The most critical stage of any deal is when you reach out to a prospect for the second time. Depending on what you say, you may end up converting your lead into a paying customer or lose them entirely.

On that note, one of the things you need to learn is how to write a follow-up email. When done right, this email gives prospects the impression that you care and value them. In return, they may respond positively by either purchasing your products or signing up for your services.

To help you get started, here’s a detailed 5-step guide on how to write a follow-up email that converts.

5-Step Guide to Write a Follow-Up Email

Define your objective

You finally got an opportunity to interact with a prospective customer- be it over the phone or email.

So it’s now time to write a follow-up email. But before you take this step, first define your objective. This way, you can identify the most suitable call-to-action that will get your recipient to take action.

Here are four main objectives of a follow-up email:

Thank you

Expressing gratitude to prospective clients goes a long way. While it doesn’t necessarily prompt a recipient to take any action, it leaves them with a positive perception of your brand.

So even if they don't purchase any of your products or services, they will likely recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues.

Request for a meeting

Another common reason for crafting a follow-up email is to request for a meeting or further discussion.

If this is the case, include the specific details you’re planning to discuss in the meeting. You should also indicate how the discussion will be of value to the recipient. You’re more likely to get a positive response if you illustrate how the recipient will also benefit from the meeting.

Catching up

If it’s been a while since you interacted with your recipient, you may be reaching out to them so as to catch up. For instance, perhaps you’ve heard big news about the firm/ individual or discovered that they’ve accomplished a major milestone.

Whatever the reason, this recent turn of events means your prospect may now be in need or interested in using your business products/services.

Asking for more information

There are times when you’ll forget to ask crucial details during your first interaction with a prospect. Or maybe you just need a few more details so that you can tailor your products or service to suit their needs.

Regardless of the reason, explain in detail why you’re requesting more information. Doing so enables your recipient to respond in an efficient way that benefits both parties.

Provide context

How many emails do you get on a daily basis? Chances are, you can’t answer using a specific number because the emails are always too many to count. In fact, Campaign Monitor estimates that the average person receives 121 emails every day.

Given the dozens of emails that individuals receive daily, it’s important that you provide context in your follow-up email. This increases the likelihood of the recipient opening your email.

Context in this sense means showing that you share a personal connection with the recipient. To achieve this, the opening line(s) of your email should briefly explain your first initial interaction. Here are a couple of opening lines that provide context:

• I was motivated after listening to the speech you gave at [name of the event]
• We met a couple of days ago at the [location]
• Our friend [name of the mutual friend] recommended that I reach out to you about…

Clarify your purpose

Once you’ve provided context, the next step is to state your purpose.

Be very clear when explaining your intention for writing the follow-up email. This way, you won’t be perceived as spammy, ingenuine, vague or disorganized.

Let’s say you wanted to request a face-to-face meeting with the individual. You would say, “Mind grabbing a coffee? I’d like to learn how you beat your sales targets as I’ve been struggling with mine.”

This is more straightforward than saying, “I’d like to grab a coffee and learn more about what you do.”

It’s important to have this level of specificity. This way, your recipients will have a clear understanding of your intentions right from the get-go.

Here are a few more examples showing how you can articulate your intentions:

• As we talked about in the meeting, here is the developer who can help you with…
• I would like to invite you to [name of event]. I think you’ll find it beneficial given what you do at [company’s name]
• I would love to hear more about [name of project] as I’m working on something fairly similar at [business name]

Come up with a subject line

Did any of your teachers ever train you to write the introduction after completing the body of your essay?

Well, the same principle applies here. Essentially, you’ll want to work on the opening line(s), main body, and conclusion before crafting the subject line.

This makes it easier to create a strong subject line that captures your intentions and ultimately, helps you achieve your goals. Here are some tried-and-true hacks for writing captivating follow-up subject lines:

Use specific figures and times

Did you know that subject lines that incorporate numbers have a higher open and reply rate than those that don’t?

That’s right. So don’t be scared to use numbers in your subject lines. Consider the following examples:

• [Name of recipient], can you take our 5-minute survey?
• Learn 5 ways to send email campaigns using Canvas

Make it personal

It’s always good to research your prospects before reaching out to them. Find out as much information as you can to help you create subject lines that are customized just for them.

Here are a couple of examples

• Congratulations on [name of event] - when reaching out to a prospect who just won or achieved something.
• It was nice to meet you at [name of event] - when reaching out to a prospect you met at a networking event

Use open ended questions

Questions offer an excellent way to grab your recipient’s attention and pique their interest on a given topic.

Leverage questions that your prospects could be asking themselves already. Alternatively, these questions could be related to the issue you addressed in your first email.

When deciding what questions to use, always opt for open-ended ones. Put simply, the reader shouldn’t be able to answer them with a simple yes or no. Check out the following examples:

• Next steps?
• Have you considered [relevant offer]?
• Your thoughts on [topic]
• What can elevate your [metric] at [company’s name]

Avoid a passive-aggressive tone

Your core reason for reaching out to a prospect is to entice them to take further action. This action could be purchasing a product, signing up for a course, earning referrals and more.

Your best bet to achieve any of these goals is to use a polite tone. As such, your subject line should illustrate confidence, offer additional value or pique your recipient’s interest with an offer.

Using a passive aggressive will make you come across as desperate, at best. In the worst case scenarios, the recipient will completely lose interest in your brand, perhaps even opt out of your email list.

Examples of passive-aggressive phrases that you should never use are:

• I’ve attempted to reach you several times now
• Sorry to bother you again
• Awaiting your reply
• Circling back
• Friendly reminder
• Just checking in

Another phrase you should avoid is “follow-up”. Yes, it’s a follow-up email but that doesn’t mean that you have to include it in the subject line. Besides, it doesn’t add any value to your email’s content.

Send your follow-up email

You’ve finally finished writing your follow-up email. There’s a specific objective to it, you’ve started your email with context, made your intentions clear and chosen a relevant and catchy subject line. Now all that’s left is to hit that “send” button.

But before you do, be mindful of your timing. On one hand, you don’t want to send it too early, lest you come across as being pushy or desperate. On the other hand, you don’t want to wait too long and risk the recipient forgetting about your first interaction.

So just how long should you wait? Most experts recommend waiting two to three days before sending your first follow-up email. However, this will also depend on the type of follow-up email you’re sending. Here are a few guidelines to help you:

• Within a day: If you’re sending a “thank you” email, then you should send it within 24 hours. You could be thanking your prospect for a first meeting, sale, or interview.

• Within 2 days: If you have a valid reason that warrants an immediate follow-up, then you can send the email within 48 hours. Perhaps you’ve submitted important paperwork and want to know whether the recipient received it.

• Within 1 to 2 weeks: You can wait up to two weeks if you’re following up on a request for a meeting. Perhaps your prospect is too busy or forgot to schedule a meeting they’d promised you.

Mistakes to avoid when writing follow-up emails

Still getting a low response rate on your follow-up emails? Here are the top 5 mistakes you could be making:

Failing to use a catchy headline

Do you know that 47% of recipients base their decision to open and read an email on the subject line alone? Another 69% mark emails as spam also based on the subject line.

All this goes to show just how important it is to use a captivating headline, especially in your follow-up emails. Here are a few examples that are sure to pique your readers’ interest:

“Did I mention that…” “Missed you again” “Next steps” “Let’s cut to the chase”

Beating about the bush

Yes, it’s important to follow up. But providing quality content in your follow-up emails is equally important.

When you’re writing this email, stick to the main subject. More importantly, be concise and brief; don’t use 200 words to express a point that you could have summed up in just 50 words. This brings us to our next point of email length.

So what’s the ideal length of a follow-up email? Well, Boomerang carried out a study to determine the impact of email length on response rate. Their research revealed 75 to 100 words to be the sweet spot. Emails with a word count in this range had the highest response rate of 51%.

Failing to include a call-to-action

Your call to action should be guided by the objective you’re trying to achieve from sending the follow-up email.

Are you trying to get more information about your prospect? Or would you like them to complete a transaction that they left pending? Based on this, you can decide on the most suitable call-to-action to use. This could be asking them to reply to the email, call back or fill out a form.

Sounding like an automated bot

No one likes a templated or copy-pasted reply. While your automated email format might work for some, using a single tone in all your follow up emails will likely chase away other prospects.

To avoid sounding a bot, research your prospect and get to know more about what they do, what they’re after. Personalize the message so that they’re able to tell that the email was crafted specifically with their needs in mind.

Not highlighting your next steps

Another step that you’re probably forgetting to take is to outline the next steps.

Ideally, you should have an organized response for every email that goes down the marketing funnel. This way, you can let your prospects know what to expect in the next email.

Failing to show proof

HDoes your prospect trust your brand, or are they still fairly new to it? Are you truly the pioneer of the product you claim to be selling?

Unfortunately, your readers don’t have the time or patience to start researching these hard facts. So you’re better off showing them this proof in your follow-up emails.

For instance, you can include a banner of an influencer/celebrity vouching for your service. Or, you can state data-based facts (XX number of people have achieved Y results by using our products).

Examples of Follow-Up Emails

After interacting on social media

Did you connect with your prospect via social media? Never heard back after the initial response? Then follow-up again using this email:

Subject: I forgot to mention…

After a sales inquiry

Perhaps the prospective customer submitted a form, showing interest in one of your products or services. Unfortunately, they never reached out afterwards. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to land such a lead.

Subject: Next steps?

After a free trial

A free-trial gives prospective customers first-hand experience of the products/services you offer. If the trial’s end date is drawing near and your prospect has not responded to your emails, you may want to touch base.

Subject: Trial extension available!

Conclusion

A simple follow-up email has the power to convert a lead, land you a new client, foster a strong relationship and do so much more.

But, keep in mind that there’s a right and wrong way of writing this email. Your follow-up email should add value and provide additional information that might have been left out in the initial interaction. That said, you should be able to convey your ideas or recommendations without being overbearing or sounding desperate.

Ideally, you should start by defining your objective. Next, provide context and clearly state your intentions. Finally, choose a suitable and attention-grabbing subject line and hit the send button!