Flow #10: an evergreen campaign fed by a living list

Most campaigns are launched, run for three weeks and die. Then someone builds a new list, launches again, and the messaging drifts a little each time. An evergreen LinkedIn campaign is the alternative: it is never launched a second time, because it never stopped.

The trick is not in the steps, which are the simplest in this series. It is in the source.

1. Import Auto Profile Engagement: the commenters on your last 5 posts, re-checked every 2 to 4 hours, into their own list
2. Source Twice a week, by hand: select the newcomers and run "Enrich with LinkedIn"
3. Source A campaign on that list with "Only new arrivals" turned on
4. Condition Wait 3 days, then: If connected
5. Yes Tag Tag "engaged-connection" — no request to a first-degree connection
6. No Connection request Wait 1 day, then a short request — wait for acceptance: 7 days
7. No Condition Accepted during the request’s 7-day wait?
8. Yes Message Accepted: wait 2 days, then thank them and ask one question
9. No Tag Not accepted: tag "no-answer"

Why it works

Two mechanisms do the work. The recurring import re-reads the comments on your last five posts every few hours, at a random interval you do not set, and adds the newcomers to its list. The campaign re-scans that list the whole time it runs. That is not a setting: every campaign enrols new list members as they arrive. “Only new arrivals” narrows it to people added after the campaign was created, so the backlog already in the list never triggers a wave.

The result is a steady handful: five names on Monday, three on Wednesday, each entering the same sequence at the same delays. Your audience sets the pace, and your ceilings cap it. And the request lands on someone who has just commented on your post, so it reads as a reaction, not outreach.

Setting up the evergreen LinkedIn campaign

1. Start the recurring import. In Lists, New Import, tab “Recurring Imports”, pick “Auto Profile Engagement”. It creates its own list; rename it to something you will recognise.
2. Enrich the newcomers. Commenters usually arrive without a connection degree. “If connected” reads that degree, and a connection request skips anyone whose degree is unknown, so they would leave the campaign without an invite. Twice a week, select the new names and run “Enrich with LinkedIn” (80 profiles a day). It is the one manual chore in this flow.
3. Create the campaign on the list. Turn on “Only new arrivals”: it is off by default, and it counts from the day you create the campaign, not the day you launch it.
4. The degree condition, with a delay. A 3-day delay on “If connected” leaves time for your enrichment pass. Connected people get a tag and a personal message from you later, not a template.
5. Request, acceptance, message. A short request a day later, the default 7-day acceptance wait, a message two days after acceptance. Link the message step to a saved template before launch: a running campaign’s steps are locked, and the template is the one part you can still edit. Messages not yet queued use the new version.

The campaign itself is built in Swimlane’s LinkedIn automation, and everyone it touches lands in the LinkedIn CRM with their tags and history. For a one-off version on a single post, see the post-commenters flow.

The note and the message

Request note:
Hi {firstName} — thanks for commenting on one of my posts. Good to be connected.

Message:
Thanks for connecting, {firstName}. Out of curiosity: is the topic you commented
on something you're working on right now, or one you follow from a distance?

Neither names the post. No variable can, and the commenters come from five different posts.

Guardrails

• “Only new arrivals” is about the list, not the person. Add 300 old contacts to the list by hand and all 300 enrol at once, because they joined the list after the campaign was created. Put bulk additions in a different list with its own campaign.
• Daily ceilings are the throttle. If the import adds more people than your ceilings allow, the queue just takes longer; nothing bursts.
• Holidays. Pausing the campaign stops enrolment, but anything already queued still goes out, and the list keeps growing. On resume, everyone who joined in the meantime enrols in one go, and your ceilings spread the sends.
• One pass per person. A contact is enrolled once per campaign. Someone who comments again next month does not restart the sequence.

What to measure

Weekly enrolments and acceptance rate, on a rolling four weeks. Enrolments tell you whether your posts pull the right people; acceptance tells you whether the request still reads as a reaction. When both hold steady for a quarter, you have a campaign that runs the top of your funnel while you work the middle.