Every conference I go to, I get the same question:

How do I increase my reply rate?

My answer is always the same.

Test more.

We ran two tests this month. Both gave us something useful.

1. Greeting people in their own language

We ran a batch of LinkedIn connection requests and divided the follow-up into two groups.

One group received an English greeting.The other received a greeting in their own language.

The localized version increased replies by 29%.

It makes sense when you think about it.

Almost nobody sends “Bonjour” across a list of 5,000 people. It feels like someone checked the profile before sending the message.

2. Reaching out to competitor followers

For the second test, we pulled followers from a few competitor pages and contacted them on LinkedIn.

The reply rate came in at around 30%, and roughly one in five replies was positive.

Following a competitor is already a signal.

You do not need a long introduction. You can get straight to why your product may be a better fit.

We also contacted the same audience by email.

Reply rate was closer to 2%, which is still a good result for cold email.

That is why I would not limit competitor-follower lists to LinkedIn. Run them through both LinkedIn and email.

Reply to this email and tell me what you are testing and what results you are seeing.