How to Write a Follow-up Email after no Response

Is it essential to write a follow-up email after receiving no response? Definitely yes.

According to a study, sending a single follow-up can increase your response rates by 65.8%.

Many questions occur for creating and scheduling cold email follow-ups:

  • How many follow-ups do you think you should send?
  • How often do you do it?
  • What are you going to write about?

You’re not alone if the prospect of drafting a follow-up email makes you feel uneasy. Our instincts tell us that if someone hasn’t responded to our last email, they aren’t interested and will be annoyed if we contact them again.

We’ll aim to answer the most common questions salespeople and marketers have, as well as provide extensive instructions on how to create effective follow-ups, in this article.

Continue reading to learn how to send a follow-up email after receiving no answer.

Why Send a Follow-up Email after No Response?

Because the average professional receives 126 emails per day, it’s easy for your cold email to get lost in the inboxes of your prospects.

The goal for most of your prospects would be to respond to their coworkers, clients, and partners. Cold emails are often treated as a secondary priority, which is one of the reasons they get buried in prospects’ inboxes.

Follow-ups are helpful reminders of the prior email if your prospect missed it or just forgot to respond.

However, simply inquiring if the prospect has had a chance to review the preceding email is insufficient.

Follow-ups email provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity to re-capture prospects’ attention and present them with further information about your offer.

You’re sending the follow-up letter for a specific reason: to generate business, close a sale, or clarify or learn anything. As a result, make sure it catches your recipient’s attention and adds value to their life. They will be more likely to open and respond to your message if you do it this way.

Also, following up is crucial because it boosts your chances of receiving a response greatly.

According to research, adding just one more follow-up email can boost your average response rate by eleven percentage points. Those eleven percentage points may appear insignificant, yet they represent the difference between a yes and a no vote.

In general, follow-up emails receive a greater response rate. In comparison to the first email, the first follow-up email had a 40% higher response rate. It doesn’t mean your response rate has increased by 40%; rather, it has increased by 40%.

For example, if your initial email received a 5% average response rate, your follow-up email will have a 7% average response rate.

So don’t ever neglect to follow up because it could cost you a closed deal.

How Long Should You Wait Before Sending a Follow Up Email?

For following up, how long should you wait?

We’ll say “Not long.”

Because the vast majority of emails are opened the same day they are received, and if the receiver wishes to respond, they will most likely do so the same day. That implies it’s safe to assume that if you don’t get a response the same day you send your original email, they won’t respond at all.

How true is this?

Approximately 90% of email receivers open and respond to emails on the same day they receive them.

So, for sending a follow-up email, how long should you wait?

Two or three days is a fair amount of time to wait before sending your first follow-up email, as a general guideline.

After that, for each consecutive email after your first, you should prolong the wait period by a few days, depending on how many follow-ups you plan to send.

Read: How to Write Skills on a Resume in 2023 | Easy Steps that Work

When Should You Follow Up If You Don’t Get a Response?

After three days, follow up if you haven’t received an answer.

It will be too lengthy if you wait a week. You’ll appear desperate if you send an email the same day. In your series, send two to three emails, and never send a breakup email. Rather, leave the conversation open and come back to it later.

Let’s take a look at some best practices for sending a follow-up message on that note.

How Many Follow-up Email to Send?

Before we get into the optimal quantity of emails, there’s one easy rule to remember and apply whenever you’re thinking about sending follow-ups emails:

Only send follow-ups email if you have a good cause.

“What if my explanation is that I haven’t received a response?” you might wonder.

So, with your initial follow-up, respectfully inquire if your prospect has had a chance to read over your offer or discuss it with colleagues. In any event, we propose that you add value to each new communication you send.

You can’t ask “Why am I still waiting for your response?” in each of your follow-ups.

As a result, before deciding on the amount of follow-ups to send to your prospects, consider whether you have a good purpose for doing so.

Want to send three follow-up emails but only need one? Please send one. It’s as simple as pie.

There have been numerous studies on the optimal amount of cold email follow-ups. Our main advice is to focus on producing compelling emails rather than adding too many follow-ups.

Hence, we recommend limiting your cold email marketing to three follow-ups. If you send too many follow-ups to people who have never heard of you, you may come across as obnoxious and harm your company’s reputation.

If you still feel that three follow-ups are insufficient, or that you can provide more value/spark interest for your prospects, don’t be afraid to use alternative channels. Twitter or LinkedIn could readily assist you in personalizing your message.

The number of follow-ups, on the other hand, can vary depending on the sort of outreach campaign and your target population.

Depending on the outreach strategy, determine the number of follow-ups.

Almost half of the links we get from a single follow-up, in my experience, come from the link-building effort. If you send more than one follow-up, you’ll irritate your prospects who are screaming for backlinks. If you don’t send any, you’ll be missing out on half of the links.

For instance, this single follow-up produced the finest link-building results: it’s concise, to-the-point, and nicely recalls the preceding offer.

At the same time, if your outreach campaign’s primary goal is sales, you’ll generally require more than one email. Follow-up emails, attempting to understand prospects’ discomfort, offering additional useful information, and so on can all provide value depending on your goal.

Read: How to Write a Follow-up Email for a Job Application

Determine the number of follow-ups required based on the target audience.

You’ll need to send more follow-up emails if you send emails to a fully cold audience. It also takes them longer to learn about your product or service before responding to you.

If the audience is already familiar with you (for example, they downloaded your lead magnet), fewer follow-ups may be required.

In all, our best suggestion is to create a system that works for you: strike a balance between being too aggressive and not being proactive enough, experiment with different lengths of follow-up sequences, and stay with the one that works best.

How Often Should I Send a Follow-up Email?

Approximately 90% of emails are opened the day they are sent. The same goes for responses—the chances of your prospects responding the same day your campaign was sent are significantly higher.

So don’t put off sending your follow-up email for too long. Reminding prospects about your offer is best done every 2–5 days.

It may take a little longer at times. If you send a cold campaign on Wednesday, for example, it’s best not to send follow-ups over the weekend and instead wait until Monday.

The longer the follow-up sequence, the larger the gap between each new follow-up email you send. This will allow you to stay informed while not being obnoxious.

How to Write a Follow-up Email after no Response

When following up, keep in mind that it’s critical to test for the optimal subject line.

Those teeny-tiny sentences have the power to make or break you. On the basis of the subject line alone, 47 percent of respondents open an email and 69 percent report it as spam.

Hence, it’s essential to give your email subject lines the attention and care they require.

We’ve divided the process of writing a follow-up email into seven steps. To assist you, we’ve also included examples of what you may say in each part, with the goal of linking everything together into a bespoke follow-up email template.

Let’s go over how to write the follow-up email now that you know how crucial it is to follow up and how long (give or take) you should wait before sending each email.

Read: 40+ Most Essential Emailing Rules in 2023 | Full Guide

1. Include context

Open your email with a reference to a previous email or encounter to jog your recipient’s memory. Even if your recipient hasn’t heard from you previously, they’re more likely to respond positively to the follow-up if they’ve been informed that they have.

You might wish to try the following openers:

  • I just wanted to follow up on the email I wrote concerning [topic of email] last [day of week email was sent].
  • I just wanted to check in with you to see how you felt about [email subject], or
  • I hope this doesn’t come across as strange, but I noticed that you read my prior email.

2. Make a Difference

Never write a follow-up email without boosting the ante and proving your worth.

Avoid ineffective follow-ups, such as those where you’re simply ‘touching base’ or ‘catching up,’ which add nothing more to their inbox than another email.

At each interaction, add value. Make it worthwhile for them to click, open, and respond.

For example, giving customers something worthwhile as a present, whether it’s a relevant tangible item shipped to them or a webinar, case study, template, or other digital resource, creates opportunities for spontaneous, natural contact and follow-ups.

These value-added offers can easily generate a number of follow-ups. Make sure it’s of excellent quality and relevant to their needs. You want to be perceived as a valuable resource to them.

There’s little reason to contact them if you’re not adding value, and even less incentive for them to reply or care if you’re not.

“At all times, you must bring value to the recipient.

3. Explain why you’re sending the email

Continue with a direct and succinct explanation of why you’re sending the follow-up email. Simply state your wishes to the recipient. Remind them if this hasn’t changed since your last email.

  • [Product name] has the potential to make [part of prospect’s role] far more effective. I’d want to have a quick chat to see whether I’m on the right track.
  • [Product name] has the potential to be quite beneficial to you, and I was hoping you’d be interested in checking it out for a month or two (completely free, of course).
  • We recently released [product name], and it has the potential to significantly impact [part of prospect’s role]. Just below is a link to a website that will tell you more, but it would be great if we could also talk about your present needs so I can figure out how [product name] might benefit you.

Here, you should concentrate on them. ‘I’ statements should be removed from your text. They don’t give a damn about you, what you think, or what you believe.

4. Keep it Brief

Emails with a shorter copy of 95 words outscored emails with a lengthier copy of 170 words, according to Sleeknote.

In reality, shorter emails had a CTR of 5.81 percent.

Try to avoid superfluous welcomes like “I hope you’re doing well” in your follow-up emails. Being courteous is essential, but it may be simply accomplished by utilizing the appropriate email style.

Also, avoid using long sentences. Eliminate terms that bog down your writing and make you sound unsure in your writing.

5. Don’t Forget to Include a Call-to-Action.

Make it simple for the recipient of the email to respond. If you’re trying to set up a meeting, for example, give a precise date and time (and location if it’s an in-person meeting).

  • Do you have time on Thursday at 2:15 p.m.?
  • Are you the right person to discuss this with? Could you point me in the right path if I’m in the wrong place?
  • If you’d want further information, simply respond “yes” and I’ll give you a few of brief documents.

If you’re a member of a marketing team or a salesperson, don’t make the mistake of leaving things imprecise and confusing.

Make your call to action obvious and difficult to ignore. What do you want them to do exactly?

Did you include a link to your website in your message? Inform them so that you can achieve the greatest possible results.

Read: Best Introduction Email Samples | How to Introduce Yourself in an Email

6. Exit from Your Email

Wrap it up in a style that is natural to you and reflects your previous encounters with the recipient.

While I have a few recommendations below, this is a very personal part of the process; as previously stated, wrap up anyway you feel comfortable.

  • Please let me know your thoughts! [Your name here]
  • Please contact me if you have any further inquiries. [Your name here]
  • Is it possible to talk soon? [Your name here]
  • I eagerly await your response! [Your name here]

7. Resist the Urge to Use Passive-Aggressive Language

When you send one or two emails and don’t receive a response, it’s tempting to take it personally.

Using words like: “I’ve tried to reach you a few times now,” or “I understand you’re busy, I’m busy too,” aren’t going to help you close the deal.

In the best-case scenario, you successfully persuade your target to reply to your message. In the worst-case scenario, you will offend and alienate them.

If you’ve reached out a few times and haven’t received a response, keep your tone upbeat.

If you’re unsure, assume positive intent.

“Wanted to touch base on this,” or “Just wanted to bump this email to the top of your inbox,” discreetly accept your prospect is busy and could just need a small shove to get things moving again.

FAQs

Why Send a Follow-up Email after No Response?

Follow-ups are helpful reminders of the prior email if your prospect missed it or just forgot to respond. Follow-ups email provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity to re-capture prospects’ attention and present them with further information about your offer.
Also, following up is crucial because it boosts your chances of receiving a response greatly.

How Long Should You Wait Before Sending a Follow Up Email?

Two or three days is a fair amount of time to wait before sending your first follow-up email, as a general guideline. After that, for each consecutive email after your first, you should prolong the wait period by a few days, depending on how many follow-ups you plan to send.

When Should You Follow Up If You Don’t Get a Response?

After three days, follow up if you haven’t received an answer.

How Many Follow-up Email to Send?

We recommend limiting your cold email marketing to three follow-ups. If you send too many follow-ups to people who have never heard of you, you may come across as obnoxious and harm your company’s reputation.

How Often Should I Send a Follow-up Email?

Reminding prospects about your offer is best done every 2–5 days.
It may take a little longer at times. If you send a cold campaign on Wednesday, for example, it’s best not to send follow-ups over the weekend and instead wait until Monday.

Conclusion

It’s difficult to get someone’s attention who hasn’t responded to you in the past.

That’s why, rather than hammering your prospects with a barrage of follow-ups email, focus on providing value and making enticing offers when writing your follow-up emails.

To get your prospects to read your message, write a creative beginning line, keep it short to avoid losing their interest, and conduct your research to tailor follow-ups to a high degree.

We are convinced that if you follow these basic rules, you will be able to swiftly establish a dialogue with your prospects.

References

  • hunter.io – How to Write a Follow-Up Email After No Response
  • mailshake.com – How to Write a Follow-Up Email After No Response
  • blog.hubspot.com – How to Send a Follow-Up Email After No Response

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