In in the present day’s fast-paced world, sending a single electronic mail will not be sufficient to get your viewers to take motion. That’s the place follow-up emails are available.
Whether you’re a marketer trying to convert leads into clients or an expert searching for a response from a consumer, following up can considerably enhance your possibilities of success.
In this text, we’ll discover the significance of follow-up emails and offer you actionable tips about how to write them successfully, so you’ll be able to obtain your required outcomes.
Read extra:1. Beginners information to electronic mail marketing2. How to write electronic mail drip campaigns3. How to improve your electronic mail open charges
Table Of Contents
What is a observe up electronic mail
A observe up electronic mail is a message you ship to somebody you’ve beforehand been involved with.
There are many the explanation why you would ship them:
- You would possibly ship observe up emails to individuals who obtain your content material, asking them in the event that they discovered it useful.
- You can ship a observe up electronic mail to people who find themselves in the midst of a free trial of your service, with questions concerning their expertise.
- You can observe up after an occasion so as to contact base.
💡 Pro tip: Instead of sending a single observe up you’ll be able to create a whole observe up electronic mail sequence that’ll hold nurturing your viewers even while you’re asleep. Using Autoresponders you’ll be able to create tailored packages that may completely match your subscribers’ wants and pursuits.
How to write a observe up electronic mail
Here are a couple of ideas that may provide help to write an efficient observe up electronic mail.
1. Start with the CTA in thoughts
Always consider your objective first. What precisely do you want to know? What would you like the recipient to do?
This will decide your CTA – and the remaining content material that leads up to it.
Don’t have
a transparent objective? Maybe it’s not an important concept to ship the e-mail in any case.
2. Pay consideration to your topic line
Make it stand out. However brief or lengthy it’s, it must be particular. Make positive an important information is originally in case it will get reduce off within the inbox. Use the preheader to complement it and add the data you’ll be able to’t (or don’t need to) match within the topic line. Here’s an instance of an extended topic line which makes the preheader irrelevant because you don’t actually see it anyway. It consists of particular details about what the e-mail’s associated to – which makes it a lot simpler for the reader to determine whether or not to open it .
Example:
These two (observe up emails despatched to inactive clients) not a lot:
(Plus, it appears to be like just like the preheader isn’t used there in any respect – and it may actually assist to make these topic traces clear).
Also, utilizing “tricks” like “fyi” might be somewhat passé now – folks rapidly see via them and change into blind to them. For a followup electronic mail, a good suggestion is likely to be to embrace the recipient’s first identify to make it extra personable. Test it to see if that works on your viewers, although – folks have completely different preferences when it comes to electronic mail personalization.
💡 Stuck with author’s block? Relax! Using an AI electronic mail generator you’ll be able to create a extremely charming observe up electronic mail in moments. Want it to generate the topic traces? Or possibly the complete observe up electronic mail template? You determine!
3. But be private, anyway
Make the e-mail seem to be it’s from an actual human – folks don’t really need to discuss to manufacturers; they need to discuss to folks. And simply because the followup electronic mail is automated doesn’t imply it has to sound robotic. After all, there’s at all times an individual behind writing the copy and organising the automation guidelines. So make your self seen.
This means,
use pure language. Like you have been actually having a dialog with the
particular person you’re sending your electronic mail to.
An enormous development
in the present day is to really ship plain-text (or fake plain-text) emails that look and
really feel like emails from somebody you recognize, usually with an actual particular person’s identify
hooked up to the sender tackle.
One nice instance are emails despatched by Moo – or their
“robot”. This post-order followup electronic mail asking for suggestions exhibits precisely what
I imply. Everyone is aware of it’s an automatic electronic mail, however nonetheless, it doesn’t actually
learn like one. And what’s even higher, you recognize there’s somebody on the opposite
finish of the road who will learn what you may have to say.
Example:
And take a look at
this straightforward subscription affirmation electronic mail from Really Good Emails (a very
good electronic mail certainly)
Example 2:
Another means to make your electronic mail really feel extra private is to make it personalised.
But don’t simply use the recipient’s identify within the topic line. That’s been used too many instances already.
Make the content material personalised and, subsequently, extra related to your recipient. Use the data you may have about them – their firm identify, what they’re doing, and how you recognize one another. Our information frequently exhibits that this tactic can improve your click-through charges!
And don’t neglect to point out what your earlier electronic mail was about. Make it a well mannered observe up electronic mail, simply in case they genuinely missed your earlier message and not merely ignored it.
4. You don’t have to hold it brief – however hold it fascinating
In sure circumstances – like gross sales observe up emails – you would possibly really need to ship an extended electronic mail. The plain-text model even encourages longer copy. But whether or not this can be a good concept will rely upon a number of components like:
- the
sort of electronic mail you’re sending - who
your viewers is - what
stage of consciousness they’re at – do they want a narrative first to get them the place
you need the e-mail to take them, or are they prepared to click on that button and all
you want is a couple of crisp sentences to encourage them?
Adjust the content material of the e-mail to the recipient’s wants, and regardless of the size, don’t neglect about your objective. Make it clear all the way in which.
And format your electronic mail in a transparent means – neglect about lengthy paragraphs (even when they’re tremendous fascinating, you danger dropping quite a lot of consideration) and tremendous lengthy sentences.
Don’t be afraid to strive one thing completely different – there actually isn’t a one-size-fits-all. Test completely different sorts of copy to see what works on your clients.
When ought to I ship observe up emails?
I like to recommend following a easy precept – ship a observe up electronic mail every time there may be an data want that justifies sending one. Obviously, it’s best to at all times think about your target market preferences and use widespread sense.
Those data wants differ from firm to firm and rely upon whether or not you use in a B2B or B2C surroundings. Here are a couple of widespread examples:
B2C observe up emails
- Welcome electronic mail: an electronic mail despatched every time a brand new particular person joins your electronic mail advertising checklist. You can use this electronic mail to present the brand new subscribers what they’ll anticipate out of your electronic mail advertising program.
A fraction of a welcome electronic mail from Fellow. The electronic mail promotes the awarded product, a weblog with fascinating content material, incentivizes buy with a reduction code, and informs in regards to the model’s social media channels.You can use the e-mail welcome sequence to onboard new clients. Here’s a weblog explaining how to do it proper: How to Onboard New Customers with Welcome Emails
- Thank you electronic mail: there are quite a lot of causes to ship a thanks electronic mail. Maybe somebody has purchased your product or took half in an occasion that you just organized? Follow up to get useful suggestions that may provide help to enhance your buyer expertise.
- Outreach observe up: these are powerful nuts to crack. Here’s what Ada Durzyńska, GetResponse weblog’s editor has to say:
As the weblog’s editor, I obtain lots of of outreach emails day-after-day and, what’s extra shocking, two instances as many follow-up emails. Why is that? Well, many instances, folks need to observe up too rapidly, typically following up two instances on an electronic mail despatched 10 minutes earlier.
It’s solely pure for an individual to need to know if their electronic mail has been learn, and to need solutions ASAP. But, give the particular person you attain out to some extra time to learn your electronic mail and familiarize themselves together with your provide. If you need to observe up rapidly, wait at the least a couple of hours. If it’s not an pressing matter – the soonest it’s best to observe up is the following day.
Remember to at all times connect the earlier outreach message in your observe up in a means you discover appropriate (ahead, reply, or as an attachment).
As for the e-mail’s copy – make it sound sort, light-hearted, and be affected person. Try to embrace a query in your observe up electronic mail, it’s more durable for the reader to skip. So, for instance, change the standard “Just making sure you saw this” for one thing only a bit extra partaking, like “What do you think of my offer?”, and even one thing as simple as “is the silence a ‘no’?“.
Also, while making the email as unobtrusive for the reader as you can, don’t be overmodest. A good “I’m following up on this email, because it’s worth not giving up!” will take you additional than “I know you’re probably too busy to read such emails, and I really don’t want to bother you…“. And, for the sake of being nice to others, skip the “are you alive?!” and “I’m CC’ing all your management on this email”.
Make the topic line stand out, as a result of the extra artistic you get, the higher chances are high you’re going to get a reply, both constructive or unfavorable. Just to be clear, “A quick follow up” is the topic line of (in all probability) 99% of observe up emails.
Ada Durzyńska, GetResponse weblog’s editor
- Free-trial observe up: should you present a SaaS product, you in all probability provide a free-trial interval when folks can take a look at if it supplies an answer to their issues. Send at the least one observe up electronic mail through the fee-trial so as to monitor buyer satisfaction.
- Product marketing campaign observe up: so that you’ve launched a promo marketing campaign for a brand new product. Track conversion and ship a observe up electronic mail to those that visited the touchdown web page.
An electronic mail from care/of with custom-made product based mostly on survey outcomes.- Customer satisfaction survey: ask your clients if they’re happy together with your product and the general expertise. You can ship a easy observe up electronic mail with an NPS rating. Segment contacts based mostly on the notion of your enterprise and personalize additional communication. E.g., discover out what’s bothering the sad ones, what you are able to do to enhance the client expertise, ask the completely happy one for a testimonial.
An electronic mail from IKEA with the Net Promoter Score (NPS), despatched after visiting their purchasing middle.- Customer suggestions: use observe up emails to examine if clients stay happy together with your product after the acquisition. Remember that happy clients are probably to come again and suggest your product. Such suggestions loop together with your clients supplies you with useful data that helps you develop your product and can be utilized as user-generated content material for advertising functions.
👉 Read extra: Guide to survey emails
B2B observe up emails
The buyer journey in B2B surroundings is likely to be longer and extra complicated. Here are a couple of sensible ideas kind the skilled, Beata Patfield, Senior Business Development Executive at GetResponse:
Event observe up
Be personable! Call them by identify, ask about one thing private you’d spoken about beforehand, present you have been really listening. Did their child ace these SATs?
Go via your previous interactions. Were there any questions you have been supposed to get again to them on? Make positive to do it now.
Be transient. Don’t write a 3 paragraph electronic mail simply to ask them in the event that they like your product.
Leave the ball of their court docket. Make positive to end sturdy with a particular and actionable CTA – ‘Let me know what you think!’ or ‘When can we jump on a call to discuss your feedback?’ is at all times higher than ‘let’s contact base’ or ‘looking forward to hearing from you’.
And lastly, don’t neglect the CC. If that they had a colleague concerned within the dialog, be certain that to embrace them. Otherwise, at finest you’ll be deemed as forgetful, at worst – disrespectful.
Sales observe up electronic mail
Speed issues. Contact your prospects as quickly as you’ll be able to after you hear from them. Do you really need your competitors to beat you to it?
Don’t hand over. It could take up to 5-7 tries to really get via to your prospect.
Check your metrics. Do your emails get opened? Just like with on-line advertising, it issues what time you ship your emails and what you place in your topic line. If you’re getting opens however not replies, revamp your content material.
Use a number of channels if one isn’t enough. No reply to your emails? Give them a name. Not choosing up? Look for them on LinkedIn on Skype – you may have many choices at your fingertips, all you may have to do is look.
Be versatile and adapt. Once you’ve established two-way communication, have a plan however be open to change. Your course of is to reply the inquiry, demo the product, then attain a call – however your prospect can change issues up on you, and you simply have to roll with it. It’s not about you, it’s about them.
Beata Patfield, Senior Business Development Executive at GetResponse
If you want the concept of automated emails – utilizing autoresponders and advertising automation workflows to ship emails in particular time intervals or in response to your buyer’s actions, right here’s an ideal article for you:
30+ Automated Emails You Should Be Sending Today
Follow up electronic mail vs observe up electronic mail cycles
Some time in the past we did a podcast with Dr Dave Chaffey, CEO and co-founder of digital advertising recommendation web site Smart Insights, the place he offers the next recommendation:
“You should be looking at the lifecycle of the prospect, as they are interacting with your business and figure out how you can provide reminders to encourage them to buy with you.
(…) One of the touchpoints to start with is the welcome. The first thing you can do is create a welcome series instead of a welcome email. The welcome sequence is the first impression. That first email you send is in some ways the most important one. And if you turn it into a sequence, you can engage your audience from the very beginning of the subscription.”
Dr Dave Chaffey, CEO and co-founder of digital advertising recommendation web site Smart Insights
So, take into consideration the client journey, and determine if one electronic mail or somewhat a sequence of emails will deliver one of the best outcomes. Here’s a comparability between a single electronic mail and an electronic mail cycle.
| Follow up electronic mail | Follow up electronic mail cycle |
| one-time alternative | a number of alternatives |
| you ask one query/strategy difficulty from one angle | you’ll be able to ask a couple of questions/strategy the problem from completely different angles |
| you’ll be able to progressively profile your contacts |
When do you ship observe up emails?
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