18 Tips for Writing a Follow-Up Email After No Response

Wondering why a prospect hasn’t responded to your email yet? You'll be happy to know that it's often not because of a lack of interest.

It's normal to wonder why prospects haven't gotten back to you. You're probably thinking:

• Looks like the entire pitch missed the mark

• Perhaps I caught them during a busy period

• Maybe I could have phrased my message better

The good news is that it's not as bad as you think. Typically, people just need a little nudge – also known as a follow-up email.

Done right, following up after no response can deliver results. Case in point: after analyzing 1.7 million emails from users, we found that 55% of email responses came from a follow-up email.

So, how do you send a polite follow-up message to prospects that will actually get a response – without being annoying? Check out these 18 best practices to ensure your emails get positive responses — not radio silence. 

Top Tips for Sending a Follow-Up Email After No Response

Let’s start with our list of the best follow-up email tips!

1. Send up to three follow-ups

If you’re not sending multiple emails (ideally three follow-up emails after no response), you’re not giving yourself a chance to succeed. This is the most crucial thing. 

We looked at 1.7 million cold emails from QuickMail users and found that three follow-ups are the ideal number.

What’s the best way to send follow-up emails out? By using cold email software to automate your follow-up sequence. This way, you avoid the time-suck that is manual follow-ups.

Here's how the follow up message sequence looks inside of QuickMail:

P.S. You can create follow-up sequences with QuickMail. Get started with a free 14-day trial.

2. Avoid the “bumping this to the top of your inbox” subject line approach

Quick sales email intervention: the “just bumping this to the top of your inbox” subject line approach has been played out. It has officially retired in the minds of prospects.

It may sound strange, but it’s best to avoid using phrases like “follow up” or “reminder,” in your email subject line — even if that’s exactly what you’re doing. Why? Because using those words only makes people feel obligated to respond.

The same is true for:

• “Wondering if you saw my previous email regarding…”

• “Making sure you received my initial email about…”

• “Just checking if you received my email about…”

• “Did you get my initial email about…”

• “I sent you an email about…”

Using any of these phrases will either make prospects feel bad for not remembering your initial message or annoyed that you’re pointing it out. Neither outcome works in your favor.

Instead, you want to earn the prospect’s trust and build a respectful, long-lasting relationship with them.

Above all else, avoid the “just-bumping-this-to-the-top-of-your-inbox” approach. It doesn’t provide value or make people feel comfortable. This leads me to the next important tip.

3. Whatever you do, don’t be negative or guilt-trip prospects

If you feel even slightly negative about getting no response, go ahead and enter full-on Spock mode. You must always keep things positive and stay resilient, no matter how someone does (or doesn’t) respond to your message.

If you have any feelings of annoyance or frustration, do not — I repeat, do not — let your feelings show up in the email. Always assume that the other person has the best intentions.

Remember: your prospect owes you nothing (at least in a sales context). Sounds kind of bleak, right? Actually, it can be pretty empowering to think this way. 

You can use this knowledge as motivation to craft the most valuable and effective follow up email to ever exist!

Even if the person you’re contacting meant to get back to you sooner, you don’t want to amplify the fact that they haven’t responded to your previous email yet.

4. Don’t apologize or act like you’re an inconvenience

Selling is often less about the product and more about having the right approach. You could be selling the most ground-breaking product in the world, but if deep down you feel you’re being an inconvenience, it won’t sell.

Why? Because prospects will pick up on it. And if you believe you’re bothering a prospect by following up after no response, they’ll start to believe it, too.

A common example is saying “sorry” when you haven’t done anything wrong. This is a big one that can hurt your credibility if you plan to position yourself as an expert.

Though it may be tempting, do everything you can to avoid this mindset when following up on your original message. After all, you’re only reaching out because you want to help people achieve their goals. 

With this in mind, the best thing you can do in follow-up is to position yourself as an expert. If you show people that you’re someone they can learn from, they’ll want to continue the conversation.

Starting the relationship believing (or implying) you’re a burden is never a good way to earn a prospect’s long-term respect. Instead, be confident about what you’re offering, and your prospects will feel that same excitement as well.

5. Make them laugh

If you’re the kind of person who welcomes a good (or heck, even a super cheesy) joke, you’re not alone. Humor makes some of the most challenging situations instantly better.

People can tense up and go on the defense if they feel they are being sold to. But humor breaks that tension and lightens the mood.

Show prospects that you’re definitely not a cyborg by adding something funny to your message. This can be a disarming way to follow up after you receive no response.

Here’s an example of a whimsical follow-up email in practice:

Example campaign in QuickMail

Using humor can make follow-ups better for everyone involved. Experiment with different jokes to see what resonates, and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through. The more down-to-earth and human your message feels, the better.

The most important part, though, is to be yourself. If cracking a joke doesn’t feel natural to you, don’t feel obligated to use this technique in your follow-up email after no response. Find what works best for your personality and go all-in with that technique.

6. Write something new or summarize your original message without directly copying it.

Have you ever received a 2nd or 3rd email from someone where they repeated their original email content? Or worse, it says “See my previous email below”?

How did the email come across to you?

For most people, it feels like the sender puts 1-2 seconds of effort into writing their email sequence and is demanding the opposite (e.g., an hour-long meeting) from prospects.

This lazy approach doesn't paint the sender in the best light — especially in the email game, where first impressions can make or break your outreach.

The point is that you’ll get a much higher response rate if you focus on crafting an entirely new, unique email.

And here’s the thing: it’s perfectly fine to paraphrase your last message! It can even be a shortened summary of your initial email. 

Just make sure it’s new content (that hasn’t been repeated) and thoughtful. Then your recipient will be more likely to know that you put some thought into it.

7. Know whether the lead is cold, warm, or hot — and let that inform your follow-up strategy

Before crafting your follow-up message, you should first define your email marketing strategy based on the type of lead you’ll be contacting.

To help you make sense of things, here’s a simple breakdown of how different actions specify lead type and ultimately inform your strategy:

8. Track email opens to respond at just the right time

If you track when (and how many times) someone has opened your message, you can follow up at just the right time. It’s like magic.

For example, maybe a prospect has requested pricing information and went back to read your reply multiple times in the past 24 hours. Talk about a sign.

I’d recommend adding email tracking to your first follow-up on an email (not the first message) for higher deliverability. If you enable open tracking in the second message (or follow-up), you’ll see the best results.

9. Be politely persistent if you still get no response

Did you know that most responses don’t come from the first email? It’s true: responses often come rolling in much later in the process, even after many follow-up emails. So, don’t be afraid to be politely persistent.

A polite follow up email increases your chances of getting replies. And being persistent by using a repeatable, scalable process tells prospects that you mean business. Combine both, and you will have a surefire way to secure higher responses.

Sure, some people will say “no” along the way but think of all the people who will say “yes” all because you followed up.

Plus, let's be real: inboxes are like black holes. Your first attempt might have taken a detour into the abyss. But following up can help put you back on track.

As long as you focus on providing continuous value, you can typically send multiple (well-spaced-out) messages within the span of a few weeks and generate results. And by being persistent, you’ll reap the benefits.

10. Write a follow-up email that’s down-to-earth rather than formal

Before sending your follow-up email, stop and read it out loud (OK, maybe unless you’re in a public area). If anything sounds bland, robotic, or downright unnatural, chances are, it could use just a bit more of a human touch.

Now you may be thinking, “Shouldn’t business emails sound very professional?”

The answer is no (well, within reason). While you don’t want to send prospects a message sprinkled with “LOL,” it also shouldn’t read like a textbook. 

Aim for something in between. Even VPs at large companies don’t want to read overly formal messages. They want to have fun, too! Cut through the noise in their inbox by writing a follow-up email that’s human and relatable.

Here’s a good rule of thumb: approach a follow-up email after no response the same way you would speak to a new, like-minded friend or acquaintance.

11. Be clear with your proposition

One common reason people don’t respond to emails (unless it’s from someone they know) is because the ask isn’t clear enough.

Within a few sentences, your email should answer these questions:

• How and why is the message relevant to the recipient?

• Is it super clear why you are contacting them?

• Does the value proposition shine through?

People often skim their emails, looking for answers to these exact questions. And the clearer you make these answers for your potential clients, the better.

Transparency truly is a beautiful thing.

People will appreciate that you’re clear in your communications and that they don’t have to read between the lines or try to translate.

12. Add context, relevance, and personalization

People are stern when it comes to their inboxes — and rightly so. It’s their personal space, after all. Given this mindset, they’re often looking for quick signals to indulge their natural inclination to hit “delete.”

So, if you want to avoid the trash folder and be welcomed with open arms, the most important thing you can do in your follow-up is make it relevant and personalized right off the bat.

Without this, your prospects start to think:

• “How is this relevant to me, again?” 

• “OK cool. But what’s in it for me?”

• “Is this worth responding to?”

You certainly don’t want them having this train of thought. To avoid this, your follow-up email must help them quickly see the value.

How? By immediately stating why you reached out to them, and what you offer that is so ridiculously relevant to them and their success. This shows them that you have their best interests at heart and are committed to earning their time and attention.

Plus, because many people think they are entitled to a prospect’s time, adding context and relevance with personalized emails gives you a significant leg up against the competition.

13. Add a value-packed call-to-action/question

Even if you don’t think so, you’re awesome. So, your call-to-action (CTA) should be awesome, too, if you want to stand out.

But let’s remember that not all call-to-actions are equal. When you provide a clear ask while at the same time providing value, you’ll be far more likely to get a reply. Let me give you an example:

“Please let me know if you have time to meet this week” doesn’t contain a clear question. 

When someone is skimming an email, they may not feel compelled to answer unless posed with a question. If there is no clear call to action, prospects will often just move on. And we don’t want that.

Here’s how you might engineer that last CTA more effectively:

“Do you have time this Wednesday or Thursday at 1 pm for a quick 20-minute chat about how we’ve helped other companies in the [insert prospect’s industry here] industry recover abandoned cart purchases by 50%?”

Now you’ve done two great things to motivate them to respond:

1. You’ve piqued their curiosity by being specific

2. You’ve included a very detailed CTA

Most reps out there may go for the ask, but they often fail to include additional value in their CTAs. So, if you make your call-to-action value-packed, you’ll instantly have an edge over the competition.

 How come? It shows that you care about providing results to the person on the other end of your message. You can never go wrong when you send emails that provide upfront value.

14. Keep your follow-up email short but intriguing (get them to ask questions)

Sure, what you’re selling is likely more complicated than one short message can communicate.

But no matter how great your product or service may be, the longer the email, the less excited your prospect will be to hear about it.

A concise follow up email can help you get a higher response rate by respecting the prospect’s time. Plus, considering your first email went unanswered, a novel-like follow-up message will almost certainly be ignored.

In other words, people are busy, and the last thing they want to look at is a long email (no matter how amazing it may be). So, just how long should your follow-up email be? Is there a special formula?

Here’s a good general rule of thumb: if you find that your email is longer than 4-5 sentences, try to shorten it as best you can.

Yes, that will often lead to more questions from the prospect. And that’s a super good thing because you WANT your prospects to be asking questions. 

Why?

It shows that they’re curious and gets them actively engaging with you. If you provide them with so much information that they have no questions left to ask you in the next email, you’ve likely lost the sale.

In such cases, they may decide there is no reason to respond at all. Questions are a beautiful thing in the early stages of a sale. You want more of them.

It’s much better to get questions from prospects rather than radio silence. If you give them too much information, you risk cutting off your line of communication.

15. Consider the day of the week and time to send follow-up emails

How often do you respond to cold emails as you’re drifting off to sleep? For most of us, that doesn’t happen all too often.

When emailing your prospect, you want to leave a good first, second, third, and even fourth impression on your prospect. Because you’re following up multiple times, right?

To do this well, it’s best to send your messages at an optimal time.

Consider the day of the week and how that might impact your prospect’s work. For example, people often catch up with work or are busy putting out fires on Mondays. How about mid-week, like Wednesdays? They’re probably still playing catch-up.

Of course, it can depend on your industry, too. Assuming your potential customer is working an office job, then you can safely assume that Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday are all good days to send messages.

Also, consider their timezone: it’s better to pop up in their inbox after they’ve had some time to settle in at the office (think of how you might feel before your morning coffee!). Or after lunch. 

Of course, there’s only so much you can do, and it’s best not to overthink this part. But stopping to think about prospects’ time zones before sending your message can help a great deal.

It puts you in their shoes and helps you see things from their perspective. With this insight, you’ll begin sending more messages that deliver results.

16. Make it easy for them to say “yes.”

It’s much easier to say “yes” to a request for a 5 or 20-minute phone call compared to, say, an hour-long meeting.

So, whatever you do, always ask prospects for as little of their time as possible. Why? Because it shows respect for their time and it’s much easier to get them to agree.

Also, when it comes to the call-to-action itself, think about the words you’re using and their associations. For example, “meeting” sounds more daunting than “quick chat.” 

For the best results with your follow-up email, use words that have positive associations. When people think of scheduling another “meeting,” they may think back to the last meeting they had that dragged on far too long without accomplishing anything.

A quick chat, on the other hand, sounds much less like a commitment and is, therefore, easier to say “yes” to.

While these may seem like very small changes at first, they can make a big difference in the long run. 

17. Think about how many follow-up emails that you’ve said “yes” to lately

When was the last time you responded to a follow-up email yourself, as the recipient? Take a moment to go through your inbox and dig up the last email that successfully got you to jump on a quick call. Then, consider the following:

1. Why did the message work?

2. What made it different or compelling?

3. What made you want to respond positively?

4. Did you end up jumping on a call as the message intended?

Maybe the rep made you laugh, or maybe they sent you something of value that you found helpful and/or surprising.

The point is: you can learn a lot from follow-up emails you’ve received over the years. Even better, you can apply similar techniques in your own emails (along with your own creative twist).

As long as the technique in question isn’t over-used, there’s no reason you can’t go back to them the next time you need inspiration.

18. Be confident, but avoid being too presumptuous

Confidence is good, but too much confidence can cause prospects to go silent. Sure, it’s always good to know that what you’re sending a prospect is valuable.

But here’s the thing: even if you know that it will be useful to them, don’t be too presumptuous about whether or not they’ll respond.

If you can help it, avoid saying things like “I look forward to your positive reply.” (This makes me cringe. I’ve received this sign-off before, and it went straight to the trash folder.) Why? Because it implies that you fully expect them to respond.

Instead, try saying something like: “Would love to chat about how I can help you [insert business goal here],” or, if you want to keep it simple, “Thanks” is a classic sign-off that never gets old.

If you do include a sign-off in your follow-up email, a good place for it to go is after your call-to-action question.

Even if you think there’s a good chance you might get a response from a business contact, don’t imply that you expect one. Too often, it can ruin the first impression. Humble wins the game.

Follow-ups are crucial for your success

Following up is super useful when done right, but it’s something that many people don’t do. And that's a mistake.

Our research confirms it: 55% of email replies come exclusively from follow-ups:

With numbers like this, the importance of sending follow-up emails is all too glaring.

So the question is: How can you send out follow-ups without wasting time and losing track of things? Use a cold email automation software like QuickMail.

Get started with a free 14-day trial.