In a world filled with text, messages, and emails, it can sometimes be challenging to
get a required response. You do want to get one as soon as possible, but also do not
want to be perceived as too pushy. There is a thin line when writing a follow-up
email. It is a common practice in business negotiations, meetings, interviews and
we are here to help you increase the odds of getting a response the right way. First
of all, we will talk about mistakes you should avoid to make sure your follow-up
email gets the attention.
- Do not use “follow up” in your subject. This should be self-explanatory, if you use this subject, you are only increasing the chance for your email to be ignored as the recipient may find it unimportant. Try to come up with a subject
that attracts attention.
- Another big mistake is to casually start with “just following up” and copy the
content of the previous request. Add a value to your follow-up instead. You
can try to help with the solution to the issue or provide more options on how
to respond.
- Using a call for action to your follow-up email is also a good practice. Do you want a reply or a form to fill out? There is no need to be harsh, but it is important to be clear on your requirements.
- The last common mistake is not following up with your email quickly enough.
Consider three workdays as a standard. There is really little point in following
up after 10 days. Even though you remember the topic, your recipient will
probably have only a vague memory of it. So, the more you wait the longer it
takes the recipient to respond. From the other side of view, you do not want
to write earlier than three days unless the response is crucial for you. The
more pressure, the lesser probability of you getting a satisfactory answer.
Follow-up email after meeting
Just like any other email, your follow up message should have a clear objective. Do
you want to thank a recipient and offer your help in return? Are you going to agree
on the next steps to take? Would you like to ask for an introduction or feedback? It
is tempting to prepare one generic email template and fire it up at every new connection you’ve met. But it does not always work that way. You should try to personalize your message and show a person your genuine interest.
A similar approach is applicable for business meetings. Whether you wish to close a
deal or just make sure the terms agreed upon meeting will be fulfilled. Defining the
goal helps you frame your email appropriately and achieve the actual result.
We would like to introduce a few useful functions of eM Client that will push your
productivity even further. The first is Watch for Reply. It can be triggered by clicking on a small eye symbol at the top of the screen while creating any message. Watch for reply
will notify you when a reply to your email is received. This way you
never miss an important email. It can also show a notification when a message was
not replied to after a specific time.
Create task from Message is used to schedule a reminder for your follow-up
emails and can be set by right-clicking on any message. Using both these functions
is very convenient and reliable. Working with eM Client lets your efficiency skyrocket every day.