LinkedIn offers to send invitations to your network of contacts with an optional "welcome" message. This is the message that displays along with the network invitation. It can be up to 300 characters long, so you need to strongly summarize your intentions.

Notes next to invitations can be a very interesting addition. Descriptions and explanations of why you want to get in touch with the other person are often favorable in accepting invitations. However, they just as often push away from accepting an invitation. Why?

The main aspect of why people reject invitations with a note is laziness. Yes, laziness. After reading a welcome message, all it takes is one thing in that message that doesn't suit the person reading it and they are already inclined to ignore such an invitation. Rarely, someone has the time and inclination to check your profile and look for information on why they should accept your invitation.

However, when the invitation does not have an additional note, that is also additional information that the potential contact has to analyze and sees only your position or what you do, he is more likely to accept the invitation. A potential contact seeing that he or she has been invited by the CEO or a person in a position that interests him or her is much more likely to accept such an invitation.

After all, if you need to be contacted, he already has you in his network 🙂

Therefore, in conclusion, from my own experience, invitations without a note, have higher conversions. In addition, when we send several or even dozens of invitations a day, we don't have time to write a personalized message to each of these people. With the effect of scale, this is simply not cost-effective.