Writing follow-up emails for your prospects or customers is one of the most effective sales techniques. Indeed, with the evolution of digital marketing, email remains a privileged channel to arouse the interest of your prospects. However, it is not always obvious what is the right time to send a follow-up email.
In this article, Kiliba shares with you its strategies to improve your conversions thanks to email reminders. Before getting into the heart of the matter, let's see together the exact marketing definition of the email reminder.
Dunning mail : complete marketing definition
A follow-up email is an effective marketing strategy that consists in reiterating a prospect, a customer or a recruiter who did not react to your initial solicitation.
For example, it is possible to send an e-mail to customers who have not yet used a coupon sent before. However, a coupon is always a pleasure! Moreover, in the reminder e-mail, the offer is usually more advantageous. This will encourage your prospects to interact with your offer and have a better conversion rate.
When to follow up with someone who has not responded to an email?
At most, wait three days before sending a follow-up e-mail. If you wait a week, it will be too long. Indeed, your target will have time to forget you and move on.
Avoid sending an e-mail on the same day. It is important to avoid making the person you are contacting feel harassed. To follow up with someone who has not responded to your e-mail, the best time to send a follow-up e-mail is two to three days.
Why send a follow-up email to your target?
It's simple: the follow-up email is essential, because it greatly increases your chances of getting a response.
How many times have your emails gone unnoticed by your contacts? And even in some cases, despite your follow-up emails, some people continue to ignore them. So even if it seems like the situation is compromised, it's important to keep following up. Research and analysis shows that if you add just one more follow-up email, your average response rate increases by 11%.
If you want your contact to come forward or you want as many prospects as possible to take action, that 11% can make a big difference to the final results of your email campaign.
In general, follow-up emails have a higher response rate. In fact, the first follow-up email has an increase of 40 % increase in response rate over the first email sent. For example, if your average response rate for your first email is 5%, the next one will have an average response rate of 7%.
5 steps to follow to make an email reminder that converts
If your prospect doesn't respond to your first email, you may be thinking, "Well, if they didn't respond the first time, they probably aren't interested in my product/service and I should leave them alone."
However, many factors can affect a prospect's decision not to respond to your email. Your only focus should be on the 5 steps to follow to make an email follow-up that converts.
1. The right deadline for a reminder email
If you only wait one day to get back in touch after the first outreach email, you don't give your target time to respond.
Even worse, it signals to your prospect that you're not that busy and no one wants to work with a desperate salesperson. As mentioned above, wait at least three days between your first email and your follow-up email.
2. The subject line must be relevant
Write a relevant subject line that relates to your previous reminders. Use subject lines such as :
- "Re: our meeting last week".
- "List of (resources + company name)".
- "Following our phone call".
3. Offer value to your interlocutor
This marketing method called: jab, jab, jab, right hook by Gary Vaynerchuk consists in delivering a lot of value to your target before asking for anything.
By sending regular follow-up emails with free advice, you get your prospects' attention. Once you have sent at least two follow-up emails within 3 days of each other, go back to your initial value proposition.
4. The body of the text must be short
Limit yourself to 2 or 3 paragraphs at most. Remember that your prospect has already received your first e-mail. Your second e-mail should complement the first and not overwhelm your prospect with more information that will make it more difficult for him to respond.
The body of your follow-up email should :
- Provide more value to prospects.
- Make prospects understand the benefits of engaging with you.
- Be irresistible so that your prospects respond to your call for tenders.
Once the subject line, the preheader and the body of the text are written, it is necessary to introduce a relevant CTA in its email reminders.
5. Include a strong conclusion and a relevant CTA
Every communication you have with a prospect - from initial outreach to final documents - should include a conclusion. Choose firm conclusions over ambiguous ones.
For example, "Are you available on Friday for a demo of our new service?"
Tell them what you want from them and you'll be more likely to get it. What is sure is that the call-to-action should never be the same as the one in your first e-mail to put all the chances on your side.
Now that you know the right time frame for a reminder email, you have the choice to follow all the steps in this article or to automate your marketing campaigns with Kiliba. We provide you with no less than 22 fully automatic scenarios. Our AI collects your customers' data to communicate in a totally personalized way with your target. Go to the next level and activate your follow-up email scenarios in 10 minutes.
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