The cold email can never stop at just the one email. Think about it — how many emails do you get on a daily basis? And how many of those get lost, neglected or forgotten about?
“A lot” is probably the answer.
It is the same story with the cold email. No matter how effective your single cold email pitch is, it will not be as effective without its follow-up. According to stats from Woodpecker, email sequences with at least 1 follow-up reach reply rates as high as 27%, as opposed to 16% to single-pitch messages.
Sending a follow-up to your original email can and will accomplish 3 things:
So, how to write an effective follow-up after no response? We at UMG Digital Agency have collected a few examples and templates for follow-up emails with different purposes.
This is the most common type of follow-up in an email sequence.
More information means that you are not simply reminding your prospect about the previous emails, but also provide them with more value.
In a way, it is a different outlook and a new angle on your pitch.
More information could include a more detailed outline of your services, an interesting case study or a video.
Don’t forget to restate context and value for this follow-up. Who are you and why are you writing this email?
The prospect might have forgotten about or missed your first email altogether, it is good to re-introduce yourself.
Don’t be shy to assert that you’ve written to them before — this increases the chances that the prospect will go looking for your previous email.
Include additional relevant info and a clear CTA. Try not to copy your previous CTA — a tactic that works is to have a soft call-to-action in the first follow-up and then a hard one in the second.
Here’s a template that we use, but don’t stick to one formula — experiment with wording and stand out.
This follow-up does not necessarily provide more information, but takes a different angle on your original copy.
It is a good practice to send this email a few days or weeks after the first one with no response — memory is slightly fuzzy, so this follow-up will read almost as a new cold email.
This kind of email is good because it lets you test different formats and approaches.
You can try being more or less pushy, in a friendly or more formal tone, a longer or a shorter email.
One rule would be to make it different from your first email. In fact, never send the same pitch or CTA twice.
Remember, your main goal is to pique curiosity and encourage engagement.
Take a look at this template for inspiration.
This is the shortest and clearest type of follow-up and yet it has a very high success rate.
Think about how many perfectly good cold emails are sitting unopened or forgotten about.
The bump-up serves as a simple reminder and consists of a single call-to-action.
What makes this kind of email unique, is the intriguing context line.
Avoid writing a generic “have you seen my email? Let’s talk” type of message.
Entice your prospects’ interest, encourage them to go searching for that forgotten email and get responses.
If you’ve already tried everything — a full sequence, 2–3 follow-ups, a bump-up, but still got no response, you could try going meta.
Meaning, ask your prospect WHY they haven’t been responding.
People like giving feedback so you are bound to get a few replies.
In the best case scenario, they will look over your proposal once more and decide to give it a try.
In the worst case, you will receive feedback about your services or approach that you can use for a future outreach.
Either way, you will get them to reply, which opens up a possibility to nurture a new relationship.
Focus on providing your prospect value instead of closing a sale and put yourself in their shoes.
When all else fails, the “last chance” follow-up works.
By hinting that this is the final email, you create a sense of urgency in your prospect.
You wouldn’t want to miss out on an interesting deal, would you?
It is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it is consistently effective.
Create urgency for your prospect, but also give them an out.
You know they are busy and you wouldn’t want to put even more on their plate.
Propose a simple, no-obligation call-to-action, an easy indication that they are interested in further communication.
However, do not be pushy. Even though this is the last chance, they still have the option of saying no.
Providing a sense of freedom of choice can psychologically become one of the deciding factors.
Avoid being too decisive as well. Emails like “I see you haven’t been responding, so I assume you are not interested” will not do your sales approach any good and will only burn bridges with a prospect, who could be hit up again in a few months.
Even though these are just some of the working templates, do not forget to experiment and play with your cold emails. The possibilities of a follow-up are endless. Test out different formats and times, send a follow-up every 3 days or couple of weeks and update your cold email sequence based on response and open rates in your industry.
If you would like to know how to build a working email sequence with the perfect follow-up, click the red button below to book a meeting with one of the experts on our team.
By clicking the "Submit" button we will send you the information you requested and will use your details to keep you-up-to-date about other UMG updates which may be of interest to you. You can change your preferences at any time. Please see our Privacy Policy for more details.