Whether you feel comfortable doing it or not, knowing how to sell is a necessity for every growth-oriented entrepreneur. The question is, how can you do it effectively without coming across as overly pushy, salesy, or even spammy?

By this point, you probably already know how to shoot the first email. Oftentimes, it's nothing more than following a template-like pattern with a little bit of personalization thrown in along the way. But now, your prospect isn't responding. Oh no! What to do?

Don't worry! This is the riddle we'll attempt to dismantle today, as it's a fundamental skill to master if you're trying to close more sales through cold emailing. 

By the end of this action-packed mini guide, you'll have a sound and solid strategy on how best to proceed to maximize your chances of hearing back from your prospect. 

What is a follow-up email?

 A follow-up email is sent to a prospect you have contacted previously. For example, if you are prepping a client to sell goods or services, you might need to do a cold outreach.

Why send follow-up emails?

Follow-up email for update plays a pivotal role in maintaining effective communication and ensuring that crucial messages are acknowledged. In professional settings, they act as reminders for pending tasks, meetings, or deadlines, thereby aiding in project management and reducing the risk of miscommunication.

Reasons People Don't Respond to Your Emails

People often just don't respond to emails due to overwhelming inbox volumes and email overload. 

According to a study by the Radicati Group, the average office worker receives around 121 emails per day. This sheer volume can make prioritizing and promptly responding to every message challenging. 

Many individuals might miss essential emails simply because they get buried under a barrage of new messages.

What are the Benefits of Sending Follow-up Emails to Your Prospects?

When initial emails to prospects go unanswered, it might feel tempting to abandon the outreach altogether. However, failing to follow up means missing a crucial opportunity to re-engage with potential customers. Follow-up emails are akin to reconnecting with a friend; they communicate care and remind recipients about the value of your product or service. Statistics underscore their importance: research shows that sending follow-up emails can increase response rates by up to 30%.

Many businesses hesitate to send follow-ups due to concerns about appearing pushy or overly sales-focused. Yet, a well-crafted follow-up email can be instrumental in nurturing leads and driving conversions. It serves not only to remind prospects of your offering but also to establish credibility and trust. Studies indicate that 60% of consumers appreciate a follow-up email within the first 48 hours after initial contact, seeing it as a sign of genuine interest.

Optimal Timing for Sending a Follow-Up Email

Determining the optimal timing for sending a follow-up email can significantly impact response rates. Research by Yesware indicates that emails sent between 8 AM and 10 AM or between 3 PM and 4 PM have the highest open rates. 

For instance, if you sent an initial email on Monday morning, a well-timed follow-up on Wednesday around 9 AM might increase your chances of a response. Additionally, studies show that 50% of replies are sent within 90 minutes of the initial email, so waiting a few days before following up can be more effective. 

For example, if you haven't received a response to a job application you submitted, sending a polite follow-up three days later at 9 AM could make your email stand out without appearing too aggressive. 

How Many Follow-up Emails to Send?

Let's get one thing out of the way - you definitely should send a follow up email after no response. At the end of the day, you definitely lose all the shots you didn't take. But where do we draw the line, taking into account the risk of being perceived as a spammer as well as making sure we get the most out of our time spent on email marketing?

According to Yesware, the optimal number of follow up emails to send is 3-5. Take a look at the graph below: 

If you look closely, you'll notice:

• The likelihood of getting a reply goes up with each consecutive follow up email sent out.
• However, in terms of getting value for time spent, it slightly decreases with each consecutive attempt.

So what's the takeaway? There is no magic number, but judging from the data, it makes sense to send out at least 3 follow up emails. After that, let your intuition guide you.  If you have several prospects you need to follow up with, it might be hard to keep up. With marketing automation, you don't have to do it manually. Set up an automation workflow once, and emails will automatically go out when you want them to

How Long to Wait Before Sending a Follow-up Email?

One thing is to know how to send a follow up email, but knowing when to send it is at least equally as important. Certainly, bombarding your prospect with one email after another is a clear no-no. So how much of a breathing room should there be between each of these emails?

To answer that question, we're going to take a look at another study that set out to determine the optimal wait time between follow ups based on a typical amount of time it takes to get a response: 

The most responses that you're going to get will come right away, but what's interesting is that another spike in responses comes roughly 24 hours later. Another key data point determined by the study is that the average response time is 42 hours.

To summarize the takeaways, for best results, you should:

• Get in touch with a lead within 1 hour or less after they fill out the contact form
• There should be 3-4 days leeway between each consecutive follow up email

How often should you send follow-up emails?

The timing and frequency of your follow-up emails largely depend on the purpose of your email and the characteristics of your target audience. For instance, in his insightful article titled "Politely Persistent...", Alex Taylor emphasizes the importance of allowing your recipient at least a week to respond to your initial email before sending a follow-up.

Contrastingly, Chris Jenkins suggests a more aggressive follow-up sequence, which looks something like this:

• Day 1: First follow-up (+2 days)
• Day 3: Second follow-up (+4 days)
• Day 7: Third follow-up (+7 days)
• Day 14: Fourth follow-up (+14 days)
• Day 28: Fifth follow-up (+30 days)
• Day 58: Sixth follow-up (+30 days)
• From there on, Once a month

At InnovateProspects, we believe in the power of experimentation. We've tested a 3-email sequence, starting with an initial email followed by two follow-ups. By sending the first follow-up three days after the initial email and the second follow-up seven days after the first, we've seen a reply rate of up to 30%. This success underscores the value of trying different approaches to find what works best for you.

Furthermore, in our third email, we ensured prospects were provided a straightforward way to indicate their lack of interest. This helped maintain clarity and professionalism andved our overall communication efficiency by filtering out uninterested leads.

Follow-up email example 

Subject: Follow-Up: Discussion on Potential Collaboration

Dear [Recipient's Name],

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up on our recent discussion regarding the potential collaboration between our organizations.

During our conversation last week, we explored some exciting possibilities for synergies between [Your Company] and [Recipient's Company]. I believe there is great potential for mutual benefit, particularly in areas such as [mention specific areas discussed, e.g., joint projects, shared resources, etc.].

I understand you may have had a busy week, and I wanted to touch base to see if you've had any further thoughts on our discussion. Please let me know if you would be available for a follow-up meeting this week to delve deeper into the details.

Looking forward to your response.

Best regards,

[Your Full Name]
[Your Position]
[Your Company]
[Your Contact Information]

7 Techniques to Send a Follow-up Email (with examples)

Now that we got the essentials out of the way, let's dive deeper by learning how to write a follow up email. We will also include some concrete examples without going too deep - our priority is to convey the gist of the idea.

#1. Follow-up Email using a Trigger Event

 Trigger events are automated sequences that get executed when certain conditions are met. An example is when someone subscribes to your email list or when your eCommerce software detects a cart has been abandoned.

Letєs take the latter example and see how we could get the customer to return and complete the purchase.

Subject: Don't let the discount slip away

We've noticed you forgot something in your cart. Don't risk the prices going up by waiting for too long! To sweeten the deal, we've attached a coupon code for another 5% off. Enjoy - it's on us!

#2. Follow-up Email with a Pain Point

A pain point is something your target customer is struggling with, and your product was designed to provide a solution to that problem. By mentioning this in the email headline, you increase the likelihood of getting your follow up email opened.

Subject: How much are your production bottlenecks costing you in annual revenue?

Hi [first name].

Did you know that:

[Some relevant facts about the recipient's industry]

We've polished our product to help you identify them and rectify them on the spot through:

[List some examples how your product helps them in practice]

#3. Follow-up Email with Interesting Content 

A wise man said that there are two types of marketing:

• Push marketing
• Pull marketing

The former is more aggressive in nature (think ads), while the latter lies on the opposite end of the spectrum (such as helpful blog posts). You can take a guess which approach is more effective. By knowing this, we can tailor our approach by educating the prospect rather than trying to be just another guy that tries to sell them something.

Subject: The reason why your picking speed is lagging behind

Efficient guitar practice is as much about the actual time practicing as it is about identifying the exact areas of your playing you need to improve. Many beginner and even intermediate guitar players don't give enough thought to how they hold their guitar pick… 

#4. Follow-up Email with a Benefit 

With this approach, you're either soft-selling your product directly by tastefully listing its benefits or discussing a concept of how doing X helps you achieve Y.

Subject: Here's why our customers love our product

[A summary of sales statistics and customer reviews]

By incorporating it into your day-to-day life, you will:

[List some benefits of your product]

#5. Follow-up Email using Social Proof 

People are social creatures. Therefore, we are more likely to take the word of our peers rather than what the salesman is trying to pitch us.

Subject: Our podcast was featured in XYZ!

[Details about the publication, their grading system etc.]

#6. Follow-up Email using Testimonials 

Expanding on the point made above, if you've managed to gather some customer testimonials, why not let them do the talking?

Subject: We changed her life!

We always love to analyze our customer reviews, testimonials, and feedback, as this gives us crucial bits and pieces of feedback on how to improve. Throughout the years, we've changed the lives of so many people using [our product]. Take a look at what this customer of ours had to say:

[testimonial]

#7. Send Breakup Email 

Subject: Walking Away?

Hi [Customer Name],

Since we haven't heard from you in a while, we wanted to reach out to see if there's still something we can help you with. To date, our services have helped our clients:

• [Benefit 1]
• [Benefit 2]
• [Benefit 3]

If you no longer wish to hear from us, you can unsubscribe at any time. Otherwise, kindly let us know how we can be of further assistance to you. Or simply write to say hi. We don't bite—promise!

Best regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Position]
[Your Contact Information]

Pro Tips to Remember while Sending a Follow-up

Before we wrap it up, here are some tips that summarize the best practices of how to write a follow up email:

• Use personalization. Try to address your prospect by their first name 1-3 times, either in the subject line or the body of the follow up email.
• Cut out the flim-flam. People's time is valuable, and they'll appreciate it if you can keep things short and sweet.
• Don't rush it. Leave a 3-4 day delay between your follow up emails.
• Use the subject line as a hook. Even if the email body is written by the world's best copywriter, it isn't going to matter if hardly anyone bothers to open your emails in the first place.
• Don't give up too early! Remember that you can be just one follow up email away from striking gold.

4 Mistakes to avoid in follow-up emails

Here are four common mistakes to avoid in follow-up emails:

• Being Too Pushy: Avoid coming across as overly aggressive or impatient in your follow-up. Give the recipient enough time to respond before sending another email.
• Not Providing Context: Ensure that your follow-up email clearly references the previous correspondence or interaction. Include relevant details to jog the recipient's memory.
• Neglecting Politeness: Always maintain a polite and professional tone in your follow-up emails. Use courteous language and express appreciation for the recipient's time.
• Lacking Clarity: Be clear and concise about what you are asking for or discussing in your follow-up email. Ambiguity can lead to misunderstandings or delays in response.

By avoiding these mistakes, you can increase the effectiveness of your follow-up emails and improve communication with your recipients.

Wrapping up 

By reading all the way to the end, you now know how to send a follow up email, as well as the optimal timings and best practices for doing so. Your newfound skill will help you close more sales without being perceived as salesy. Now get to work applying what you've learned!