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Contacting a key decision maker, setting a product demonstration, or moving forward with a sale requires persistent communication. That’s why your business must create ongoing reminders of what you offer. One call is rarely enough to close a sale, which is why skilfully crafted follow-up emails are vital tools for sales representatives.
Composing such emails is both an art and a skill, as we have to strike the right balance between generating interest and avoiding overwhelming our potential clients. The difficulty lies in finding this balance.
Given that people are inundated with 126 emails per day, your first email may see little engagement. That makes mastering the art of follow-up emails crucial for digital marketers.
Let’s explore how critical these follow-up emails can be and the timing and approach to effectively engage your audience for better outcomes.
Case Study on Saleshandy using follow-up emails
Saleshandy is a widespread email outreach and sales automation platform aimed at increasing sales and engagement by initiating strategic follow-up email campaigns. They recognized that such campaigns were vital to re-engaging prospective clients and turning them into actual customers.
Challenge
The hurdle Saleshandy faced was creating effective follow-up emails that prompted further interaction from potential customers. The team needed to ensure every follow-up email was personalized and concise, offering value addition for potential customers.
Solution
As a solution, Saleshandy executed a three-step follow-up email campaign over two weeks. Each of these emails aims to reignite interest in the client and offer more value addition while motivating potential patrons to take action.
Email – Day 1
A day after the initial contact, they dispatched an immediate follow-up email. This short reminder email encompassed a personalized message that emphasized the advantages of Saleshandy’s services.
Email – Day 7
A week after the first email, the company sent out a second one. This email gave more information on Saleshandy services and added an attraction by offering a free trial or consultation.
Email – Day 14
Two weeks after the first email, the company sent the third one. This was the final prompt, reminding me about Saleshandy’s services and nudging possible clients to book a call or demo.
Results
The follow-up operation caused greater engagement and led to more deals being closed for Saleshandy. It inspired interest both from those who at first showed interest but took no action later and those new to our circle.
Key Points
- Timing Matters: Saleshandy spread the emails over two weeks, giving potential clients enough time to weigh the offer.
- Make It Personal: The emails recognized each potential client, spotlighted Saleshandy’s benefits, and gave more value as well.
- Enhance Value: Every email increases value by sharing more information, offering free trials or consultations, or urging decision-making.
- Maintain Consistency: the follow-up emails kept the message stable and felt so that potential clients would better know what to expect, hence engaging further with us.
Conclusion
Saleshandy’s success with follow-up emails shows how powerful they can be in raising sales and participation rates. By adding more value, personalizing each engagement, and planning the timing of emails purposefully, Saleshandy successfully rekindled interest from potential clients, causing them to make decisions in line with our call to action.
It would help if you had multiple types of follow-up emails ready to send, such as after unsuccessful outreach attempts, cold calling, demonstration, etc, following major guidelines that apply to all your correspondences. As these help maintain contact. The content of these emails varies with the purpose they are designed for.
Many marketers consider email to be a very effective channel that has yielded twice the results when compared with other sales and marketing strategies, such as cold calling.
What is the suitable number of follow-up emails in a campaign?
The quantity of follow-up emails you send relies on your campaign’s goal. When selling a product or service, you need to send more emails to spread awareness . On the contrary, if you aim to collect survey responses or website clicks, especially with an unfamiliar audience, fewer might be better.
Email automation helps you determine what clicks with a specific audience. By automating your emails, you can deliver personalized and relevant messages at significant stages in the customer interaction process. Also, you can create an email series that auto launches based on your prospect’s behaviours.
Alongside an effective lead qualification system, email automation can relieve sales and marketing teams from much of the work involved in sales prospecting. Here are some ideas for email automation campaigns for inspiration.
The best timing for follow-up emails
Delivery time plays a crucial role in any email follow-up.
Your goal is to ensure that your audience remembers your previous communication but is not annoyed by hearing from you again too soon. A good guideline would be to allow a 2–3-day gap between each email, ensuring consistent engagement without overwhelming your audience.
List of things while sending follow-up emails:
Avoid rushing them
You certainly want to make sure prospects are satisfied with your follow-ups. Even those who show interest may have other commitments; hence, they require some time before responding. Respect their time by allowing a few day intervals after a call or an email before contacting them again.
Garner their interest smartly.
Your prospects have busy schedules, and their email accounts could be filled with unread or unanswered emails. A dull or unclear email subject line might leave your email unread. If you want your emails to read, spend some time writing an engaging and clear subject line. However, mark your email as a high priority only if it’s a true emergency. Marking noncritical emails as high may irritate your recipient rather than get them to act fast.
Be valuable and brief.
If you are sending an email after a cold call or a voicemail, briefly remind them who you are and what the phone conversation was about. Check with them for a convenient time to discuss further about your offering. If the follow-up is after a demo or initial sales interaction, recap the critical benefits talked over on the phone.
You might want to attach relevant case studies, white papers or any meaningful content that helps answer often-asked queries during the sales process. However, always keep in mind that these details should be short and precise. The usage of bullet points can help keep the content easily readable.
Clarify next steps
If your potential customer is interested in what you offer but is still determining what next steps should be taken, then they won’t progress further in their journey with you. Clearly state in the body of your email what exactly they should know. Will there be another contact from you after a few days? Should they reply with extra details? Make sure the action ability on their part is clearly outlined so everything is understood.
Persistence pays
It could seem detrimental if one or two emails go unanswered as if the contact has lost interest, but wait to stop! A lot of contacts take time and need multiple interactions before they are ready to move forward in the sales process. Being persistent while remaining considerate and respectful can increase your chances of making a sale.
How to be less forceful in follow-up emails
Adequate follow-up is a skill. It is an art; hence, our title says it all.
- Avoid your follow-ups that feel like harassment. You are asking for a favor, so always be polite and friendly. Try not to use phrases like “did you get my email?” or “have you had a chance to look at my ideas yet?”.
- Use alternative methods to remind someone that you’ve been in touch without giving the impression of chasing them. For example, connect with them on LinkedIn or view their profile. This may seem silly, but it has often led to responses.
Your follow-up emails – experiment with different factors
The effectiveness of your email campaigns can be improved by testing different variables through trial and error methods. A/B testing subjects, messages, and closings of emails will help identify what works best for your audience. Innovations in email marketing should aim towards continuous improvement.
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