TL;DR: Across 30,364 matured LinkedIn connection requests matched to an industry, acceptance ranged from 19.8% in Energy to 30.9% in Business Services.
Across 30,364 matured LinkedIn connection requests matched to a target industry, acceptance ranged from 19.8% in Energy to 30.9% in Business Services, an 11.1-point spread, six times the size of the day-of-week effect in the same dataset. Platform data
Key Takeaways
- Acceptance ranged from 19.81% in Energy to 30.94% in Business Services, an 11.13-point spread.
- That spread is six times the size of the 1.86-point day-of-week effect measured on the same dataset.
- Business Services, Technology, Real Estate, and Media & Marketing all accepted above 26%.
- Financial Services, Consumer, and Energy all accepted under 21%.
- Financial Services alone is 53.60% of the joined subset, 16,274 requests, accepting at 20.49%.
What did we measure?
"Which industries actually respond to cold outreach" gets asked in every targeting conversation and answered with vendor surveys or nothing. This study answers it with measured outcomes: every matured connection request in the dataset whose target company carries an industry classification, bucketed by that industry, with acceptance computed per bucket.
How was it measured?
Sorted by industry, the figures below cover connection requests sent between 8 January 2025 and 27 July 2026.
Dataset window. Connection requests sent between 8 January 2025 and 27 July 2026, pulled 27 August 2026, matured at least 30 days.
Who is in this subset. 30,364 requests (15.44% of the 196,696-request matured cohort) join through their lead to a company with an industry classification. The joined subset accepts at 22.75% overall against the cohort's 26.97%; as with the company-size study, the subset skews and the between-industry comparison is the finding, not the absolute levels. Platform data
Publication threshold. Only industries with at least 500 joined requests are reported, which leaves ten. Below that, a single campaign can own a row.
Concentration check, per row. For each industry we report the largest single workspace's share of its requests. Two rows carry meaningful concentration (Financial Services 39.79%, Real Estate 37.33%) and should be read with that in mind; no row is majority one workspace. Platform data
What did we find?
Acceptance by industry splits across ten classifications with enough volume to publish.
| Industry | Requests | Acceptance | Largest workspace's share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Services | 921 | 30.94% | 24.21% |
| Technology | 3,721 | 28.38% | 19.65% |
| Real Estate | 1,859 | 27.54% | 37.33% |
| Media & Marketing | 511 | 26.81% | 19.37% |
| Professional Services | 1,198 | 23.79% | 23.29% |
| Manufacturing | 525 | 22.48% | 16.38% |
| Healthcare | 1,422 | 22.01% | 18.21% |
| Financial Services | 16,274 | 20.49% | 39.79% |
| Consumer | 1,153 | 19.95% | 18.99% |
| Energy | 631 | 19.81% | 22.35% |
The spread from Energy (19.81%) to Business Services (30.94%) is 11.13 points. For calibration against other effects measured on this same dataset: day of week spans 1.86 points, company size spans 7.00, daily volume spans about 9. Who you target is the largest acceptance lever we have measured. Platform data
One row needs its own paragraph. Financial Services is 53.60% of the entire joined subset, 16,274 requests, accepting at 20.49%. That volume reflects who this dataset's senders target, and its below-average rate drags the joined subset's overall acceptance down. It is also the row with the highest workspace concentration (39.79%), so its rate is the most exposed to one team's approach. Platform data
What does this mean for teams choosing target industries?
The industries that buy and sell relationships for a living accept the most. Business Services, Technology, Real Estate, and Media & Marketing occupy the top four rows, all above 26%. The regulated and the industrial sit at the bottom: Financial Services, Consumer, Energy, all under 21%. Platform data
A plausible mechanism, offered as interpretation and not measurement: acceptance tracks how normal networking-by-stranger is inside a profession. An agency owner or a realtor treats an unknown connection as potential deal flow. A compliance-conscious banker or a plant manager treats it as noise or risk. The table is consistent with that story; it does not prove it.
The Financial Services row also carries a market observation: the most-targeted industry in this dataset is among the least receptive. More than half of matched outreach flows into a 20.49% acceptance environment while Technology, at under a quarter of its volume here, accepts at 28.38%. Whether that is a mispricing or a rational pursuit of higher-value conversations is a question acceptance data cannot answer. Platform data
Teams reconsidering which industries to prioritize can compare outreach plans on Reachium's pricing page.
How do you use this in practice?
A founder choosing between two viable ICPs can put the table's spread directly into their capacity math: at 25 invites per sending day, a month of one account's sending (25 x 22 sending days = 550 requests, an illustration, not a measured cadence) yields roughly 170 accepted connections in Business Services at 30.94% and roughly 113 in Financial Services at 20.49% (derived). Same effort, 50% more conversations. Our analysis
An agency running campaigns into Energy or Consumer should set client expectations against this table rather than against platform-wide benchmarks: a 20% acceptance in those industries is at par, not a failing campaign. The monthly-variance study compounds the point: a single month's read in a sub-500-request industry bucket is inside the noise. Platform data
For a worked example from a single client, see the Eskay Capital case study.
What are the limits of this study?
Coverage sets the first limit here, since only 15.44% of matured requests carry an industry match. Platform data
Coverage is 15.44%, and selected. Only enriched, industry-classified companies enter. Absolute levels are not platform benchmarks. Platform data
Targeting is not randomized. Industries were chosen by senders, together with copy, offer, and seniority. An industry's rate blends "how receptive is this industry" with "how good are the teams that target it", and the two cannot be separated here.
The taxonomy is coarse. Ten broad classifications; "Technology" spans seed-stage SaaS and telecom carriers. Finer verticals could behave differently within one row.
Two rows carry high concentration, disclosed in the table. Financial Services and Real Estate rates lean on their largest senders more than the other rows do. Platform data
Acceptance is the top of the funnel. Reply and booking rates by industry are not reported: below 500 requests the downstream denominators thin out fast, and we do not publish rates we would not defend.
Teams unsure which industry to prioritize can talk to the agency team about a targeting review.
FAQ
Which industries accept LinkedIn connection requests at the highest rate?
Business Services (30.94%), Technology (28.38%), Real Estate (27.54%), and Media & Marketing (26.81%) had the highest acceptance among the ten industries with enough volume to publish.
Which industries accept LinkedIn connection requests at the lowest rate?
Energy (19.81%), Consumer (19.95%), and Financial Services (20.49%) had the lowest measured acceptance.
How big is the difference between the best and worst performing industries?
11.13 points, from 19.81% in Energy to 30.94% in Business Services, six times the size of the day-of-week effect measured on the same dataset.
Should a team switch industries based on this data?
Teams weighing a targeting change can model the cost and capacity of a new ICP on Reachium's pricing page before committing to it.