5 Email Templates and Tips to Strengthen Your Follow-up Game

5 Email Templates and Tips to Strengthen Your Follow-up Game



Finding leads but not customers? This post is going to cover the following points on what you can do to turn this around:
  • Why should you send follow-up emails?
  • Mistakes to avoid while sending follow-up emails
                     - Without value
                      - Too long
                    - No call-to-action
  • Follow-up email scenario templates and tips
                  - Scenario: 1 Following up with a prospect who signed up for a product/ newsletter
                  - Scenario: 2 Following up to convert a prospect from freemium to premium
                  - Scenario: 3  Following up with a prospect who didn't respond to the previous email
                  - Scenario: 4  Following up with referrals
                  - Scenario: 5  Last follow-up email (breakup email)

Why should you send follow-up emails?

98% of the marketers never send follow-up emails after their initial email conversation. Follow-up mailers are sequential emails in response to your prospects action, say arranging a meeting, closing a sale, or for getting more information for converting a lead to customer.  A study conducted by Iko systems states that following up with your audience creates 1.5 times of increased response rate over the initial email. 

Mistakes to avoid while sending follow-up emails

Follow-up emails don't make a difference if 
      - it doesn't add any value
      - it is not to the point
      - it has no call to action (CTA)
 
Now let's analyze each metric briefly and see how it impacts your open rate.


Serves no value

Would you respond to an email that directs you to a product signup without first being of any value? No! And this applies to your audience as well. Ensure your initial conversation isn't pushy and talks plain value. In the follow-up email, suggest additional relevant information to provoke and intrigue your audience. 


Too long 


 More often than not, customers get dumped with too much information which sounds pushy  or makes it clear that  you are here to sell. After sending a welcome email, it's best to look at what the user needs, understand this and work towards it. For example, a new user might need a helpful webinar/tutorial to get started rather than repeated calls on other services, when they  haven't implemented the ones they have already! Don't repeat what you do and what your core values are in the follow-up email. If you want to reiterate, link to the previous email you sent. Short, concise, and to the point emails will increase your overall response rate. 






Lacking call-to-action


The points discussed above will be ineffective if there is no call-to-action. The action you want them to perform decides the ROI of the follow-up emails. Say, suggesting they attend a webinar, sign up for a newsletter, or upgrade their service, it all boils down to the proper call-to-action present in the email. Directing them to your desired action serves the purpose of your follow-up email.  


Follow-up email scenario templates and tips

We will see some of the frequent scenarios where a marketer needs to send a contextually relevant follow-up email along with some quick tips to help them send more personalised follow-up emails:

Scenario: 1 Following up with a prospect who signed up for a product/newsletter


 


Tips: 
  • Adding stats (charts, graphs, or basically any visually pleasing variant of that easily conveys numbers)to your email content is one of the smart ways to capture your audience's attention. 
  • When a prospect signs-up for the product, instead of explaining the pro-features, give them enough time and resources to explore the product. 

Scernario 2: Following up to convert a prospect from freemium to premium

 


Tips: 
  • Always make sure your the CTA is visible and eye-catching. Here, the upgrade to premium button is prominent with a bold color that stands out. 

Scenario: 3 Following up with a lead who didn't respond to the previous email



Tips:
  • For following up with user for the second time, don't copy-paste the same content that you initially sent. 
  • Be direct and convey what you want from your audience. 
  • Also, take enough time before sending the second email. Don't bombard your prospects with emails expecting immediate responses. Patience and persistence are the keys. 

Scenario: 4 Following up with referrals



Tips: 
  • While drafting the referral mail, ensure that you mention the referral name (the person who referred the contact). It lends credibility to your email and helps the prospect consider your solution. 
  • Also, drop a few titbits of what you do briefly, to provide value. 
  • As mentioned earlier, the CTA should be visible in order for easy navigation. 

Scenario: 5 Last follow-up email (breakup email)



Tips: 
  • When you want to end the follow-up email with a prospect, sending a break-up email can increase the chances of conversion due to loss aversion.
  • Loss aversion influences the receiver and creates an urgency to act upon the email as this will be their final chance.
  • Also, give them the option to express their standpoint.
Pro tip: You can also go about using a personalised break-up subject line which can increase the possibilities of opening the email. They are:
  • Goodbye from XYZ
  • Should I stay or should I go now? 
  • Thank you from XYZ
  • It is time to part
  • We are going to miss you.

Email marketing is one of the best channels to generate a highest ROI. Sending follow-up emails is the first step in lead nurturing that makes an overall difference in your email marketing strategy. Personalized and relevant follow-up emails take you a step ahead in providing credibility and, evokes the user's interest in responding. Creating a compelling follow-up email is hard, but all it takes is the first step -  keep fine-tuning it for better reach, every time. Do check out our previous post on 3 simple strategies to create an effective email marketing campaign. Drop us your thoughts in the comments on how  you follow-up with your clients, and what worked best for you.


    • Sticky Posts

    • 10 simple e-commerce marketing tips to boost sales

      Congratulations! You've finally set up that e-commerce store you've been thinking about for a long time. Hopefully it wasn't too difficult. Even if it was, the effort will be totally worth it when you start seeing some orders come through. Now that the store is live, let's take a look at some marketing tips you can apply for sales growth. 1. Avoid cart abandonment If you've ever shopped online, you might have added a product to the cart but then decided not to purchase it. This is known as cart abandonment.
    • Marketing in a post COVID-19 world!

      Consumers across countries are increasingly spending more time on a wide variety of digital activities, right from online grocery shopping, to video conferencing, to tele-medicine. There is a good chance that you performed one or more of the following activities during this lockdown, thanks to COVID 19: Cooked a meal Made a TikTok Video Signed up for a remote learning session Consulted a doctor online (or ordered medicines online) Shopped for groceries online A study by Hunter, a food and beverage
    • Inbound Marketing 101: The Foundational Blocks of Inbound Marketing Strategy

      According to a behaviour survey, 68% of the buyers use sources such as blogs to evaluate the product even before considering it. Before buying a product, we do a lot of research to learn more about the product through communities, blogs, social media,
    • How Zylker doubled their webinar registrations!

      Webinars are good educational resources to gather qualified leads for your product. But what if your visitors are dropping off from your webinar landing page without signing up? What more could you do to convert visitors into registrants? This is the
    • The ideology behind why features tell, but benefits sell

      Do you think there's any truth to this? Do features only tell, and benefits sell?  Well, let's see why we should focus on benefits rather than features as the great marketing wizards, David Ogilvy and Steve Jobs proved to be the best examples leveraging
      • Recent Topics

      • Zoho CRM Calendar | Custom Buttons

        I'm working with my sales team to make our scheduling process easier for our team. We primary rely on Zoho CRM calendar to organize our events for our sales team. I was wondering if there is a way to add custom button in the Calendar view on events/meeting
      • Default Sorting on Related Lists

        Is it possible to set the default sorting options on the related lists. For example on the Contact Details view I have related lists for activities, emails, products cases, notes etc... currently: Activities 'created date' newest first Emails - 'created
      • Directly Edit, Filter, and Sort Subforms on the Details Page

        Hello everyone, As you know, subforms allow you to associate multiple line items with a single record, greatly enhancing your data organization. For example, a sales order subform neatly lists all products, their quantities, amounts, and other relevant
      • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were
      • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

        Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple
      • Create Lead Button in Zoho CRM Dashboard

        Right now to create Leads in the CRM our team is going into the Lead module, selecting the "Create Lead" button, then building out the lead. Is there anyway to add the "Create Lead" button or some sort of short cut to the Zoho CRM Dashboard to cut out
      • Searching customer field

        Hello, When entering a receipt, we select customer information. The customer information is synced with Zoho CRM. However, we can't find the customer information because it searches for words that begin with the entered value. It needs to search for words
      • Introducing Version-3 APIs - Explore New APIs & Enhancements

        Happy to announce the release of Version 3 (V3) APIs with an easy to use interface, new APIs, and more examples to help you understand and access the APIs better. V3 APIs can be accessed through our new link, where you can explore our complete documentation,
      • Rotate an Image in Workdrive Image Editor

        I don't know if I'm just missing something, but my team needs a way to rotate images in Workdrive and save them at that new orientation. For example one of our ground crew members will take photos of job sites vertically (9:16) on his phone and upload
      • Resume Harvester: New Enhancements for Faster Sourcing

        We’re excited to share a set of enhancements to Resume Harvester that make sourcing faster and more flexible. These updates help you cut down on repetitive steps, manage auto searches more efficiently, and review candidate profiles with ease. Why we built
      • WIDGET in related record list ZOHO CRM; how to get and put data to subform custom fields?

        he need: Read and write two custom subform line-item fields on Quotes: Segment_wyceny (picklist/text) and W_pakiecie (number). Write works; read does not return these fields via SDK. Environment Zoho CRM Widget Zoho Embedded App SDK v1.2 Module: Quotes
      • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

        Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
      • Zoho CRM Tracking Google Enhanced Conversions

        Can anyone @Zoho, consultants, or users help me understand if Zoho CRM is going to support Google's Enhanced Conversions? I included some information from Google below about it. We use Google Adwords for our pay per click advertising for lead generation,
      • zoho click, and nord VPN

        Unfortunately, we've been having problems with Zoho Click, where essentially the line cuts off after about a minute's worth of conversation every time we are on VPN. Is there a way we can change this within the settings so it does not cut the line off
      • Connecting Portals from different Zoho apps

        Hi, I note that Zoho has functionality for customer portals for several of the Zoho apps, like CRM, Projects, Desk etc. Is there any way to connect these portals?  It would be great if we could give our customers access to a portal in which they could
      • Billing Management: #5 Usage Billing

        After understanding the nuances of Advance Billing and Retainers, we will explore one of the booming billing models. Long ago, villagers drew water from a shared well in a small village. The well was a lifeline for the entire community. Ravi, the well
      • Function #10: Update item prices automatically based on the last transaction created

        In businesses, item prices are not always fixed and can fluctuate due to various factors. If you find yourself manually adjusting the item rates every time they change, we have the ideal time-saving solution for you. In today's post, we bring you custom
      • Inventory Adjustments

        Hi, How to transfer the material from one head to another ? Like materials purchased for manufacturing the laptop need to transfer from consumption inventory (Quantity of raw materials reduced) to destination inventory ( Quantity of Laptop increased)
      • Zoho CRM Community Digest - Aug 2025 | Part 1

        Hey everyone! The first half of August went by, and we have a few announcements and some good noteworthy discussions. So, let's take a look at them! Product Updates: Introducing Connected Records feature: Zoho CRM’s Next-Gen UI now includes Connected
      • Problems with email templates (HTML - Outlook)

        Hi there, I've been trying to create a newsletter from the template "Business 4". Everything looks great in the preview, but when I send it to my Outlook inbox, the layout doesn't seems to stick. More particularly: - The line-height is way more reduced, even though I used the line-height tool from the template - Columns but they are sometimes misaligned - Font size is not always the one I've selected. Could you help? Thanks!
      • Please make it easier to Pause syncing

        right now it takes 3 clicks to get there. sounds silly, but can you make it just 2 clicks to get it done instead? thats how dropbox does it, 2 clicks to pause instead of 3.
      • How to create a Zoho CRM report with 2 child modules

        Hi all, Is it possible to create a Zoho CRM report or chart with 2 child modules? After I add the first child module, the + button only adds another parent module. It won't let me add multiple child modules at once. We don't have Zoho Analytics and would
      • SalesIQとPageSenseの利用について

        初めての投稿で場違いだったらすいません。 弊社ではSalesIQを運用しているのですが、追加でPageSenseの導入もしたいと現場からの声があります。 両サービスともクッキー同意バナーが必要なサービスなのですが 弊社では同意無しに情報はとりませんという方針なので 2つ入れると2つバナーを出す必要がでてきます・・・ 両サービスを運用されてる方があれば運用状況とか教えてほしいです。 PageSenseについては詳細まで機能を理解してないなかでの質問です。
      • How to integrate Zoho Forms with Zoho CRM on Standard Plan

        Hello Zoho Support Team, I am using the Standard Zoho Forms plan (USD 30/user) and I would like to integrate Zoho Forms with Zoho CRM so that certain fields in my forms can be automatically prefilled using data from Deals in CRM. Specifically, I want
      • CRM : Function to add user name to text field

        I have a lookup field in a module that is linked to the CRM users so we can assign a Project Lead to the customer. Sadly Zoho Marketing Automation doesn't sync Lookup fields so I need to extract information from the lookup to text fields: Lookup field
      • Export PDF File Name

        Is it possible to change the default Zoho .pdf naming scheme for inventory items like quotations? Would like to use the the Subject as the default quote name. Is this possible?
      • How to change the from address from 'no reply' for an email template in CRM

        Hi, We have our CRM set up with the from field as sales@XXX. I have just created a series of email templates and sent a test and they are sending from noreply@zoho I have tried searching for how to change the email template but don't have the options
      • Zoho CRM Client Script - SetCriteria in lookup Field

        Hello All One More Zoho CRM Client Script Tips & Trick. Now you can Set the Criteria on Your lookup in zoho CRM, It Comes With a Create Page, Edit Page, and Details Page (Standard). Example:- We have a Room Module that includes Room Name, Status, Campus,
      • Kaizen #71 - Client Script ZDKs for Detail (Canvas) Page

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss Client Script ZDKs support for Detail (Canvas) Page. What is Detail (Canvas) Page? A Detail(Canvas) Page allows you to customize the record detail page to your
      • Add Custom Reports To Dashboard or Home Tab

        Hi there, I think it would be great to be able to add our custom reports to the Home Tab or Dashboards. Thanks! Chad
      • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile
      • Zoho Reports Duplicating Entries

        I have a custom costing tab with a table where we entre invoices. These are under a Heading (PO Subject) and notes added in the form with different line items. In the reports, I have organised the report to group per PO Subject, with the total of the
      • Validation Rule Not Working for Mandatory Field in Zoho Blueprint

        As a Zoho user, we created a validation rule for a specific field. However, we noticed that when we made the same field mandatory within a Blueprint, the validation rule we defined did not work. When we reported this issue to Zoho Support, they stated
      • Notes Issues

        Been having issues with Notes in the CRM. Yesterday it wasn't showing the notes, but it got resolved after a few minutes., Now I have been having a hard time saving notes the whole day. Notes can't be saved by the save button. it's grayed out or not grayed
      • Export from Contacts module to Products module in Zoho CRM

        Good afternoon, I would like to send a number of contact info from the Contacts module into the customized module (tickets to an event) in one operation. I have selected several contacts in the Contact module (people who I have labelled as people I want
      • Zoho Commerce

        Hi, I have zoho one and use Zoho Books. I am very interested in Zoho Commerce , especially with how all is integrated but have a question. I do not want my store to show prices for customers that are not log in. Is there a way to hide the prices if not
      • Can’t receive emailI c

        I have generated a basic for but when I submit it I don’t get a email, I’ve been in the settings and tested me email, all appears correct, can you please help me
      • Data Capture for Historical Activity (Especially One Lead Downloading Variois reports without Overwriting the info)

        Is there a better way in Zoho CRM to capture and archive a lead’s historical activity—specifically whenever they download reports—so that the data is stored without being overwritten?”
      • Client Script - Updating Field Value in Detail Page of a Lead

        Hello, I'm trying to use Client Script To enrich some data of the Lead when one of my User fill the "City" field in the detail page of the Lead. This is my Script: log (value); var response = ZDK.Apps.CRM.Functions.execute("getInfoCitta", { "nomeCitta":
      • Auto shapes in Zoho sheet.

        Does Zoho sheet supports inserting auto shapes (rectangle, circle...). I did not see any option to do so.  If its not supported currently, is there any plans on bring in this features. Any timelines ?
      • Next Page