Life is busy for buyers.
Decision-makers often receive more outbound messages than they can process in a day, which makes it hard for sellers to earn their valuable time.
In fact, TopoHQ found it takes an average of 18 dials to connect with a buyer for the first time using an outbound sales channel like cold calling.
This need for perseverance doesn’t change for cold email either.
Regardless of where a prospect is in their buying journey, getting on their radar takes relevance, differentiation, and persistence with your outbound sales touches.
To break through the noise and generate better outcomes, you need to know how and when to send follow up emails as part of your cold email prospecting system.
Follow Up Emails are Best for Qualified Buyers
If you’re targeting the right sales leads with the right messaging, then it’s only a matter of time until they’ll be ready to engage in a conversation.
Every cold email you send should build authority around the problems you solve and keep your brand top-of-mind for the majority of buyers who won’t be in-market.
As buyers move from entirely unaware to defining a solution to their problem, they’ll recall the relevant outreach from brands that shared value and influenced their thinking.
To maximize the number of conversations you can start, identify a cold email follow up strategy that can resonate with sales leads at different stages of their buying process.
Sending Follow Up Emails Takes Persistence
Many prospects will be distracted, too busy, or not in the right place to respond to your outbound emails, so it’s advantageous to continue staying in touch with them.
Beyond your initial contact with a lead, it’s important to implement a great follow-up system that can consistently move new conversations forward for the sales team.
Sales leads respond when the timing and messaging is right for them, so don’t give up on sending follow-up emails just because they don’t respond to your first follow up.
With an excellent email follow up game, your brand and your cold emails will stick out of the crowd as sales leads move closer to a buying decision.
Follow Up Sales Emails Need Context
The content of every email you send matters.
Many people approach cold email by putting all they can into message #1 and then repeatedly following up with reminder emails once they run out of new or valuable information.
With most B2B email inboxes receiving hundreds of outbound messages every day, too many follow up emails can make it harder to generate the right engagement.
The misuse of follow up emails can quickly land you in spam or (even more common) cause your brand to get lost in the crowd and become undifferentiated in the inbox.
It only takes one mistake to thwart your efforts in building a relationship, so make every encounter with your emails as meaningful and valuable as possible to buyers.
Every Follow Up Email Should Add Value
Instead of relying on the first email, it’s better to add value to each email in your sequence so prospects gain something every time they interact with your messaging.
Add value with every touchpoint.
Focus each additional email on a specific benefit, differentiator, relevant topic, or pain point that help bring context to your brand.
With something valuable in every follow up email you send, you’ll have a better chance of catching leads at the right time, staying top-of-mind, and nurturing future sales deals.
Conclusion
Recipients don’t engage for a variety of reasons, including elements you can’t control like their personal life, priorities, business situation, or their memory.
While an outbound email isn’t as disruptive as a cold call, it’s much easier for emails to fall through the cracks, get sidelined as a priority, or get ignored completely.
This difficulty with capturing attention is why it’s important to have a sales follow up system that can help you stay top-of-mind and generate more opportunities.
With multiple well-timed email touches over an extended period, you increase the chances that you catch qualified leads at the right moment for a sales conversation.
[Generating outbound leads? Check out our new free video series the Cold Email Playbook to get insights and content from 7 cold email experts]
