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The first message to a passive candidate

Updated

A passive candidate never asked to hear from you. Your first message decides whether they reply, and how they remember you if the answer is no. Here's how to write it on LinkedIn: the invitation, the message after they accept, and the follow-up.

Invitation with or without a note

LinkedIn lets you add a note to an invitation. It can be 200 characters at most, and a free account can only do it three times a month. Premium lets you add one every time.

A note gives context, but 200 characters can't describe a role, and a note from a stranger easily reads as a pitch before the person knows who you are. Without a note, they see your name, photo and headline, and the message after acceptance has room for everything.

LinkedIn publishes no figures on how many people accept with and without a note. The numbers that exist come from automation vendors, mostly in sales, and they point in different directions. In one count of 11.5 million requests from 2025, 27.6% without a note were accepted against 25.3% with one, but those with a note got more replies. So test it yourself: send half with a note and half without, and compare after a couple of weeks.

If you do write a note, make it about them, not you. One line on why, no link, no job description.

Your headline is your note

Without a note, your LinkedIn headline is the first thing the candidate reads. "Recruiting finance people for manufacturers in East Jutland" says why you're writing before the invitation is even opened. "Talent Acquisition Specialist" doesn't.

The message after they accept

Short beats long. LinkedIn's own InMail data from 2022 shows the shortest messages, under 400 characters, got 22% more responses than average, while those over 1,200 characters got 11% fewer. Messages sent one by one got about 15% more responses than those sent in bulk. These are InMail figures, but the lesson carries over to a message after an accepted invitation.

A good first message has five parts:

  1. Why them. One specific thing from their career, not a compliment.
  2. The role in two sentences. Title, type of company, location, and salary if you're allowed to say it. When LinkedIn asked more than 14,000 professionals in 2017 what they wanted in a recruiter's first message, 89% said job details and 72% the salary range.
  3. A small question. "Would you like to hear more?" is easier to answer than an invitation to a meeting on Thursday.
  4. Who you are. Your name, and who you're recruiting for.
  5. Where you got their details. If you found the candidate somewhere other than from the person, the GDPR says you must give them the information in Article 14 at the latest in your first message, and state their right to object clearly and separately. A short link to your privacy notice covers most of it.

An example:

Hi Mette, thanks for connecting. I'm writing because you've been a controller at two manufacturers and now run the budget at your current one. I'm helping a food producer in Horsens find a senior controller, no direct reports, one day a week from home. Would you like to hear more? A no is a fine answer too.

Best, Jonas

How we use your details, and how to opt out: [link]

Following up

LinkedIn's numbers show 65% of InMail responses arrive within a day and 90% within a week, so LinkedIn recommends waiting at least seven days before following up. For email, Gem found that a three-step sequence got more than twice the replies of a single email, and that there's little or nothing to gain after the fourth step.

  • Follow up twice, three times at most, about a week apart.
  • Every follow-up needs something new: the salary range, the hiring manager's name, a detail about the team. "Did you see my message?" isn't new.
  • Write on weekdays. In LinkedIn's data, messages sent on a Saturday got 8% fewer responses and on a Friday 4% fewer than average.
  • Stop at any reply, including a no. A no goes on your do-not-contact list, so nobody writes again through another channel.
  • Use email as the fallback if the invitation isn't accepted, with the same care and the same information.

When the candidate replies

The answer is rarely a clean yes. Three common ones, and what works:

  • "Not right now." Thank them, and ask whether you may write again in six months. If they say yes, you have a basis for keeping their details for that. If they say no, delete them.
  • "What's the salary?" Give the range if you know it. "Let's discuss that in the interview" often costs you the interview.
  • "How did you find me?" Tell them straight: where you found the profile and why it fit. They have a right to know, and honesty here makes a yes more likely later.

What not to do

  • Pretend. "I came across your profile" in a message sent to 200 people fools nobody.
  • Flatter vaguely. "Impressive profile" says nothing.
  • Hide what you're allowed to share. Level, location and a salary range save you both a call.
  • Ask for a CV in the first message.
  • Track whether they opened it. The candidate never agreed to be measured.
  • Send text you haven't read. Even when an AI wrote it.
  • Write again after a no.

How Navigent does it

A Navigent campaign follows the same order: the invitation without a note by default, a message after acceptance, follow-ups, and email as the fallback. Messages can use variables such as first name and current employer, plus one sentence the AI writes from the assessment and the job ad. Every message can be read before it's sent, sending happens only on weekdays between 08:00 and 16:00 in the sender's time zone, there's no open or click tracking, and a reply stops the sequence. Navigent adds no privacy line. The duty to inform is yours as the controller, so if you want a link, you write it into the message yourself. A free LinkedIn account can run the whole sequence with the note off; a paid one is recommended, not required.

See what a campaign looks like on How it works.

Sources

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