Is there a best time of year for LinkedIn outreach?
The holiday slump lives in the sender’s diary.
Upscale Outreach ·
No. Across two years of real campaigns, messages sent in August got replies at 8.1%, the same as the average month, and December’s at 9.6%. Against each campaign’s own average, every month landed within 11%.
Outscale benchmarks, from 112,945 prospects reached in real campaigns.
August and December held up
Across two years of real campaigns, 8.1% of messages got a reply. Here’s every month of the year.
Dashed line: every month together, 8.1%.
August: 8.1%, the average to the decimal. December: 9.6%.
June reads lowest, at 6.5%. But raw rates move with whichever campaigns happen to be running, so we also read every month against the same campaigns’ own average. June was 7% under that, and no month moved more than 11% either way. The quietest by that measure was September, 11% under. Not a holiday in sight.
Even the holidays disagree with themselves
December 2024 ran 24% under its campaigns’ average. December 2025 ran 9% over. August 2025: 16% over. August 2026: 5% under.
One bad December tells you about that December. The next one beat its campaigns’ average.
And our own team?
A slump could just as easily sit on the sending side, with the inbox left unwatched over the holidays. So we checked our own team: of the replies worth answering that came in each month, how many got an answer.
Dashed line: every month together, 58.5%.
August: 57.1%. December: 57.0%. The whole year: 58.5%. No holiday dip on our side either. Our quietest month was March, at 45.2%.
Why everyone believes in the slump
Pausing for August feels considerate. Nobody wants to pitch someone on a sun lounger. And in December your own diary is all parties and wind-downs, so you assume theirs is too.
That pause is a guess about other people’s diaries, made from your own. People on holiday still scroll LinkedIn. December is when plenty of them plan next year.
And the slump proves itself. Send half as much in December and you’ll hear half as much back, at exactly the same rate, and that feels just like a dead month.
What to do today
- Keep sending through August and December. The rate holds, so a pause only costs you the replies.
- Keep answering through them too. The replies keep coming in, and every one worth answering is still worth answering in August.
- Read a slow month against the same campaigns. If it’s down against their own usual, look at the list, the message and the accounts.
- Don’t plan around one bad December. In ours, the next one beat its campaigns’ average.