Your first email should be the opening of a whole chain of communication. As a good salesperson, you need to be persistent. You need to show your prospects that you believe in the value you provide and that you know they will benefit from it. That’s why you shouldn’t show all your cards at once. Here are a few successful follow-up strategies:
What should the follow-up include?
Pitch your prospects. Show another angle of your product; answer another problem. It should be:
Slightly different to the first message.
Show various benefits of your product.
Short but to the point, and as relevant as the other messages.
Remind them of your previous messages. Your email might have got stuck in the inbox of a prospect in need. Do not let bad timing ruin your conversion:
A short message to move you up in the prospects’ inbox and remind them about your offer.
Polite but firm tone.
Possibly link to an article of yours; maybe something valuable for your recipient and relevant to your messages.
Tease and give them something they want.
Show potential value for your prospect – offer them a trial account, a taste of your services.
Let them see how they will benefit from your solution before purchasing.
Not every person contacted will be up for your offer, and most of them will not even reply to your messages. That’s why you need to add a break-up email at the end of your thread.
Leave only two options – it’s a „take it or leave it” situation. Ask the recipient directly whether they are interested and want to see your offer or not. Then tell them you will not message them again.
You can add one more killer pitch (if you have not used it before).
How should the follow-up be written?
The form of your follow-ups is important, but so is the content. That's why you should:
1. Keep your messages brief and informative
Remember that you do not need to lay all your cards on the table at once. Try to keep your follow-ups short (3-4 sentences max), to-the-point and focus on sharing some unique value with each successive message you’re sending. The goal of follow-ups in your outbound campaign is not to share the complete information on your product but to spark your prospect’s curiosity and build a business relationship with them in the first place.
2. Nurture your prospect
In case you do not hear from your prospect for a long time, the last thing you should do is giving up on them. Sending follow-ups is a great way of keeping in touch with your lead and providing them with extra value. Try not to send another Have you received my last message? follow-up every time you want to remind your prospect about your offer. Share some real value with them like an interesting blog post or some great article that you came across recently. As an alternative, you could also invite your prospect to an event or webinar that you’re hosting. Such follow-ups will surely not appear as pressing to your prospect.
3. Personalize your messages
The key to a successful outbound campaign is a high level of its personalization. While using the ready-made and universal follow-up templates is of course a way to go now, follow-ups still require some more of a human touch in order to be effective. Always try to touch your prospect’s unique needs, their job requirements and their company’s major focus. While scheduling follow-ups it’s also crucial to refer to the content of your previous message so that your prospect truly believes it’s not another robotic newsletter.
4. Include a strong call-to-action
To make your outbound experience truly effective it is crucial to include an action-based part in the content of your email. You should clearly state what the prospect should do next after reading your message – either it’s a clicking on your company website link, scheduling a call or registering for the webinar, it’s essential that your prospect knows what to do in case they are indeed interested in your offer. By providing a strong call-to-action, not only do you keep control over the sequence you’re sending but most of all you’re making it easier for the prospect to act according to your plan.
5. Take a prospect-centric approach
It’s not your offer and product features that you should be mostly focused on while composing follow-ups. Most of all, you need to pay attention to your prospect’s needs and problems that your product or service may address. Follow-ups are a perfect way of establishing a relationship with your prospect. The more you touch your prospects needs and requirements the stronger this connection gets and the better chance for the prospect to convert into a long-term customer.
6. Adjust the timing
Last, but not least, just like with the first message you need to make sure you time your follow-ups appropriately. If you want to read more about best practices on timing, take a look at this article!