Manually managing email campaigns is a nightmare. You must constantly keep tabs on who you’re sending to, who’s replying, and who needs following up with.
Follow-ups are crucial in all aspects of email marketing, not just cold emails. They’re essential for transactional emails, quotation negotiations, or even when leads don’t reply.
You need to automate if you want to do follow-ups at scale without worrying about when and to whom to send emails. That’s what we’re here to help with! In this guide, we’ll go over:
- The fundamentals of automated email follow-ups
- What you need to do before sending follow-ups
- Follow-up tools
- How to automate email follow-ups
- Email follow-up best practices
What is an Automated Email Follow-Up?
Most assume automated email follow-ups are meant only for transactional emails. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Follow-ups are integral to any sales cadence. It supports both marketing and sales. And it can be the catalyst for growth, especially for small businesses.
To automate follow-ups, you only need an email tool capable of doing so. But before investing in an email tool for follow-ups, we must consider some prerequisites.
What You Need Before Automating Follow-ups
Each email tool has its unique way of automating emails. Some base it on user activity. Others base it on pre-defined rules. Whatever the case may be, consider doing the following first:
Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Emails
Before even considering automation, ensure sales and marketing have the same SOP regarding email follow-ups. Ask questions like:
What aspect of the sales process requires follow-up? How should marketing/sales respond to email queries? Or, what communication strategy should marketing and sales use in the emails?
Ensure Sending Domains are Warmed Up
If you’re trying to grow clientele or a customer base, you need to send a lot of emails. Your email reputation will take a huge hit if most leads don’t respond to your initial emails.
And it’ll take more hits if they don’t respond after two or three follow-ups. To keep sending domains protected, you need to warm them up consistently.
Use the Right Email Tool
Follow-ups aren’t just about sending emails. What matters most is data, how it’s interpreted, and how it’s used moving forward.
Several viable email tools on the market give you data-based insights to improve your follow-ups. The question now is which one fits your business best.
Automated Follow-up Tools to Look Into
Here’s a look at the automated email follow-up tools worth considering. Find which one best suits your business needs and try it out for yourself.
Instantly
If you want something easy to master and easier to set up, Instantly has you covered. You can easily automate entire campaigns, including follow-ups, cold emails, and sales cadences.
All you have to do is create a new campaign, add leads, and then set up the Steps you want Instantly to take for follow-up emails.
More on how to get started with Instantly.ai down below.
Apollo
Apollo is an email marketing and prospecting tool you can use to create email sequences. Each sequence can have configurable rulesets.
For example, a follow-up campaign can pause for leads if they’ve shown interest. You can even use advanced triggers to adjust campaigns according to your sales strategy.
Hubspot
Hubspot is a CRM that supports email follow-up. However, it isn’t the ideal tool if you want to do cold emails or similar outreach campaigns.
But if you need a follow-up email tool to help you nurture existing leads, Hubspot is an excellent choice. However, you’d need to upgrade to a higher-tier plan to use more email features.
Hunter
Hunter is a great alternative to Apollo if you want to do prospecting and automating email follow-up campaigns.
You can even set specific follow-up options such as delays between follow-ups, subject lines used, and the specific time to send a follow-up.
MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the biggest names in email marketing, and it has awesome features for eCommerce.
You can connect your store and automate follow-ups based on products or categories. All you need to do is set an automation type, schedule the follow-up, and edit your email copy.
How to Automate Email Follow-Ups With Instantly
Instantly is an intuitive, low-learning curve email tool created by cold emailers for cold emailers. That means we know what it takes to create successful cold campaigns and how to follow up.
You can start automating follow-up campaigns with just a few clicks. Try out Instantly for free to tag along!
Create a New Campaign
To create a new campaign, click on the arrow key on the upper left of your dashboard. This will take you to the campaigns tab. From there, click “Add New.”
Next, you need to name your campaign. You can name it whatever you want, but we recommend being specific with your campaign name. For example, “Real Estate_Outreach.” After creating your first campaign, it’ll automatically take you to the leads page.
Add Leads to Your Campaign
Finding leads that fit your ICP or buyer personas gets you a step closer to closing a sale. But first, we need to nurture them through follow-up campaigns.
There are several ways to get leads; you can find leads manually, buy them, or use prospecting tools like Instantly B2B Lead Finder to ensure every lead is verified right off the bat.
With your lead list ready, convert it to a CSV file, and upload it to Instantly. It automatically segments relevant info like a lead’s name, company, and email for automated personalization.
Once you click “Upload Leads,” Instantly directs you to the Sequences tab. Here, you set the rules for your email follow-ups.
Creating Sequences for Email Follow-up Campaign
The sequences tab lets you tailor your approach for each email campaign, including the initial email and subsequent follow-ups.
To streamline the email generation process, you can use sales follow-up templates and personalize them using merge tags. Next, add as many steps as necessary to fit your strategy.
You can configure the schedule of each follow-up in the Schedule tab. It lets you adjust the specific time or day an email should be sent.
Remember, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to follow-ups. But with the right best practices, you can make dynamic strategies for any campaign.
Key Takeaways
You can’t close a sale after a single email. You need consistent, relevant, and personalized follow-ups. But you can’t scale follow-ups manually. That’s where automation comes in.
If you want to make the best out of your automated email follow-ups, consider these best practices:
- Create an SOP for each follow-up campaign
- Warmup sending domains
- Use the right email tool that supports automated follow-ups.
- Remove a lead from your list after 2-3 follow-ups with no reply.
- Use analytics to get insights on how to iterate your next follow-up campaigns.
Need the perfect tool for follow-up automation? Instantly has you covered! Try it out for free today and start sending at scale!