Write Follow-Up Emails That Get Responses
- Do not stop after sending 1-2 emails
- Include a call to action
- Keep it Short and Simple
- Be Clear on What you Send
- Be Genuine
- Do Not Make it Salesy
- Keep it Human/Personal
- Use a Subject Line That Works
- Personalise Your Emails
- Make Emails Conversational
- Don’t Annoy Them
- Provide Value in your Follow-ups
- Talk about Benefits Rather than Features
- Stay Connected on other Mediums
- Prepare an Automated Email Sequence
- Set Regular Intervals for your Follow-Ups
- Add a Break-up Email to the Sequence
What is a followup email? How do you send a followup email after meeting a prospect? How do you send an email to a customer who is not responding?
You might have faced or been facing these scenarios in your daily routine. Then here is the best place to find an answer to all your followup email problems.
You might find a lot of articles telling you what to send in a followup email, templates that are available online. I am not going to do the same.
In this article, I will help you on how to send follow-up emails, when to send and some important tips to follow in sending a follow-up email.
What is a Follow Up Email
Follow up email is just an email to keep in touch with your prospects or customers. It is just telling your prospects that you are still waiting for their response.
Writing a Follow up is the challenging type of email. Follow Up email can be in different cases as Follow-up After a Sales Call, Follow-up after a meeting, Follow-up to a prospect who does not respond, Follow-up after a job interview.
Here in this article let’s discuss on how to send a sales follow-up email to your prospects.
Key Essentials in a Sales Followup Email
There are 4 key aspects that need to be followed for sending a followup mail.
- Frequency of Follow Up
- Copy of email
- Importance/ Benefits
- CTA
As a salesperson, even I felt that sending emails to prospects would make them feel as if they are stalked or making them angry. But I realised that it is the other way around.
Prospects feel grateful and see that you are interested in them. I understand that it is not a great feeling when you don’t get a response from your prospects.
But most of the emails don’t get a response after the first email. So be prepared and motivated to follow-up your prospect to make them understand what you offer.
Everyone has their own style of communicating, finding your pitch is important.
You might not get a reply in your first emails, try sending more follow-ups which helps you to find your pitch that works.
You will have higher engagement if you plan and schedule your followup emails correctly. You have to schedule your emails for Cold and Warm leads clearly.
Also, the timing of your email is critical. It has to be properly planned on which day and what time are you sending your emails.
Email Marketing Stats
According to emails statistics in 2019, there were 3.9 billion email users and expected to increase to 4.3 billion in 2023.
The total number of business and consumer emails sent and received per day was about 293 billion and is forecast to grow to over 347 billion by 2023.
In 2019 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement.
Most of the B2B companies still prefer email marketing as the best avenue for generating better ROI.
I would suggest you read this article on State of Email 2020 to understand trends in email marketing. Look at some more important stats of email marketing here.
What do these stats mean to you? I would say emails are never going to die.
As the follow-up emails increase response rate progresses. The response rate for the first email is 18% whereas for the 4th and 6th followup is 13% and 27% respectively.
Response rate gets better and better with the follow-ups. But you will also have to be more careful on the messaging in the followup.
You have to be clear about what you want to offer. You have to keep this in mind before you send your next followup email.
You can also read some articles on the best day to send an email and time. In the B2B industry, the sweet day is Thursday.
Here are 17 Tips for writing a Sales Follow-up email that gets responses
Do Not Stop After Sending 1-2 Emails
44% of people give up after one followup but 50% of sales happen after 5 follow-ups. So make sure you do not fall into the first bucket :P.
Researchers have found that 81% of sales only happen after the 4th followup and only 2% of sales happen on the first follow up.
Make sure you send to correct person
Identifying the right person whom you need to follow up is vital. Otherwise, you’ll end up sending emails to get spammed or see no reply from the other end.
Include A Call To Action
Identify a goal for your emails. This will help you set a CTA in your emails.
A followup email without a proper call to action will not help your efforts. Make sure you include a call to action in your emails.
You can use any CTA based on the context like Book a Call, Learn More etc.
But always remember to add a CTA related to your ask.
Keep It Short And Simple
Keep it as short as possible and simple for the client to reply. Make it 3-4 lines instead of a big paragraph.
Short and crisp sentences with simple words.
The ideal number of words for a followup email is 50-125.
Including one or two questions in your email is an ideal practice.
Be Clear On What You Send
Don’t be in a hurry to send followup emails. Try to set a context of what you offer and make it easy for them to understand.
Always use a positive tone in your emails. Add humour and try to present a friendly experience to your clients.
Be Genuine
Looking for feedback, asking for a meeting, pitching an idea. Whatever may be the reason for your followup, be genuine to ask it.
Provide your client in detail of your ask or the value you provide. Being Genuine is the most important aspect of client relationships.
Do Not Make It Salesy
Don’t let your prospects feel that this an other sales follow up. Always clearly state the purpose of your email.
Be upfront and clear on your ask from the first email. This will help you from not being salesy or spammy.
Keep It Human/Personal
Research about your prospects. Look at their social profiles, their interests and start talking about them.
This will have a huge impact on the prospect’s mind.
Never try to send an email without completing your homework.
The more research on your prospect will better your chances of a response.
Use A Subject Line That Works
This is a very important aspect of a followup email. This will be the first line your prospect will be able to see.
Including Emojis in your subject line increases chances of higher open rate.
Research suggests that more than 33% of emails are opened based on the subject lines.
People will open the email only after looking at the subject line. So try different subject lines and see which one works for you.
Personalise Your Emails
Personalising your emails is very important for your email deliverability and open rates. Personalised emails have 6x higher chance of response rates.
Targeted personalisation helps in engagement with your prospect. You can personalise with the prospect name, including his company name and his role.
This shows your prospect that this is not a general email sent to a mass crowd.
Thanks to email automation tools here.
Make Emails Conversational
With the high volume of emails that your prospect receives every day, to get a response from them your email needs to stand out.
Your email should be able to make your prospect start a conversation with you. Including questions will help.
Make sure you include one or two in your emails. You can also include some common interests in your email.
Don’t Annoy Them
Never make your prospects annoyed with your email copy.
Always keep your copy of your email aligned by your subject line.
Otherwise, there is a high probability your prospects might lose interest in you. Also, make sure it is logically connected to your previous emails.
Provide Value In Your Follow-Ups
Follow up emails cannot be randomly sent.
It has to be properly thought through with the content and keeping the prospect in mind.
Always provide value to your prospects reading your email.
Provide links to testimonials, recent case studies and share content that might be useful.
Talk About Benefits Rather Than Features
Most of the people are confused between features and benefits. They write about features instead of benefits.
Features are to tell whereas benefits are to sell.
Stay Connected On Other Mediums
There are different ways to stay in touch with your prospect.
You can be connected on an Email, Phone, Facebook, Linkedin. It is always important to stay connected on 2-3 platforms.
Being connected on Social Media with your prospect will help in building trust.
Prepare An Automated Email Sequence
Email sequence delivering 4-7 follow-ups have 3x higher chance of getting a reply. Follow-Ups add up to 22% of conversions.
There are multiple tools like CRM email automation available in the market to help you set up an email sequence for your follow-ups.
Set Regular Intervals For Your Follow-Ups
A successful salesperson would say that the timing of the email is as important as the content
Once you set up a sequence add regular intervals to your emails.
Steli Efti of Close CRM suggests this schedule:
Day 1: Follow-up #1
Day 3: Follow-up #2
Day 7: Follow-up #3
Day 14: Follow-up #4
Day 28: Follow-up #5
Add A Break-Up Email To The Sequence
This may sound different to everyone but this is as important as all of the above tips. This has to be included when your prospect does not respond after 5-6 follow-ups.
This breakup email in your sequence is to make your prospect think twice whether they need the service/ product you offer.
Your prospect might also ask you to stop sending emails, which you should accept. You can always give them an option to choose whether they want the emails or not.
Conclusion
With all the stats it is clearly evident that your first email is at a high risk of getting lost in the inbox. Follow up emails help in getting your prospects attention.
So having a follow-up strategy has more chances of your prospect having a conversation.
FOLLOW UP WORKS. Pay attention to the tips while sending a follow-up email.
The templates and the stats which are listed above may not be ideal for every scenario.
You will know your prospect better. Based on the homework on your prospect modify your tome accordingly.
As now you know how to write a follow-up email start executing and be successful.