How can you write an effective sales follow up email without coming across as spammy or inauthentic? 98 marketing pros share their most effective tips.
When it comes to sending follow up emails to leads or prospects, people tend to fall into two camps––those who approach it carelessly and without much thought, and those who find it uncomfortable and are not leveraging the follow-up.
Sending follow-up emails can be uncomfortable.
Many don’t send them at all. That’s a mistake.
The follow-up can also be abused and come across as spammy and inauthentic.
However, while leads and prospects never owe you a response, there are some techniques that can stack the odds in your favor without coming across as entitled, rude, annoying, or spammy.
Whether you are following up with a sales prospect, a current customer, a journalist, or someone else, we reached out to 98 people to share their favorite tips for following up, including:
- Be clear on why you are following up
- Avoid template emails
- Practice empathy
- Add a personal touch
- Include a video in your follow-up message
- Use the subject line to grab their attention
- Write your subject line last
- Make sure to include the original email in your follow-up message
- Keep it short
- Write in a conversational manner
- Keep your emails relevant
- Be helpful
- Focus on the benefits for them
- Provide a quick win
- Remind them why you are following up
- Tell them when you will follow-up again if you don’t hear anything
- Schedule your follow-up emails in advance
- Avoid being overly salesy
- Incorporate humor
- Add location-based context
- Write an email that shows off your personality
- Make sure to provide tangible value in your follow-up emails
- Experiment with when and how often you follow-up
- Add something new to each email
- Add a sense of urgency
- Make it easy for the person to give you a response
- Don’t assume anything
- Make sure to include a call-to-action
- Include a question
- Pick up the phone
- Use social media as another way to follow up
- Know the difference between persistent and annoying
- Send a breakup email
- Don’t lie or stretch the truth about why you are following up
- Focus on the entire customer journey, not just this follow-up email
- Play the long game
Click here to read the full article by Jessica Malnik.
