The 14 InMail templates here are grouped by your reason for writing, each with a subject line and a note on when it backfires.

What these InMail templates are, and what they are not

The InMail templates on this page are shapes, not finished messages. Each one holds a subject line, an opening line about the reader, one bridge sentence and a single question, with every line that carries a fact left as a placeholder.

All 14 were written for this page. They are grouped by your reason for writing, because on LinkedIn the reason is the message. The same offer needs different words after a funding round than after a conference talk.

An InMail is also the one message you pay for and cannot repeat. That changes how a template has to be used. A cold email that lands badly costs you nothing; an InMail that lands badly costs a credit and closes the channel to that person.

Strategy, credit math, length and account safety live on our LinkedIn InMail best practices page, and the mechanics on what InMail is. This page is the library you open once you know who you are writing to.

Four rules from LinkedIn Help that every template here obeys

Before the library, the four platform rules that shaped it. All four come from LinkedIn Help pages, not from outreach folklore, and every template below is built to fit inside them.

• 200 and 1,900. LinkedIn Help says an InMail can carry up to 200 characters in the optional subject line. The body is 1,900 characters in Sales Navigator and Recruiter Help and 2,000 in the general InMail FAQ, so every template is written to 1,900. Every subject line here sits far inside its limit.
• One message, then silence. You cannot send another InMail to a member until they respond to the first one, so each template has to work alone.
• A reply pays you back. Every InMail accepted, declined or answered directly within 90 days is credited back, which makes an easy no worth writing for.
• Blasting is a policy violation. LinkedIn's InMail policy tells senders not to distribute unwanted or untargeted mass InMail, and not to use InMail for marketing campaigns.

The last rule is the reason this page is a library rather than a sequence. A template you send to 300 people is exactly the thing that policy describes, and LinkedIn says flagged messages disable sending until the following day.

How to choose an InMail template: start from the trigger

Choose by your reason for writing this week, not by the product you sell. The reason sets the subject line, the opening sentence and how large an ask you have earned.

Every reason also expires. A note about a new role sent in month nine tells the reader your list was scraped, not researched. The table below should get you to the right group in a few seconds.

Triggers are trigger marketing applied to one inbox at a time. None of it matters if the company cannot buy, so check the account against your ideal customer profile before you spend anything.

Where InMail templates fit in LinkedIn outreach

An InMail is one touch, not a campaign. Before any template here is useful you need a prospect list worth writing to, and the prospects on it have to match the industry and the seat your product actually serves.

Most LinkedIn outreach runs in three passes. You build the list and reach the easy names for free. You spend credits on the prospects the free route cannot reach. Then you follow up somewhere else, because a second InMail is not permitted.

The list is where InMail outreach is won or lost. Ten prospects you could only have written to by name will produce more conversations than a hundred leads pulled from a filter, and they return credits when they accept, decline or reply.

The placeholders, and the research behind each one

Placeholders are research tasks in disguise. A template is only as strong as its weakest slot, and a wrong specific does more damage than a missing one, because it proves the whole message was assembled rather than written.

LinkedIn Help tells senders to mention the profile content that prompted the message and to share mutual experiences, interests or connections. Those two instructions describe the observation slot exactly.

• Leave a slot empty rather than guessing. If you cannot fill the observation honestly, this person is not ready to be written to yet.
• Research in batches. Pick one reason, build the list for that reason, then write the slots for the whole batch in a single sitting.
• Cap the effort. If filling the slots takes more than a few minutes, either the account deserves a hand written message or it does not belong on the list.
• Read it merged. Paste the finished version into a document and read it as the recipient before you press send.

InMail subject lines that stay inside the 200 character limit

LinkedIn Help describes the subject line as optional, with a ceiling of 200 characters. Optional is the trap. Leaving it blank hands LinkedIn your first sentence as the preview, and that sentence was written for someone who already opened the message.

LinkedIn's own Recruiter guidance asks for a direct, informative subject line that captures the recipient's attention. In sales the useful version of informative is a plain noun phrase naming the specific thing, with no pitch and usually no question mark.

Write the subject last, from the message you actually wrote. Five to eight specific words will do the job, and nothing on this page needs more than a fraction of the 200 characters. The same discipline works on professional email subject lines.

Fourteen InMail templates, grouped by reason for writing

Everything below was written for this page. No names, companies, numbers or reply rates appear in any of them, because none of these messages were ever sent to a real person.

Each block gives you a label, the copy with placeholders marked, and a note on when that template backfires. Read the backfire note first. It explains more about the template than the copy does, and it is usually why a shape that works for one team fails for another.

• Replace every placeholder. A stray set of braces in a sent InMail is the clearest possible sign of a mail merge.
• Rewrite the opening line by hand. It is the only part that proves this message went to one person.
• Keep them short. If your version runs past a few hundred characters, cut the sentence that talks about you.
• Check the free route first. If they are already a connection, or their profile is open, none of this costs a credit.

Templates 1 to 3: a company trigger

A trigger is a public change in the buyer's situation. It earns you the right to write this week instead of last quarter, and it gives the opening line something checkable to stand on.

1. After a funding round or an expansion

Subject: after the {{roundName}} round

Hi {{firstName}},

You closed {{roundName}} in {{month}}, so {{team}} is about to grow faster than the process around it.

The part that usually breaks first is {{problem}}. I can send the one page other {{role}}s used to get ahead of it. Want it, or is that already handled?

{{senderName}}

2. They are hiring the role that owns your problem

Subject: the {{role}} opening at {{companyName}}

Hi {{firstName}},

You have {{roleCount}} {{role}} roles open in {{location}}, which usually means {{problem}} is being solved with headcount before it is solved with process.

Is that the plan, or is the process part already underway? Either answer is useful, and I will send the week one checklist we use whichever it is.

{{senderName}}

3. A new owner of the budget

Subject: your first quarter owning {{area}}

Hi {{firstName}},

{{month}} was your first month owning {{area}} at {{companyName}}, which is the short window where changing {{process}} is cheaper than defending it.

One question: is {{problem}} on the list you inherited, or already solved? A one line answer is plenty, and I will send {{resource}} either way.

{{senderName}}

Templates 4 to 6: something they published

These are the warmest messages on the page that do not need a mutual connection. The reader put something into the world, and quoting it accurately is the fastest proof you are not working from a list.

4. Their LinkedIn post

Subject: your post on {{topic}}

Hi {{firstName}},

Your post about {{detail}} was the clearest version of that argument I have read this month.

One thing I could not tell from it: {{question}} We see the opposite with {{segment}} teams, and I would rather ask you than guess. A one line answer is plenty.

{{senderName}}

5. Their talk, webinar or podcast appearance

Subject: the {{topic}} point in your {{eventName}} talk

Hi {{firstName}},

I watched your {{eventName}} session. The part about {{detail}} is the thing almost nobody in this market says out loud.

Did {{approach}} survive contact with {{constraint}}? If it did, I would like to write it up properly and credit you. If it did not, that is the more interesting answer.

{{senderName}}

6. Their newsletter or an article they wrote

Subject: your {{monthName}} issue on {{topic}}

Hi {{firstName}},

Your {{monthName}} issue argued {{claim}}. I have been testing the same thing with {{segment}} teams and got a different result on {{detail}}.

Worth twenty minutes to compare notes, or would you rather I just send what we found? No pitch attached to either answer.

{{senderName}}

Templates 7 and 8: shared ground

LinkedIn Help tells senders to share mutual experiences, interests or connections. These two templates are that instruction turned into copy, and both depend on a fact the reader can verify in seconds.

7. A mutual connection sent you

Subject: {{referrerName}} said to write to you

Hi {{firstName}},

{{referrerName}} mentioned you when I asked who owns {{area}} at {{companyName}}. I told them I would say where this came from.

The question is narrow: {{question}} A one line answer is enough, and if it turns out to be the wrong question I will stop there.

{{senderName}}

8. You were in the same room

Subject: {{eventName}}, the {{topic}} session

Hi {{firstName}},

We were both at {{eventName}} last week. The {{topic}} session raised {{question}} and then ran out of time before anyone answered it.

I wrote up how {{segment}} teams handle it. Want the summary, or were you there for something else entirely?

{{senderName}}

Templates 9 to 11: by role

These three change with the seat rather than the news. An executive is deciding what to look at; a practitioner is deciding what to do; and sometimes the fastest route into an account is admitting you picked the wrong person.

9. An executive with no trigger to work from

Subject: {{metric}} after the {{change}}

Hi {{firstName}},

When a company makes {{change}}, {{metric}} tends to move a quarter before anyone reports on it.

Is that visible at {{companyName}} yet, or still too early to tell? If it is early, I will send the two numbers worth watching and leave you alone until they move.

{{senderName}}

10. A practitioner who owns the work

Subject: how {{companyName}} handles {{task}}

Hi {{firstName}},

You own {{task}} at {{companyName}}, which is the job I understand least well in this market.

How are you handling {{detail}} today, {{optionOne}} or {{optionTwo}}? I am writing the comparison and would rather quote a practitioner than guess at it.

{{senderName}}

11. You are not sure they own it

Subject: who owns {{area}} at {{companyName}}

Hi {{firstName}},

I cannot tell from the outside whether {{area}} sits with you or with {{otherTeam}}.

If it is someone else, a name is all I need and I will stop here. If it is you, I will ask the actual question in one line rather than send a pitch.

{{senderName}}

Template 12: Open Profile messages, which cost no credit

Open Profile is a Premium setting a member switches on so that anyone can contact them for free, even from outside the sender's network. LinkedIn also shows their full profile to everybody, which is the easiest way to spot one before you open the compose window.

LinkedIn Help is clear that it limits how many Open Profile messages you can send in a given period, without publishing a number for ordinary accounts. Free is not unlimited, and the message still has to be worth answering.

12. The free message to an open profile

Subject: {{topic}}, one question

Hi {{firstName}},

{{observation}}. That is the reason I am writing before we have met rather than after.

Is {{question}} true at {{companyName}}, or is it something you solved already? Happy to send {{resource}} whichever way you answer.

{{senderName}}

Check Open Profile on every name before you spend anything. On Sales Navigator that check belongs in the list build, not in the compose window, where it is already too late to change the plan.

Templates 13 and 14: recruiting InMail versus sales InMail

The two jobs look identical from outside and behave differently in the inbox. A sales InMail asks a stranger to admit a problem. A recruiting InMail asks a stranger to imagine leaving something they may be happy with.

13. A passive candidate who is not looking

Subject: {{skill}} work at {{companyName}}

Hi {{firstName}},

Your {{project}} work is the closest thing I have found to what {{teamName}} is building, which is why this is going to you and not to a list.

No job description attached, and I am not asking you to apply to anything. What would have to be true for you to look at something new this year?

{{senderName}}

14. Asking a candidate for a name instead

Subject: who else does {{skill}} the way you do

Hi {{firstName}},

You are not looking, and I am not going to pretend I did not notice.

You are still the person I would ask about {{skill}} though. Who else in {{location}} does it at your level? One name is plenty, and I will only say you sent me if you want me to.

{{senderName}}

Recruiting sits outside sales but shares the credit pool logic and the profile reading. If you send both kinds from one account, our note on what actively recruiting means covers how candidates read hiring signals.

What to send when the credit is scarce

Most people who use these templates have a small monthly allowance, so the real skill is deciding who does not get an InMail at all. LinkedIn Help publishes the allotments and the caps, and those numbers set the whole plan.

LinkedIn Help adds three rules that change the math. Credits expire after 90 days. A message accepted, declined or answered within 90 days is credited back. And on Sales Navigator, credits renew on the first day of each calendar month in UTC rather than on your billing date.

The free route is genuinely free. LinkedIn Help gives Basic accounts three personalized invitations a month in one article and five in another, each with a 200 character note, while Premium accounts get unlimited notes of up to 300 characters each. For most lists that is the first move, not the fallback.

Running out every month is a targeting problem rather than a plan problem. A list of people who answer costs almost nothing to work, because accepts, declines and replies all return the credits. Our LinkedIn prospecting page covers building that list.

The rule against a second InMail, and where the follow-up goes

This is the rule most template roundups ignore. LinkedIn Help states plainly that you cannot send a follow-up InMail unless the recipient accepts and responds to your first message, and that if they decline or say nothing, more InMails are not permitted.

The credits page says the same thing from the other direction: you cannot send another InMail to a member until they respond to the first one you sent. So there is no template 15 on this page called "the follow-up", because on a standard account there is nowhere to put it.

LinkedIn also does one piece of follow-up on your behalf. An automatic reminder goes to the recipient within three days of the message being sent, so an unanswered InMail has already been surfaced twice before you start wondering about it.

The practical consequence is that the follow-up lives on another channel. Email, a connection request, a comment on their next post: put those touches in a sales cadence and let the InMail be one step inside it rather than the whole plan.

How to use an InMail template without it reading like one

1. Check the free routes before you open a template

   First degree connection, Open Profile, or someone who accepts invitations: all three reach the person without a credit. Only spend one when none of them is open.

2. Pick the template from the reason, not the product

   Go back to the table above, find the reason you are writing this week, and take the group it points at. If no reason fits, the person is not ready yet.

3. Fill the observation slot by hand

   Read the profile, the last few posts and the contact preferences under Additional Info. Write the opening sentence yourself, from something you actually read.

4. Cut the template down to your version

   Delete any sentence that would survive unchanged if you sent this to the next person on the list. What is left is usually shorter and better.

5. Write the subject line last

   Summarize the finished message in five to eight specific words. It will land far inside the 200 character limit, and it will describe the message instead of guessing at it.

6. Run the deletion test before sending

   Remove the first name and the company name. If the message still works for someone else, you are about to spend a credit on a mail merge.

That last test catches most weak InMails in a second, and it is the difference between a template and a blast. Sending at volume through third party tools sits outside LinkedIn's terms, and our note on LinkedIn automation explains what that costs.

Adapting a template to your industry and your product

Every template here is deliberately neutral, because the specifics are the part you supply. Two changes make one yours: the problem you name in the bridge sentence, and the moment you let the product into the conversation at all.

• Name the problem in their language. Use the words prospects in your industry actually use for it, not the feature name your product team chose.
• Keep the product out of the first message. The reader is deciding whether the problem is theirs, not whether your company sells the answer to it.
• Let one company name appear. Theirs, in the subject line or the opening. Yours belongs in the signature and nowhere else yet.
• Swap the example, not the shape. If an example does not fit your market, replace what it describes and leave the four parts alone.
• Write one version per segment. A template that has to cover three industries at once ends up describing none of them.

The test is the same every time. Read the message as a prospect in that industry and ask whether it could have been written about the company down the road. If it could, the observation is not specific enough yet.

InMail examples that work, and the version that does not

The two InMail examples below were written for this page and sit either side of the same situation. The marked phrases in the first are the ones doing the damage, and the rewrite is less than half its length.

The rewrite is not more clever. It is more specific, and it asks for something the reader can give in four words. That is the whole difference between InMail examples that get answered and ones that get reported.

Mistakes that turn a template into a wasted credit

• Sending a template to a list. LinkedIn's policy names untargeted mass InMail as a violation, and flagged messages disable your sending until the next day.
• Using the whole 1,900 characters. The ceiling is not a target. Length is the clearest signal that a message was written once and sent many times.
• Leaving the subject line empty. It is optional, so LinkedIn previews your first sentence instead, and that sentence was written for someone who already opened the message.
• Spending a credit on an open profile. Check the setting first. That message is free, and the template for it is right above.
• Planning a second InMail. LinkedIn does not permit one until the recipient replies, so a sequence built on InMail breaks at touch two.
• Two asks in one message. Every extra question turns a reflex into a decision, and decisions get postponed indefinitely.
• Pasting a job description or a link. LinkedIn Help tells senders not to substitute either one for writing, in both sales and recruiting contexts.
• Leading with the pitch. The InMail label already suggests one, and confirming it in the first line is what makes a message read as a pitch before it reads as a question.
• Counting sends. Credits returned is the honest number, because it only moves when someone accepts, declines or replies.

The skeleton behind all fourteen

Every template on this page is the same four parts in the same order: a subject that names the thing, an opening that proves you read something, one bridge sentence, and one question with an exit. The skeleton below is what is left when the specifics are stripped out.

Keep it for the structure, and write the rest fresh. Our sales templates hub applies the same rule across every channel, and connection requests use a shorter version of it.

Subject: {{specificThing}}

Hi {{firstName}},

{{observation}}. That is what made me write this week rather than last quarter.

{{bridge}}, which is why this is going to you and not to a list.

{{question}} A one line answer is plenty, and I will send {{resource}} either way.

{{senderName}}

Frequently asked questions