How to write a response-worthy follow-up email (with 15 templates)

Email is one of the most convenient and logical ways to follow up with prospects after your first contact, turning prospects into leads and leads into clients.

However, prospective customers’ inboxes are filled with emails, so how do you convince them to open yours?

We’ve compiled 15 of the best follow-up email examples you can use for almost any sales situation, from after successful demos to receiving no response.

You’ll also learn when to send these follow-up templates and how to tweak, adapt and learn from email check-ins to increase conversions.

What is a follow-up email?

A follow-up email is an email you send to someone you’ve contacted before. Unlike a cold outreach message, a follow-up email comes after initial contact or when you’ve built a relationship with the email recipient.

Sales teams send these emails at significant points in the sales funnel to gather information, remind the recipient of an action to take or simply to continue the customer journey.

Knowing how to send a great meeting follow-up email can be the key to keeping the conversation moving forward. It’s essential to recap the meeting’s key points, remind the prospect of next steps and offer any additional resources that might support their decision-making process.

If you’re unsure how to send a great meeting follow-up email, focus on being concise, polite and helpful. Recap what was discussed, provide any promised information and clearly outline the next steps to keep the prospect engaged.

In some cases, you might be just sending a courtesy email before opening a return for a client. This type of follow-up helps maintain professionalism and ensures the customer is aware of the process, avoiding any misunderstandings.

Whether it’s just sending a courtesy email before opening a return or checking in after a meeting, follow-up emails are key to nurturing customer relationships and clarifying next steps in the sales journey.

Here’s an example of a sample follow-up email using Pipedrive:

A good follow-up email for sales may be transactional (an email sent to an individual recipient to complete a transaction).

These types of messages are often strictly informational. For example, a transactional post-purchase follow-up email may contain details about price or shipping.

Sales follow-up emails can also be commercial (i.e., including a marketing message). The main purpose of commercial follow-ups is to promote awareness and engagement or to make a sale.

Whatever the nature of the message, a polite follow-up email can help you build trust and close deals faster.

When drafting a polite follow-up email sample for a request, for example, ensure your tone is courteous and considerate. Politely restating the initial request and offering additional support or information can keep the conversation professional and prompt a response.

A well-written, polite follow-up email sample for a request can gently remind the recipient of your previous inquiry without appearing pushy. It’s essential to be respectful of their time while making it clear that you’re seeking their assistance or action.

Why do you need follow-up emails?

Follow-up emails have many uses in sales. For example, you can send them to increase cold email campaign response rates, align with a lead after a meeting or nurture prospects further down the funnel.

While all salespeople love hot leads that buy immediately and take the least effort, these will always be a small percentage of your total number of prospects.

According to our State of Sales and Marketing Report 2021-2022, 54% of reps report spending most of their day selling, followed by prospecting.

Which of the following tasks do you spend most of your day working on?

For most prospects and leads, reps need to put in a lot of effort to close the deal – and email follow-ups help maximize that effort.

Email follow-ups can be great tools for nurturing warm or cold leads through the sales funnel. They help you build relationships with prospects, improve your brand perception and encourage potential clients or customers to convert.

When you haven’t heard back from a prospect, it’s important to send a carefully worded follow-up to reignite communication. If you’re sending a follow-up email after no response, using the right language and timing can make all the difference.

Crafting your message based on a “follow-up email after no response” template ensures you remain professional while reminding the recipient of your previous outreach and offering value that encourages a reply. This approach can help turn a silent prospect into an engaged lead.

15 sales follow-up email templates

You may know you need to reach out to a certain contact again but you’re still unsure what to write in a follow-up email to prospective clients.

Here are 15 polite follow-up email templates (divided up by use case) to help you engage prospects and turn them into customers faster.

Use case: after the initial meeting

Let’s say you met with the prospect and went through your sales pitch. You had a great meeting and left feeling confident that you initiated a deal. Three days later, however, you still haven’t had a response.

The classic “gentle reminder email” or “just touching base” can help to move the last conversation forward and provide a concrete reason for a response.

Use one of these follow-up emails after a meeting to show prospects why they should buy from you.

1. Email subject line: Are you ready to take the next steps?

2. Email subject line: Good news! I have the info you requested

Use case: Confirming details of value-based pricing

When you’re selling a product or service that requires a bespoke proposal or price, you’ll need to follow up after the initial meeting. This is your chance to sell your services (again) and reiterate the pricing options.

Here’s an email template you can use in this situation.

3. Email subject line: Here’s the pricing information you requested

Use case: following a trigger event

If your analytics show that a prospect opened an email or clicked on a link and visited your site, you need to strike while the lead is hot. For example, you may use an automated “Contact Us” email template when someone fills out the contact form on your website.

Offering a clear call to action at the right time gives you a better chance of moving them to the next stage of your sales funnel.

When you write a follow-up email after form submission, it’s important to acknowledge the action the prospect has taken, provide relevant information and encourage them to take the next step in the customer journey, such as scheduling a call or accessing additional resources.

Take a look at these trigger email templates for some inspiration.

4. Email subject line: Do you want more information?

5. Email subject line: I see you’re interested in [Company name]

Use case: a prospect needs to consult with colleagues

In many cases, the person you met initially isn’t always the final or only decision-maker. According to Gartner, B2B (business-to-business) buyers typically include six to 10 decision-makers.

If your B2B sales contact needs to consult with colleagues or management, here’s a template you can use.

6. Email subject line: Do you (or your colleagues) need more information?

Use case: after meeting at a trade show, networking event or conference

Trade shows and conferences are great places to network and gather leads. If you pick your events correctly, you can converse with segments of your target market face-to-face and start building deeper relationships.

When leads entrust you with their contact details or show an interest in your product or service, you can use follow-up emails as opportunities to give them some more information or background on your product or service.

Here’s an example of how to craft this type of email.

7. Email subject line: Following up from [insert event name] – here’s the information I promised!

Use case: immediately after leaving a voicemail

If you try to get a hold of a lead on the phone but don’t have any luck, you’ll probably leave a voicemail. In this scenario, it’s also a good idea to respond using a follow-up email template..

A voicemail followed by an email gives the prospect an extra nudge and shows that you’re committed to catching their attention. When they receive both communications, you may well position yourself in the forefront of their mind.

Take a look at this example to learn how to craft a post-voicemail email.

8. Email subject line: I just tried to call you

Use case: Mistaken identity

Finding the right person to talk to is half the battle when it comes to sales.

If you’re talking to the wrong person, it’s important to find out sooner rather than later. That way, you can spend more time focusing on converting the decision-maker.

Take a look at this email template to see how to ask a prospect if they’re the right contact (and who you should be talking to if they’re not).

9. Email subject line: Can you point me in the right direction?

Use case: Following up the follow-up

What about how to follow up on an email? If you’ve already sent a follow-up email but haven’t heard back, it’s time to follow up again.

Sending a curious or informational follow-up email after no response to your original email can keep a lead moving through the pipeline.

Here are a couple of templates to help you tread the line between being pushy and gently nudging the prospect in the right direction.

10. Email subject line: A few things you may not know about [company name]

11. Email subject line: Still hoping to connect with you

Use case: Offering a free sample, test, or demo

To hook your prospects further into the sales funnel, you might want to offer a free trial of our product or service.

This template is a great example of how to offer prospects a trial of your product or service.

12. Email subject line: A gift for you and your company

Use case: To push your features and USPs

To show prospects what they’re missing, use a follow-up email to promote your key features and unique selling propositions (USPs) by sharing relevant content from your company. This informational follow-up email template is a good way to promote your services without seeming too boastful.

13. Email subject line: [Content title, e.g. “10 ways Pipedrive boosts your bottom line”]

Use case: The final try

If you’ve followed up multiple times and you’re still not getting a response, you might have to end the prospect’s journey. As a result, you’ll have more time to focus on quality leads that are more likely to make a purchase.

And sometimes, the best way to get a response is to tell them you’re leaving. Sprinkle a little humor on top and you just might tear down their walls and get a response.

Here are a couple of templates you can try if you find yourself in this situation.

14. Email subject line: It’s really lonely out here

15. Email subject line: Can I close your file?

Why do you need follow-up emails?

Now that we’ve shared our sales follow-up email templates and some tips on how to send follow-up emails, let’s look at why you need to send them in the first place.

All salespeople love a hot lead, the kind that buys immediately and takes the least amount of effort. But hot leads will always be a small percentage of your total number of prospects.

According to our State of Sales Report 2020-2021, 55% of reps report spending the majority of their day selling, followed closely by prospecting and lead qualification. That wouldn’t be the case if the majority of leads were qualified, hot and ready to commit.

This is where follow-up emails come into play.

An email follow-up (or email marketing) is a great tool for nurturing your warm or cool leads through the sales funnel. It helps you build relationships with prospects, improve your brand perception and encourage potential customers to convert.

How to boost engagement with a better follow-up process

Before writing your first follow-up email, you’ll need a solid follow-up process in place.

Here, we’ll cover five essential steps your follow-up process must include. Then, we’ll take a look at mistakes to avoid along with ways to optimize your process.

1. Understand the customer journey

Start by understanding how customers move through the buying journey and interact with your business. This will inform the content you include and when you send the emails (more on this later).

For example, you don’t want to send an intro email to a lead that’s almost ready to buy. Instead, you want to send an email that’ll tip them over the edge to make a purchase.

Understanding the customer journey will help you create relevant and personalized emails that reach prospects at the right time.

If you’re not sure how to identify the customer journey, here are some steps you can take:

• Create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictional character that represents your ideal customer. It outlines their demographics, personality traits, goals, pain points and challenges. A persona helps you understand what your ideal customer wants and how they want to interact with your business.

• Review past customer interactions. Get a clear picture of how your customers engage with your business by looking back. Do prospects engage with you on social media? Do they open all your emails? Do they keep revisiting your website?

2. Identify where the follow-up fits into your sales pipeline

In addition to the customer journey, you also need to understand the stages of your sales pipeline. The way you follow up with prospects and leads depends on where they are in the sales pipeline (also known as the purchasing funnel). You’ll need a follow-up email sequence at each stage.

A typical sales pipeline can be broken down into the following steps:

1. Lead acquisition: This is when a lead first submits a form or takes the first action to find out more about your product or service. Here, you must respond quickly with a welcome email to strike while their motivation is hot. You’ll also need to follow up if they don’t confirm an appointment or next steps.

2. Lead qualification: Qualification is when you decide which actions indicate that the customer is moving through the sales pipeline. For example, if a customer has already requested a demo, you know they’re further along the pipeline than someone who’s signed up for an email newsletter.

3. Lead prioritization: The information you have on the prospect, as well as any actions they take, will help you prioritize the leads that are more likely to convert. For example, if a lead visits your pricing page and your features page more than once, you’ll want to flag them as high priority. You can segment your audience and offer an email follow-up sequence that’s relevant to their customer journey.

4. Host a demo or meeting. After the initial conversation, you’ll want to schedule a presentation or a pitch. You’ll also need to consider who you’re presenting to. For example, a senior decision-maker will need more strategic insights, while more “tactical” roles value technical specs. Be sure to send a follow-up email immediately after the call, which keeps you at the top of a prospect’s mind (and inbox) until your next call.

5. Negotiate and make a commitment. This stage involves discussing pricing, services and contracts with the lead. Follow up with relevant emails to manage expectations and solidify commitments.

6. Close the deal. Finally, the deal is won and the sale is made.

If you receive a flat-out “no” throughout any of these stages, the game’s not over yet. You can continue to follow up with leads in the hope of converting them in the long run (within reason – you don’t want to irritate them).

3. Plan when to send your follow-up messages

Good follow-up emails rely on timing. Knowing the right amount of time to wait, what time of day and which days of the week to send your follow-up emails will help you generate a more generous response rate.

The perfect day and time to send follow-up emails varies from industry to industry. The best place to look? Your own CRM.

Look at which emails generate the best open rates and reply rates. Analyze when they were sent and use this to plan the timing around your follow-up process. If you don’t have access to past data, take a look at third-party data or conduct your own A/B testing to see what works for your subscribers.

4. Craft engaging (and relevant) subject lines

An engaging subject line can be the difference between a lead opening your email or sending it straight to the trash.

Here are some best practices for creating a compelling subject line for your target audience:

• Review past open, click and engagement rates to see what works. Take a look at how prospects and leads have engaged with your past subject lines. Do shorter subject lines get more engagement? Does using punctuation increase clicks? Identify the trends and use these insights to inform your subject lines going forward.

• Do some A/B testing to try out new options. Use different subject line examples to see which formatting works best for your audience.

• Segment your audience so you can personalize subject lines. Follow-up email subject lines should align with the audience segment and their stage in the buyer journey. Keep your audience in mind when writing your subject line. If they don’t resonate with it, they might not click.

5. Track results

To measure the success of your follow-up emails, you need to set goals.

If things aren’t going to plan, you can return to the drawing board and change the way you’re doing things. If things are going well, you can hone in on this and spread it across the rest of your follow-up emails.

To effectively track and manage your email marketing goals, take a look at Pipedrive’semail analytics and reporting features. With our software, you can set goals and track progress in real-time. Create reports, access unique insights and use this information to inform your future follow-up emails.

3. Plan when to send your follow-up messages

Good follow-up emails rely on timing. Knowing the right amount of time to wait, what time of day and which days of the week to send your follow-up emails will help you generate a more generous response rate.

The perfect day and time to send follow-up emails varies from industry to industry. The best way to determine yours is to look through your own customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Look at which emails generate the best open rates and reply rates. Analyze when reps sent them and use this sales data to plan the timing of future follow-up processes.

For example, here’s what response tracking looks like using Pipedrive’s AI Sales Assistant:

If you don’t have access to past metrics, look at third-party data or conduct your own A/B testing to see what works for your subscribers.

4. Craft engaging (and relevant) subject lines

An engaging subject line can be the difference between a lead opening your email or sending it straight to the trash.

Here are three best practices for creating a compelling subject line for your particular target audience:

• Review past open, click and engagement rates to see what works. Look at how prospects and leads have engaged with your past subject lines. Do shorter subject lines get more engagement? Does using punctuation increase clicks? Identify trends and use insights to inform subject lines going forward.

• Do some A/B testing to try out new options. Send two variations of your best follow-up email subject lines to see which formatting or tone appeals most to your audience.

• Segment your audience so you can personalize subject lines. Sales follow-up email subject lines should align with the audience segment and their stage in the buyer journey. If they don’t resonate with it, they might not click.

Once you’ve sent your emails, all that’s left is to track your important metrics (e.g., open rates and clicks).

5. Track follow-up results

To measure the success of your follow-up emails, you need to set goals for each strategy. That way, if things aren’t going to plan, you can return to the drawing board and change course.

If email open rates and clicks are increasing, you can hone in on why and try the same tactics across other types of follow-ups.

To effectively track and manage your email marketing goals, look at Pipedrive’s email analytics and reporting features.

For example, this customized performance report tracks campaign deliverability data.

Using Campaigns, you can set goals and track progress in real time. You can also create reports, access unique insights and use this information to inform future follow-up emails.

6 follow-up mistakes to avoid

Developing a consistent follow-up process puts you in a good position to guide your prospects through the customer journey. However, there are several challenges you need to face to prevent the common cracks that your leads can slip through.

Out of all the follow-up mistakes that sales reps make, here are the six that tend to catch teams out most often:

1. Not following up quickly. The faster you follow up with leads and prospects, the more chance you’ll have of getting a response. Put systems in place (like email or marketing automation) to ensure you’re responding as quickly as possible.

2. Not focusing on the company as a whole. When dealing with large organizations, email follow-ups may need to engage multiple people. Always find out as much information about all the buying decision-makers as possible to target your emails accordingly.

3. Not following up often enough. A study by the Rain Group found that it takes eight touchpoints to get a prospect to conversion. Consistent contact is essential, so ensure you’re following up enough to encourage leads to make a purchase.

4. Following up too often. While it’s important to follow up regularly, send the right amount at the right time so you don’t bombard your audience with a constant flow of emails.

5. Not using preferred channels. Some leads prefer phone calls or face-to-face communication to email. To effectively nurture leads, find out the best way to reach them. If they’ve already purchased from you, follow up on the channel they used previously.

6. Not tracking your metrics. Use a CRM system to measure your emails’ open and response rates to see how they perform. That way, you can optimize future follow-ups and give yourself the best chance of getting a reply.

Avoid these sales activities and you’ll stay on track to send successful follow-ups that get results.

Effective follow-up email best practices for better response rates

When you optimize your follow-up emails, you’re more likely to see an uptick in response rate (and thus conversions) from your efforts.

Consider these five sales tips to improve follow-up (and original emails) and boost engagement:

1. Begin with value selling. When a new lead enters your pipeline, add as much value as possible upfront. New leads are unlikely to trust you at first but by guiding them and acting like an advisor, you can earn it to close the deal.
   
   

2. Use data and insights. Back up claims with valid customer data, third-party statistics and anecdotes from industry thought leaders. Leverage social proof like testimonials and case studies to showcase the results you’ve generated for similar clients.
   
   

3. Use automation effectively. For automation to be effective, you need to combine it with personalization. With Pipedrive’s email marketing software, for example, you can send automated personalized emails whenever a lead reaches a certain pipeline stage.
   
   

4. Be clear about your product or service. Use concise email copy to describe what your product or service involves. Avoid complex jargon and use words and phrases that clearly outline what you do and why the lead should buy from you.
   
   

5. Create visually appealing emails. Structure emails clearly and professionally to entice recipients to read the content. Use white space, add a clear CTA and highlight the most important information.

All these tips apply to any sales and marketing efforts, so bear them in mind when creating your next social media or content strategy.

Final thoughts

The best follow-up emails – commercial or informational – boost sales and build relationships with recipients.

By now, you have a clear idea of what follow-up emails are, why they’re important and how to create your own follow-up sequence to nurture and segment your prospects and leads.

The next step is determining how to effectively manage your follow-up emails (and all of your email marketing efforts).

Pipedrive’s email marketing software allows you to seamlessly manage campaigns, create beautifully crafted content, track clicks and open rates in real time and review key information at a glance.

Try Pipedrive for free today.