How to Write a Polite Follow-Up Email? (Tips and Templates)

Have you ever spent days trying to get hold of a prospective client with a follow-up email? But then found out that they have stopped responding to your emails?
If your email has ever been overlooked, a follow-up email can help you re-start the engagement.

However, knowing how to compose a follow up after receiving no response might be difficult. According to research, sending a single follow-up can increase your response rates by 65.8%.

In this blog, I’ll guide you through some steps to generate follow up emails which will give you responses & results too. And as a bonus, I’ll also provide you free sample follow-up email templates for just about every sales scenario.

But first let me answer some of your questions regarding sales follow-up.

What is a Follow-Up in Sales?

After you have made your initial sales presentation, you should engage in a sales follow-up. In order to persuade the potential customer to take action. The purpose of sales follow up is to provide ongoing value to the prospect and keep them moving forward in the purchasing cycle.

When you have a solid sales follow-up strategy, you may increase your revenues in a number of ways, including making more sales to your existing customers and gaining new clients through recommendations. The telephone and email are by far the most typical means of conducting sales follow-ups, but there are many other options available. This practice is often referred to as lead nurturing.

Once you have a strong email follow-up strategy in place, it has the ability to enhance your overall sales, catch the attention of your potential customers, offer you an advantage over your rivals, and boost your key performance indicators (KPIs).

Why Should You Send a Follow-Up After No Response?

After sending an email to someone but not receiving a response, it is always a good idea to follow up with that person to see if they received your message. It’s possible that the recipient isn’t interested, but it’s also possible that they’re just busy, have tons of emails and/or haven’t had a chance to read your email yet.

It is crucial to continue following up, even if the situation appears to be hopeless. You give the impression to your potential customers that you are not robots but rather genuine humans who care more directly about the individuals to whom you are speaking.

How Many Follow-Up Emails Should I Send?

The exact number of emails you send depends on the discussions you’ve had before reaching the stage where you’re being ignored by the recipient. But based on what I’ve learned from my research and experience, the ideal number of follow-up emails is somewhere between three and five.

Each message is sent with a particular objective in mind, and you can tailor the frequency of your follow-up communications to increase response rates by analyzing the data you collect.

How Long Should You Wait Before Following Up?

Allow at least one to three days for your contacts to respond to your email. If you follow up with someone too quickly, it will make you appear aggressive or even intrusive.
Try not to wait an excessive amount of time before sending a follow-up email; your receiver may forget what the context was otherwise.

Steps to Write a Follow-Up Email

Now that you have your basics clear, let’s go ahead

Using the steps I’ve outlined below will guarantee that you write a considerate and non-threatening follow-up email. These are the types of emails that get people to respond. Your open rates and conversions will both increase as a direct result of this.

• Write a truthful subject line.

It’s come to my notice that the subject line of an email is the first thing a person will notice when they are scanning through their inbox. This will determine whether or not they open your message.

Your cold emails won’t draw the attention of the recipient if you don’t use compelling subject lines for your follow-up messages. It is impossible to place enough emphasis on the significance of a subject line for follow-up emails.

Increase your chances of receiving a response from the recipient of your email by using language that is designed to evoke strong emotions and by personalizing the subject line. Be sure to adapt them to your particular company and target audience, and don’t forget to conduct A/B testing on a variety of versions to determine which ones work best for you.

• Start with a reminder in your follow-up email.

Follow-up emails or even reminder emails may seem intimidating to write, but remember to not sound too demanding or pushy. In the very first line of the email, you should explain that this letter is a follow-up to an earlier one that you had already sent and give some background information at the same time.

When sending a reminder email, make sure to be kind, professional, and convincing while yet putting your message across in a manner that is not unpleasant. The recipient of the email should be completely aware of everything that is expected of them at the end.

• Ask one clear question

Even if the initial email had more than just request, Consider increasing the depth of the request or making it smaller may improve the likelihood that the recipient would respond. I have always approached this part with sheer caution as complicating this could take your email straight to trash. Being straightforward with your ask will surely beneficial.

Never make the mistake of forcing your prospect to look for the mail you’ve sent before this.  It is best to respond to all recipients of your email and then delete yourself off from the list of recipients so that the other person can get all of the necessary context.

• Tell them why you’re emailing them.

From the first look of your email it should be clear what your intention to contact them is. Keeping it vague never helps.

Continue on to provide an explanation for the reason behind your follow-up email in a tone that is both straight and brief. Make it clear to the recipient what you want from them. Remind them of this if it hasn’t changed since the last time you emailed them.

• Add a “Call to Action.”

Your email has the potential to stand out from the crowd and deliver the results you want if you include a call-to-action that is clear and compelling. Calls to action in effective sales emails tend to have these characteristics:  Obvious. Unique. Crystal clear. Easy

Your contacts will have the impression that you are not wasting their time. They will comprehend the reason that you are requesting their attention. As a result, you will have a greater chance of receiving the information or response that you are seeking from them. The success of a sales email can be measured by how effectively the call to action is implemented.

Avoid These Mistakes When Writing a Follow-Up Email

• Writing “follow-up” in the message’s subject line

You can boost the likelihood of getting a response from your receiver by writing an effective subject line for your follow-up email. This can assist pique their curiosity and get them thinking about responding to you.
It also affords you the chance to address their requirements and satisfy their requirements. But if you mention your intention of sending the email as “follow-up”, then it’s probably not going to give you the results you wish for.

• Waiting too long to follow up with the recipient

As I’ve mentioned above, there is a time period for sending a follow-up. The common span according to me is about 1-3 days. Being too anxious and spamming your prospect will only bad for you. Even being too laid back could make your prospect forget about the prior email.

• Not personalizing your follow-up email

No one likes a robot. Especially when your prospect is contributing their precious time to read or respond to your message.

Personalization of email is something that only around half of all firms really do, despite the fact that it should be used by all of them. In addition, personalization enables you to improve the effectiveness of your lead nurturing initiatives by providing leads with material that assists them in overcoming the challenges they face and accomplishing the objectives they have set for themselves.

• Hiding key elements

The most effective marketing emails are those that put the consumer and their requirements. That requires customizing the entire message, from the subject line to the call to action, with the recipient’s name and information. Every marketing and sales email needs to contain an offer, a request, engagement, and relevant content.

• Sending your follow-up email at the wrong time

Is there really a wrong time you may ask? Well, yes and no. According to my knowledge there wione particular hour of the day marked red for a sales follow up. But with research that includes sending a bunch of follow ups at different hours of the day, you can note down the peak time to get replies from your leads.

It is not desirable for your follow-up email to remain in the inbox of your client for an extended period of time, awaiting reading and a response. Sending out emails at an unsuitable time will cause a significant increase in the number of unread emails. But you can convert prospects into paying customers and first-time purchasers into repeat customers if you deliver them at the correct time

• Getting too technical

When you have just a few words and a few minutes to catch your prospects attention, you don’t want them to be confused midway. Instead of using too many jargons or technicality that will push them away, I suggest you go ahead with simplicity.

Sales Follow-up Email Templates

I have conducted extensive research and tested thousands of different follow-up sequences. As a result I have compiled a selection of follow-up email templates for you. This will result in a greater number of replies from your prospects.

Here’s one free sample for a lead nurturing email-

Hi [Name],

I know how busy you must be managing your team and helping them increase [job function]. I sent you some information about [PRODUCT OR SERVICE] a while ago and I thought this might be a good time to give you a practical demonstration.

I’ve created/attached a few guest logins/free samples/vouchers that you can use to access/sample [PRODUCT OR SERVICE]. Feel free to share these with your staff and colleagues. I’d be very interested to hear what they think of it.

I would really like to have 30 mins of your time as I feel we can really add value to your [area of operations].

Can we book a call or a meeting?

[SIGNATURE]

Sample Follow-up Email Templates

Conclusion

One of the most challenging duties is to compose a follow-up email in a way that prompts a reaction from a potential customer. In this post, I have made an effort to address every possible situation that may arise with regard to your company.

Head on over to the official website of Smart Sales Kit if you are interested in learning more about such a helpful sales document. There, you will find information on how you can get your hands on their 2000+ Sales Documents to take your sales performance to the next level.