How to Write a Follow Up Email – Best Practices & Templates.

We all know how headache-inducing follow-up email etiquette can be. What is right? What is wrong? The problem is not exactly about sending another message. We don’t want to come off as pushy or needy, and at the same time, we have to be.

Job applications, sales, and re-engaging a client. We have to be pushy but not come across as pushy. The word is persistent. This guide talks about follow-up email etiquette, the best practices, and how to master the art of the follow-up.

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Why follow-up Emails Matter

Safe to bet that your inbox is filled with unread emails, many of which you are never going to read. Easily, a single email can go unnoticed under the mountain of unread messages. Follow-up emails are essentially indispensable. They are a professional and polite way of saying: I hope you saw my message.

Meanwhile, an incredibly thin line separates harassment and persistence. Credibility is a coveted resource, and irrelevant, pointless, vapid emails diminish it. Proper follow-up email etiquette is the means we have to stay on the right side of that thin line. And that is where following up does what it’s meant to do.

When to Send a Follow-up Email

Timing is the most important thing we try to figure out. How much time is too soon? How much time is too late? Truthfully, it depends. It always does. Specific situations call for different lengths of time.

• After a job interview: Proper behavior says between one and two days (on the third day if you’re pushing it). Ideally, the interviewer remembers your conversation, and you can express gratitude.
• After sending a proposal, send a follow-up email after two or three working days, sufficient time to have analyzed the documents, and just enough time that they can be reminded to do so.
• After no reply to an outreach email: When there hasn’t been any response to an outreach email, wait around four to seven days to send another message. 
• Following a meeting or call: Quickly follow up within a day to keep the conversation going, at a slower pace. Subsequent steps can be confirmed, and key points can be reemphasised.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Pay attention to contextual clues and the urgency surrounding your communications, as well as the relationship between you and whom you are going to send a follow-up message.

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What to Include in a follow-up Email

Again, timing is important, but so is the content of your reminder email. A well-received message can depend on how much thought is put into the message. Knowing what to say and how to even format the message can affect the desired response. Parts of a follow-up email include:

• Subject Line
• Personalized Greeting
• Context
• Purpose
• Value
• Call to Action
• Sign-Off

Strong follow-up emails include most of these elements, and they perform better in achieving specific objectives.

Follow-Up Email Etiquette: Do’s and Don’ts

Your mastery of follow-up email etiquette will, in no small part, be responsible for how well your messages are received. Say the right thing to elicit the desired response. Below are guidelines to use to know how to get started:

Dos

• Be polite and concise: Your message should go straight to the point(s). Politeness isn’t optional. 
• Give the recipient enough time to respond: Remember what we said about the fine line between annoyance and persistence?
• Add value when possible: Try to say something new and relevant each time, like an update or a new insight.
• Proofread your email: Professionalism is a well-understood concept. Ideally, we shouldn’t have to explain why flawless grammar and spelling are important.
• Use a professional tone: Always be respectful and never compromise on courtesy (especially when frustrations mount).

Don’ts

• follow up too frequently: Wait. Be Patient. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient (or try to, it is difficult), would you be pleased upon being bombarded?
• Sound passive-aggressive: Lead with kindness. And don’t be the person who needs to know the way to say “I hate your guts” in corporate jargon.
• Use vague subject lines: Let the reason behind your follow-up email be apparent in your subject line. It is better.
• Send a mass email as a follow-up: Try to give each person their due. Personalized follow-ups lack the close confidence of a personal email.
• Demand a reply: While you want a response, demanding one is counterproductive and unprofessional. Use polite requests and clear CTAs.
• Use a generic template: These often make messages sound clunky and artificial, stripped of all human warmth.

Painstakingly applying these guidelines is going to ensure your follow-up emails land well. Thus giving them the best possible chance of being effective. For more insights on digital communication, check out the blog. 

Pro Tips to Improve Your Follow-up Emails

Additionally, use these professional tips to help your follow-up email level be even more professional.

Use Email Tracking

Certainly, this depends on the volume of necessary follow-up emails. Tracking tools can tell you when the email was opened, the number of times, and if relevant links were effective. Popular examples include Mailtrack and Yesware. Undoubtedly, having the information is going to help redefine how you approach the task.

Create follow-up Sequences

We don’t have to repeat that timing is paramount, especially when it is for sales or outreach. Platforms for automating follow-up sequences exist, like Brevo. You will be able to prepare a sequence of emails to be sent at specific time intervals. Useful for when you haven’t been responsive and when you need to plan ahead of time.

Add Value Every Time

A common saying goes: Only the insane do the same thing and expect different results. When one email doesn’t deliver, it is questionable to simply hit resend without knowing what had happened. Adding new reasons why a response would be relevant is a very important tip. Say something new in your follow-up email. It is another reason to respond.

Keep It Brief

The follow-up email is not a long-form article. Say what you want to say as quickly as it can be said. Then try to shorten the message without losing nuance. Another popular saying goes: If I had more time to write, I could have written a shorter letter.

Optimize for Mobile

Mobile devices are used to read emails. It is then expedient to ensure that it is easy to read on a phone.  Short sentences and short paragraphs in a short and concise email are optimal. And large images don’t always render properly on mobile phones.

Using the tips above, sending effective follow-up emails is going to be easier. The hard work is in remembering to do everything (following guidelines can feel tedious). But it is better to do it properly.

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Mistakes to Avoid When Sending Follow-up Emails

Furthermore, it might not only be tedious, but it is also very easy to lapse into pitfalls. Despite the best intentions, without knowing what to exclude, mistakes are easy when sending a follow-up email. Avoid:

• Being Overly Aggressive: If you sit on a high horse, descend from it immediately. Passive aggression is enough of a turn-off, let of blatant aggression. It is rude to use entitled language and send multiple emails in quick succession, and equally rude to decry impatience in their content. Worst-case scenario, you end up being marked as spam. Best case scenario? Nothing happens. Prioritize politeness and always be professional. 
• Copy-Pasting Without Context: Admittedly, templates save time. But lifting the contents exactly, instead of using them as scaffolding, is wrong. It should be tailored and relevant to the situation, and shouldn’t leave traces of its generic template origins. Refer to the former conversation with specific details.
• Forgetting the CTA: It is inefficient when you follow up and don’t indicate what action the recipient should take. That’s what a Call To Action boils down to. A message as simple as “I will be waiting to hear back from you after so and so has been done”. It isn’t difficult.
• Skipping the Subject Line or Making it Vague: Write your subject line and ask yourself one question: Would this subject line make me open this email? That is not an invitation to say URGENT!!! Even if that kind of message is what makes you open an email.

Lastly, follow-up email etiquette is simply a fancy way of asking what to do to increase the chances of getting a response. Avoiding the errors outlined above is top-of-the-line etiquette.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, the sacred art of the follow-up email is being mindful and attentive. Pay attention to what you are writing and check for the errors we have discussed. All that has been said applies across the board: be it a business follow-up email or a job application. And at the risk of sounding generic, a well-crafted follow-up is more than a reminder; it is a business tool. 

Additionally, you should now be able to evaluate any follow-up email for its quality. Check to see if it is in line with follow-up email etiquette. That kind of training should help further your skill level. And your odds of getting a response will shoot up astronomically.

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