LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Biotechnology (2026)

Key Takeaways

In biotechnology, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 25.8%. Replies to the connection note average 2.9%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 8.3%. Those numbers come from 74,913 connection requests sent by 68 biotechnology accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. All three sit below the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

Biotechnology vs. the platform average

Metric	Biotechnology	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	25.8%	28.5%	-2.7 pts	35th of 38
Connection-note reply	2.9%	3.0%	-0.1 pts	13th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	8.3%	10.4%	-2.1 pts	35th of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about biotech outreach

Biotechnology turns fewer connection requests into conversations than all but two of the 38 reported industries. About 2.1 in every 100 people who receive a request from a biotech account reply to a follow-up, 36th of 38 against a cross-industry 3.0. Only e-learning and media production rank lower end to end. The shortfall sits in the two steps that make up that figure: acceptance and message replies both rank 35th.

The connection note is the exception. Note replies of 2.9% rank 13th of 38, a tenth of a point under the platform, so the request itself is answered at an ordinary rate. What lags is the decision to accept, 25.8% and 2.7 points under the cross-industry figure, and the conversation afterwards, 8.3% against 10.4%. In proportion the message gap is the larger of the two, and it costs the sector more end to end.

Its closest matches are medical device, computer software and machinery, none of which beats the platform on any measure. Biotech senders are accepted less often and answered less often after acceptance than all three, and get more replies to the note than any of them. Across 68 accounts and 74,913 requests this is a small sample, so 35th on two measures is a firm direction rather than an exact position.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Message replies under 8.3%. The sector line is already 35th of 38, and in proportion it is the larger of biotech’s two shortfalls. A number below it usually means the first message after acceptance asks for a meeting before it has given the recipient anything specific to react to, such as a result, a dataset or a named use case.

Acceptance under 25.8%. Also 35th of 38, so a number below the sector line is low against almost every industry in the set. At this level acceptance tends to reward a narrow list over a broad one, and a profile that makes the sender’s scientific or commercial role obvious before the request is opened.

Note replies under 2.9%. This is the one measure where biotech is close to ordinary, 13th of 38 and a tenth of a point under the platform. A shortfall here has no sector explanation behind it, which makes it the cleanest copy test on the page: rewrite the note, hold the list constant and compare.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• How many LinkedIn invites can you send a week?
• Personalising a LinkedIn message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for building a LinkedIn content strategy for B2B sales
• The best AI lead generation software to add to your stack

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in biotech?

25.8% is the sector average, 2.7 points below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 35th of 38 reported industries. Above 25.8% beats the sector, and reaching the 28.5% platform figure would put a biotech account well ahead of its peers.

Is the connection note the weak point in biotech outreach?

No. Biotechnology averages 2.9% note replies, 13th of 38 and close to the 3.0% platform figure. The shortfall is at acceptance, 25.8% and 35th of 38, and after it: message replies of 8.3% also rank 35th, against a platform average of 10.4%.

How does biotech compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 35th of 38, note replies 13th and message replies 35th. End to end about 2.1 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 36th of 38 against roughly 3.0 across all industries, with only e-learning and media production ranking lower.

How this data was collected

Biotechnology is reported from 68 accounts and 74,913 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Computer Software, 27.5% acceptance and 8.8% message replies
• Outsourcing / Offshoring, 26.1% acceptance and 9.2% message replies
• Health, Wellness & Fitness, 25.1% acceptance and 9.9% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the biotechnology benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

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Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.