How to write a follow-up email if there is no response (updated 2021) (2023)

Should you follow up with your prospects after getting no response?

Definitely yes.

Andlook forshows that you can increase your response rates by 65.8% by sending a single follow-up.

When it comes to writing and scheduling cold email follow-ups, there are a lot of questions to ask:

• How many follow ups should you send?
• How often?
• what to write about

In this guide, we try to answer the most common questions salespeople and marketers face and provide step-by-step instructions on how to write follow-ups that work.

If you already know the answers to these questions,Click hereto jump directly to the post-writing section.

The table of contents is created here.

Why send follow-up emails?

While the average professional gets126 E-Mails pro Tag, your cold emails get lost in the inboxes of potential customers all too easily.

For most of your prospects, responding to your colleagues, customers, and partners would be the top priority. Responding to cold emails would normally be secondary, which is one reason cold emails often get lost in potential customers' inboxes.

In this case, follow-ups are gentle reminders of the previous email in case your prospect didn't receive it or simply forgot to reply to you.

However, it's not enough to simply ask if the prospect had a chance to review the previous email.

I often get emails like this...

... or this:

Well, they work as reminders; However, these emails are missing a second key ingredient: added value.

Do you have a product or service that is too complicated to describe? In the next email, please send additional information along with the benefits for your prospect.

Not sure if your offer was clear? Show it from a different angle to generate interest.

Follow-ups create a unique opportunity to re-engage potential customers and provide them with more information about your offer.

How many follow up emails to send

Before we dive into the ideal number of emails, there's a simple rule of thumb to know and follow when thinking about sending follow-ups:

You might ask, "What if my reason is because I didn't get an answer?"

Well, it makes sense in your first follow-up to politely ask if your prospect has had a chance to look at your offer or discuss it with their colleagues. But either way, I encourage you to add value with each new post.

You cannot ask: "Why am I still waiting for your answer?" in each of your accompaniments.

So when you think about how many follow-ups you should send your prospects, think about whether you have a reason to.

Want to send three follow-ups but have a reason for one? Send one As simple as that.

There are many studies on the ideal number of follow-ups for cold email campaigns. For example Steli Efti48 tracking sentuntil he landed a meeting with an investor. At the same time, Joshua Hardwick recommends sendingno more than a follow upfor link building so as not to piss people off and build bridges.

NOHunter, our main rule is to focus on writing compelling emails instead of adding too many follow-ups. Therefore, we recommend limiting your cold email campaigns to three follow-ups. If you send too many follow-ups to someone who has never heard from you, you could upset them and damage your company's brand.

If you still feel that three follow-ups are not enough or that you can add value to your potential clients, do not hesitate to use other channels. Twitter or LinkedIn can help you get your message across on a personal level.

Keep in mind that the number of follow-ups you need to do may also depend on the type of outreach campaign and your target audience.

Set the number of follow-ups based on the outreach campaign

In a link building campaign, in my experience, almost half of the links we get come from a single follow. Send more than one follow-up and you'll piss off your potential customers. Don't submit one and you'll lose half the links.

For example, this single follow-up had the best link building results: it's short, to the point, and perfectly reminds potential customers of your offer.

At the same time when themain goalyour outreach campaign is sales, you probably need more than one email.

Depending on your goal, you can add value with follow-ups, trying to identify potential customer pain points, or providing additional information.

Set the number of follows based on your target audience

If you're emailing a completely cold audience, you need to send more follow-ups to warm them up. It also takes them longer to research your product or service before contacting you.

However, if it's an audience you're familiar with (for example, if they've already downloaded your lead magnet), fewer follow-ups may be required.

In general, my best advice is to find a system that works for you: try to find a balance between being too aggressive and not being proactive, try different lengths of follow-up sequences, and stick to what works best for you.

When to send a follow-up email

You don't have to wait long before sending a follow-up email.

Most emails are openedthey will be received the same daySo if you don't get a response to your first email within a day, you can bet you won't get a response at all.

However, the conventional advice is to wait two or three days before sending your first follow-up. Remember to increase this timeout for each subsequent email you send to avoid upsetting potential customers.

Here's a tracking timeline you can use:

• Day 1: Initial Disclosure Email
• Tag 3: Tracking-E-Mail Nr. 1
• Tag 7: Follow-up-E-Mail Nr. 2
• Tag 14: Tracking-E-Mail Nr. 3
• Tag 28: Tracking-E-Mail Nr. 4

After the fourth follow-up email, you can try to follow up once a month.

How to send follow-ups on autopilot

It can be hard to keep up with follow-ups when you send a lot of outreach emails.

Fortunately, tools likethe hunting campaigncan help you save time preparing and scheduling highly personalized cold email follow-ups.

if youFind the email addresses of your prospectsand upload them to Hunter Leads, you can start planningyour first emailand garnishes.

Campaigns let you choose how many follow-ups you want to send, set delays between each follow-up, customize the subject line, and work on your email copy.

Once you set this up, you'll never have to worry about forgetting to send your prospects a follow-up again. Your follow-ups will be sent automatically.

How to write a follow-up email with no response

1. Add value to every follow up

With every follow up, you need to provide value to the prospect.

I often get follow up messages like this:

Yes, I saw the first email, but the original offer wasn't clear and I didn't know what Lauren was trying to accomplish, so I decided not to contact her.

If only you had provided more information with your follow-up, tried to gather more information about me (your prospect), and sparked interest with something relevant, I would have happily responded.

There are countless ways to make follow-ups work by offering something of value.

For example, if you have aDigital Marketing AgencyYou can demonstrate how your current clients are growing with your services by sharing their success stories, results, or feedback.

This is a great example of one such email (with a 16% response rate) from Donald Chan, the founder ofIMPACT, shared with us:

In this follow-up, Donald mentions the name of a company he's worked with in the past as a form of social proof. This company should be known to the recipient of the email, whether it is an industry peer, a competitor, or simply a famous brand.

And by offering to share how they've achieved specific results for that company, they give the email recipient a compelling reason to respond.

2. Write a catchy opening line

If you start your cold follow up with something boring and not personalized, chances are you'll never get a response from your prospect.

I recommend improving your opening line so that your potential customers are interested in learning more about what you have to offer.

Try to avoid these opening lines:

• check only
• I thought I'd just look and find out
• I just wanted to sign up to hear about it.
• playing base

Instead, you could spark interest with a question, mention a common connection, start with the lead's problem, or use a recent trigger event.

Here's a compelling example by Kevin J. Duncan of a link building campaign he ran for Smart Blogger.Gift Guide for Writers:

Also, in your opening line, try to provide context as to why you are emailing the prospect. It could be a simple short summary of your previous email.

3. Self short

Andfancy notefound that emails with shorter text (around 95 words) significantly outperformed emails with longer text (around 170 words). In fact, shorter emails had a 5.81% higher CTR.

Try to remove unnecessary greetings like "I hope you're doing well" in your follow-up emails. Courtesy is a must, but it can be easily achieved by using the right style for your email.

Also don't usewordy sentences. Eliminate words that overwhelm your writing and make you sound insecure.

This is a great example of a short and direct email from Katia.AudexSent to pitch your idea with a guest post on the lead's blog:

• He quickly remembered the previous email (talking about substantive collaboration).
• It included a CTA that offers two convenient options to continue the conversation (via email or phone call).
• You asked for the decision maker's contact information in case the prospect you're reaching out to isn't relevant.

4. Customize

Personalization is key when it comes to sending a successful cold email follow up follow up. The more personal your follow up is, the better your response rate will be.

There are two main approaches to customizing your accompaniments:

1. If you have a small number of leads, you can write each follow-up from scratch and make it unique and personal to each lead.

A great example of this type of email is the one I received fromHubSpot's growth manager after not speaking to him for a month since our first conversation:

This email is great because it's so personal. Adam worked very hard to do such a thorough investigation. In addition to the essential customization, the follow-up made it effective:

• He mentioned a mutual connection (he previously spoke with our Customer Success Manager, Giovanni).
• Provide a new offer relevant to ours.marketing strategybased on information you previously received about the suspension of our Customer Success Project.
• Show your experience (you mentioned the companies you have worked for before).
• End with a clear CTA.

2. Automate personalization

If you send a lot of emails, it can take a long time to adjust all of them manually.

Luckily, you can use tools likethe hunting campaignto save time preparing and scheduling highly personalized follow-ups.

While Hunter Campaigns doesn't automate the entire process, it can still save you hours of time. It's always better to spend a little more time personalizing each message, even if it's sent on autopilot.

See how to do it:

• Create a CSV file with detailed information about your prospects.

• Then upload them to Hunter Leads (a simple CRM tool that helps you structure information about your prospect).

• Use data from the .CSV file to automatically personalize mass emails.

5. Add a compelling call to action

If you're sending a follow-up to a cold lead, you need to be clear about what you're trying to accomplish with it.

Imagine receiving a follow-up similar to an email you couldn't open:

The first question you can ask yourself is "What does this person want from me?" There is no context, personalization, or call to action. Even reading the context of the email above, how do you know what to do?

A call to action is very important in follow up. If you don't guide your prospect through the next steps, it's highly unlikely they'll take the initiative.

Make it easy for the recipient to respond.

For example, when scheduling a meeting, suggest a specific time and date: "Monday 4:20 PM works for you?"

When you link to your content, you can ask an open question: "Maybe you'd like to link to our guide?"

On the other hand, if you want to find the right person in the company to talk about a specific topic, ask, "Are you the right person to talk about it?" If not, could you point me in the right direction?”

Many cold emails are missing or contain an ambiguous call-to-action that wastes the prospect's time. Make your call to action clear, compelling, and hard to resist. Tell your prospects what you expect of them.

6. Avoid sounding passive-aggressive

Avoid sounding passive-aggressive or desperate in your follow-up email.

Direct aggression is relatively easy to spot, but subtler passive-aggressive phrases can creep into your follow-ups with almost no second thought. These types of microaggressions canpiss off your potential customersand rapidly destroying the goodwill and all the mutual trust they have built.

Will it respond to a similar follow-up?

The answer is no.

Even if the prospect wants to respond to the first email and forgets (or just loses it), the chances of getting a response after that follow-up are very slim.

So try to skip passive-aggressive language in your follow-up emails, like:

• I follow you because you haven't answered me yet
• I've tried to reach you a few times now
• I know you are busy; I'm busy too
• I know you opened my first email several times.
• Any update on this?
• check only
• Friendly reminder

Also, try to take the desperation out of your follow-ups. Yes, you may be upset that your prospect hasn't responded to your last four follow-ups, but don't show your angst.

Try to re-evaluate what you can improve in your message, what reason your prospect might have for not responding to you (wrong lead, irrelevant offer, etc.), your call to action, and your offer.

These phrases indicate that you are a bit desperate, so try to skip them as well:

• If it is not much of a problem
• I apologize in advance for the interruption.
• sorry for being so stubborn

7. Create a perfect subject line for your cold follow-ups

Creating a great subject line is one of the first things you should do when setting up your follow-ups.

The subject line is the first thing your prospects see and they can decide whether or not to read your email based solely on the subject line.

Try not to be too obvious by using "Follow Up" or "Sign Up Only" as subject lines for your follow ups. Get a little more creative and write a catchy subject line that will get recipients to open your email.

Here are the main rules to follow when writing subject lines for your follow-ups:

• make them personal
• keep copy short
• ask interesting questions

File: How to Create Perfect Cold Email Subject Lines (55 Examples)

Do I have to create a different subject line for each follow-up?

I normally send and recommend using the same theme with the same subject line for cold follow ups.

This way, potential customers are quickly reminded of the offer from the previous email. In this case, you can also use follow-ups to continue the story or offer additional benefits.

However, you can send your follow-up email with a different subject if your follow-up email also includes all the important information. In this case, you are giving yourself another chance to attract attention. At the same time, I don't recommend changing the subject line more than once, so it doesn't look spammy.

Here's how to set it all upthe hunting campaign:

• Leave the subject field blank if you want to automatically send a follow-up message in the same thread.
• Add a follow-up subject line if you want it sent as a new email.

Examples of great subject lines for cold email follow-ups:

• Our next steps
• I am sending you the information I promised you.
• i hate garnishes
• great to talk to you
• I forgot to mention
• What would you say
• Only {{number of days}} day(s) left
• Nice to meet you {{first_name}}

Examples of follow-up emails

Need inspiration for your next follow-up email? Take a look at these 7 follow-up email examples.

1. Your thoughts?

This is a very simple and courteous follow-up email designed to keep you and your offer in the spotlight. This reminds the prospect of what you said and lets them know that you are available to answer questions.

2. Quick {{first_name}}

Sometimes the best way to get a prospect to respond is to make them smile. This follow-up email attempts to do just that.

3. Eligible Person

This follow-up email attempts to take the conversation further by asking the prospect if they are available for a call. If the prospect isn't the right person to talk to, he or she can refer you to a more appropriate colleague to continue the conversation.

4. No priority?

This email shows that you really care about the prospect's goals and won't bother them if they don't need your offer right away. However, you still keep the line open by letting them know they can reach you at any time.

5. Ideas about [[main objective the problem]]

Sending multiple emails and simply asking them if they read your previous email or if they have time for a call can irritate potential customers. On the other hand, providing value in the form of educational resources in your follow-up message is a great way to connect with a prospect.

6. Best fit

If a prospect hasn't responded to multiple follow-ups, it's a good idea to see if there's someone on your team they should contact.

7. Permission to close your file?

The fear of missing out can be a great motivator. With this follow-up email template, try to get the prospect to react by making them believe that their offer will no longer be available to them.

Looking for more follow-up email examples? Moneyhunter models.

To involve

It is very difficult to get the attention of someone who has not responded to you before.

So when you're organizing your follow-ups, focus primarily on adding value and making compelling offers, rather than bombarding your prospects with too many follow-ups.

Write a catchy opening line to get your prospects to read your message, keep the email short to grab their attention, and do some research to personalize follow-ups.

If you follow these simple tips, you are sure to get a response from your potential customers.