If you’ve sent an InMail message to someone on LinkedIn and they have declined or ignored it, there are a few ways you can tell:
1. Check the Sent tab in your messages
The easiest way to see if someone has declined your InMail is to look in the Sent tab of your LinkedIn messages. Here you will see a list of all the InMail messages you have sent recently.
Declined or ignored InMails will show up with a note indicating the status. For declined messages, you will see “Recipient declined” next to the name of the person you messaged. For ignored InMails, it will say “Recipient hasn’t replied yet.”
So if you don’t see one of those statuses, that means the recipient has likely read your message and just hasn’t responded yet. They haven’t explicitly declined or ignored it.
2. The message will disappear from your inbox
When someone declines your InMail, the message itself will disappear from your Sent messages inbox. So if you go back to look for a message you previously sent and it’s no longer there, chances are high the recipient declined it.
One thing to note is that InMails also disappear from your Sent folder after 30 days, even if the recipient hasn’t opened or declined them. So you’ll want to check your Sent tab sooner rather than later to see if your message was declined.
3. You may get a notice saying the limit has been reached
LinkedIn limits the number of InMail messages you can send to recipients who are not already connected to you. If you try to message someone new after hitting that limit, you’ll get a notice saying something like:
“You’ve reached the weekly InMail limit. Your message wasn’t sent.”
This could indicate that the previous InMails you sent were declined or ignored, thus not counting toward your allotted amount. But the reason for hitting the limit isn’t always clear.
4. The profile may show as “Not open to networking”
On LinkedIn member profiles, there is a setting users can select indicating whether they are open to networking invitations or messages. If you try to message someone who has set their profile to “Not open to networking,” your InMail will automatically be rejected.
In that case, you would see a note on the member’s profile saying “Not open to networking” or something similar. So that’s a sign your InMail was probably declined if you weren’t previously connected.
5. You won’t get any response
This one is fairly obvious, but if you don’t receive any reply at all to your InMail, there’s a good chance the recipient isn’t interested and declined it. With an open rate on InMail estimated to be around 20-30%, non-responses are common.
That said, just because someone declines your initial outreach doesn’t mean they aren’t open to connecting in the future. You may want to try engaging them with content sharing or other, less direct forms of connection before attempting another InMail.
6. You used up a paid credit
If you are sending InMails using your paid allotment rather than your free weekly credits, you’ll be able to tell if someone rejects your message if you used up one of your credits.
Each rejected or expired InMail still counts as one of your paid credits. So if you notice your paid credit count decreasing despite not having any replies, it’s likely because your messages are being ignored or declined.
7. You get banned from sending InMails
If you send multiple InMail messages that recipients decline or mark as spam, LinkedIn may ban you from sending InMails for a period of time. This is most common if you are messaging people repetitive or inappropriate content.
If this happens, you will get a notification from LinkedIn stating that your account has been restricted from sending messages. This is a clear sign previous messages were not well received.
8. You notice changes in your LinkedIn metrics
Two metrics on your LinkedIn profile that may indicate InMail declines are your response rate and acceptance rate.
Your acceptance rate shows the percentage of InMail recipients who have accepted your invitation to connect. A decreasing rate over time can indicate more ignores and declines.
Similarly, your overall InMail response rate percentage will go down as more people reject your messages without replying. Keep an eye on these metrics under your My Network settings.
9. The recipient blocks you
In some cases, sending unwanted InMail messages may cause the recipient to block you on LinkedIn. This prevents any future connection.
You can check if someone has blocked you by trying to view their profile. If you get a notice saying “This member’s profile is not available” where the profile used to be, they likely blocked you.
10. You get feedback from LinkedIn
If LinkedIn detects you are sending unwelcome or inappropriate InMail frequently, they may reach out to give you guidance on how to fix that.
This feedback from LinkedIn generally means many of your messages are being marked as spam or rejected outright by recipients. Take it as a sign to reconsider your outreach strategies.
What to do if your InMail gets declined
Having an InMail declined or ignored can be disappointing, but it’s very common. Here are some tips on what to do if it happens to you:
- Don’t take it personally. Focus on crafting better messages in the future.
- Review your messaging approach to see where you can improve.
- Try connecting in other ways first before sending an InMail.
- Personalize your messages and make them relevant to the recipient.
- Follow up weeks or months later – circumstances may have changed.
- If you get blocked or banned, re-evaluate your overall LinkedIn habits.
Conclusion
With the right tools and awareness, you can detect when your InMail outreach efforts aren’t hitting the mark. Declined and ignored messages are common, so focus on incremental improvement. Test different approaches and continually refine your messaging technique to get better results over time.
Most importantly, make sure your InMails are professional, personalized, and add value for recipients. That will give you the best chance at making meaningful connections.
Knowing when someone has declined your InMail gives you helpful insight you can act on. But don’t get discouraged if an initial attempt doesn’t work out. Persistence and continually improving your skills will pay off on LinkedIn.