Your Ick-Free Follow Up Sequence Guide
Help more clients without the chaos of manual processes
Following up with leads can be super awkward. And honestly an emotional rollercoaster! There’s the excitement of them booking a call, the anticipation before the call, the satisfaction of finishing the call with them seemingly inches away from the finish line and then the disappointment when they don’t make the move of buying.
It’s an emotional rollercoaster on the lead’s side too. They have to make the decision of whether this person they met on the internet is the right person to solve their problem and invest their time, effort and money into. I know that as an empath, I need time to make decisions as I’m a big feeler and like to see how a decision sits with me before I make it official.
Following up is essential to working with more clients because people get distracted and forget things. There’s probably an email that I’ve forgotten to send right now that I’ll remember with a surge of panic in a few hours.
The stats are with me on this one - 80% of sales are made on the 5th to 12th contact.
So how do we make the most of the opportunity of following up without making it awkward? A follow up email sequence…
What
A follow up email sequence is basically a set of emails that are sent after a lead has had a discovery call with you. These emails are put into an email marketing tool and sent out automatically on a schedule you choose.
The purpose is to remind the lead of what you said in the call (i.e. how your service will help them) and encourage them to make it official and work with you.
Why
You’re probably most familiar with following up by sending out individual emails and messages. So why should you switch to an email sequence? There’s multiple reasons really.
It saves you time - Set the lead up in the email sequence and then step back and watch the magic happen (the magic being emails whizzing off to your leads without you doing anything)
There’s no risk of forgetting - As business owners, we have a million things on our minds at all times so of course some things slip through the cracks but you don’t want that to be following up with interested leads
You put your best foot forward each time - Trying to put your passion into words on the spot isn’t easy so there’s no guarantee that each manually written email will be your best work but with automatic emails you can polish your messaging up once and send it each time
Best practices
Now you have a better idea of why I’m banging on about follow up email sequences, let’s get into how you can execute yours well so you can help more clients.
Why you’re emailing
Make it clear why you’re emailing your lead in each email. While they’re scanning their inbox, they might not connect the dots. You don’t want to be dismissed as spam or any old sales email. So point out your connection and the benefits they got from their call with you.
Reiterate key points from call
Keep referring back to the main message from the discovery call. This reminds them of how useful it was and your personal connection as well as increasing the power of what you said. We’re given a lot of information each and every day so chances are the lead didn’t digest everything you said. Repetition helps with understanding and remembering key points.
Add value
On top of harking back to what was discussed in the call, build upon it. Expand on what you said in the call with more details, relatable examples and actionable advice. This keeps your leads opening your emails. No one opens emails to be sold to. We open emails because we think it’ll be useful. So even at this point in the customer journey, serve first, sell second.
Obvious next step CTA
Most people know they need to include a call to action at the end of their content. However, not everyone knows how to use calls to action to their advantage and actually see results. Just sticking a line at the end of the email telling them to buy isn’t really going to do the trick. The CTA should flow from the points you made in the email so closing the deal and working with you seems like the obvious next step.
Take a paragraph or two to give a thorough call to action if needed. Your call to action should explain: what action they’re taking, why they’re taking action and what will happen once they’ve taken action.
Journey: value to personal to sales
Email sequences don’t hit the same note the whole way through. It’s a journey from first email to last. The general trajectory I like to follow in these email sequences is starting with value to keep them engaged and interested. Then I go onto more personal email to build that one to one connection. Finally the focus changes to sales with social proof. So the call to action starts off quite soft and suggestable at the beginning and then becomes more prominent at the end.
Say goodbye and explain next steps
I never like to leave an email sequence hanging. It makes the customer experience disjointed and keeps them out of the loop. At this point you’re probably adding them to your email newsletter or pausing communication altogether until they reach out. Let them know.
Give them a final reminder of what you’ve discussed together, how you can help, what they need to do to get more support and what emails you’re sending them next if any. This can push distracted or indecisive leads to finally take the plunge. It at least wraps up the email sequence nicely so they know what’s going on.
How to get extra help
So there we have it, follow up email sequences explained. If you’re not a big writer or marketer, it might seem like a dreaded task but trust me, once it’s done, life is so much easier. No more chasing emails, trying to come up with what to say and moments of panic when you remember you’ve forgotten to touch base with a lead.
If you’d like further support with your email sequence I do offer a done for you service where you’ll get the email sequence you’ve been putting off for months written and implemented within 5 days (or 2 if you go with expressed delivery). Just book a call to get the ball rolling!
P.S. Have you read my 7 Writing Techniques for Vibrant Captions Guide yet?