How to Send Automatic Messages on LinkedIn

Automating your messages on LinkedIn can save you hours of manual work, but doing it wrong can get your account restricted. This guide breaks down exactly how to send automated messages safely and effectively, covering the tools people use, what to write, and the strategies that turn cold connections into warm conversations.

Why Automate LinkedIn Messages in the First Place?

In social media marketing, time is your most valuable asset. Spending hours a day manually sending the same welcome message or connection request isn't a good use of that time. Done thoughtfully, automation isn't about spamming people, it's about scaling genuine outreach and building systems for conversations.

Here are the core benefits:

• Time Savings: This is the biggest one. You can set up message sequences that run in the background, freeing you up to focus on creating content and replying to interested leads. Tedious tasks like sending a "thanks for connecting" note are handled for you.
• Scaling Your Outreach: You can connect with dozens or even hundreds of prospects per week without spending your entire day on LinkedIn. This allows you to build your network and generate leads at a scale that's impossible to achieve manually.
• Consistency: Automation follows the rules you set every time. A new connection will always receive your value-packed welcome message. A prospect who doesn't reply will always get a gentle follow-up. This consistency builds a predictable pipeline.
• Instant Engagement: When someone accepts your connection request, an automated welcome message can be sent within minutes. This immediate touchpoint strikes while you're still fresh in their mind, increasing the likelihood of a response.

The goal isn’t to “set it and forget it.” It’s to automate the repetitive, introductory steps so you can spend your time having meaningful conversations with the people who respond.

Understanding LinkedIn's Rules &, The Tools Involved

LinkedIn does not offer a native feature for sending automated message sequences. There are tools like Sales Navigator that let you message multiple people at once, but this is still a manual action. True automation - where a sequence of messages is sent over several days after a connection is made - requires a third-party tool.

These tools typically work as browser extensions that interact with your LinkedIn account to perform actions on your behalf, like visiting profiles, sending connection requests, and messaging. This is a critical point: most third-party automation tools technically violate LinkedIn's User Agreement.

How to Approach Automation Safely

While using these tools comes with risks like an account warning or temporary restriction, hundreds of thousands of sales professionals and marketers use them daily. The key is to use them responsibly and mimic human behavior.

Safety-First Best Practices:

• Warm-Up Your Account: Don't start automating heavily on a brand-new or inactive LinkedIn profile. Spend a few weeks using the platform manually - connecting, posting, engaging - to build a history of normal activity.
• Start Slow: On your first day of automation, don't send 100 connection requests. Start with 15-20 per day and gradually increase over a couple of weeks. A good ceiling to stay under is about 100-150 connection requests per week.
• Use a Reputable Tool: Opt for well-known automation platforms. These tools often have built-in safety features, like randomizing the time between actions to better simulate human activity and setting daily limits.
• Never Use Multiple Tools at Once: Running two different automation tools on the same LinkedIn account is a huge red flag and a fast track to getting your account restricted.
• Personalize Everything: This is the most important "safety" tip. LinkedIn is less likely to flag activity that leads to genuine conversations. If your messages are generic and get ignored or reported as spam, you're at a much higher risk.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating an Automated LinkedIn Campaign

A successful automated campaign isn't just about the message content, it's about the entire strategy, from targeting to follow-up. Here’s how to build one from the ground up.

Step 1: Build a Hyper-Targeted Lead List

The quality of your campaign depends entirely on the quality of your list. The more specific your audience, the more personalized and relevant your messaging can be. Generic messages sent to a generic list will always fail.

Instead of targeting "Marketing Managers in the United States," narrow it down:

• "Marketing Managers"
• in the "SaaS Software" industry
• at companies with "51-200 employees"
• posted on LinkedIn in the "last 30 days"
• and are located in the "Midwest"

This allows you to write a message that speaks directly to their world. You can build these lists using LinkedIn's standard search filters or get even more granular with a Sales Navigator subscription.

Step 2: Craft a Connection Request That Isn't a Pitch

Your connection request note is your first impression. Its only goal is to get the person to click "Accept." Wasting this on a sales pitch is the fastest way to get ignored.

Here’s a simple formula that works:

Hi [FirstName], I saw [a specific, relevant detail]. I'm looking to connect with more [their job title or industry peers].

Examples:

• "Hi Sarah, I saw your post on the challenges of B2B content marketing and really agreed with your perspective. I'm looking to connect with more content strategists in the SaaS space."
• "Hi Mark, noticed we're both in the 'SaaS Growth Hacks' group. Looking forward to connecting with more founders in this community."
• "Hi Jessica, your profile came up as a fellow FSU alum working in digital marketing. Would be great to connect!"

The key is to give a reason for connecting that isn’t about what you want from them. Reference a piece of content, a shared group, a shared university, or a mutual connection.

Step 3: Write Your Welcome Message (The Value-First Follow-Up)

This message should be automatically sent within an hour or two of the person accepting your request. Just like the connection request, this is not the time to pitch.

Your goal here is to be helpful and start a conversation. The best way to do that is to offer something of value with no strings attached or to ask a thoughtful question.

Structure: Thank >, Give >, Ask/Engage

Example 1: Giving Value

"Thanks for connecting, Mike!

Saw on your profile that you're focused on demand generation for B2B tech companies. My team just published a report on the top 10 channels for demand gen heading into 2024, and I thought you might find it genuinely useful.

You can check it out here: [Link to Blog Post or PDF]

No sign-up or anything required. Cheers!"

This works because it’s relevant to his role, requires nothing from him, and positions you as a helpful resource, not a salesperson.

Example 2: Asking a Question

"Great to connect with you, Emily!

I was looking through [CompanyName]'s content, great stuff on the latest AI trends. I’m curious, how is your team thinking about incorporating generative AI into your marketing workflow? Always interesting to hear how others in the space are tackling it."

This opens a genuine conversation. It's respectful, shows you’ve done your research, and invites them to share their expertise. The responses you get are pure gold for understanding your market's pain points.

Step 4: Design Your Gentle Follow-Up Sequence

Most people won't respond to your first message. A short, polite follow-up sequence is where the majority of your results will come from. Space them out - don't message someone every day.

A simple, effective sequence could look like this:

• Message 1: The Welcome Message (sent on Day 1 of connecting).
• Message 2: Wait 4 days. Send a follow-up.
• Message 3: Wait 6 days. Send the final message.

Example Follow-Up #1 (The Soft Ask)

After a few days of no response, it's appropriate to bridge toward why you wanted to connect in the first place. You’ve already provided value, now you can gently introduce your solution.

"Hi Maria, just wanted to quickly follow up here.

The reason I reached out is that we work with a lot of Heads of Operations at mid-size manufacturing firms to help streamline their inventory management. I noticed [CompanyName] is in a big growth phase, and that's usually when inventory headaches start to pop up.

If that's something on your radar at all, I'd be happy to share how we’ve helped companies like [Similar Client] tackle it. Would you be open to a brief chat?"

This shows you understand their potential challenges and directly but politely state your purpose.

Example Follow-Up #2 (The Break-Up)

This is a final, no-pressure message that respectfully closes the loop. It often gets a surprisingly high response rate precisely because it’s not pushy.

"Hey Brian, I won't pester your inbox after this, but I wanted to follow up one last time on my previous note about social media analytics.

If getting a clearer picture of your marketing ROI isn't a priority right now, no problem at all.

Wishing you and the [CompanyName] team all the best!"

It's polite, professional, and leaves the door open for them to re-engage on their own terms.

Final Thoughts

Automating your LinkedIn outreach is a powerful technique for saving time and scaling conversations, but its success hinges on one thing: a human-first approach. When you combine hyper-specific targeting with personalized, value-driven messages, automation becomes a system for building relationships, not a megaphone for spamming prospects.

Once those automated campaigns start generating replies, the last thing you want is for a warm lead to fall through the cracks because their comment or message gets lost. At Postbase, we built our unified inbox to solve exactly that problem. We centralize your DMs and comments from LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and more into one clean feed, making it simple to track conversations, assign tasks to a teammate, and ensure every opportunity is handled.