No one answered your email. OMG, how to react?😱
You work as a marketer, you do prospecting and no prospect responds.😁
You are independent and you follow up with your customers to get your payments and… silence?😩
Asking your team or collaborator for help and, nada? 👿
To find out why you're not getting a response, you need to take a step back, check your sent emails, and put yourself in your recipient's shoes.
Don't be so anxious, we will try together to find out How to react to an unanswered email!
🙏 Thanks to the email tracking, you are now helped. You can thus know if your recipient will open your email once, several times, a lot of times, or not at all. You can now adapt your behavior to this situation. Don't be disarmed by an unanswered email. This valuable information offered by MailTracker allows you to have the best possible attitude.
Ready to follow how to follow up? :)
1/ If the recipient has never opened your email
Take a deep breath. There are many possibilities why a recipient hasn't responded to your email. It's not always because of you or your company. Either way, work harder on email subject lines. It's like a newspaper article: you won't click through to see the full story if the headline doesn't ring a bell.
Your recipient doesn’t have notifications
Everyone has the right to turn off notifications to have a little electronic peace from time to time! Don’t be so impatient 😊 Wait another 24 hours….🕥
Did my email turn into spam?
This can be a critical issue😱. If your email is considered spammy by Gmail, you may be in trouble. You need to do some tests on your own to take care of this potential problem.
If you know the person, you can follow up by asking if your email has landed in the spam box. This can be a way to reopen communication.
Your recipient doesn’t want to read your email
The situation is frozen. If so, you have several ways to react.
- If it's just another prospect you've already sent several emails to, let them go. You can't force someone to open and read your emails if they show no interest.
- If your recipient is someone you want or need an answer to, you need to switch the communication channel. Take your phone, go see him/her, try Linkedin and chat directly with.Play the man.
Your recipient is crawling under many mails
Managers and decision-makers are sometimes so busy that they don't have time to read all the emails in their inboxes. Many emails remain unanswered. You have to be strategic.
Play the timing. Ask yourself: what would be the ideal time to be sure that your recipient will at least see your email?
With MailTracker you can check what time your recipient usually opens their emails (if you have already communicated with each other).
Your recipient does not favor email as the main communication channel
In this case, you need to do your homework on your recipient and find out their style. WhatsApp guy? Instagram? Discord? Slack? An email will always come second to them. So you have to adapt your style a bit too.
2/ If the recipient only opened your email once
Your recipient opened your email once and did not respond. It's not a very good sign but it is not a bad sign either. Don’t give up!
From a prospecting perspective, if your contact opened the email once, they were attracted to something, such as:
- The subject of your e-mail
- You as a person (maybe you have met before or your Gmail picture is attractive)
- Your company that he/she must know by reputation or name
- The industry you are in which your prospect has a need.
But the content of the email was not satisfactory enough. Or catchy. Or straight to the point.
It is therefore necessary to adapt by doing a little more in-depth work on writing the content of your email. Be concise, professional, and relevant to your target.
3/ If the recipient has opened your email twice or more
Your contact is ready to answer but just needs more attention. You need to send the right follow-up email.
Ask yourself: What to do to get an answer from my email? You need to personalize this follow-up email, to create the ultimate connection between you two. He/she needs to have a little more trust and assurance to answer you back. 💪
4/ How do I get my prospects to respond to my email?
Choose personalized emails over mass mailings
Your prospect must feel that the email is addressed to him. No more mass mailings, who wants to respond to a robot? 👾
The best way to get an answer is first to do some research on your interlocutor. You must write a sentence at least entirely aimed at them.
Create an impactful subject line
The subject line is the key. If the headline is good, you would like to open the door. But if it's too catchy or vulgar, you'll think it's advertising and you won't have any interest in reading the content.
Even if it is only 15 words maximum, the subject of the email is the most difficult to write. You have to find the balance between "professional" and "eye-catching".
Make a personal connection
At the start of your email, write about a connection you have with your prospect. This will create closeness and he/she will feel more involved in the reading.
Here are some ideas of possible connections:
- Same industry
- A person in common that you know
- A past or future event such as a fair
Offer something valuable
Give your prospects a good reason to respond: offer value. A valuable document or information that could have been sold even because it is excellent work. Your recipient might say and notice that it is valuable. He will therefore feel well-considered.
For example, you can send a PDF document as an ebook. Its design and writing must be impeccable. The document does not have to be 15 pages. But something that made a difference and shows respect.🙏🏾
Keep the contents short
If a prospect opens your email and sees a dense writing of 25 lines in a row, it’s done for you!He/she won't read the entire email, and you will never get an answer.
The entire body of the email should be short, visual, and organized. Use colors, spaces, bullets, numbers, emojis… Everything to make it easier to read. But not too much, of course 😊
Use humor&inspiration
Some will choose fear and pressure to sell. So 90’…
Try humor&inspiration instead. 😛
A well-written email that brings a smile and inspires in a sometimes complicated workday can make all the difference.
Take the time to convey something of your personality in your writing. A story that really happened to you. An anecdote from your day that leads you to write today.
Your recipient will want to read it to the end and respond to you. Win-win.
Focus on your recipient
The content of the email is not about you and your business but about the needs of your prospect. And also about your relationship with you 2. Take a few moments to do more in-depth research on your interlocutor via other channels such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter…
Timing is everything
Receiving an email on a Sunday evening or a Tuesday at 5 p.m. is not the same thing. You must anticipate and understand your target before sending your email.
MailTracker lets you know what time the email was opened. So if you have already had an interaction with your recipient, note when he has already opened one of your emails!
Use effective Call-To-Action in your email
The CTA is essential.
Do not end your email with an insignificant sentence. Because you won't get an answer!If you end it by asking a clear and precise question, such as What do you think we book a call Thursday at 10 pm? With the link to your calendar. This CTA calls for a response. Any well-behaved person is likely to answer something such as: yes, no thank you, or ask for another time slot.
The best way to follow up on an unanswered email is through personalization. Especially if you're a freelancer and your primary means of communication is email. Your interlocutor must feel a special bond between you.
In any case, you must absolutely take care of your writing and your style.
