Updated May 2026
Your connection messages are hitting the spot and your 1st degree connections are growing, but how do you keep this valuable audience engaged and your outreach memorable?
Once you've done the good work of encouraging someone to join your network, don't sit back on your laurels. Warm outreach performs much better than cold outreach does, so it's time to start engaging with your connections and build closer relationships with them on (and off) LinkedIn.
In this blog, we share tips and tricks to stay active and engaged with your 1st degree LinkedIn connections using Dux-Soup for your LinkedIn outreach. We explore our favorite guests’ top messaging tips, including how to:
• Personalize your LinkedIn messaging
• Add value with the content you post
• Endorse and engage with your 1st degree connections
• Create the right campaign sequence for LinkedIn follow-ups
You can also watch our 15-minute webinar: How to automate LinkedIn outreach to 1st degree connections.
How to find your 1st-degree connections
If you're on a free LinkedIn plan, head to this link https://www.linkedin.com/mynetwork/invite-connect/connections/ to pull up a list of your connections. You can then click on 'search with filters' to narrow your list down using LinkedIn's search filters. Watch this in action at 6:30 of the webinar.
With Sales Navigator, use the search criteria, ensuring that under the 'Connections' filter, your 1st degree connections only are selected.
Create your outreach campaign
If you're a Dux-Soup Pro user, you can now send a single message to your 1st-degree connections, personalizing it with details such as first name, company name and industry. Watch from 7 minutes of the webinar to see how this is done.
However, creating drip campaigns is the recommended approach to gently nurture your connections over time. Drip campaigns are a much-loved feature of Dux-Soup's Turbo and Cloud editions.
If you're not yet a Dux-Soup user, you can try Turbo for free for 2 weeks (no credit card required). Install it via the link below to follow along with this blog.
Drip campaigns are created in the drip campaigns section of the Dux-Dash. Watch our easy 3-minute tutorial to show you how simple it is to create a campaign: how to create drip campaigns.
Structuring your drip campaign
You may be stuck at the point of wondering how to structure your drip campaign, and the type of messaging you should use.
There are so many different ways to build a nurture sequence for 1st degree connections. This isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach and there is no right and wrong answer, but if you make adjustments and test new strategies, then over time you'll determine what works for your product or service.
Here are some drip campaigns that you can create to nurture your 1st-degree connections. Watch from the 10:15 mark of the webinar to see them being created:
Like a post
A very simple nurture campaign with a light touch may include just a single post-like action, as you can see below.
You can add other actions afterwards.
Auto visit
An auto visit campaign is a similar light touch. Here I have narrowed my connections down to those in the Recruitment sector only. We can use Dux-Soup to visit these profiles, making our connections aware that we have viewed their profile. It's a very simple tactic that has proven to start conversations.
There are options to add a second visit 30 days later, or to add follow-up actions.
When auto-visiting a profile, Dux-Soup will collect email addresses of your connections, which you can then easily export and add to an email campaign.
Outreach
An outreach campaign can involve a mixture of Dux-Soup actions and messages -including visit, follow, endorse, like a post, and message actions. Here I've added 3 messages set at 3 days then 5 days after the previous messages, but you can have up to 12 actions, mixing up visits, post likes and messages.
Tip: Open questions work well to engage prospects - better than an overtly sales approach. Use your outreach to engage in conversations, and gain a response that you can then follow up manually to move the relationship to the next stage.
When creating your campaigns and deciding on your messaging, it's important to take into account the following scenarios:
Scenario 1: You just downloaded the Dux-Soup trial and you want to create a drip campaign to nurture your existing 1st degree connections.
When you build the list, you know it’s going to include people with whom you left off a conversation. Decide if you're targeting your existing 1st degree network with or without these Dux-Soup contacts. You’re not going to go through every conversation to see when you connected, or what you last talked about, but you might want to take it into consideration and tailor your campaign accordingly. For example, you can acknowledge you’ve had contact in your opening sentence if you were to say, “I don’t know if you’ve already heard…..”
Scenario 2: Your list for a drip campaign includes Dux-Soup contacts who’ve been enrolled in previous Dux-Soup campaigns. They didn’t respond to you in that campaign and you’re going to re-enroll them into a different campaign.
Since you haven't connected with these individuals and don’t know them personally, you have more flexibility to build out your nurture sequence in the campaign.
Scenario 3: You’re going to build a drip campaign into a 1st touch campaign. The campaign starts with a connection message followed by a series of messages going to 120 days out.
With this approach, you have a solid campaign package in place. However, for campaigns running over an extended period, you might want to make adjustments. While changes are possible, they can become a bit complicated.
Before launching any drip campaign, take time to carefully plan how to structure it for the best results.
Tip: Personalize your messaging
Consider the following elements as you develop your messaging:
- A drip campaign aims to get people engaged and interested in having a conversation with you. Avoid simply recycling old emails and pushing your product; instead, focus on using meaningful content. Don’t spam!
- A drip campaign is about nurturing prospects. Offer them engaging content, and they might discover a compelling insight that draws them in and encourages a response.
- Share your own content and include purposeful articles that are relevant to your audience. If you have the means, create custom trackable links that you can leverage inside Dux-Soup. This will give you access to stats for your outreach.
- In a lengthy nurture campaign spanning several weeks, consider sharing content from others alongside your own. This demonstrates an appreciation and respect for different perspectives.
- Use insights about how the list was created to tailor your messaging personally. For example, reach out to individuals from a previous campaign who were targeted for a specific event that they didn't attend. Use the scenario as the incentive to get them to talk to you:
“Hi _FN_,
I know you weren't able to make the event 5 days ago, I just wanted to know if you knew of any other events coming up focused on lead generation?”
- Promote communities and/or events by creating lists and searches for gatherings you’re not planning to attend. Mention a local event to spark a conversation and encourage a response. The event serves as an entry point, allowing you to smoothly transition into a call to action.
- To strike up a conversation, ask open ended questions about the content or the event.
To harness events fully, read How to use events to secure sales appointments.
The key to successful messaging is being memorable and relevant. Get specific and the higher your conversions will be. For template examples for different campaigns and people, read our Tips for writing direct messages to your 1st-degree connections.
Tip: Share content
When you include content in your nurture sequence, think about the following:
- When incorporating content into your campaigns, it's advisable to share it at least once before including it in your drip sequence. This approach can enhance overall engagement - a weekly post is ideal for maintaining interest. Aim to vary the content and link it to topics relevant to your industry, even if it's not directly about you.
- Pay attention to how much screen space your message occupies.
- And remember, the content must be relevant to your audience!
Campaign example
Here's a starting point for a campaign that you can use to engage with your 1st degree connections and start generating leads.
Step 1: Visit.
The first action is a simple Visit to their profile, creating gentle awareness of your interest in them
Note: Check the Visibility setting in your LinkedIn profile is turned on so people know when you’re visiting.
Step 2: Follow-up message #1
2 days after the Visit a message is sent we can send a follow-up message:
“Hi _FN_,
I hope all is well with you.
I wasn't sure if you were aware of the recent updates that LinkedIn made to their algorithms, but we're holding a webinar next week to share the new guidelines on how to scale your LinkedIn outreach and keep your LinkedIn account safe. Would you be interested in the details?”
Notice that this message doesn't mention scheduling time, which could make the message sound like spam.
If you include a link in your message, check how it appears by creating a dummy LinkedIn profile for yourself. Send the message to this profile (or a friend/colleague) to see how it looks to your connections. Why is this important? A large thumbnail can overshadow the rest of your message, causing recipients to miss important content if they don’t scroll. By previewing it, you can make adjustments to improve visibility.
Read our guide: How to send direct personalized messages to your 1st degree connections. It contains examples and templates for the best ways to approach them.
Step 3: Follow-up message #2
15 days after the previous message, if they haven't replied, you could follow up on the event.
“Hi _FN_,
I reached out a couple of weeks ago, didn't hear back and I just wanted to follow up with some information following our webinar. There were a few interesting questions raised around recommended outreach limits , which we have covered in this article. I thought this could be handy.
Off the back of the event, we are running another event on campaigns that have been successful for Dux-Soup users. If you're interested in joining, you can get the details at dux-soup.com/webinars. It'd be great to see you on one of them."
Step 4: Visit
15 days after Follow-up message #2 Visit again to keep them engaged. With a visit, you maintain a presence without overwhelming them with another message
Step 5: Like a post
15 days after the last Visit, use Dux-Soup to Like a post of theirs. It will automatically like the most recent post that you haven't already liked, showing engagement with their content. These esngagements may seem small, but they play a significant role in building credibility and rapport.
Step 6: Follow-Up message #3
15 days after the Post like step, another message is sent, with an open question. This one reads:
“Hi _FN_,
What are your thoughts around using LinkedIn for lead generation at the moment, is it working for you?
We have a client who’s been using both with great success, which you can see here:
MedSelfEd | A Dux-Soup Success Story”
With all of these messages, you'll need to adapt them to your business, your content and to what topics your prospects are interested in.
Enrolling your targets
Once your campaign is set up, you can enroll your list of connections into the campaign. To do this:
1. Open your list in LinkedIn or Sales Navigator
2. Go to your Dux-Soup extension. Wait for Dux-Soup to turn green (this means it is active and can see your list)
3. Click 'Enroll'
4. Select the campaign you wish to enroll them into
5. Input how many contacts you wish to enroll into the campaign
Go to 13 mins of the webinar to watch a demonstration of the enrollment process.
In Summary
Building a strong, engaged network is crucial to your success. Nurture your 1st-degree connections, respect their time, and keep the following in mind:
- 1st degree connections are often the most under-utilized prospect list, and the most likely to engage so use them.
- Be thoughtful, ask questions and remember less is more in your content. As Winston Churchill once said, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
- The key to successful outreach is targeting appropriately within your network
- Finally, consider how you would feel if you were the recipient of the drip campaign and its message content. Remember that most people don’t like to be sold to (so don't spam), but they do like to network and make connections.
Listen to the Q&A
There were plenty of questions for the Dux-Soup team at the end of the webinar from the live audience. Listen in full at 20 minutes of the recording.
If you have any questions or comments, you can get in touch with our customer support team via the live chat, or send us an email:info@dux-soup.com.
