Follow-up emails are a way to jumpstart a conversation that may not have ended properly. they tend to be shorter messages, meant simply to grab the recipient’s attention and get the conversation moving again.
You may be waiting for a booking confirmation, trying to close a deal with a sales lead, or trying to revive a forgotten project. There are countless reasons to send follow-up emails, so it’s important to know how to manage them well.
how to get a follow up reminder in gmail
gmail’s best follow up reminder is its reminders feature. First released in May 2018, Gmail AI will now figure out which of your email conversations are important and prompt you to send another message.
This tracking tool works both in your inbox for messages you’ve received and need to reply to, and in your sent folder as a suggestion to revive the conversation.
Here’s how to set follow-up reminders with nudges:
1. open gmail in your web browser
2. click the settings button (the little gear symbol) at the top right of the page
3. Then See all settings.
4. On the General tab, scroll to Nudges and click on both options
5. At the bottom, click Save Changes.
how to automate follow-up emails
Unfortunately, Gmail does not offer users a way to automate their follow-up emails. however, there are other gmail features that will help users manage and send their follow-up emails:
pushes
If you’ve ever wondered “why is gmail asking me to follow up?” then you’ve already seen the reminder feature in gmail. Nudges are Gmail’s way of highlighting which conversations it thinks you should pick up. Email reminders, like the nudge feature, offer great help with outreach emails, email campaigns, and all kinds of sales and services. marketing needs.
The previous section explains how to enable nudges in your gmail.
repeat button
gmail repeat is a feature that helps users manage their follow-up emails. it’s also great for helping users keep their inbox in a more manageable state.
what the snooze button does is allow you to receive an email again when you can read and handle it. the email is temporarily removed from your inbox and then reappears at a time you choose.
repetition allows you to:
- clean up your inbox, leaving only emails that require immediate attention
- forget about email until you’re ready to respond
- distribute emails from more evenly throughout the week, especially if you have certain days with a spike in incoming emails
snooze emails in gmail is simple: when looking at your inbox, just hover over the email you want to snooze. the rightmost option should appear as a black clock symbol. click here and you can set when you want the email to reappear.
Scheduling follow-ups
The timing of an email can mean the difference between continuing a conversation or your message being “marked as read”. Scheduling your emails is a great way to overcome this problem by controlling exactly when the email reaches its destination. By properly using scheduled emails, follow-ups can become more effective than ever.
This is especially important for successful sales. making minor changes to the way you use touchpoints with leads and customers can make a big difference in conversion rates. By sending an email too quickly or too late, you can waste this optimized time with a follow-up email. therefore, it is important that the day and time are correct.
with mailtrack for gmail, scheduled emails can be greatly optimized. mailtrack shows users exactly when their emails are opened. this means that the sender can pinpoint the optimal time to send an email. not only as a general rule for all your contacts but for each contact in particular.
Not only can you see when your emails are opened, but mailtrack also lets you know when links in your emails have been clicked. This deeper insight shows you not only when your emails have been viewed and read, but also when your contacts actually engage with your communications.
free online automation tools
While gmail itself doesn’t include any tools to enable follow-up email automation, there are a wide range of online resources that can help.
outreach and salesloft are two popular sales engagement platforms that offer email automation, usually with a sales focus. In addition, there are a number of free services available online, such as Pigeon, Omnisend, Sendpulse, and more.
If you work in sales and marketing, or have a need to send a high volume of follow-up emails on a regular basis, these tools can give you a huge boost in the success of your emails.
how long to wait to send a follow-up email?
Possibly the most important factor in the success of follow-up emails is knowing when to send them. too soon and your communications can start to feel like spam; too late means you may have missed a window of opportunity.
In most situations, waiting 3 days is perfect. it’s fast enough that your contact doesn’t start forgetting the details of your chat, and it gives you a respectful amount of time in the conversation so you don’t feel annoyed.
but knowing how many days to wait is not specific enough. To maximize the chances of your contact engaging with email, it’s also best to know what time it works best. And while you may have a general sense of timing, it’s best to know when this person specifically reads emails.
mailtrack users get access to this information with every email they send. once a conversation with someone has found a steady rhythm, you can see exactly when your emails are being read. so by sending your emails right away, you can ensure that your email is at the top of your contact’s inbox when they have time to check your emails.
best uses for follow-up emails
There are countless reasons why someone would want to send a follow-up email to one of their contacts. More generally, if you messaged the person, but they didn’t reply as quickly as you’d like, sending a follow-up is a possible next step.
These are some of the main reasons to send a follow-up email:
- pursue sales opportunities. sales can be a frustrating field to work in. so when an email conversation hits a wall and the contact doesn’t respond, you might want to send a follow-up message. Remember, touchpoints like these need to be handled carefully – send too many and you start to appear spammy and annoy your prospect.
- send emails to existing customers. There are a number of reasons to send follow-ups to existing customers. maybe they recently signed up and want to contact after-sales support, or maybe they’ve already filed a complaint and want to see if they’re better now. research has shown that only 2.4% of companies follow up with their customers and 68% of customers say they leave a company because they don’t think the company cares about them, so this is a good practice to follow.
- job application updates. job search is a stressful time, which most of us have had to deal with in our lives. interviewing for a company and then not hearing from them can be particularly frustrating. Sending a follow-up email in these cases can help you move forward with your process, whether it’s preparing for the next step in the interview or moving forward with your job search.
- Thank you emails. These may seem unimportant, but they can really give a company a more human feel. Whether you’ve hosted or attended an event, made a sale, attended an important meeting, sending a thank you message a week later can have a positive impact.
- catch up. It’s often necessary to send a follow-up email months after you last spoke. This can happen if a sales lead needs to pause the conversation, or if a large team project stalls for some reason. Waiting a few months and then sending a new email at the right time can put the spark back into the conversation, while respecting everyone else’s request for space.