avoid sending InMails on Saturday (and probably Friday too)
• Personalized InMails perform about 15% better than ones sent in bulk
• Candidates who are “Recommended Matches” or “Open to Work” are about 35% more likely to respond than others

Now let’s take a closer look at that data and think about what recruiters can do to make their outreach more effective. 

1. Shorter InMails get above-average response rates

Keep it short and sweet. You’ve probably heard that advice before, but you might be surprised by how clearly we can see the correlation between InMail length and response rates in the data.

Defining the shortest InMails as those under 400 characters and the longest as those over 1,200 characters:

• The response rate for the shortest InMails is 22% higher than the average response rate for all InMails. 
• By the same measure, the response rate for the longest InMails is 11% below the average rate. 

Well, how short is 400 characters? To help you visualize it, here’s an example of an InMail under 400 characters from an ebook with outreach tips from LinkedIn recruiters.

This InMail example has 345 characters:

To be clear, you don’t always need to keep your message that concise. InMails twice as long, up to 800 characters, still receive above-average (+5%) response rates. And even messages between 800 and 1,200 characters are only somewhat below (-6%) the global average.

Also keep in mind that these are simply averages based on millions and millions of InMails — a shorter message isn’t guaranteed to overperform, but in general briefer notes tend to get better response rates. 

If you typically write longer InMails, don’t sweat it: So do most recruiters.

Only 10% of all InMails are under 400 characters, while nearly half (46%) of all InMails are over 800 characters. That may be why shorter InMails are so effective: They stand out from 90% of other InMails simply by their brevity. 

That may be especially true in today’s candidate-driven talent market. The people who are most in-demand may be getting lots of outreach at the moment, making it harder for a lengthy InMail to stand out. Make it easy for them to read and respond to your message by keeping it short and sweet.

Again, these are guidelines, not ironclad laws. Longer, detailed InMails do work well for some candidates. Ultimately, you know your target talent pool and should use your best judgment. Still, it could be worth experimenting with shorter InMails and seeing how candidates respond. 

2. Think twice before sending InMails on Fridays and Saturdays

Most InMail responses arrive pretty quickly: 65% arrive within 24 hours and 90% arrive within one week. 

Given that, you might think that when you choose to send an InMail matters a lot. Timing is everything, right? 

Well, maybe not in this case. If you’ve ever worried about the best time to send an InMail, you can breathe a sigh of relief. As long as you avoid Friday and Saturday, you should be totally fine. 

Monday is the best day of the week to send an InMail, but just barely. InMails sent from Sunday to Thursday stay within about 1% of the global average. 

The worst day to send an InMail, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Saturday. InMails sent on Saturday get 8% fewer responses than average. Friday isn’t quite as bad, with a response rate that’s 4% below average, but it’s still significantly less effective than all other workdays. 

And while only 2% of InMails are sent on Saturdays, 15% are still sent on Fridays. (This might be a case of candidates embracing the four-day workweek before recruiters themselves do.)

So if you’re about to send that InMail on a Friday afternoon, consider scheduling it for Monday morning instead. 

The takeaway for recruiters: Start the weekend early, and take the weekends off. 

3. Personalized InMails perform about 15% better than ones written or sent en masse

Recruiting leaders have preached about the value of personalization for years, and LinkedIn data backs them up. 

InMails that are sent individually see response rates roughly 15% higher than InMails sent in bulk.

Of course, personalization is much more than just sending messages one-by-one. The content of your InMail should also show that you’re interested in the recipient as an individual. 

“Whatever stands out to me at first glance, that’s what I talk about in my outreach,” explained talent leader Stacy Zapar in her top-rated talk at LinkedIn Talent Connect 2018. “I’m not going to tell you to craft everything from scratch all the time. Just show them that you actually read their profile and that your message is intended only for them.”

4. InMails sent to “Recommended Matches” and “Open to Work” candidates see about a 35% lift

When you search for candidates in Recruiter, you’ll see LinkedIn’s Recommended Matches highlighted in your search results. 

If you haven’t been taking special note of these candidates, you should consider it: Candidates found in Recommended Matches are up to 35% more likely to accept InMails than candidates found in Recruiter search alone.

Additionally, it’s probably no surprise that LinkedIn members who choose to let recruiters know that they’re open to work are also more likely to respond to your InMail.

What you might not realize is just how dramatic the difference is: The response rate for candidates who indicate they’re “Open to Work” is 37% higher than the rate for other candidates. 

While some recruiters may focus on passive candidates only, you shouldn’t overlook or undervalue more active candidates, including those who don’t currently have a job. Though the pandemic may be diminishing it, there’s still a stigma against unemployed candidates. Instead of limiting your available talent pool, giving these candidates a fair shot can help diversify your talent pipeline and result in highly qualified hires.

Final thoughts

Here’s what we’ve learned about InMail response rates by analyzing LinkedIn data, translated into simple takeaways: 

• Keep InMails short
• Don’t send on Fridays and Saturdays
• Send InMails individually
• Target “Recommended Matches” and “Open to Work” candidates

Remember, these are guidelines to keep in mind — not constraints. 

Experiment and see what yields the best results for you. If you are looking for ways to improve your response rates, these data-driven findings may point you in the right direction.  

Methodology

This analysis was based on tens of millions of InMails sent by corporate recruiters around the world between May 2021 and April 2022. Members included active users with relatively complete profiles. Staffing firms were excluded from this analysis. InMail responses include any response received within 30 days.

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