How long should a cold first message be?

Short enough to read on a phone without scrolling: two to four sentences. A LinkedIn connection note is capped at 200 characters.

Should I quote what they wrote back to them?

Refer to it, briefly. A short paraphrase shows you read it; a long quotation feels like surveillance.

Should the first message ask for a meeting?

Usually not. Ask a question they can answer in one line. A meeting request is a big ask from a stranger and gets ignored or declined.

What if the person did not write anything I can use?

Then you do not have a reason to write to them yet. Find a signal first, or use a company-level reason such as a role they are hiring for.

How to write a first message from the buyer's own words

Why their words beat your template

A template is written before you know who will read it. It has to be general enough to fit everyone, so it fits nobody well. A message built from what someone just wrote is different in kind: it proves you read it, it is about their problem rather than your product, and it gives them an easy reason to reply.

The method assumes you have their words: a Reddit comment, a reply on a LinkedIn post, a three-star review, a forum question. If you do not, find those first; buying signals that actually convert covers where.

The four parts

Every good first message here has the same skeleton, in this order.

The hook: their problem, in their terms. One clause. Use their vocabulary, not yours. If they said "chasing invoices", do not say "accounts receivable workflow".
The proof you read it. Where you saw it, in a few words. "Saw your comment on the r/freelance thread about late payers."
One useful thing. A tactic, a number, a pattern you have seen. Something they would value even if they never buy.
One small question. Something answerable in a line. Not "do you have 15 minutes?"

Your product appears, if at all, inside part 3, as one possible answer among others.

Three rewrites

These are fictional, built to show the method.

A Reddit comment

What they wrote: "We're a 4-person agency and onboarding new clients takes me a full day of copying stuff between tools."

Template version:

Hi! I'm the founder of FlowDesk, the leading client onboarding platform for agencies. We help agencies save time and grow. Would you be open to a quick 15-minute call this week?

Rewrite:

Saw your comment about losing a full day per client to onboarding. Most small agencies I talk to lose it in the same place: re-typing the brief into three tools. We cut ours to an hour with one intake form that fills the rest. What is the step that eats most of the day for you?

A three-star review

What they wrote: "Fine for basic scheduling but no way to handle recurring appointments for the same patient."

Rewrite:

Quick one for clinics using online booking: how are you handling patients on a weekly plan at the moment? Most practices I hear from book each session by hand. Ours repeats the slot until the plan ends. Is it the booking or the reminders that takes longer for you?

Note that it does not mention the review. It names the problem as a common one.

A LinkedIn post comment

What they wrote: "Our SDRs spend more time cleaning lists than calling."

Rewrite, as a connection note under 200 characters:

Your point on SDRs cleaning lists rang true. Curious: is it bad emails or wrong-fit companies that costs them most time?

That is about 120 characters. LinkedIn's help centre caps notes at 200 characters, and free accounts can add a personal note to only a few requests a month (three, at the time of writing). Spend them on people whose words you can reply to.

The ten-point check before you send

Read the draft and answer each question. Any "no" means rewrite.

Does the first sentence mention their problem, not you?
Does it use at least one of their own words?
Could you send this exact message to anyone else? (It should be no.)
Is it four sentences or fewer?
Is there exactly one question?
Can the question be answered in one line?
Is there something useful in it even if they never buy?
Is your product mentioned once at most?
Is there no request for a call or a demo?
Would you be comfortable if they posted it publicly?

Number 10 matters more than it looks. People screenshot bad outreach.

Writing several and keeping the best

The first draft is rarely the best. A practical habit: write three versions with different hooks (the problem, the consequence, the question they asked), then ask of each, "why would this not get a reply?" Fix that reason in the next version. The answer to "why not" is usually one of: too long, too much about you, too vague, or asks for too much.

Channel lengths

Channel	Practical length	Hard limit
LinkedIn connection note	One sentence and a question	200 characters (LinkedIn Help)
LinkedIn message	Two to four sentences	Keep it on one phone screen
Email	Three to five sentences, plain text	Subject under about six words
Reddit reply (public)	Answer first, disclosure last	Subreddit rules apply

Where Sluice helps

Sluice drafts first messages from the person's own words, several at a time, and steers each new draft by why the last would not work. Every draft, including one you write yourself, gets a score and a reason before it can be queued, which is the ten-point check above done for you. It sends only through accounts you connect (LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp, Gmail or Outlook) and only messages you approve. If you are on the follow-up side, see follow-up sequences that stop; for finding the words in the first place, competitor reviews as leads and how to find leads on Reddit.

Try it now

Take the last cold message you sent, find something the recipient wrote publicly, and rewrite the message with the four parts. Then run the ten-point check on both versions.