LinkedIn vs Cold Email: Which is Best?

If you’ve been in sales long enough, you’ve probably seen the pendulum swing back and forth between cold email and LinkedIn as the “winning” channel for outbound.

Some swear by hitting hundreds of inboxes a day. Others have ditched that entirely in favor of socials (classic "[tactic] is dead" mentality).

Here's how to layer in both for 3xing replies.

Why Cold Email Alone Is Failing You

Let’s start with the numbers.

• The average decision maker gets 120+ cold emails per day.
• Only 16-21% can even be reached via cold call (for us its the 16%)
• Most buyers use multiple channels including email, social, and even in-person interactions to vet and engage vendors.

So, when you send another generic “just checking in” email to a cold inbox, you’re just adding to the noise.

Buyers aren’t ignoring you because they hate salespeople. They have no idea who you are, so they just leave you in the spam folder.

LinkedIn: Where Familiarity Is Built Before the Ask

That's where LinkedIn comes in. To warm up your cold, so to speak.

Here’s what top-performing sellers do before sending a single outreach message:

1. Engage with prospects’ posts within 48 hours of them posting. Add a helpful comment that stands out (not "great post".)
2. Post insights about how your customers solve relevant problems. Let prospects see your name in their feed organically. Start 3x a week, then scale up.
3. Connect naturally after a few interactions. Don’t pitch. Just be visible and valuable.

Do that two or three times, and when your name finally hits their inbox, you’ll be 3x more likely to get a reply.

Go Multichannel

Use LinkedIn to build context and familiarity.

Then use email or even a call to deliver a relevant, concise, high-intent message.

Even your voicemail should point back to another channel:

“Hey John, Parthi from Letterdrop here. Just shot you a DM about closing your pipeline gap. Worth your time when you get a sec.”

or

“Hey John, just sent you an email titled ‘Cloud Costs.’ Thought you’d find the stats interesting. Curious to hear what you think.”

Notice what’s happening there. Every touch reinforces the other.

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Finding Who is Active Online

You need to know who is active online, what they’re talking about, and when they might be in-market.

Instead of guessing who to email, the best sellers today are identifying social signals. These are decision-makers engaging on relevant topics, commenting on competitor posts, hiring for specific roles, or discussing the exact problems they solve online.

When you can see those signals in real time, your outreach stops feeling cold.

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Turning Signals Into Conversations (Automatically)

That’s where Letterdrop comes in.

We help sales and marketing teams:

• Find social signals online that reveal when a buyer might be in-market, across Google and forums
• Draft contextualized outreach that references real conversations and activity
• Push those messages directly into your connected outbound tools like Apollo or Outreach.io, so reps can act fast (and at the right time, with the right message)

It’s how companies like Pawapay and Crossbeam book more meetings without brute-forcing more volume.

The future of outbound is about sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time, across every channel they use. We can help you there.