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Follow-Up Email Sequences Made Easy

When it comes to marketing, most small businesses find that it takes repeated messaging to prospects before those leads become clients. Unfortunately, I also find that a lot of the small business owners I meet are uncomfortable to reach out more than once to prospects.  This sets up an inherent problem.  One way that you can break through that tension is by creating follow-up email sequences in advance!  Today, let’s talk about follow-up email sequences made easy.

There are certain terms that often come up when business owners talk to me about what is stopping them from doing continued outreach. “I feel like I’m being a pest.”  “I’m worried I am going to annoy them.”  “I don’t want to push them away.”  The sense that you are being too intrusive or crossing an unspoken volume threshold seems to be a primary deterrent for follow-up.

Another thing I often hear is “I don’t know what else to say!”  If you are assuming from your prospect’s silence or postponement that the original message wasn’t received well, it can feel like you shouldn’t reach out again until you have a new thing to say.

In reality, we know certain things about marketing.  First, the rule of seven (read here) tells us it takes at least seven touch points to get a conversion, and in the real world it can take a lot more than that.  Second, we know that it takes time, consistency, and exposure to build trust.  Third, we know that just because a message landed in someone’s inbox doesn’t mean it was a convenient time for them to receive it.  They could be on vacation, working on a deadline, or be preoccupied with something going on in their personal life, and they might have otherwise been interested in your original message!

What does this mean for you?  It means it probably makes sense to send another message.  Chances are that you are ranking low on the “too-many-emails” alert meter.  (Still need to be convinced on this?  Check out this blog on “What If Sending That One Email Could Make You $8,000?”)


Chances are that you are ranking low on the too-many-emails alert meter. #followup #emailmarketing #marketing #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #biztips
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Now, what tends to make it easier to reach out repeatedly is if you pre-plan.  If you wait until you have a specific contact to respond to, it is easy to get stuck in the uncertainty of what to say and the awkwardness and anxiety around what they will respond.  If, instead, you start templating out how you want to approach contacts in different scenarios, knowing that an overall percentage of them will respond well to more outreach, it becomes much easier to create your plan for follow-up email sequences.

I tend to tackle this with a three-step process.

Step 1: Figure out about how many emails (or phone calls) you want to send, and how spaced out they should be.  If you are doing a webinar with a special offer that has a one week deadline, you might plan for 4-5 emails.  Some people even do one per day before the deadline!  If you have a client that you want to rebook, you might follow up once a month for six months.  If you are messaging a cold lead, maybe you decide you will send four emails, one week apart.  Start with the frequency and the time between the messages.

Step 2:  Summarize the main purpose of each email in your follow-up email sequences.  I keep this to bullet points. Building from Step 1, I write down email #1, email #2, email #3 and so forth.  I write down the date or – if it is sequence not attached to specific dates – the amount of time between emails.  Then I will summarize in a few words the point of the email.  In your case, maybe you are sending a recap or asking if they received the recap you sent.  You could be asking them a question or providing new information.  Maybe you are sending them a survey or telling a quick story to put their initial question into context.  Perhaps you are asking them for an update on something personal they mentioned to you in a prior conversation.  There are so many options of what to say to extend the conversation, so pick something!  If there are a couple of points, put both down.  Rather than sitting down with a blank slate for the copy you need to write, this process will help orient you on what needs to be accomplished in the email.

Step 3: Write the copy for the follow-up email sequences.

In some cases, you may input all of this into a CRM or automated email platform so you can set it and forget it.  In other cases, you may just hang onto those templates so that you can manually send emails for any person who needs to receive the sequence. The benefit of the first option is automation and saving time.  The benefit of the second is the ability to tailor the messages slightly (even with one sentence at the start) to specific individuals you are contacting.

You would be surprised what a mindset shift it can be to pre-plan your follow-up email sequences in this way.  Your default becomes executing the pre-planned sequence instead of your default being writer’s block.


You would be surprised what a mindset shift it can be to pre-plan your follow-up email sequences. #followup #emailmarketing #marketing #business #biztips #smallbusiness #smallbiz
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By changing the default, it becomes less of a mental hurdle to do the outreach. Then, once you start getting more prospects to convert, the validation of doing this outreach will feed your enthusiasm!

And when you are mapping out these follow-up email sequences, it helps if you know where this sequence fits into your overall marketing plan.  It’s hard to do a deep dive if you don’t know what pool you are in!  Want more information on how to create a marketing strategy for your business?  Check out this course!

The post Follow-Up Email Sequences Made Easy appeared first on Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing.


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