You've met with your prospect, chatted with them over the phone, or exchanged information over email — now, it's time to send your follow-up email. Before you begin crafting your email, you must identify and clarify the end goal, or objective, of your message.
This way, you can incorporate a strong call-to-action (CTA) that makes your recipient want to get back to you so you can achieve your end goal (whether that's a conversion, sale, building a stronger relationship with your recipient, etc.).
Let's review four of the most common, primary objectives of a follow-up email:
Information Needed
Sometimes, after having an initial conversation with someone, you might realize you forgot to ask them something or need additional information to be of assistance to them.
You might ask for your recipient to clarify a piece of information about their business and/ or pain points, get a status update on a deal you're working with them on, or determine whether or not you made a sale. By clearly stating your need for the specific information you're looking to obtain, you'll provide them with clear directions on how they can respond to you in an efficient manner for both parties.
Meeting Request
Whether it's to pick their brain, pitch a product or idea, ask for assistance, or receive feedback, there's a chance you're writing your follow-up email to request another meeting or conversation. In your email, you should provide detail about what you're looking to discuss in the meeting, and why the discussion will be of value for your recipient (know how you can help your recipient).
To make things even simpler for your recipient, you can add a link to a free meeting scheduling software, so they can add time to your calendar.
Catch Up
If you haven't spoken to a connection in a while, hear big news about them or their company, or learn they've achieved a major accomplishment, you'll probably want to catch up with them and get the details directly from them about what happened. After all, these situations might change their need for assistance from you and your business.
For example, maybe their business has recently expanded and they're finally in a place where they can afford your support or need your services now more than ever. That's why catching up through a follow-up email can be so useful. Be sure to state what it is you're hoping to catch up on specifically in your email to avoid a vague, or even lazy, sounding message — show your recipients how much you care about whatever it is you want to review with them.
Thank You
Saying "thank you" goes a long way. Although this type of follow-up doesn't always warrant an immediate response, it leaves your recipients with a positive feeling about you and your brand. Showing gratitude is professional and it's something people remember down the road — they might need to do business with you again in the future or refer you to a friend, colleague, or someone else in the industry.
Examples of situations in which you'll want to say "thank you" to your email recipients include when they ...
... provide you with a referral.
... write you a review or help you complete a case study.
... close a deal/ do business with you.
... give you their attention, chat with you (via any mode of communication), or meet with you in person.
As you can see, once you've determined the objective of your follow-up email, you can begin writing your note with a clear purpose. This way you can incorporate your CTA in a way that's obvious and easy for your recipients to understand and act on. This includes responding with the information you've requested, scheduling a meeting time with you, catching up on what's happened in their life — whether it's businesses or personal — since you last spoke, or simply reading and acknowledging your thank you note.
By identifying and stating your objective in your follow-up email, you'll be able to provide your recipients with a professional-sounding message and CTA that gives them some type immediate value (depending on your specific objective) and a way to act on it.
Let’s take a look at a follow-up email template with a clear objective so you can get a better idea of how to state your purpose and include a CTA for your recipients. This specific template falls under the "meeting request" category, but feel free to tailor this template to your specific goal and recipient.
When you start a new business or release a new product, your primary focus is on spreading the word across the market and once that’s done, potential customers pull up their socks to get associated with the new venture. But that is not the end of the story! No matter how many people you attract in the first place, they will never convert them into your customers with out timely follow-ups. As they say, agents who don’t follow-up with customers are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Business – Marketing – Customers: 3 Interconnected aspects
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Business marketing doesn’t really mean conducting proper market research and presenting your product in the most enticing way possible. In fact, marketing strategies include the fundamentals of preparing a potential lead to buy your product without leaving any second thoughts within their minds.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Following up with your customers is the most crucial part of any of your marketing strategies, which most marketers forget. Therefore, I’m here to tell you why is it necessary to follow-up with customers or potential leads. Here’s a graph which will throw light on the condition of the customers who didn’t experience any kind of follow-ups.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Therefore, 65% of the customers imbibe negativity within themselves about the company. No customers will stay with you if you leave them alone during difficult situations, so it’s time to follow up!
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Importance of follow-up with customers:
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Expectation fulfillment
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
When you follow-up with customers, you are able to know their preferences and what they are expecting from you. When you are able to understand what your customers want you are also able to provide them with a quality product. Which provides them with more reason to get your product.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Customer’s stick around
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Following up with customers gives an impression that you care about your customers and are available for them. That is why customers stick to your business for a longer period of time as you are always available.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Makes customers feel special
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Well, who doesn’t enjoy special treatment? Being a customer I enjoy getting all the attention and treated like a special individual. Whenever my feedback is asked it makes me feel valued and I am assuming similar is the case with you. So follow-ups make customers feel special and therefore this increases the reliability process for the customers.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Takes marketing a step ahead
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Customers remember you for the rest of their lives, for delivering great customer service. 96% of the customers also agree that customer service is a parameter to determine their choice of brand and also their loyalty towards it. As “follow-up” is the synonym for customer service, your customers with undoubtedly talk about it with others. Hence there’s a high possibility that your brand might spread among other people without even you knowing about it (and there is nothing like genuine word of mouth). Thus, easy marketing.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Here are a few other major reasons why you need to follow-up with customers:
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
- A regular follow-ups to customers will give a chance toheard and engage effectively.
- Follow-ups can be a great source to ask customers, “What they want/expect next.”
- Customers usually want a medium to get in touch with the company. Therefore, the follow-up system enhances this communication.
- A follow-up call is always required after conducting a marketing campaign to the people who already enquire. You might just get a lead!
- Existing customers receiving follow-ups are more likely to go for the new product than the ones without.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Existing customers receiving follow-ups are more likely to go for the new product than the ones without.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
How to followup with customers, timely and effectively?
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Though there is an ample number of reasons for the importance of follow-up with customers, it does matter what kind of processes are you executing in order to retain your customers. Indeed, customer follow-up is an art and it takes time, strategy, and a will to serve customers better to master this art.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Usually, when we talk about follow-up with customers, we tend to relate to follow-up via emails or messages. But, can someone tell me what is the possibility that the message or email sent, shall be read at that very point in time? Thus, what I personally feel is, a phone call is the best medium to follow up with your existing customers. To substantiate my statement I would like to tell you that statistics also say that 61% of the customers prefer phone calls as the channel for following up. The simple idea working behind it is, it isn’t that time-consuming and helps in a one-on-one conversation, without any delays in providing or receiving information.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
But, these existing phone systems do not tell you the names or numbers all by themselves. Either you need to take a note or search your phone directories. Hmm…annoying?
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Make Easy Follow-up
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
To make your follow-up with customers easier at just a click away, MyOperator provides its call management system, wherein all your incoming and missed calls are tracked, with a facility to set reminders for follow-up with customers. For example, if a customer calls on MyOperator customer service helpline or on the toll-free helpline during business hours, they get a real-time response first from IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and then from one of the executives after call routing. And during non-business hours and holidays, customer calls were added to the follow-up queue along with the facility of voicemail. On the next working day, our executives listen to the voicemail received and callback on all missed calls from customers using the built-in outbound calling solution and dialer app.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
And here is how you can timely follow-up with your customers:
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
It’s simple! Just set reminders and there you go to manage all your scheduled lists.
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Main objective to followup
Share
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Tweet
Our main objective is to make communication easier and simple. It is an initiative to maintain an effective communication network with your existing customers, prospective leads, and business people within the organization. It is a movement towards managing calls on the go! In case, you miss out on incoming customer calls then watch how MyOperator’s follow-up feature can help you get back to those clients without fail.