2. Put your most important stuff first

A trademark of effective newsletter design is to start with your highest quality and most important content. Simply add your featured content at the top, in a dedicated section right below the header.

This section should include the main message you want people to see, and your best quality content. Also, if you have some offer like a webinar signup, or a free resource to download, this is where you want to place the CTA button. According to statistics, that’s where people most likely going to click.

3. Lay your content around engaging graphics like images or videos

The content displayed in blocks with a mix of text and images. Text content should be kept to a minimum as to not be too overbearing. As you can see below there is a good balance between text and images.

What is responsive newsletter design & why it’s super important?

Responsive design is a newsletter design that is able to adapt to different screen sizes. So, whether your subscriber is opening your newsletter on a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, or tablet, they’ll be able to see the entire newsletter without any obstructions.

This is important since around 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices, yet we still default to creating newsletter templates for desktops. For example, create a template that is for both desktop and mobile.

How to create professional newsletters

There are a few things to keep in mind when building a professional newsletter. In general, you’ll want to map out the process in a few steps.

Step 1:

Decide on your newsletter’s goal, in other words, is your newsletter reckoned to gain leads? To grow your contact list? To generate traffic to your website? Understand your main priority and let that drive your newsletter.

Step 2:

Select the content you want in your newsletter, this is where you chose the type of content that will help you reach your goals. For example, if you want to:

e.g: Establish credibility: the best way is to provide content that makes you stand out from competitors, provide testimonials, and case studies.

e.g: Educate customers & provide value: offer valuable content that will help educate them, this can be articles on your blog.

Step 3:

Choose an app, software, or platform for distributing your newsletter. The top software for newsletters can be very pricey and may include features that will limit the overall newsletter design.

Step 4:

Create or customize a newsletter template, add all the content into your template, including links and personalization, must include CTA’s,

Step 5:

Test your newsletter and make sure everything including links & works properly. Do this by sending yourself a TEST newsletter. Play around with it and fix the broken links.

Step 6:

Ensure your newsletter is GDPR compliant, responsive, and displays correctly make sure your newsletter is legal with opt-in emails. A privacy law that passed in Europe in 2018, demands that email marketers can only send newsletters to those who have opted in to get them.

Step 7:

A/B test different versions of your newsletter come up with two different designs and send one template design to half the email list and the other template design to the other half. Later on, you can test to see which template worked the best.

Step 8:

Measure your success, analyze results, and re-adapt your future newsletters. Check the performance of your newsletter and refer back to the goal you established in section 1. Analyze which sections got the most clicks, and which sections contributed to your goal. Establish that and re-configure if needed. 

General guidelines for newsletter design

The more thought you put into your newsletter, chances are the better it will perform. Therefore, it’s important to stick to some general guidelines when it comes to designing a newsletter.

1. Make sure your newsletter design is focused on one specific thing, like a product update, promotion, piece of content, etc.
   
2. Target the audience you’re going after with content and design. use personalization, segment your newsletter, and choose the content that you know your audience will love.
   
3. Always stay true to your brand in terms of voice, tone, aesthetic, and what your audience expects. Meaning use the same font, colors, logos across all channels. This will keep the consistency of your brand’s digital appearance solid.
   
4. Keep the layout and content simple instead of cramming too much in. The content type you want to include in your newsletter will determine the layout. A signal column layout is best used for a focused message. A multi-column layout is best used to prompt a variety of content.
   • You don’t want to design a newsletter with 1000 different sections and images. Stay focused on one goal, for example, if you are sending out an educational email, only discuss educational tips. 
     
5. Make sure to use high-quality graphics. Choosing the right graphics has a large impact on the attractiveness of your newsletter and has a direct impact on the conversion rate.
   • Make sure your logo is high quality
   • If you are putting different graphics, make sure to use the same style and size. 
     
6. Tell a story in your newsletter to keep it interesting and engaging.
   
7. Send out newsletters regularly to maintain expectations. On average it’s recommended to send out newsletters no more than twice a week but at least once a month.
    
8. Check that your newsletter is easy to scan and view at a glance.

Common mistakes that lead to bad newsletter design

Aside from paying attention to general newsletter guidelines and best practices, it’s also crucial to ensure that your brand isn’t making these common newsletter design mistakes:

1. Ignoring mobile and newsletter responsiveness and optimization
2. Using fonts and colors that are difficult to read
3. Adding in too many topics in one newsletter
4. Not taking your target audience into consideration
5. Sending newsletters with generic or boring subject lines
6. Forgetting to add links or linking to the wrong pages
7. Using the wrong or low-quality images
8. Pushing too much promotional content

Basic components for email newsletter design

While the sky’s the limit when it comes to the content of your email, there are three main components of an email newsletter that should always be there.

Newsletter header design

The first part of your newsletter is the header, and it should be clean, bold, and recognizable. You’ll want to use your company’s logo in the header, along with a strong image. However, make sure that your header isn’t too cluttered since it’s the first thing recipients see in an email.

Newsletter body design

The newsletter’s body can take on a lot of different forms, this is the meat of your email. This is where you can add in anything from more images, links, products you’re promoting, thumbnails and links to recently published content, a short text with a message you want to convey, and more. The design of your newsletter’s body will vary based on the content you want to use, which is why it’s important to plan out your content before settling on a design or a template.

Newsletter footer design

Finally, the footer of your newsletter is where you want to put in things like an unsubscribe link or a link to the subscriber’s preferences, links to your social media pages or website, and your company’s contact details including location.

You can also include things to make your email stand out, like a personalized handwritten signature or even a CTA in your signature. Like the header, the footer shouldn’t be too cluttered; the bulk of the email should have been in the body.

Creating an email newsletter mockup

Instead of jumping straight into creating and distributing your newsletter, it can be helpful to create a mockup of what you want your design to look like. This mockup can be as detailed or as vague as you want it to be, but it’s a good way to ensure you don’t miss anything in your final design. 

When designing a mockup, think of it as a draft. This is the stage when you should be thinking of who your newsletter is aimed at and what your goal is with it. You can play around with adding different content and placing images to see how they might look in the final version. You can create your mockup the old-fashioned way – on pen and paper or use an online program to play around with the design and move sections around as you see fit.

Creating the HTML for your newsletter design

While creating a newsletter can be as simple as choosing a template and plugging in the content you want, sometimes, it might be beneficial to use an HTML template. While it is a little more complicated, you can customize the template more to your liking and you’ll have more control over the design.

That being said, HTML does require some know-how and it’s not something you can do last minute if you’ve never worked with coding HTML emails before. But, once you learn the ropes, you might find you like working with HTML newsletter designs even better. 

When it comes to designing your own HTML newsletters, you have a few options of programs you can use. Photoshop is one of the more popular ones, as well as Adobe, InDesign, and various different illustration software. 

There are also a lot more details you need to pay attention to when designing HTML email newsletters, such as ALT text, title tags, the structure as well as the width of your message, tables, CSS files, and much more. If you want the benefits of an HTML-designed newsletter but don’t want the headache, consider hiring a programmer to help you out.

Best tools for email newsletter design

There are plenty of free and paid tools out there that can help you build beautiful email newsletters in just a few minutes. Here are a few of the design tools we recommend.

1. Photoshop

Price: $20.99/month

Photoshop is an all-around editing and design tool that can help you create customized email newsletter designs. Photoshop also allows you to import third-party templates that you download or purchase online and customize them to your liking. You can create and export HTML email newsletters and add, create different sections of your email, and add things like images, text, and social links.

2. Canva

Price: free, $11.99/year for Pro Plan, or $30.00/month/person for Enterprise Plan

Canva is a great online design tool that allows you to create a variety of different graphic design objects from digital invitations to CVs and more. Canva comes preloaded with tons of free and paid templates that you can build your newsletter. You can select fonts, customize colors, add graphics like icons, images, vectors, and borders, and then download your design when you’re happy with it.

3. Figma

Price: Free, $12/month/person for Professional Plan, or $45/month/person for Organization Plan

With Figma, you can download and use tons of different files that users have uploaded to the platform. It’s essentially an online collaborative community where you have access to many different design and interface downloads.

You can opt to search for downloadable newsletter templates, or even just search for specific elements to download, like buttons or vectors. Once you download the design, you can access the file and customize it.

4. Visme

Price: Free, $15/month for Standard Plan, $29/month/user for Business Plan, custom pricing for Enterprise Plan

Visme allows you to create customized visual business tools, such as presentations, infographics, and more. There are plenty of useable newsletter templates on Visme that you can select and customize to your preferences.

Visme is simple to use and allows you to easily move elements around in your design and add things like images, vectors, charts and tables, quotes, text boxes, and more.

11 top newsletter design templates

Now that you have a better idea of what goes into a newsletter as well as some design tools you can use, let’s take a closer look at some great templates to choose from. We’ve broken it down into different scenarios so that you can get a taste of different designs and layouts that will help you find inspiration for your own newsletter.

1. Cool newsletter design

When you choose your design, sometimes you want to go for something that’s immediately eye-catching to get the reader to stay on your email or click on something. This email from The Outline uses bold and juxtaposing colors and text to grab attention. The design isn’t too cramped and a reader’s eyes are guided through the different headers that make them want to click and read more.

2. Modern newsletter template

This email newsletter uses a simple modern design but still attracts attention. By using a neat color scheme, implementing cohesive icons, and using easy-to-read text, this newsletter is effective at getting its message across. You’ll also notice that there’s a simple header the company logo and the title of the newsletter. Nothing too complicated here. 

3. Creative newsletter template

This newsletter from Kate Spade breaks the traditional mold of emails that use a classic body section filled with content like images, text, and promotional items. Instead, this newsletter goes for a bold header and a CTA asking users to click a button and complete an action. This creative newsletter shows that you don’t always need to stick to a predetermined template when designing a newsletter for a very specific reason.

4. Beautiful newsletter design

This email newsletter from Edited is especially stylish and encourages the eye to follow a natural path from the top to the bottom of the email. The bold ‘S’ at the start of the newsletter catches your eye, and then the design uses high-quality images that promote certain products followed by specific links to various clothing collections. It’s both simple and intricate and works really well.

5. Corporate newsletter

Just because an email is corporate doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Checking out this corporate company memo from Skyline Consultants informing its employees of updates and new procedures. This is a great way to send a corporate memo aside from just plain text since it’s more visually appealing therefore employees are more likely to retain the information.

6. Company newsletter design

Company newsletters can be just as visually engaging as promotional emails you get from brands. Here, Venngage uses a mix of icons and text with a very distinct layout to convey its message. The layout naturally makes a reader’s eye go back and forth across the page, so this is a great design to use if you have a lot of text.

7. Minimal newsletter design

Sometimes, less is more. That’s the theory that Homepolish went with on its newsletter. By using bold and beautiful images with just a few lines of text, the newsletter has a stunning impact. This is a great type of email template to use if you really want to showcase high-quality images or visual content.

8. Simple newsletter design

As we saw before with the minimalist design, you don’t need to cram a lot into each newsletter for it to be effective or to get the results you want. This email newsletter from Udacity uses a simple and straightforward design with muted colors and basic graphics to make their message clear to the recipient. It also personalized the email with the subscriber’s name, which is a great extra touch.

9. Clean newsletter design

We’ve seen quite a few email newsletter layouts with bold and eye-catching colors and designs, but you don’t always need to go that route. This clean email from Prettify Home uses a basic color scheme, one simple image, and an easily-scannable block of text in its newsletter. It’s visually appealing but doesn’t include any type of frills in order to get its message across.

10. Business newsletter design

Here’s another example of a business email from a CEO that sent a communication to company employees. You’ll notice that the colors here are very cohesive, from the text to the icons and even the border. This helps the entire newsletter blend together really well and even though the blue used here is relatively bright, it’s not overbearing.

11. Monthly newsletter design

This monthly newsletter from Zapier uses a pretty simple design but effectively gets across all the updates from the last month. There’s a header with the company logo followed by a title that tells the reader what to expect in the email. By gathering all the top posts over the last month, the company has made it easy for their subscribers to stay up to speed on the latest news and posts.

To end things

The success of your newsletter depends on both the content but also the design which can be technical as well. Focusing on the user experience and how it will influencer engage with your newsletter. Thinking about if the user will need to scroll, the sizing of the newsletter including images if there is too much text or too many images. Thinking about the bigger picture.

Formal vs. informal email writing

Formal email writing is usually in a B2B or B2C scenario or a professional email between colleagues, businesses, or partners. Informal email writing is something you might send a friend, or family member, or sometimes even a quick email you’re firing off to a colleague.

When you’re emailing a friend there is not much risk of getting your words or meaning wrong, and there is little risk of hurting your reputation or wrecking an incredible business opportunity. But when writing a business email there is much at stake and many things that can go horribly wrong. This is why our article will deal mostly with formal email writing and how to get it right every time.

Here, we’ll go over all the ins and outs of what goes into an email structure, different email formats you can use, as well as short email templates that you can use in various scenarios. Keep reading to learn how to write the perfect email.

Basic formal & professional email structure

Before we get into different email templates, it’s important to know how to build an email yourself. For the most part, every email, regardless of its contents, will follow the same structure with the same basic elements. You should get to know these elements in order to ensure proper and effective email writing as a whole.

The basic elements of professional email writing:

1. Your email address
2. Subject line
3. Email Opening
4. Email body
5. Email ending
6. Email Sign off
7. Email signature/footer

Now let’s break these down, one by one.

Professional email address

Your email address is oftentimes out of your control. If you’re working for a company or operate under the umbrella of a brand your email address will likely include the company or brand name domain.

For example, the emails in WiseStamp are all in the following format: [employee_name]@wisestamp.com. This ensures that we all have a professional business email address. Since only the owner of wisestamp.com can issue email addresses under that domain name, this ensures our emails appear legitimate.

Imagine if each employee had a random Gmail address like [name]wisestamp@gmail.com, which anyone can create, that would be a bit suspicious. Email open rates are first and foremost dependent on trust, so make sure you have a trustworthy email address or suffer very low open rates.

If you are a freelancer professional, working separately from an established brand, consider buying a domain name for your personal brand. You can look up available domains on Google domain registrar.

Subject lines

Your subject line will be the single most important element in your formal email writing. It is the first thing your recipient will see and unless you convince her then and there that your email is a safe, relevant, and high priority (in that order) it may never be opened. If this happens, any effort you put into the rest of the email elements will go to waste.

Your subject line will depend on the purpose or content of your email, but overall, you want it to be something engaging enough for a recipient to click on.

Email subject line guidelines:

• Be clear and specific – avoid using generic or clickbait subject lines that say nothing or make unrealistic promises, like “find out how to double your business in a week”.
• Be original – avoid using those all too common subject line templates you find on the internet. Instead make original subject lines that are relevant, personal, and concise.
• Add relevancy – address something that the recipient will recognize, like an acquaintance’s name or an article/ show/ book they appeared on.

Studies have shown that personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. You also want to tailor your email subject line to your email goal, whether it’s a sales email, a personal email, a newsletter, or something else. I advise that you take the time to think of 3-4 refined options then consider which of them will likely be most appropriate.

Email Opening

The next most important way to hook a recipient into your email is by writing a strong email opening line. Like your subject line, the email opening is mostly used as another filtering stage for most people. If it fails to meet the promise made in the subject line, your readers will ditch it.

Therefore, it’s extremely important to define your main point in 1 or 2 paragraphs tops. If you clearly convey your request or question and your reader feels it’s relevant and interesting, then they’ll continue reading your email. If you manage to get them to stay after this point, in most cases, they’ll return your email. Good for you.

Email opening guidelines:

• Address your recipient by their preferred name – look up an article they’ve written or their LinkedIn page and see what name they use. Some people will use their full name or their nickname accordingly (for example David vs. Dave, or Anastasia vs. Ana).
• Establish a connection – connect your email to a personal experience that involves the recipient, like an article or a news piece you’ve read about them, or a conversation you had with an acquaintance.
• Match the opening with the subject line – your opening message has to mirror the promise made in the subject line because this is how the reader validates relevancy. If you don’t connect the subject line to the opening, readers will be confused and even assume clickbait.
• Get to the point fast – tell your reader why you contacted her and what’s in it for her.

Email body

The body of your email is where you get into your main message. Whether you’re composing an email to establish a new business connection or just following up on a meeting, the body of your email should be detailed enough that the reader isn’t confused, but also brief and to the point. No one wants to sit and read a long-winded email when they have dozens of other unattended messages in their inbox.

Email body writing guidelines:

• Be concise – detail only what’s needed to get your point across.
• Use words that convey (authentic) positive personal emotions – words like “glad”, “excited”, “intrigued”, and “confident”.
• Use the word “because” when asking for something – it’s been scientifically shown that people are more easily convinced to do something if told why, and more so if the reason is important to them.
• Show don’t tell – if you can’t explain something in a few words, see if you can add a screenshot, a video, or a link that explains it better.
• Use headings to split long content into sub-topics – if you can’t avoid writing a long email, make sure to break it up into subsections with headings. This will help your time-scarce readers to scan and find their points of interest.
• Add your concrete request or question in bold text – to ensure your readers do not miss the most important piece of content (your request or question) – set it in a separate line and put it in bold. You can also use some color. If you do avoid light shades (you want high contrast between the text and the white background. Once you pick a color – stick with it.

Email ending

After you’ve addressed all your main points in the body of your email, you’ll want to end it with a respectful and brief salutation. You can either invite your recipient to reach out for more questions, wish them success, or ask a question. It all depends on the motive for your email. If it was a long email it could also be a good idea to gently reiterate your main request, question, or motivation.

Email sign-off

When closing your email, you’ll want to choose a suitable email sign-off. There are different sign-offs you can use for each occasion, such as “best regards,” “sincerely,” or “with love,” but you obviously wouldn’t want to send the last one to your manager. Make sure your signoff is appropriate to your email content and your recipient.

Email signature/footer

Your email signature (or footer) is your wave of goodbye. The way you do this can affect the impression you’ve made up to this point. If you make this moment memorable, organized, and aesthetic you can get some extra credit and a positive attitude from your reader. On the other hand, if you mess this up, your entire message or offer may be put in doubt. So, make sure your email signature looks visually appealing and well organized.

Consider creating a professional email signature to nail a positive lasting impression. Use the simple text email signature we all used back when email started at your discretion. Whichever you choose, be sure to include all your professional and contact information. It would also be a good idea to add links to your website, social media sites you are most active in, or a landing page.

Professional formal email examples: specific formats for specific goals & uses

In order to get a better understanding of how all the elements of an email work together in different types of emails, it’s helpful to look at some templates. Here, we’ll cover a number of email scenarios and provide you with an example for each one. Each of these letters refers to a specific situation, but you can always tweak the content to make it more relevant to your needs.

Our examples of the most common email formats:

• Thank you email
• Formal letter of appreciation
• Letter of complaint
• Cover letter
• Reminder email

Apology letters samples:

• Letter of apology for a client
• Apology letter from boss
• Apology mail for the manager

Sample business emails (B2B and B2C):

• Introduction email to client (outreach)
• Sample email for proposal submission
• Proposal submission email
• Quotation email
• Email asking for feedback

Information inquiry letter samples:

• Email of inquiry requesting information
• Email asking for a status update

Request email samples – professional email asking for something:

• Sick leave mail format
• Letter asking for a discount from the supplier
• Ask for a raise
• Email your boss about a problem (asking for help)
• Email to schedule a meeting

Work update email samples:

• Email to the client sharing the status of project
• Email to the boss about work progress

Confirmation vs rejection email samples:

• Acceptance email
• “This is to inform you that” letter
• Job rejection email

Thank you email

A thank you email is usually one that you’ll send after previous communication with someone. You might want to thank them for their help on a project, for fulfilling your personal request that you previously sent, for a job interview, or even for something as simple as taking a phone call or a meeting.

When composing a thank you email, you don’t want it to be too long, so get straight to the point. Additionally, they aren’t necessary 100% of the time and can sometimes just clog up the inbox of someone who might be really busy, so consider whether or not it will be useful for you before you click send on a “thank you” email.

Cover letter

It used to be common to send your cover letter and CV as an attachment to your email. However, it’s becoming a lot more accepted to use the email itself as your cover letter and simply attach your CV.

When sending a cover letter email, make sure you’re using formal language, addressing the right person such as HR or the hiring manager, you use a relevant subject and opening line, and the body of your email demonstrates why you’d be a perfect fit for the job and company. Since hiring managers likely receive dozens of email cover letters, be sure to make sure yours stands out and doesn’t drag on too long.

Reminder email

If it’s your first time reaching out to someone or a second or even third, the format of your email should be different. A first contact email has to include certain details that provide context.

when writing a reminder email or follow-up email you don’t need to provide a broad context. Instead, you should just briefly and lightly remind your recipients of what you already agreed on (assume that it simply may have been forgotten or placed low in their backlog).

This little push can go a long way in shortening your timetables and making sure you’re items are prioritized. Most people appreciate the reminder and respect you for being steadfast.

Apology letters samples

From time to time we all make mistakes, and we all get something wrong. Sometimes our mistakes hurt others, cause them discomfort, or make them frustrated. In these situations, it’s usually the right call to simply apologize.

Apologizing is something that must be sincere or you risk offending the person further. It’s always the best approach to express genuine regret.

But regardless of whatever you truly feel, be very careful to only use words that express empathy for whomever it is you’re apologizing to. Do not lay any responsibility on them, and do not give excuses.

Business email samples

Request email samples – professional email asking for something

A personal request email is usually straight to the point and involves a sender asking a recipient for something. It could be anything from connecting on a professional network, asking to set up a meeting, or even requesting a professional introduction. Following a personal request email, a recipient may decide to either accept or reject what the sender is asking for. In this type of email, it’s important to be very clear with what you’re asking for.

Work update email

Confirmation vs rejection email samples

You might get an email confirmation after you purchase something online, or you can also reply to a formal email confirming receipt of an email attachment, a meeting time, or a company update. A rejection email is similar in that it might reject the item that was proposed in an email, in which case you’d let the sender know.

Email template confirming interview

While you will not always get a reply back, sometimes you will. In fact, the employer will request an interview.

Congratulations! You’ve made it past the first hurdle. After you receive this email, it’s time to respond with an interview confirmation email, where the date, time, and location are confirmed.

You should send this email as soon as you receive a notice that the employer wants to conduct an interview.

Thank You email

After your job interview, you will want to send out a Thank You email. With this email, you remind your potential employer about the skills and qualities you possess that match what’s needed for the position. You can even include a link to your online achievements, LinkedIn account, or other professional networking profile pages.

Another element you will want to include is a dynamic email signature with icons with links to the profiles you want to showcase.

The intention is for your Thank You email to get to the person who interviewed you before they make a decision, and while the interview is still fresh in their minds.

Email template for following up after an interview

Hopefully, you will have received an email or phone call confirming that you got the job shortly after your interview.

If you haven’t within a few days, you can send a follow-up email to find out where things stand.

You should aim for getting some information on the exact time frame in which you should expect a decision to be made. Sending a follow-up email can be done anywhere from a day after up to a week after the interview.

Accept the Job Offer

If you made a good impression at your job interview, you will get a job offer back from the employer. You did it! If you want the job, it’s yours. This is an email or verbal phone call you will want to respond to via a follow-up email as well. It’s a good idea to send a Thank You email since it formally confirms your acceptance of the job.

Here is one of the professional email examples you can take a look at and use as the basis for your Thank You email.

Counteroffer Email

If you have been offered a contract for the position you interviewed for, then you will have the option to negotiate. This is more popular for positions that are higher up on the totem pole and carry with them greater compensation and responsibilities.

However, most positions are the kind where you can send a counteroffer email if you are unsatisfied with the salary and/or benefits stated come with the position. It’s simple to write an effective email with a counteroffer so that you can get something closer to what you feel you deserve.

Here is a business email format example of a counteroffer email you can use:

Accept Job Offer Email

If you decided to accept the counteroffer the employer presented to you, then you can send a quick email specifying it in writing. This will ensure there’s no confusion surrounding the compensation agreed upon, as well as the start date of the position. With this email, you confirm how professionalism and desire for accuracy.

Here is one of the professional email examples you can use for your accepting the job offer email:

Wrapping Up

There you have it! You’re all set now to use these professional email templates for every type of email you will be sent to an employer. Every email you send out should include your professional email signature.

Wisestamp has the most dynamic and professional email signatures available today. You can even place social media icons in your email signature that will lead to your profiles, such as LinkedIn. These can benefit you by showing off your professional networks, helping present yourself even better as the best person for the job.

Why should I follow up an email?

Here’s something interesting: nearly half of all sales are made by the person who reaches out to a lead first. And if you respond within five minutes (the new norm for successful sales practices), you can guarantee that that “first responder” will be you. If you’re not following up, you are leaving money on the table.

A good follow up is key to closing a sale via email, so how is it that 48% of salespeople never bother with it?. If you fall into this demographic, you’re making your work harder than it is. Often times takes more than one initial email to close the deal.

Top 9 reasons why most email follow-ups are never answered (and what you can do to avoid it)

What can go wrong with my email outreach? A lot. Your recipient might have never received your email, or they have opened it and decided to answer it later (a moment which may never come), or archived it without actually reading it or maybe they just don’t like you.

1. People are busy and forget you

You may think your email is the most important thing in the world, but let’s face it: your leads probably don’t. They might open your email and leave it in their inbox to deal with later or never open it because their inbox is flooded with hundreds of more pressing emails.

2. Your has gone to spam

Sadly, a large chunk of emails sent from legitimate businesses ends up in the spam folder- see how to avoid this here. This may be no fault of your own: each email client has different levels of sensitivity to what triggers a spam filter.

It might be a word you used in your subject line or the fact that your email is coming from a generic email address like Gmail rather than a business email address.

The best thing to do if you worry people aren’t seeing your emails because they’re being rerouted to Spam is to send a follow-up email. If you refer to the first email (“I wanted to make sure you received my first email”) and the recipient didn’t get it, she’ll let you know and you can start the dialogue again.

Also if she replies to say she didn’t get the first email, take note and keep records of how many emails are getting sent to Spam. You might try a different email marketing platform that is recognized by more email clients or don’t CC multiple people with the same email.

3. People are more likely to respond to a second email

Sometimes all it takes to get people to take the action you want (sign up for a demo, make a purchase) is to light a fire under them. A second (and sometimes third and fourth) email can do that. 

Studies show that email campaigns with 4-7 emails per sequence got three times the responses of campaigns that had only 1-3 emails. This applies to both personalized emails you send individually as well as automated emails you send your subscriber list. 

4. The recipient might be unhappy with you

Let’s say you’ve already closed the deal. You’re happy, and you assume the customer is, too. But unless you follow up after the sale, you won’t really know what her experience with your brand was.

If she had a bad experience, she might leave a nasty review on Yelp or complain about your brand on social media. You may not find out until it’s too late.

On the other hand, if you make a point to follow up after a sale, you can get valuable insight into your customers’ sentiment. If there is an issue (which she wouldn’t have reached out to you on her own to complain about), you can rectify it before it becomes a PR nightmare.

5. Your email has been deleted

Don’t take it personally: the average person deletes about 48% of the emails they receive. Some of these emails are bound to be ones that are useful to the recipient, but that just got bundled away with the rest of the deleted emails.

6. Your first email was sent at the wrong time

How much time do you spend thinking about when to send your emails? Likely you just send them when you write them. But sending them at the wrong time might mean fewer people open them.

Consider how you feel about the huge pile of emails waiting for you on Monday morning. Aren’t you more likely to not read and just delete any that don’t seem to have immediate value?

While it may vary depending on what industry you’re in, most businesses find success emailing prospects between 8-10 am or 3-4 pm. Test out your email timing and look at open rates to find the sweet spot for you.

7. Your email was perceived as a template (therefore considered spam by your recipient)

We’re all guilty of using email templates from time to time, and while they can be useful when you have a lot of people to reach, they can get in the way of closing a big deal if they feel too impersonal.

39% of businesses report that “almost none” of their emails are personalized, according to an Email Marketing Industry report. This means that they may not provide relevant content based on recipients’ needs and preferences.

That’s why it’s important to follow up in this situation. Even if your first email was a template that you customized for the recipient, your second email should be a personal note from you.

Go beyond just using the lead’s name, though. Make a reference to something specific and personal to show that you’re really paying attention (“When we spoke on the phone, you mentioned your son’s tennis match. How did it go?”)

8. Your subject line was perceived as irrelevant or uninteresting

Subject lines are important hugely customers. If you didn’t get a response from your first email, it might be because the subject line didn’t do its job. It’s probably the most important component of your emails.

More than 30% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based only on the subject line. And 47% of them say that subject lines are the primary reason for them to open an email.

Hone your email openings by applying our tips from our post on writing email subject lines.

Your email subject line can also put your email in the Spam folder if you use all caps or words like “free” or “buy.”

9. You sent the first email to the wrong person

It happens a lot: you find a point of contact online (or else you pull from a database that’s who knows how old) and you send an email only for it to go into a black hole.

Most companies will set up an autoresponder letting you know that this person is no longer at the company and referring you to the right person. But that doesn’t always happen.

If you aren’t sure that your contact is up to date, go to LinkedIn and look that person up to see if he still holds the same role at the same company. If not, search his title and company to see who has it now.

You can also call the company operator to ask. Just don’t send your email to the generic company address and always verify emails to keep the deliverability on a high level.

How to improve your follow up emails

It is extremely important to know who you are targeting in order to adjust your follow-up email correctly. When finalizing your follow-up email make sure you have added value factors by including additional documents, linked references to social proof, and positive reinforcement (cognitive dissonance). Let’s go into these points in depth.

1. know who you are targeting

Before sending that follow-up e-mail it is important to first understand who you are targeting, as different audiences require different approaches. Differentiating and rearranging the context of the e-mail according to your customer will help you deliver a clear message and attain the main goal of the e-mail.

When addressing business e-mails, there are two types of business-customers relationships you should be familiar with – B2C and B2C.

If you are targeting B2C

When targeting B2C customers, it’s very important to make sure the sale is more personalized. Usually, the decision-making process is based on emotions, so thinking about your clients’ motivational interests that will help you better understand your customer’s needs and desires.

Since you are dealing with the end consumers you already know that their decision-making pattern tends to be quite rapid. Try to focus on how your services can improve or enhance their daily lifestyle.

If you are targeting B2B

When targeting B2B, It requires a well-thought-out plan, execution, and time management. In many cases, you might be dealing with multiple professionals who are trained and well educated. You want to make sure that everything is throughout properly, including data and research.

The decision-making process for B2B may take a lot longer. There is a great amount of consideration in the decision making process. Thus, this is why it’s very important to make sure your follow-up email is concrete and concise.

2. Provide unique value

This is the part where all the magic is done! A follow-up email is the best opportunity to show your clients that you are listening to there needs and that you have the best solution for them.

There are 3 main key factors that you can use when writing a follow-up- email. First, provide your client with valuable data such as conditions and unanswered questions. Second, include references that demonstrate social proof from past clients. Third, the use of cognitive dissonance to get them on your team. These key factors will help build trust and increase your value.

5 main key way to provide added value when writing a follow-up- email

I) The data follow up

A follow-up email is the best opportunity to share any additional information that was not discussed, How? Let’s say you just finished a business meeting. During the meeting pay attention, If your client asked you about a subject of interest such as a basketball take note of it. After the meeting, gather all the relevant documents in regards to basketball. In the follow-up, e-mail, include the response to the question as well as other information regarding the subject. This personal touch will make your client feel that you care.

II) The social proof factor

Another way you can add value and create trust is to provide your client with social proof. Social proof can be described as the reasons why people mimic each other, if others behave in a certain way, it must be the correct behavior. Social proof can be represented by providing clients with references, past clients testimonial pages, supportive articles and publications in the media.

If your potential client doesn’t ask for any references during the meeting, a follow-up email is a good opportunity to send a link to your testimonial page. This may eliminate a great percentage of their doubts. The use of social proof in a follow-up email can only help increase your chances of closing the deal.

III) Support their decision making

Lastly, the use of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a term used in social psychology that refers to the mental conflict that one goes through during a decision making process.

For Example: Let’s say a meeting went excellent, the client is very happy and the deal is sold. It is still very important to send a follow-up email just to check-in. They may not have asked you to send them any additional information.

However, sending them a catch-up email of everything discussed in the meeting will give them a sense of positive reinforcement. This will tame any negative thoughts that may have occurred after the meeting. This use of cognitive dissonance will leave a good taste lingering. It will not only show professionalism, but it will also convey that you have their best interest at heart.

IV) Show Appreciation

A follow-up email is the best way to show potential clients the excitement you have to start working with them. By adding a sentence like “looking forward to getting things started” will leave a good taste in their mouth. Enthusiasm is a great way to show them that you are ready to get your hand dirty.

“I want to thank you for the opportunity to earn your business, and I look forward to working with you. I’ll be in touch next week to schedule a time for our next meeting.”

V) Prime your readers for a follow-up with a good sign off

When you sign off you initial email be sure to prime your readers for the follow-up email by addressing this intention in your email ending. You could end your email with something like “Think about my offer and we’ll talk again soon”. Choosing the best sign off in terms of wording and emotional tone can have a significant influence on your follow-up email response rate.

3. Keep a short average response time

A very important factor in sending follow-up email is timing. Those who are considering doing business with you have high expectations. The timing is everything, the longer you wait to follow- up, the higher the risk. According to statistics the average response time to emails in the field of business is up to 24/h, Take into consideration that this is just the average.

The recommended time for a follow-up email would be as quick as possible. From the time you left your client to the morning after they are baking. During the baking period is useful to send them positive reinforcement that will most probably increase the likelihood of the sale. Sending the follow-up email within the time range will reinsure your clients and strengthen ties. Keep into consideration that as technology advances the response time will change accordingly.

DO’s and DON’Ts when writing email follow ups

Improving your chances of getting an answer relies on 2 factors: Style and Mechanism.

What do we mean by Style?

• DO NOT send the follow up as an addition to the original email. If it got ignored once…
• DO send it as a new email (new subject line) or as a reply to a previous interaction where the recipient answered.
• DO NOT write a whiny email saying “why didn’t you get back to me :(”.
• DO write something light and non imposing, like “just wanted to make sure you received my email”.
• DO NOT leave it open ended or without a definite call to action
• DO include something specific you want them to do “please choose the best time for you, Mon at 10am or Tue at noon”
• DO NOT waste the sign off of your email. It’s a valuable real estate.
• DO leverage the sign off to say something like “Looking forward to hearing from you” or even combine it with relevant email signature that shares, for example, a link to schedule a meeting with you or that shares your portfolio (e.g. for a cold call email)

What was the other one? Mechanism?

If you send a few emails, you can probably remember who didn’t answer and simply shoot them an email 2-3 days later. (sooner is too pushy, later might lose the “familiarity” effect we discussed earlier).

If, however, your inbox is on the hectic side, you might wanna use technology. Here are a few ideas you can deploy:

Labels:

if you use Gmail, then you may have heard that Gmail labels are very effective, easy to use, and free. You can create a label called “followup” and label the emails you sent that need a follow-up. Then, simply click the label in Gmail, and all the emails labeled “followup” will appear. You will easily see if they have been replied to or not. Follow up on the ones you need and remove the label from those who were replied.

Email reminders:

there are cool plugins that can popup the emails you want to be reminded of. You just set up the reminder and they will take care of the rest. This is arguably the easiest way to deal with follow-up emails, but it requires an external plugin that might charge you for it. I have a sweet spot for Boomerang but Nudgemail should do a good job here.

Spreadsheet:

an easy way to manage such a task is using a spreadsheet. Whether you use Excel or Google Docs (which I can’t recommend enough) a tracking mechanism is easy to setup and use. In one column write the email address you sent it to, on the other the date. Now you can go daily and see the ones that needs handling.

Bonus points

email Tracking: We all heard of Email tracking. This allows you to know if your recipient actually opened your email or not. There are a few services that allow email tracking, most of which are CRM solutions (who can also help with the reminders). We recommend Streak for a beautiful CRM right inside your Gmail, Salesforce which is probably the best CRM out there and many others

Conclusion

Learning how to generate maximum responses using follow-up emails may seem complex but it’s something that you need to do to advance your business. Remember, you need to give your customers a great reason so they return to your website and complete a purchase.

By applying the tips described in this article and taking some extra steps to personalize emails and make them as compelling as possible, you can increase the effectiveness of your follow-up emails.

Oh, and one last thing: there will a wide variety of reasons why your subscribers won’t respond, so don’t take anything personally. Follow up a few times, and if they remain silent, move on.