How to Send a Follow Up Cold Email
Merve Geneş
Publishedat
Cold email marketing has always been a great marketing strattegy to follow and let the world know about you and your latest releases. Follow up emails have proven to be a great way to reach out to your potential customers after you receive no response.
A cold email campaign is almost always set with multiple follow up emails that lets the prospects know about your product or service in case they might have missed the previous one.
Knowing how to write a follow up email is essential for growing your network and reaching out to people that might need your service.s
Let’s take a look at why we should write a follow up cold email if we want to strengthen our email campaign, before we get into how we do it.
Why follow up?
A cold email, or a cold outreach, is the type of email with no previous contact with the prospect.
Follow up emails are the type of email you write after your prospect did not respond to your first cold email. It is regarded as an important cold emailing strategy
There might be some reasons to why your previous cold email did not get a response, such as your initial email was not standing out from the rest of them, or simply because the prospect didn't see it. Whatever the reason might be, you want to make sure that your cold email reaches its destination and fulfills its duty, hence, you want to write a follow up or multiple follow ups.
As a gentle reminder
When we consider why follow up emails are important, we can think about a few reasons. Firstly, you want to assume that your prospect has not had the time to read your cold outreach. Just to give them a gentle reminder of how great your product or service can be, you can send out a follow up email.
Show that you care
Secondly, it is important to show that you care about your customers. You want to keep in touch with them and show that you want them to have access to the best they can have.
The best way to do that is to write a follow up email, which will be a messenger for showing the world your product or service. To make sure your potential customers know about your value proposition, simply send follow up emails.
When you get a response from your prospects or they follow the link you have provided for them, it is a social proof that your emailing strategy is working out. To get them to respond to you is to show geniune interest in your prospects.
When to send follow ups?
After understanding the main reason of sending your follow up email, it is important to know when to send it.
You don’t want to be too annoying in your follow ups and bug the prospect with too many emails - or be too loose to a point where you lose them. There is always a sweet spot in between the two extremes and if you can find it, it will work like magic and create amazing results in your conversion rates.
To give a general idea of when to write cold emails, write a follow in this order to start out:
Day 1: initial cold email
Day 3: first cold email follow
Day 7: second cold email follow
This is only to start things out. Do not be limited by three follow ups. If you believe that your cold prospects might need more (which they really might need more than only three cold emails to starts getting interested in them) don't be afraid to send more follow ups.
However, always keep in mind that a follow up email must always be tailored to the prospect, and the times are highly changeable. If your follow ups don't match with whomever you are sending them to, then it creates a generic idea, which is something you want to avoid.
As for time to respond in a day, it's clever to keep them between working hours while everyone is more prone to checking their emails.
How to Write a Follow Up Email? Full Guide Step-by-Step
There is a strategy to follow when it comes to writing an effective cold email flow to make the most of it. If you choose cold emailing as one of your marketing methods, your follow up strategy will show if your service or product is of value proposition, if it is capable of meeting the standards that were determined by you. Before we get into it, always remember that there are tools that you can use as well.
Our advanced AI can write them for you and make sure that they get read. From creating amazing subject lines and increasing the responses, Nureply can help you with your cold email follow ups.
Let's get started with the follow up strategy you should use.
Decide on your reason
Deciding on your reason for writing a follow up will help you focus on your aim like a ship with the winds blowing to the right direction.
There might be many reasons to write follow ups. These might include but not limited to:
informing your prospects about your new product to get sales
getting more information on a specific subject through expecting responses
finding the fit time for a meeting
Decide on your reason and keep it in mind as you write your email.
What to say in a follow up email?
After you have written the initial email and waited long enough, the next thing to figure out is what you want to say in it. Your follow ups must be tailored perfectly with your whole cold email campaign as a whole.
1. Write your subject line
A subject line is basically what your cold email will be about. It will be listed among many other emails that your prospect gets every day, and the only way to make it stand out from others.
The subject line is shown right under your name or company name in an email outreach. It is the second thing your prospect will see. To create a killer subject line that drives your prospect to read and even respond to your cold email follow ups is the first thing to do.
Many people would rather write their subject line after they have written their full cold email first, thinking that writing the subject line could limit them. Once they have completed writing the main text of their first email (or follow up emails), it gives them a clearer idea about what to write as their subject lines. This could be a good idea for those who are struggling to find a subject line that catches the eye.
The other way is to follow an order, and write the subject line first, then the main text. I think this second method sets the scene and creates a good base for the cold emails. One of our aims is, after all, to keep it short, which I will be talking about down this article.
Make sure that the subject line does not include "follow up" because it might reduce the chances of your email getting read. You want to add value to your follow ups by firstly making them opened. The subject line will be a determiner in that prospect.
Here are some examples for subject lines that actually work for your next cold emails.
2. Remind them of your previous email
Giving a bit of a context before anything else in the main text would reduce the vagueness of your email. If the prospects have seen your email but chose not to answer for the time, this would be the place they remember you. Simply reminding your prospect of the first cold email that you've sent which weren't able to reach them might make them more interested in you - it is a nice way to take their attention. Even your subject line can do this for you but, remember, it's always a good idea to not say only "follow up" directly.
3. Explain why they might be interested
Explain that you are here to help your prospects and what solutions you can offer them. If you are clear about your intention about emailing them it would show them that your solution is to be trusted. It increases your trustability.
Then, explain why you think your solution they should prefer. It all can be fit into one or two sentences, which is a good strategy to follow.
4. Give your name or company name
In case they might have missed the email you've sent before this one, make sure that you give your name or company nam - though we will be writing them again in the closing part of your email. Remember, this is a gentle reminder email in case your previous cold emails weren't seen. So simply remind them of who you are and tell them your company name.
5. Give your product or service name
Make sure that you explain that this is a follow up email and not the initial cold email. If your aim is to write a sales follow up, you should remind them of your product or service as well. But remember that this is not the first email you're sending, this is a follow up email, so rather than explaining everything from scratch, make sure to include the name of the product or service and move on.
6. Call-to-action
The main reason of your follow up emails is to get a response. The cold email you're sending should provide value to you in some way or another. So it's important that they know you look forward to hearing from them. "Please let me know what you think," as an example. The types of follow up emails with a call-to-action increases the chances of sales through response rate.
7. Closing
Using more friendly remarks is a good idea. Then write your name, your position, your company name. Knowing how to end your cold email will be very useful in the long run. And you're ready to go!
Mistakes to avoid when writing a follow up email
There are must-avoids when it comes to writing cold emails. To avoid these mistakes in your cold email will provide value to your cold emails and make sure that they are interacted with.
Sounding too genericiın your follow up email
No one likes to feel that they are one of the hundreds of people they are getting mails from the same person. Sounding generic can be a pain point for many prospect because your email can get deleted even before it is opened. One way to get rid of this pain point is to make sure that your email is personalized for the prospect.
Sounding too robotic in your follow up email
Another one, a pain point, is the robotic tone. For example, if your subject line feels like it took about an hour to write because you wanted to apply the most difficult words there, it won't feel like it was written by a human. However, if your subject line feels natural and more conversational, it will most likely get your email to be read.
Sending follow up emails too soon
If your follow ups are sent too soon, they might get annoying or too spammy. You would absolutely want to avoid the spammy part because once we're in the spam folder, it is hard to get out.
Think of it as a phone call. It would surely get annoying if someone was to call you every day for something they want you to take a look at. Just as a
Sending follow up emails too late
Depending on your prospect, if your cold email follow is sent too late, the potentially interested prospect will forget about you. You want to get their attention through a sales follow up, because you want to provide them with the best practices in your services or products. Remember that this is a follow up email, not an email that you write all over again. They shouldn't forget about you or what you do.
Not sending enough follow up emails
A breakup email is the last email you send to your prospect before removing them from your cold email list. When sending follow up emails, you don't want your breakup email to be the third or fourth one. Though it might sound extreme, some people are convinced to take a look at it after seven or eight follow up emails.
If your follow up email falls short in amount and does not suffice for the prospect's attention, then it won't serve its purpose at all.
However, always keep in mind that your cold email sequence must be tailored to the prospects. They might or might not need than the fixed numbers.
How to make sure your follow up email gets read?
It's always a good idea to focus on the quality of your follow up emails to increase their response rate.
Personalization
Including your subject lines, your cold email follow must be created with the prospect in mind, no exceptions. It will improve your response rate immensely and, therefore, add value to your sales in general. Everyone likes a personalized subject line and are more likely to get opened. If you know your target audience well, you will be able to personalize your email outreach better.
If your follow ups are highly personalized, they will be read more. And if your follow ups are read more, the chances of them getting a response is more likely. And if your follow ups are getting more responses, they will bring you more sales.
Length
Keep it short. Say the most with the least words possible in your follow up email, both in the main texts and the subject lines. Your follow up email will be read more if it can provide value to your prospect without stealing their time. The types of follow up emails that take long and dreadful sentences to get to the point are deleted even before they are read halfway through.
To avoid that, your cold email follow should be of enough length that passes the message and does not take too much time.
Clarity
Though the wish for keeping things short should never get in the way of being as clear as possible. Vagueness in your follow ups would reduce the value and your cold outreach wouldn't be understood by your prospect.
Relevance
Send a follow to say that you've tried to reach them before. It might make your prospect go back and check the previous one (if they haven't already deleted it completely). This whole cold email follow sequence should be related to one another, like a phone call, a conversation that you expect a response from. So gently reminding them of a few key points is okay as long as your cold email follow does not simply repeat your previous email.
Conclusion
An effective cold email follow strategy will increase your responses and conversion rates.
Following up with a cold email can be a great way to show interest in a potential prospect and provide them with just the service or the product they need. Don’t deprive them of amazing things you got to show them. Add value to their lives through your follow up strategy and fulfill your own value proposition.
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