Best practices: 5 campaign recipes

Five sequences you can rebuild in the Flow Builder as they are. They only use real steps and conditions. Delays are in days, set in Delay before this step. Adapt the wording to your voice, and keep messages short.

1. Warm up, then invite

For: people outside your network who match your ideal customer.

• Audience: your prospect list, ICP match on with High match or better. Use Enrich with LinkedIn on the list first, so connection degrees are known.
• Flow:
  1. Like last post, no delay.
  2. Connection Request, 2-day delay, Wait for acceptance 14 days. Note: Hi {{firstName}}, I work with teams like yours on [topic]. Happy to connect.
  3. On Accepted: Send Message, 1-day delay. Thanks for connecting, {{firstName}}. How do you handle [problem] today?
  4. Then Replied to message, 6-day delay, Last 7 days.
  5. On No: Send Message. {{firstName}}, one last question: is [problem] a priority this quarter, or not the moment? On Yes: Add tag Replied.
  6. On Not accepted: Add tag Invite not accepted.

Why it works: the like makes your name familiar before the invitation, and nobody who answers gets the follow-up.

2. Reconnect with existing connections

For: 1st-degree connections you haven't talked to in a while.

• Audience: a list of your connections, filtered with Headline keyword or Tags (all required) if you want to focus.
• Flow:
  1. Has a conversation, Last 28 days. On Yes: nothing, the branch ends.
  2. On No: Send Message. Hi {{firstName}}, it's been a while. I saw you're now {{title}} at {{company}}: how's it going?
  3. Replied to message, 7-day delay, Last 7 days. On Yes: Add tag Reconnected. On No: Poke.

Watch out: Has a conversation only counts messages you sent. Someone who wrote to you recently without an answer from you is on No. Also, {{title}} and {{company}} are empty when Swimlane doesn't have them: use them only on enriched contacts.

3. One campaign for a mixed list

For: a list that mixes your connections and people outside your network, for example people you met at a trade show and added to a list.

• Audience: the list, with Only new arrivals off. Enrich the list with LinkedIn first.
• Flow:
  1. If connected.
  2. On Yes: Send Message. Hi {{firstName}}, I saw you were at [event] too. What did you take away from it?
  3. On No: Connection Request, Wait for acceptance 10 days, note Hi {{firstName}}, we were both at [event]. Glad to connect.
  4. On Accepted: Send Message, 1-day delay, with the same question as the Yes branch.

Why it works: branches never merge, so the question is written twice, once per branch, and each person gets the right first touch.

4. Follow up on profile visitors

For: people who looked at your profile.

• Audience: the Profile Visitors list created by the Auto Profile Visitors recurring import (Lists → New Import → Recurring Imports), with Only new arrivals on so only fresh visitors enter.
• Flow:
  1. Viewed profile, Last 7 days. On No: nothing.
  2. On Yes: If connected.
  3. On Yes: Send Message. Hi {{firstName}}, thanks for stopping by my profile. Anything I can help with?
  4. On No: Connection Request, Wait for acceptance 14 days, note Hi {{firstName}}, I noticed you visited my profile. Happy to connect.

Why it works: the visit is recent, so the reason for writing is obvious to the person.

5. Nudge instead of a third message

For: any sequence where you've already sent a first message.

• Flow, placed after your first Send Message:
  1. Add tag In sequence, no delay.
  2. Replied to message, 5-day delay, Last 7 days. On Yes: Remove tag In sequence, then Add tag Replied.
  3. On No: Poke.
  4. Replied to message, 4-day delay, Last 7 days. On Yes: Remove tag In sequence, then Add tag Replied. On No: Remove tag In sequence, then Add tag Follow up by hand.

Why it works: a poke sends the contact a LinkedIn notification without adding a message, and the Follow up by hand tag gives you a short list to handle personally from the inbox.

Rules for every recipe

• A reply never stops a sequence. Put every follow-up message on the No branch of Replied to message.
• A condition is checked once. The delay on the condition step is what gives people time to answer.
• Connection requests skip unknown degrees. Enrich lists before launching, or those contacts leave the campaign at the invitation.
• Test on a small list first, then check the Invitations accepted rate and Reply Rate on the campaign card (see Read your campaign results).
• Link messages to templates if you may reword them: steps are locked after launch, but a template's text can be edited.