Cold Email Vs. LinkedIn Message: What To Choose?

If you’re wondering what to choose between cold email and LinkedIn messages for your outbound strategy, you’re not alone. Both channels are great for B2B sales, with each having its strengths, drawbacks, and use cases. 

In this article, we’ve compared cold email vs. LinkedIn, demonstrating which channel to use for your audience and situation. Note that the best approach is to combine the two channels for effective results. That said, let’s look at the full details.

What’s Cold Email Outreach?

Cold email outreach is when you send an unsolicited email to someone with whom you have no prior relationship. The goal is to introduce yourself to a target audience, drive engagement, and generate leads for your business. 

A cold email consists of these key elements:

• Subject line:  This is the hook that gets your prospects to open your email. It’s what creates the first impression. Since you’ve got no prior connection with your prospects and they don’t know you, your email’s subject line should be short, direct, and catchy enough to grab their attention. 

• Body text: This is where you present your pitch. In other words, “What exactly do you have to offer them?” Make sure your message is relevant to the recipient, be clear in what you ask, and personalize accordingly.

• Follow-ups:  Most people give up after the initial message. In reality, you need to send a few follow-ups to increase the chances of getting a reply from your recipient.

Even with these key elements, there are some factors you should note about cold emailing. Otherwise, your messages won’t get into your prospects’ inboxes. These factors include: 

• Buying a secondary domain – Using a primary domain is too risky for cold emailing. Instead, buy a new secondary domain. In case your secondary domain gets burned or blacklisted, your primary domain won’t be affected.

• Email authentication – To increase email deliverability, you need to authenticate DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. This signals to Google that your email is legit.

• Warming up your email – Then, use an email warm-up tool before you do outreach. This shows you’re a real person and not a spammer. Thankfully, there are email tools that help with this. Note that the process can take 3-4 weeks.

• Email KPIs – Track email marketing metrics, such as open rate, reply rate, and meeting booking rate, to determine whether your cold emailing strategy is working. Of course, you don’t have to calculate them manually, as your email tool will just tell you the results, but you should still have a baseline of what to aim for in terms of KPIs.

With this in mind, let’s now take a look at the pros and cons of cold email outreach.

Advantages of Cold Email 

Cold email offers various benefits, which include:

1. Cost-effectiveness 

Cold emails are relatively cheap to get started with. You need a new domain, which can be under $10 a year, and an email marketing tool (to warm up your email and start sending cold email outreach campaigns). The latter depends on your needs. But typically, you can get an email outreach tool for $30-$100 a month.

2. Scalability

You can reach thousands of prospects with minimal extra cost using cold email. All you need is a new domain to warm up and your email outreach tool to automate your process.

3. Personalization

You can leverage your prospect’s data to create tailored messages that address your audience’s needs, interests, pain points, and more. Additionally, you can insert personalization tags (first name, company name, or something unique for each prospect) to make your emails feel authentic.

Disadvantages of Cold Email

What about the drawbacks of sending cold emails? Here are a few:

1. Easy to ignore 

One of email’s big pros is also its downside. Because of how easy it is to get started with email outreach, it’s also common for people’s inboxes to be overflown with cold emails. You’re competing for your prospect’s attention along with hundreds of other people.

2. Lower engagement

Email typically has lower engagement (especially compared to LinkedIn) because the prospect doesn’t know you. On LinkedIn, for example, the prospect can return to your profile to learn more about what you do. This isn’t the case with email.

3. Legal issues 

Cold emails must comply with anti-spam laws, such as the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR. Else, you could face hefty fines of up to €20 million for GDPR violations or a $53,000 fine per email for violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Also, note that cold email is simply illegal in Germany.

Important Cold Email Stats to Keep in Mind

Now, to put things into perspective, let’s take a look at some essential cold email statistics to keep in mind. Note that these metrics don’t mean much except that they’re tied to real results. 

For example, a high open rate is a vanity metric if no one is replying to your cold email. Likewise, a high reply rate also doesn’t mean much if no one’s booking meetings or you’re not generating the desired results.

That said, here are the stats on cold email.

• A 2025 study revealed that the average cold email open rate is about 27.7%.
• Another 2025 study by Hunter found that the average cold email reply rate is about 4.1%.
• Cold outreach conversion rate averages around 0.2-2%. However, well-optimized campaigns that leverage personalization, strong CTAs, and social proof deliver positive results. 

This doesn’t mean cold emailing is a bad approach. However, you must optimize your cold emails effectively to outperform industry standards. How do you do that? In the next section, you’ll learn five tips for an effective cold email outreach.

Five Tips for an Effective Cold Email Outreach

According to research, the average person receives about 100-200 emails per day. This means standing out in your prospect’s inbox can be challenging. However, by implementing these tips, your cold emails could land in their inboxes and catch their attention. To do that, let’s look at the five tips. 

1. Craft a compelling  subject line

Your subject line is the first thing your prospect notices about your cold email. It’s what prompts them to open or ignore your message. To increase the chances of having your emails opened, 

Michel Lieben, CEO and Founder at ColdIQ, opines that your subject lines should be 3-5 lines max. Also, keep it in lowercase and make it relevant to their world, not yours. This helps you to create a compelling subject line with pertinent details that prompt them to see what you have to offer. 

2. Personalize your email body

Nobody cares for a generic email message that doesn’t put them first. That’s why you must personalize your email message. Mention their recent achievement or interest to make your email relevant. Also, consider addressing their pain points and showcase how you can solve them. This prompts them to engage with your email. 

Anthony Natoli, Senior Account Executive at LinkedIn, offers a four-pronged approach for personalizing your prospect’s messages.

• Relevance: Clearly state why you’re reaching out
• Problem statement: Highlight the key challenges they’re facing
• Solution: How others solve it
• CTA: Keep it interest-based, not pushy.

Remember that no outreach tool can help you if your messaging feels off. Instead, keep it buyer-centric and value-driven. Once you figure this out, consider using a tool like Expandi. With unique elements such as dynamic fields, images, and GIFs, you can craft personalized messages at scale for hundreds or thousands of your prospects.  

3. Create a follow-up sequence

Stopping at your initial message will only get you ghosted. Instead, you must consistently follow up with your prospects. This doesn’t mean you should spam them. 

Instead, keep the number optimal, usually ranging between 2 and 3 follow-ups, and deliver value. Sending follow-up emails keeps your brand top of mind with your prospects and increases the chances of getting a response. 

Use a tool like Expandi to automate the follow-up process at regular intervals. As you’re engaged in other sales processes, the LinkedIn automation tool follows up on your prospects so you don’t miss out on qualified opportunities. 

4. Warm up your email domain

After all these efforts, you don’t want your cold emails landing in the spam folder. This is where email warm-ups appear in the picture. Avoid sending hundreds of emails at once. Instead, gradually increase your sending volume to avoid being flagged by email service providers. 

Alex Vacca, COO and Co-founder at ColdIQ, provides this framework for email warmups. 

• Warm-up should last 3-4 weeks
• 5 emails/day to start the warm-up process.
• Add 5 more each day until you have 40 warm-up emails/day.
• Change the email warmup settings to 20 emails per day with a 70% reply rate once you start the cold outreach campaign.

With this process, you increase the chances of having your cold emails land in your prospect’s inbox, not the spam folder. 

5. Track and analyze results

As a salesperson, tracking and analyzing your cold email campaign performance is crucial to its success. It shows you what’s working and what needs improvement on your next campaign. 

Use Expandi’s analytics feature to track metrics such as open rates, reply rates, and conversion rates. This helps to gauge your performance and refine where necessary. 

What’s LinkedIn Messaging Outreach?

LinkedIn message outreach involves using your LinkedIn professional network to identify, engage, and convert prospects. Everything you do is within the platform, whether you find the target audience, send connection requests, follow up, or create content to post. 

If you work in B2B, this is particularly important because 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content and engage with their leads. And with over 65M+ business decision-makers on the platform, you’re guaranteed to find your audience there for outreach.

Unlike cold email, you can generate leads on LinkedIn in different ways:

• Find your target audience with LinkedIn searches, scrape the list, and automate outreach with tools like Expandi. This is by far the most popular method to generate leads.
• Create content aligned with your content strategy to attract inbound leadsand grow your audience. This is to demonstrate your expertise and convince leads to work with you when they consume your posts.
• Network in LinkedIn groups to build relationships with more prospects.
• Send LinkedIn InMails to cut through the noise and stand out in your audience’s inbox.

As you can see, cold email vs. LinkedIn message are different. While you pitch yourself to people with whom you’ve no prior connection via cold email, LinkedIn encourages you to build credibility by nurturing your prospects through valuable posts. Once someone is ready to work with you, they can reach out later.

Next, we’ll examine LinkedIn InMail and how to use it to boost your outreach efforts. 

LinkedIn InMail and Automation

If you’re looking to generate leads, InMails and LinkedIn automation can be of enormous help when it comes to the platform. With LinkedIn InMails, you can contact users who are not in your network directly. Which means you don’t have to send a connection request in the first place. This works well if you want to contact key decision-makers you’re not directly connected to.

Alternatively, send a connection request first, and if they haven’t replied after some time, send an InMail with a convincing subject line. Also, leverage LinkedIn automation tools like Expandi to create and streamline your outreach sequences to engage with your target audience.

With Actions and Conditions, you can set up your LinkedIn outreach.

Actions include:

• Visit profile.
• Follow the profile.
• Follow the company.
• Skill endorsement.
• Connection request.
• Follow-up message.
• Open InMail.
• Email.
• Like a post.

Conditions include:

• Custom condition – For example, to continue when a person is not connected, check “If connected” and toggle the “If not” slide. If nothing is checked, this condition will be skipped and not taken into account. It is recommended to have at least one setting per endpoint; otherwise, it will automatically pass.

• If connected.
• If you followed you.
• If you visited your profile.
• If the email opened.
• Email bounced.
• Email clicked.
• Email exists.
• If Open InMail.
• If the post is liked.

While email has limited automation, you can set up flows that account for every possible outcome in your lead generation campaign.

Here’s an example of an outreach sequence template.

LinkedIn sequence template example

Advantages of LinkedIn Messaging

No doubt LinkedIn is an important place to be if you want to generate leads and grow your audience. Here are some of the main advantages LinkedIn messaging and outreach offer:

1. Targeted outreach 

LinkedIn lets you target your outreach efforts with precision. You can search for prospects based on specific criteria such as location, industry, job title, and more.

2. Built-in network

LinkedIn is a network-driven platform. When you connect with someone, you gain access to their network, potentially expanding your reach and opening new doors.

3. No deliverability issues

Unlike cold email, LinkedIn messages are delivered directly to the recipient’s inbox, reducing the chances of your message being marked as spam.

4. Professional branding and audience growth

Active engagement on LinkedIn helps build your professional brand and reputation over time. By sharing valuable content, you can connect with industry peers and position yourself as an expert in your field.

5. Automation and integration

This is possible via email as well, but you have more options for automating LinkedIn outreach. However, certain limitations are guiding this process. With a LinkedIn automation tool, you can set up conditions and sequences for automated outreach.

Disadvantages of LinkedIn Messaging

Of course, LinkedIn is not without its drawbacks. These include:

1. Platform restrictions

Currently, the LinkedIn connection limit is pegged at around 100 requests per week. Additionally, the professional networking platform can sometimes limit your searches if you’re using the free version of the platform.

2. High budget

If you want to take your LinkedIn messaging to the next level, you’ll want to invest in LinkedIn Sales Navigator for a more targeted outreach (which can cost around $65.99/mo) or LinkedIn InMails (around $79.99/mo for 50 credits) to cut through the noise.

Note that while that may seem expensive, if you use Sales Navigator to land at least one client a month, the cost will pay for itself. Alternatively, you can start with Expandi (7-day free trial, $99/mo after), which automates your LinkedIn lead generation and outreach and works with the free version of LinkedIn. 

Important LinkedIn Stat to Keep in Mind

It’s harder to quantify LinkedIn’s average statistics because there are far too many variables to consider, such as your templates, target audience, offer, campaign objective, sequence, and more.

Instead, let’s take a look at what’s possible with LinkedIn outreach.

• According to LinkedIn, InMails have a 10-25% reply rate when soliciting a response from a potential client, 300% higher than emails with duplicate content.
• Using dynamic GIFs and personalized outreach in a lead-generation campaign, we achieved a 55% reply rate. 
• Salescout landed six new demos and $250k in the pipeline in just 3 weeks.
• 72% acceptance rate with our personalization outreach.

All this is based on the idea of omnichannel outreach, which combines emails, LinkedIn, and InMails.

Tips for Making LinkedIn Message Outreach Work

LinkedIn goes beyond a platform for job search. It’s effective for identifying and connecting with prospects. But how do you get them to open your messages? Ilija Cosic, GTM Engineer and Technical AE at Expandi, shares a five-step approach to their LinkedIn outreach for a client. 

For context, this client had a 3% reply rate. Upon implementing this approach, the reply rate increased by 18%, booking 2-3 demos per day. We’ll share what worked in this section. 

1. Leverage signal-based targeting

Ditch the act of targeting random people. LinkedIn outreach doesn’t work like that. Instead, use data-driven insights led with precision. One of these is buying signals, which indicate a prospect’s likelihood to purchase a product or service. 

Job changes, website visits, content engagement, or profile views. These signals prevent you from reaching out to prospects with little to no buying intent, allowing you to focus on those who show greater interest. 

2. Engage softly before pitching 

Instead of sending a cold connection request, softly engage your prospects by making strategic profile visits or leaving thoughtful comments on their posts. This warms up the relationship and won’t make you seem like a stranger when you send your message. 

3. Create value-first messaging sequence

A generic message is off the pitch. Instead, create a 5-touch sequence that delivers actionable, valuable insights or industry trends before mentioning your solution. The goal is to keep it short, relevant, and impactful. 

4. Behavior-triggered follow-ups

Instead of timer-based follow-ups, look at their behavior. Create an engagement-based sequence that feels natural and conversational. This increases your chances of getting a reply. 

5. Optimize your LinkedIn profile 

Your LinkedIn profile shouldn’t look boring. Instead, update with present and relevant information. Instead of creating a basic bio, create an authority-building machine backed by social proof, relevant keywords, and prospect-focused messaging.  

Cold Email vs. LinkedIn Message: Which is More Effective?

Now to the real deal. LinkedIn message vs. cold email: which is more effective? The truth is, the two approaches differ and depend on what you intend to achieve. In this section, we’ll examine the differences and how you can leverage them for your outreach process. 

1. Cost effectiveness

Cold emails involve cost for tools such as cold email outreach platforms, a targeted prospect database, or marketing automation software. These investments work well even for larger campaigns. 

On the other hand, LinkedIn outreach can incur costs, especially if you opt for premium versions like Sales Navigator, which offers advanced search filters and outreach capabilities. 

Recommendation: Evaluate the cost-to-ROI of each platform. While cold email works for larger campaigns, LinkedIn can yield significant returns on high-value connections. 

2. Personalization

With advanced tools, you can personalize cold emails with elements like dynamic fields, images, and GIFs to resonate more with your prospects. For instance, referencing a prospect’s pain point or mentioning their achievements increases the likelihood of getting a response. 

However, LinkedIn works best for real-time personalization. You need to dig into their profile information and recent activity to connect with your prospects. 

Verdict: LinkedIn works best for personal connections, whereas email works for depth. 

3. Response time

LinkedIn is a real-time platform that generates responses for prospects. Once people see a platform notification, it prompts them to act quickly. However, there are restrictions on the number of people you can actively reach per day.

On the other hand, cold emails reach a wider audience but have a lower response rate. You need a compelling subject line, value-focused messages, and CTAs to increase the numbers. 

Recommendation: Combine both methods for maximum results. While LinkedIn can work for light engagement (profile visits, connection requests, post engagement), use cold email to formally follow up on your propositions. 

4. Compliance

Cold emails are subject to legal sanctions for violating regulations such as the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act. Plus, it’s illegal in countries like Germany. As a result, one might opt for LinkedIn outreach campaigns instead. Even though it comes with its restrictions, it’s a safer option for salespeople in regulated industries or companies.

Verdict: Use cold emails to reach wider people, but avoid violating local regulations or LinkedIn messages to connect quickly and bypass rules. 

5.  Trust and credibility

LinkedIn messages are intended for professional use. When someone sees you post regularly, comment under their posts, or share a mutual connection, they’re more likely to trust and respond to your messages. However, cold emails rely on the sender’s name, a catchy subject line, or value-driven messaging to gain credibility. 

Verdict: Use LinkedIn to build relationships and cold emails for pitches. 

How to Combine Cold Email and LinkedIn Messaging to Achieve Maximum Results?

If you’re wondering which to choose between cold email and LinkedIn messages, we suggest combining both. Each method has its advantages, which you can use to expand your reach and drive more engagement. 

Start with LinkedIn and use it to warm relationships and build credibility. As you send LinkedIn connection requests, include a personal note and reference something specific about the prospects to increase the chances of acceptance. When they accept, follow up with a brief message to initiate a conversation. 

From there, you can transition to email. Leverage the relationship to create a detailed pitch. Mention who you are and why you’re reaching out. Also, if they don’t reply on LinkedIn, send them a cold email. The goal is to try multiple channels to increase the chances of getting a response. 

However, your outreach shouldn’t be a random act or guesswork. Leverage the right timing. It helps you to focus on those who’re more likely to respond to your messages. 

Use Tools like Expandi for Cold Email Outreach and LinkedIn Messaging

While it’s great to combine cold email and LinkedIn messages, use tools like Expandi to create a seamless process. Use our proven outreach templates and sequence steps to set up and launch your outreach campaigns.

For this, you need:

• Defined target audience, which you can either scrape automatically or export through a spreadsheet or LinkedIn search results. In Expandi, you can add an audience in 8 different ways.
• A campaign type (10 types of cold outreach campaigns possible within Expandi). But you can use Campaign Builder to gain complete control over every step of your outreach.
• Outreach templates. You can use ours to start with, or A/B test your own text.

How Expandi works?

1. Grab the free, 7-day Expandi trial.

2. Click Search in Expandi and navigate to Add new search.

3. Select a few different search types, based on your campaign objective and who you want to reach. In this example, we’re going to target members in a LinkedIn group, so you’d select Group Search.

4. Enter a search name and paste the URL of a LinkedIn group you want to target.

From there, Expandi will export its members.

Exporting prospect’s list with Expandi

5. Export the list as a spreadsheet file to qualify and disqualify leads or continue as is. See our guide on building a prospect list for more info on managing leads.

6. Afterwards, add an outreach campaign to contact those leads with LinkedIn and email.

7. Click Campaigns, then press Add Campaign, and select Campaign Builder (this lets you set up a custom sequence and steps with complete control).

8. Select a campaign name, click Next, and Create without template.

9. Then, add the steps and templates. Here is an example below.

Adding steps and sequences in Expandi

What about the templates?

Check out our complete account-based marketing guide for a detailed overview of each step.

Conclusion

So, to recap, it’s not “cold email vs LinkedIn”. It’s cold email AND LinkedIn. If you HAD to choose one platform, it’d probably be better to get started with LinkedIn first. And then, introduce email.

Both of these platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages, though.

However, with LinkedIn, as you generate leads, you grow your network and audience. Then, by creating content, you start to position yourself as an expert in your niche. This makes it more likely that others will connect with and work with you.

Plus, LinkedIn automation is more powerful as you control all the steps, sequences, conditions, and actions. With email, meanwhile, someone would have to go out of their way to go back to your website and learn more about what you do.

Now, ready to start automating your email and LinkedIn messaging outbound campaigns? Get started with a free, 7-day Expandi trial now and connect your email provider for free as well!

FAQs about Cold Email vs. LinkedIn Message

Which is Better: Cold Email or LinkedIn Message

Both cold emails and LinkedIn messages are effective, depending on your target audience and campaign goals. However, we recommend you combine both methods to achieve the desired results.

Does Cold Emailing Still Work?

Yes, if done right! Cold emailing still works if you target the right prospect, personalize your message, follow up at the right time, and track your campaign performance. 

Can I Use Both Cold Emailing and LinkedIn Messaging in an Omnichannel Outreach?

Yes! Cold emailing and LinkedIn messages work best in an omnichannel outreach strategy, as they help expand your reach and increase visibility.