Mastering LinkedIn Outreach: The Brady UX Guide to Connecting with Ideal Clients

An illustrative, AI-generated depiction of professional LinkedIn outreach—reflecting the organized and strategic approach Jackie uses at Brady UX.

Cold outreach often feels daunting, especially in the crowded space of LinkedIn—but it doesn’t have to be. At Brady UX, we've refined our outreach process into a precise, scalable system that's friendly, human, and highly effective. Today, we're opening up our playbook, sharing the exact LinkedIn outreach strategy our Director of Strategic Partnerships, Jackie Albright, uses to build meaningful connections and land fractional UX and DesignOps engagements.

1. Finding Your Ideal Client: Success starts with precision targeting. Jackie focuses on startups and SMBs in high-growth sectors like EdTech, MedTech, PropTech, SaaS, and eCommerce. The ideal prospect profile typically has under 200 employees and either lacks an internal UX team or recently experienced design team layoffs or struggles to fill UX roles. LinkedIn searches, industry news, and resources like Layoffs.fyi help pinpoint companies likely needing external UX support.

2. Timing Your Outreach for Maximum Impact: Timing matters. Jackie tracks hiring freezes, layoffs, and growth signals (like product launches) using LinkedIn’s advanced search tools and alerts. Approaching a prospect right after they’ve experienced a significant change—such as downsizing a UX team or struggling to fill UX roles—increases receptivity and response rates.

3. Curating a List of Decision-Makers: Effective outreach targets decision-makers directly: Heads of Product, UX Directors, Founders, and Chief Product Officers. Jackie systematically compiles lists of relevant contacts per company, prioritizing based on role relevance and local proximity (Maryland/DC), which boosts trust and opens doors more easily.

4. Crafting Messages That Get Responses: Cold outreach is successful when personalized and authentic. Jackie uses LinkedIn profiles, company updates, and personal touches to tailor messages. Messages focus on establishing common ground, congratulating prospects on recent achievements, empathizing with UX challenges, and subtly introducing Brady UX's fractional UX and DesignOps offerings as flexible, low-risk solutions.

5. Initiating and Following Up Strategically: Initial LinkedIn outreach involves concise, friendly connection requests that highlight mutual interests or industry insights. Follow-ups, spaced respectfully, offer genuine value (like a helpful UX checklist) without pressuring prospects. Persistence coupled with respect dramatically improves response rates.

6. Tracking and Refining for Continuous Improvement: Jackie meticulously tracks outreach efforts, responses, and follow-ups in a simple spreadsheet or CRM. Regular analysis identifies what’s working, allowing continuous improvement of messaging, timing, and targeting. Over time, this iterative approach ensures increasingly successful outreach.

Conclusion: Effective LinkedIn outreach isn’t about sending endless cold messages—it’s about carefully planned, thoughtful interactions that provide genuine value and build meaningful relationships. Brady UX's strategy, as practiced by Jackie Albright, proves that with a systematic approach, LinkedIn outreach can become a reliable channel for growing your UX agency or consultancy.

Explore the Original Document: View our detailed LinkedIn Cold Outreach Strategy guide here.