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5 LinkedIn DM Secrets That Made My Clients Millions

Business coach Matt Essam shares a five-step framework for writing LinkedIn DMs that build relationships and win high-value clients.

Chris Do

Founder, The Futur™ · June 23, 2024

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Your LinkedIn DMs Are Being Ignored

Most LinkedIn messages are dead on arrival. They land in an inbox with a thud, reeking of automation and self-interest. They are unsolicited pitches, clumsy compliments, and vague requests that do nothing but drain the recipient’s energy.

Creatives, who master visual communication, often become surprisingly inept when it comes to the written word of outreach. The result is a digital graveyard of ignored messages and missed opportunities.

This is not a personal failing. It is a system failure.

According to business coach Matt Essam, who has helped hundreds of creative entrepreneurs land five- and six-figure deals, the path to winning dream clients on LinkedIn is not through volume or automation. It’s through a deliberate, human-centered process designed to start conversations, not close sales.

Essam tells the stories of his clients, like David, who secured a meeting with a Paramount executive, and Kai, who landed Bentley as a client. These were not lucky breaks. They were the result of a replicable strategy that transforms cold outreach into warm relationships.

The problem is simple: most people treat LinkedIn DMs as a broadcast medium. They talk about themselves, assume the recipient’s problems, and ask for time and attention without earning it. This approach is broken. It is time for a new one.

The Three Principles of Connection

Before ever writing a single message, a fundamental mindset shift is required. Essam outlines three guiding principles that underpin any successful outreach strategy. Without them, even the most cleverly worded script will fail.

The first principle is to give before you get. This is not about altruism; it's about psychology. When you provide something of value upfront, you trigger a sense of reciprocity. “From a psychological perspective, there is some kind of reciprocity which is created when somebody gives you something,” Essam explains. “You feel like you want to give them something back.” This reframes outreach from a selfish act of taking to a generous act of giving, which dismantles the fear of being “salesy” or “spammy.”

The second principle is to message like a millennial. Forget the long, dense paragraphs of a formal letter. Effective digital communication is conversational, short, and interactive. “Whenever I speak to them, it's always a very sort of backwards and forwards conversation,” Essam says of his younger cousins. “It feels conversational… not just huge lengthy paragraphs that are difficult to read.” Most people read DMs on their phones, a context that demands brevity. The goal is a quick exchange, like a text message, not an email that requires significant cognitive load to parse.

The final principle is the most critical: don’t fear the follow-up. This is where most creatives fail. They send one message, receive silence, and retreat, assuming a lack of interest. This is a massive mistake. “Often the opportunity is created in the third or the fourth follow-up,” Essam insists. A non-response is not a definitive “no.” It’s a signal of a million other possibilities: they’re on holiday, they’re busy, they missed the notification. Essam recommends a powerful reframe: “People are interested to have a conversation with you unless they tell you otherwise.” This simple shift in perspective provides the resilience needed to pursue a connection without feeling like a nuisance. In fact, many people will apologize for their late reply, grateful for the reminder.

The 3 C's: Your Daily LinkedIn Ritual

Effective direct messaging doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is one part of a larger, interconnected system that Essam calls The Three C’s of LinkedIn: Connections, Conversations, and Content.

He visualizes it as a continuous, clockwise process. When performed consistently, it makes landing dream clients an inevitability, not a matter of chance. While this article focuses on the conversation piece, understanding the entire ecosystem is crucial.

The three C’s are:

Connections: This is the foundation. It involves consistently and methodically networking with the right people. Who do you want in your network? Who are the decision-makers, collaborators, and peers in your target industry? This is not about spamming connection requests; it is about curating a professional network with intention.
Conversations: This is the engine of the system. It’s about actively engaging with your network, primarily through direct messages but also in the comments. “Actually having conversations with people is so underrated,” Essam notes. Instead of just liking a post or leaving a generic comment, ask a question. Show genuine interest. This builds rapport and provides context for deeper interactions. This principle is vital for anyone looking to get clients on demand.
Content: This is the accelerator. While Essam is clear that his DM strategy works without creating any content yourself, having it makes the process easier. Content provides social proof. It gives people a way to understand who you are, what you stand for, and the value you provide before you ever send a single message. It warms up the relationship. But you do not need to become a full-time content creator; a simple, consistent presence is enough to give context to your conversations.

By thinking of this as a daily practice, you build momentum. Each day, you connect with new people, start new conversations, and share or engage with content. This consistent activity feeds itself, creating a flywheel of opportunity.

The 5-Step Framework for DMs That Get a Response

Sending a message that cuts through the noise requires more than just good intentions. It requires a structure. Essam provides a five-step framework that has been tested with hundreds of his clients, from illustrators to video production studios.

These five elements do not all need to be crammed into the first message. The goal is to start a conversation, so they can be woven in over a series of short, back-and-forth exchanges.

1. The Reason

You must have a clear and immediate answer to the question, “Why are you reaching out to me?” This is non-negotiable. Essam points to a landmark 1978 study by Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer, which found people are far more likely to comply with a request if you give them a reason, even a flimsy one. In the study, people asking to cut in line at a Xerox machine were nearly twice as successful when they used the word “because.”

Your reason grounds the interaction and removes the suspicion that it's a random, automated message. The reason could be a recent project they launched, a post they shared, or a mutual connection.

2. The Compliment

Everyone appreciates genuine recognition, no matter how successful they are. “I get to hang out with some pretty impressive people like Chris Do and Daniel Priestley,” Essam says. “They're just human. They like compliments.”

The key word is genuine. A vague “love your work” is forgettable and transparent. A specific compliment demonstrates you’ve done your research. Mention a specific project, a particular insight from an article they wrote, or a detail from their portfolio. This shows you’ve invested time and energy, instantly differentiating you from the 99% of low-effort messages they receive.

3. The Anchor

An anchor is a point of commonality that creates an instant bond. It’s the feeling of meeting someone from your hometown while on vacation abroad. Suddenly, a stranger feels like a friend. “Just because you have that thing in common, you feel connected to them,” Essam explains. “That’s what an anchor is. It's something that anchors you together.”

LinkedIn is uniquely designed to help you find these anchors. To make this easier, Essam developed The Anchor Cheat Sheet, a list of common ground to look for on someone’s profile:

School or University: Search for alumni from your university within your target industry. LinkedIn’s alumni tool makes this incredibly simple.
Events: Did you both attend the same virtual summit or industry conference? You can connect with attendees after the fact, even if you never met in person. Use the event as your anchor.
Mutual Connection: The most straightforward anchor. Mentioning a shared acquaintance provides immediate social proof and context.
Influencer or Thought Leader: Noticing you both follow and admire the work of someone like Brené Brown or, as Essam notes, Chris Do, creates an instant connection over shared values and interests.
Content: If they create content, this is a goldmine. Referencing a specific point they made in a post or video shows you are paying attention.
Project: Mentioning a specific piece of work from their portfolio or company website proves you have done your homework and have a genuine interest.

This is a foundational part of building an authentic personal brand through relationships, not just broadcasting.

4. The Value

Everyone is tuned into the same radio station: WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?). Value is not pitching your service. A message that says, “By the way, we build websites, would you like to have a conversation?” is not value; it’s a transaction. That's a mistake many make when trying to attract ideal clients.

True value is given freely, with no expectation of immediate return. It can be an interesting article you found, an introduction to someone in your network, or a free tool you’ve created. “If you can actually offer them something of value upfront for free... you will get a much, much better response,” Essam states. This builds trust and positions you as a helpful resource, not a desperate seller.

5. The Ask

Many messages fizzle out because they fail to propose a clear next step. They dump information on the recipient and leave them wondering, “What do you want me to do now?”

Your ask must be simple, specific, and low-friction. Essam warns against what he calls The Brain Drain, which is any interaction that requires too much mental energy. Avoid open-ended, complex questions like, “What's your biggest business challenge right now?” That’s work.

Instead, use closed or “this or that” questions. “Do you typically work with corporates or SMEs?” is an excellent example. It requires a simple, one-word answer but opens the door to a deeper conversation. The easier you make it for them to respond, the more likely they are to do so. This is a core tenet of effective advanced communication tactics.

How It Looks in Practice: Good vs. Bad DMs

Theory is one thing; execution is another. The difference between a good and bad DM is stark.

Bad messages are almost always about the sender. They make assumptions and immediately try to extract value. Essam shares cringe-worthy examples he has received personally:

The Assumptive Audit: “I've done audits for your social media profiles... we can help you get more leads.” The sender assumed a problem that Essam doesn’t have. It created guilt and annoyance, not interest.
The Insulting Pitch: “I noticed your website [is] built on WordPress, which is honestly quite old style... have you considered this?” Not only was the information incorrect (his site is on Webflow), but it opened with a thinly veiled insult.
The Generic Pitch: “I'm reaching out cuz I can provide you with high-quality appointments and qualified leads.” This is a generic, automated message with no personalization, no reason, and no genuine compliment. It’s pure spam.

In contrast, a good message is personal, respectful, and conversational. Essam offers templates in this style:

A short connection request might read: “Hey John, I just came across your work with Adidas and I see we have a mutual love for retro footwear. Did you manage to score any free shoes?”

This message works because it’s friendly, personal, and includes a reason (Adidas work), an anchor (love for footwear), and a simple, playful question. It feels human.

A slightly longer first message could be: “I just came across your showreel, I was really impressed with your work, especially the project you did with Bobcat. It reminded me of my first role as a runner... Do you typically work with corporates or SMEs?”

Let's break that down. It contains:

The Reason: “I just came across your showreel.”
The Compliment: Specific praise for the Bobcat project.
The Anchor: Mentioning his past role as a “runner” uses industry jargon to show he belongs to the same tribe.
The Ask: A simple “this or that” question about their client type.

This approach shows you have taken the time and effort to understand who they are. It respects their time and intelligence, creating the foundation for a real relationship. This is the difference between being a pest and being a potential partner.

It's not about finding a magic script. It's about developing the skill of observation and genuine curiosity, a skill that is essential for anyone serious about building a personal brand.

The Consistency Engine

This framework is not a one-time trick. It is a discipline. The real power comes from repetition and consistency. Essam challenges creatives to imagine the compound effect of implementing this strategy daily.

“Imagine what that would be like compounded over a month or two months or three months if you genuinely reached out and connected with five people every single day for the next 30 days,” he posits. “Where would your level of opportunity be compared to where it is now?”

He estimates that once you get into the rhythm, you can follow this process for four or five people in less than 30 minutes a day. That small daily investment builds a pipeline of conversations and relationships. Over time, that pipeline fills with opportunities for projects, collaborations, and referrals.

The goal is not to win a client with a single message. The goal is to build an engine of opportunity that runs consistently in the background, fueled by genuine human connection.

Once you master the process, it can even be delegated. But you must first understand the principles yourself.

This is not about hacking an algorithm. It is about understanding human nature. It's about trading the shotgun blast of generic pitches for the sniper rifle of personalized, value-driven conversation.

The choice is clear. You can continue sending messages into the void, hoping one sticks. Or you can start building relationships, one thoughtful conversation at a time.

Stop pitching. Start connecting.

TRANSCRIPT

the LinkedIn DM strategy I'm about to share in this video has been tested with hundreds of my clients from Video Production Studios all the way through to illustrators and animators and the results have been pretty impressive let's take David for example who was able to secure a meeting with a senior executive at Paramount and win a five figure deal or Kai who was able to land Bentley as a client in this video you're going to see the exact five-step LinkedIn DM process that you can use to win your dream clients I'll even be showing you examples of bad LinkedIn DMS I've received so you know exactly what type of messages to avoid sending so let's get into it just zooming out for a second this is kind of how I like to think about LinkedIn there's there's sort of three elements for me the first one is your your connections so sort of how you're actually networking so who are you connecting with who is in your network and doing this consistently is really really important the second piece of this is starting conversations with people actually showing an interest in what they do and I'm going to get down into what you say and how you structure that in a minute but actually having conversations with people is so underrated and interestingly we're going to talk about DMS today but but conversations don't just have to be in DMS they can also be in comments right so you can start conversations I do this all the time I post out a bit of content and someone replies to me and I have a conversation with them I ask them a question I don't just say thanks for the comment right and it really helps to understand people a little bit better it helps to really build that Rapport and then the final piece is content now I said that you don't have to spend hours creating content um at the beginning of this video and that is true I was able to use this strategy in my own business and my clients are able to use this strategy actually without creating any content it just makes it a little bit easier if you have content because there's something for people to consume people can kind of see what you're about understand what you're about what your business is about and get some context for that conversation so these are the three C's of LinkedIn this is how I like to think about it and every day I kind of think about this as a clockwise process right so if I'm constantly doing this if I'm connecting with new people if I'm starting conversations and I'm creating content then I know that Landing projects and winning dream clients is inevitable over time okay so they're the kind of three C's so let's let's look at the five elements that make up a good message and a clear message and something that's actually going to get a conversation started and as I said you can take this off of LinkedIn but this is specifically about LinkedIn and this is kind of where our clients have got the best results so there's five key elements and I'll just walk you through each one and then I'll I'll give you a few examples so the first one is a reason right why are you actually reaching out what is this about and there was a study a while ago that showed people who have a reason for something when they're making a request are twice as likely to have that request accepted versus somebody who doesn't have a reason and I think if I remember off the top of my head the study used several examples but one of them was cutting into a line and so someone requested to cut into the line and they found the people that said hey can I cut in because and gave a reason were twice as like to be allowed to cut into that line than people that didn't and what they actually found was they used a variety of different reasons and it didn't seem to make a difference about the reason that people actually gave so whether you're connecting with someone on LinkedIn and you're using a personalized message or you're actually just reaching out to them directly the reason is really important hey why are you actually reaching out to me today the second thing is a compliment right everybody loves to be acknowledged everybody loves being complimented this has always fascinated with me I get to hang out with some pretty impressive people like Chris doe and Daniel Priestley other entrepreneurs who have created some amazing things and they're just human they like compliments when I genuinely like something about them and tell them they appreciate it right so people never really get bored of compliments as long as they are genuine right super important genuine compliment don't just say something for the sake of it people will see through that the third thing is what we call an anchor an anchor is really just something that you have in common with someone and you've probably experienced this yourself so how many of you have ever been on holiday and you meet someone from the same town or city as you or you meet someone who supports the same sports team that you do and automatically you feel this sense of connection with them you feel this almost uh friendship when you don't really know this person but just because you have that thing in common you feel connected to them that's what an anchor is it's something that anchors you together second to last thing is value this is really really important like most people want to know what is in this for me and I don't just mean the service that you offer I mean what is in this interaction for me and so it's really important that we deliver value and I'm going to talk you through these in a little bit more detail final thing is an ask what do you actually want me to do and people miss this a lot when I get messages on LinkedIn or when people reach out to me they tell me all this great stuff or they tell me how important and amazing that they are usually and what they can do for me but they don't actually ask anything specific so I'm sat there thinking this is all great but what do you want me to do now do you want me to book a call do you want me to reply to this message like what's the thing that you actually want me to do and the clearer and easier we can make the ask the easier this is going to be so just to confirm this is the exact framework that we teach our clients the exact framework that has allowed our clients to land five and six figure projects directly through cold Outreach on LinkedIn this is the exact framework that I use to build relationships with people who can create opportunities these are the principles and the framework that goes into every interaction okay so I've got this anchor cheat sheet here which I'm going to talk to you about in a minute but the one thing I will say is just coming back to the second principle I mentioned at the beginning around message like a millennial you don't have to cover all of these five things in one message you don't have to sort of cram these in into one message you can sort of make this a backwards and forwards thing and drop each one of these in so the first part of the message could be hey I'm reaching out because I love x y and Zed we also do this and then a question right and then you can demonstrate some of this value and and I find this is actually easier to do you can demonstrate some of this value during the conversation because it's much much easier to demonstrate value to someone when you understand what is valuable to them and this is a big piece of the jigsaw that I won't get too deep into but that a lot of people miss when they are reaching out they assume so many things and I'm going to show you some examples of this in a minute they assume that you're struggling with this or they assume that you need this service whereas really it's much more valuable to listen and to understand what is going on for that person before you then offer some kind of value so the reason why are we reaching out compliment what do you generally like about them and then the anchor what do we have in common so I just want to share something with you called The Anchor cheat sheet and the anchor cheat sheet is just a way on LinkedIn that I have found to create anchors fairly easily without spending too much time or thinking too much about this and one of the reasons I love LinkedIn is because it makes this quite easy so these are some very kind of simple and basic ways that you can create anchors with people who you maybe don't know in your network so the first one is sort of like a school or a university now a lot of people like myself went to a university that has tens of thousands of uh students every year and so it's pretty easy to connect with someone there in that industry so one of the things that do on LinkedIn is I will go to LinkedIn and I will go to that school so for me it was University of Leeds I go to university of Leeds and I will look at all the alumni and people that say that they went to the University of leads and Linkedin is quite good at this as well it will sometimes suggest hey this person also went to the University of leads and I can filter by industry or I can look at people within the creative space that also went to the University of Leeds and I can just use that as a really simple anchor I can say hey I also see that you went to the University of leads and you studied X I love what you're up to these days and then I can ask them a question I'll get into questions in a minute but a school or a university or a college or whatever it is is quite an easy one the second one is an event right and so there's lots of events that happen on LinkedIn at the moment and it could just be that you guys went to the same event or you went to the same networking event this is a really underrated strategy okay just because you didn't meet somebody at a networking event doesn't mean you can't connect with them after the event so often I actually won some of my best clients when I was running my creative Studio I won some of my best clients from connecting with people at networking events that I didn't actually meet at the networking event and the way that I did that was I got the list of delegates the list of attendees and I went through and I looked at each one of those and saw who seemed interesting and connected with them and I just used the anchor of I was was also at the event last week and I loved x y and Zed what was your favorite thing about that event and so again we are just trying to start conversations remember we're not trying to win clients straight away in the first message Mutual connection who do you also know that one's fairly self-explanatory what about an influencer or a thought leader that they also follow and I see this quite a lot so hey I noticed that you also follow Bry Brown I also noticed that you follow Chris do what do you love most about their content or was there something specific that you like about Chris or the content that he puts out again it's a conversation starter but it's an anchor content is a really easy one if the person that you want to connect with creates content and I know that's not everybody but if they do then this is a really really easy one to get your teeth into because you can just anchor something around that content that maybe you also know about or that you're interested in let's use the example of Wellness entrepreneurs which one of my clients is currently targeting if they post about let's say breath work or something along those lines you could say hey I noticed that you're currently talking about breath work I've tried this myself and found it really powerful I'm curious what type of breath work have you found to be most powerful for you right so we're we're kind of asking and we're looking at that question now I know you're probably thinking but Matt where's the value well as I said initially we want to try and start that conversation and then once we get a bit of backwards and forwards we can then offer some kind of value and what I will say is this works best when the value that you offer is free value upfront and I'm not saying work for free that's a whole different conversation that's not what I'm saying what I'm saying is if you can offer something and it's not just hey by the way we build websites would you like to have a conversation because then it just kind of feels a little bit transactional and like oh you're just starting a conversation with me because you wanted to sell me a website if you can actually offer them something of value Upfront for free where they don't have to pay anything like an article that you've written something you found interesting an introduction to your network there's a million and one ways to do this I'm going to talk a little bit more about it in a minute but if you can actually do that then you will get a much much better response and people will trust you and you will be doing the first principle that I said which is giving before you ask so that's around content and then obviously a project so something that they've worked on or a particular project that they have in their portfolio or on their website or whatever is another one one of the biggest things around messaging is the importance of making it easy and I talk a little bit about the idea of the brain drain and The Brain Drain is really understanding that every interaction you have with someone takes energy right and it's actually taking someone's brain power to respond to you so when you reach out to somebody think about how much energy are you actually taking from them what are you asking them to do so around the questions use a question that requires less energy and I often call these this or that questions or closed questions so let's just go really really basic and kind of take this outside the context of business for a second you could ask somebody hey what do you prefer cats or dogs that's a really simple question to answer right instead of hey I'm curious like what's your favorite breed of cat and why it's like wow that's a really difficult question for me to answer maybe if I love cats it's interesting and easy but if if I don't then it's difficult and so you start asking these kind of complex questions right off the bat about their business and all of this kind of stuff that I see and it just requires too much brain power so try and keep those questions easy try and keep those things as simple as possible for for people to answer let's look at some sort of bad examples of messaging now I've kind of blanked out people's names these are just ones these are just messages that I personally got in the last few weeks and I also asked some of my clients to submit them as well I'm not going to go into too much detail about these cuz I think it's pretty obvious why these are not good messages I've blanked these names out I'm not doing this to sort of cool anyone out but I think it's really really important to acknowledge some of these so I think what you can notice about most of these messages is it's very much about them right so let me introduce myself I'm a digital marketing consultant I help these people blah blah blah great I've done audits for your social media profiles and businesses and so this person is kind of is getting there with the value but the problem with this and this is what I mentioned before is people do things with me and I feel a little bit guilty because someone to go and do an audit of my website and my social media and all of this stuff and hey we can help you get more leads and like we can see all these tweaks you can make but for me that's not a priority right now that's not something that we're struggling with it's not a problem that we have in our business and yeah I'm sure my socials could be improved and I'm sure our website could be better but we get hundreds of leads a month and we have lots of clients and so that's not a core problem in my business right now and so we're assuming a lot and uh there's a lot of assumption in here as well there's another one here that someone sent me the other day hey I noticed your website built on WordPress which is honestly quite old style or old school and it's like well first of all actually go back and check cuz our website isn't built in WordPress is built in web flow secondly you're kind of basically attacking me a little bit and saying hey like your website's really old it's outdated have you considered this by the way we build websites and this is what we can do for you right the other mistake here that these people are making is often they're asking several questions in one message which again is using a lot of brain power try to keep your questions concise try and keep them easy to answer so for example this person could have said I noticed that your website is built on WordPress even though they've got that wrong so let imagine they just said it was built on webflow I really like x y and Zed about it I'm curious are you currently satisfied with your click-through rate or are you how do you currently measure your click-through rate would have been a much better approach and a much better conversation sort of lead you know leave this stuff out because the thing about LinkedIn is I can click on your profile and I can see what you do I can see what your experience is I don't actually need to know this in a message and most people when they get a message from someone we go and check out that profile and they will see like okay I understand what this person does so I understand the context of this conversation again another one down here is just purely a simple pitch I don't want to take too much of your time but I'm reaching out cuz I can provide you with high quality appointments and qualified leads okay great you know we've gone straight in for the pitch here you haven't really ask anything about me this is just clearly a kind of automated message so the great thing about this framework with the reason the compliment and the anchor is it makes it feel very personalized and I promise you when you get into the rhythm of doing this and you practice it and you do it consistently and you know what to look out for the school you went to the people you have in common all of those kind of cheat sheets that I just gave you that can actually become a really quick process you could do that for four four or five people every single day in less than 30 minutes and our clients do so imagine that imagine what that would be like compounded over a month or two months or 3 months if you genuinely reached out and connected to five people or connected with five people every single day for the next 30 days where would your level of opportunity be compared to where it is now how would it feel to you to have all of those conversations going so I really really encourage you to to lean into this and get to the point where you can do this consistently because once you can do it consistently you can pass it to somebody else and they can do it on your behalf so we've talked about the brain drain here are some better examples look I've just typed these out these are some things I kind of thought off the top of my head because I couldn't really give you specific examples I'm using without the context of the situation and I didn't have permission from that person to share that interaction so these are some things that I've used in the past these are some messages that I've sent in the past really really simple so this is kind of more like a a connection message hey John I just came across your work with Adidas so this is the reason why I'm reaching out and I see we have a mutual love for retro Footwear right so there's not like a huge compliment in here but there is an anchor did you manag to score any free shoes so I'm just kind of being friendly I'm just being curious I'm not trying to come in with any cold pitch this could be like a little connection message the hard thing about LinkedIn and personalizing invites is the limit limit to the number of characters in that message and so it does become quite difficult but if you get skilled at this you can actually create and touch all of these five things in one short sentence so again I'm not suggesting these are perfect but these are examples of a slightly less salesy approach this one is a bit more so I double checked and this doesn't actually fit in the personalized invitation so this would have to be in one of the first messages um but it's you know I just came across your show real uh I was really impressed with your work especially the project you did with Bobcat so I'm being specific about my compliment it shows that I've actually looked at their website I've actually looked at the projects that they've worked on I'm not just sending some generic thing that looks like it's been sent to everybody and then I've just said hey it reminded me of my first role as a runner so if you don't know what that is in film a runner is the person who kind of goes around and does all the things for the director and make sure that everyone's got what they need it's quite a junior role so somebody in the film business and somebody who makes film would understand what that is and they would kind of get that oh this this guy's been in the film industry he knows the the term he knows what it's like working in there and then I've just asked him a really simple this or that question right do you typically work with corporates or smes and most of the time I get a pretty positive response from this kind of thing because most people aren't getting messages that show somebody has taken the time and the effort and the energy to look at their profile to actually see who they are to give them a genuine compliment and to create some kind of anchor something you have in common and just ask them a really easy Next Step question now obviously you're not guaranteed to get a response from every single person and don't expect that but this will significantly increase your chances and if you do this consistently you will land projects I promise you and I have been doing this for the last five or six years and as I said this has been tested with with hundreds of our clients and it works so the big message here is really about starting conversations we've got a saying in our coaching program that Clarity comes from conversations and what we really mean by that is that you can't figure out everything in your head you have to have conversations with ideal clients if you really want to understand what's valuable to them if you really want to understand how to build relationships and connect with them you have to be consistently starting those conversations if you want to get clarity so they are the five key elements while you reaching out what do you love about them specifically what's the anchor what do you have in common what kind of value can you bring for them upfront not asking for money value is not saying hey by the way we build websites do you need a website that's not value value is saying hey I thought you might find this article interesting hey can I introduce you to this person in my network hey by the way we have this free tool the scorecard whatever it is would you like me to send it to you it's being genuinely interested as a person showing that you care and delivering some of that value up front and if you consistently do that I promise you people will see you as somebody worth connecting with and you will be able to land your dream clients so now you know each of the five steps to a powerful LinkedIn DM strategy you almost have the complete framework to start winning those dream clients but there are three key principles that most people miss and if you fail to stick to these principles it will make this strategy way less effective so let's quickly run through what these three principles are that you must follow if you want your LinkedIn DMS to land those dream clients consistently so the first principle is that we must view this through the frame of giving not just getting and this is important for a few reasons I'm going to show you some examples of where this doesn't work but what I want you to understand is that from a psychological perspective Ive there is some kind of reciprocity which is created when somebody gives you something so you feel like you want to give them something back and that's often why when you're following people with all of this great content you feel like you're getting something and you want to give something in return and that could be as simple as an email address could be as simple as some contact details or it could be money time uh energy whatever it is that's just kind of how most people's brains work the other thing this does is it takes away that element of kind of salesy spam because if you know you're giving something to someone rather than getting something it allows you to be more active in your approach to outreach you don't mind messaging people you don't mind reaching out because you know you've got something valuable to offer so principle number one is you've got to come into this this with the mindset of giving not just getting the second principle is we want to message like a millennial so what does that mean well I've got some younger cousins and whenever I speak to them it's always a very sort of backwards and forwards conversation I'll ask a question they'll respond they'll ask the question sort of like that it's very conversational whereas if I get a message from an older member of my family often it's this kind of big paragraph where there's life updates and what they've been up to and they'll ask several questions in it to be honest it takes quite a lot of brain power to read so when we're thinking about messaging people on LinkedIn and kind of most social media platforms we really want to think about creating this sort of conversational tone this experience which feels conversational it feels sort of backwards and forwards it's not just huge lengthy paragraphs that are difficult to read and uh probably make people want to put their phone away and that's the thing right cuz most of these things especially on LinkedIn a lot of people are reading these messages on their phone and so they're already sort of in that mode of sort of text messaging WhatsApp that's where their Brains Brains at and so it's kind of really important to play into where they already are the third key principle here is Don't Fear the followup and this one honestly is massive and the reason I say it's massive is because throughout the years of my experience of reaching out to people myself building relationships and creating winwin scenarios with people I have found that often the opportunity is created in the third or the fourth followup and so uh We've recently recorded a podcast episode with Kai who I mentioned in the intro that was able to land Bentley as a client and I'd highly recommend you go and listen to that search for the creative courage podcast and you can hear Kai's story but one of the things that he says in there is how many emails he actually had to send uh Bentley before they responded now a lot of people have quite a lot of resistance around this because again it comes back to this idea of bothering people being salesy being spammy but think about this for your yourself how many unread messages do you have in your inbox or in your WhatsApp or in other areas of communication right now where you genuinely are interested in that thing or you genuinely like that person but you just haven't had time to respond it could even be a friend or a family member you haven't responded to yet that messaged you a few days ago just because somebody hasn't responded to you does not mean they don't want to respond to you or they're not interested the other thing we got to take into consideration is how often people use LinkedIn how active they are what else they've got going on right now they might be on holiday there's a million and one things that could be going on and having done this for five or six years now personally and having built my business at the beginning using predominantly Outreach I know how many relationships I built how many deals I created in the third or the fourth follow up so if I hadn't sent that message if I hadn't followed up with that person then I never would have got to work with them and often times when I follow up people will apologize and say hey I'm really sorry I didn't see this or it landed in my spam or I've been away on holiday or whatever they've been doing right and so often people do want to have the conversation they do want to respond to you but they just haven't for whatever reason so the way I like to operate and the way I like to think about Outreach is people are interested to have a conversation with you unless they tell you otherwise and for me personally that's been a great frame to view Outreach through and it's served me really well and it's allowed me to create opportunities that I don't think I would have been able to create without it so there are the three key principles give versus get you've got to approach this with a mindset of giving not just taking something from somebody we've got to keep the messaging here sure we've got to keep it conversational and don't be afraid to follow up with people I hope you found this video valuable if you did I'd encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn come and check out some of the content that we put out don't forget to subscribe to the Future Channel this is one of the best channels that I know for growing your creative business my name is Matt essm and this has been a short master class on attracting your dream clients using DMS on LinkedIn

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“Clarity comes from conversations.”

— Chris Do

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Length: 31m
Views: 48,428
Topic: LEAD GENERATION

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