# InMail Writer

A subject line and body written for a paid message, preceded by an honest verdict on whether to spend the credit at all.

- Version 1.0, updated 18 September 2026
- Works with: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or any capable assistant
- Source: https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/inmail-writer

## Use when

- The prospect is out of network and a connection request will not reach them.
- You have credits expiring this month and want them spent well rather than fast.
- You are recruiting and InMail is the primary channel rather than the fallback.
- Your InMail reply rate is low and you suspect the subject line.

## Variables to replace

- `{{PLAN}}` — Your LinkedIn plan. Free, Premium Career, Premium Business, Sales Navigator Core or Advanced, Recruiter Lite or Corporate. It decides what you can actually do.
  Example: Sales Navigator Core
- `{{ROLE}}` — Your role. Your job title and what you are accountable for.
  Example: Founder, doing my own outbound until the first AE starts
- `{{COMPANY}}` — Your company. Name plus the one line you would use to introduce it.
  Example: Cadence — payroll reconciliation software for multi-entity finance teams
- `{{PRODUCT}}` — What you sell. The thing, the outcome it produces, and who signs for it.
  Example: A reconciliation layer that closes multi-entity payroll in two days instead of nine. Bought by the Finance Director, used by the payroll manager.
- `{{PROOF}}` — Proof you can cite. Named customers, numbers you are allowed to publish, or "none yet" — which is a valid answer.
  Example: Two logistics customers of similar size. One cut close from nine days to three. Named reference available under NDA; numbers publishable without the name.
- `{{TONE}}` — Tone. How you actually write. Name a person or a publication if it helps.
  Example: Plain, short sentences, no exclamation marks, no "hope this finds you well"
- `{{OFFER}}` — The ask. What you want them to do next. Be specific about the size of the commitment.
  Example: A 20-minute call to see whether the multi-entity part applies to them
- `{{PROSPECT_NAME}}` — Prospect name. As it appears on their profile.
  Example: Dana Whitfield
- `{{PROSPECT_ROLE}}` — Prospect job title. Their current title, verbatim.
  Example: Group Finance Director
- `{{PROSPECT_COMPANY}}` — Prospect company. Company name and size, if you have it.
  Example: Northbeam Logistics, ~900 staff, 5 countries
- `{{PROSPECT_PROFILE}}` — Profile and activity. Paste the About section, current role description, and anything they posted or commented on recently.
  Example: "12 years in finance ops, currently consolidating five ERPs into one." Posted last week about the pain of a five-week close after an acquisition.

## How to use

1. Name your plan accurately. The credit cost and the allowance both come from it, and they differ by more than three times across the range.
2. Take a "no" verdict seriously — if the person is reachable with a free connection request, spending a credit is a pure loss.
3. Read the preview check. Most InMails are opened or ignored on the strength of the first 90 characters in the notification.
4. Track which subject lines get opened. It is the fastest-improving variable in this whole workflow.

## Do not

- Sending InMail to first-degree connections. They are reachable by normal message for free.
- Hoarding credits until they expire. They expire at 90 days and accrue to at most three months’ worth, so a full pile is a pile already losing value.
- Writing a 1,500-character InMail. The notification shows a fraction of it and the rest is read, if at all, on a phone.

## Context files this expects

- `OUTREACH.md` — https://www.linkediz.com/ai/files/outreach
- `LINKEDIN-LIMITS.md` — https://www.linkediz.com/ai/files/linkedin-limits

## Where this sits

- Previous step: LinkedIn Prospect Research — https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/prospect-research
- Next step: Reply & Objection Handler — https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/reply-handler

---

## The prompt

You are writing a LinkedIn InMail. Unlike every other message on the platform, this one costs a credit, and the credit is only returned if the recipient replies within 90 days. Write accordingly.

## My plan
{{PLAN}}

## Me
{{ROLE}} at {{COMPANY}}. What we sell: {{PRODUCT}}
Proof I may cite: {{PROOF}}
Tone: {{TONE}}
My ask: {{OFFER}}

## Them
{{PROSPECT_NAME}} — {{PROSPECT_ROLE}} at {{PROSPECT_COMPANY}}
{{PROSPECT_PROFILE}}

## LinkedIn reality (do not plan past these)

LinkedIn platform limits that apply on EVERY plan, including the most expensive one:
- Connection invitations: ~100 per week. Applies on every plan including Recruiter Corporate. LinkedIn adjusts it per account based on acceptance rate, so a low-acceptance account gets less, never more.
- InMail credit expiry: 90 days. Unused credits expire. They accrue to at most three times the monthly allowance, and a credit is returned if the recipient replies within 90 days.
- Commercial use limit: Monthly search cap. Free accounts hit a monthly ceiling on profile searches. Every paid tier lifts it, but none of them removes the per-search result cap.
- Profiles per search: 1,000 / 2,500. Regular LinkedIn search stops at 1,000 results; Sales Navigator stops at 2,500, paginated 25 at a time. Both are per search, not per day.

Treat these as hard constraints, not guidance. A plan that exceeds them is not an ambitious plan, it is a plan that gets the account restricted.

Per-plan allowances, US list prices, last verified 12 September 2026 by Linkediz:

| Plan | US list price / month | InMail credits / month | Results per search | Saved searches |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Premium Career | $39.99 | 5 | 1,000 | 3 |
| Premium Business | $69.99 | 15 | 1,000 | 3 |
| Sales Navigator Core | $119.99 | 50 | 2,500 | 15 |
| Sales Navigator Advanced | $159.99 | 50 | 2,500 | 15 |
| Sales Navigator Advanced Plus | quote only | 50 | 2,500 | 15 |
| Recruiter Lite | $170 | 30 | 1,000 | 10 |
| Recruiter Corporate | quote only | 150 | 1,000 | 50 |

Notes the numbers do not show:
- Sales Navigator Advanced Plus and Recruiter Corporate carry no published price. LinkedIn quotes them per seat block. Never state a price for those two.
- The InMail allowance does not scale with price. Sales Navigator Core costs three times Premium Career and includes ten times the credits, so per credit the cheap plan is by far the most expensive.
- Unused InMail credits expire after 90 days and accrue to at most three months' worth. A credit comes back if the recipient replies within 90 days, so reply rate, not send volume, is what the allowance rewards.
- The ~100 invitations per week is adjusted per account by acceptance rate. It goes down for accounts that send poorly targeted invitations. It does not go up because a plan was upgraded.

If the user's request requires exceeding any figure above, say so explicitly, state which limit it breaks, and propose the version that fits inside it. Do not quietly scale the plan down and do not quietly exceed it.

## Method
1. Decide whether to spend the credit. Say no when: they are reachable by a connection request instead, the evidence for relevance is weak, or the ask is too large for a first contact. State what it costs per credit on my plan when you recommend spending one.
2. Write the subject line. Under 45 characters so it is not truncated in the notification. No "quick question", no company name unless the company name IS the reason they would open it, no emoji. It should describe the content, not tease it.
3. Write the body under 600 characters. The first sentence is visible in the preview — make it the specific one, not the introduction.
4. Include exactly one ask, sized to the relationship: a question is smaller than a call, and a call is smaller than a demo.
5. Write the second InMail — the one for 90 days later if they never replied — and explain what would justify spending a second credit on the same person.

## Constraints
- Do not open with your name or your company. They can see both.
- No attachments, no links in the first message. A link in an unsolicited paid message is the clearest possible spam signal.
- Never imply a previous interaction.
- If the plan named above has no InMail allowance, say so and give the alternative route to this person.

## Output format

### Spend the credit?
Yes or no, with the reason and what a credit costs on my plan.

### Subject line
Three options, each with the character count. Recommend one.

### Body
The message. Then (n characters).

### Preview check
The first 90 characters as the recipient will see them in the notification, quoted.

### If no reply
What to do at day 7, day 30 and day 90 — including whether a second credit is justified.

---

## Notes

Written to a fixed structure and run through Claude and ChatGPT to confirm each one returns the output format it declares. That is not the same as a measured reply-rate benchmark, and nothing here claims one — if you run these at volume and have numbers, we want them.

---

Linkediz LinkedIn AI Toolkit — v1.0, 18 September 2026
Source and updates: https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/inmail-writer
LinkedIn plan limits and prices in this file: https://www.linkediz.com/linkedin-limits