Follow-up Emails in B2B: Three Emails, the Right Spacing and What to Put in Them
Two follow-ups after the first email are enough. Here are the gaps between them and what each email should say, so you can stop writing “just a reminder”.
Follow-up emails: how many and how far apart
Send two follow-up emails after the first one, so three emails in total. Wait three to four working days after the first and five to six working days after the second. Every email should add something new and end with a question that is easy to answer. After that, set the contact aside.
This is a recommendation, not a law of nature. But it rests on a simple observation: someone who doesn't reply to your first email usually hasn't made up their mind. The email arrived on a bad day, or ended up under ten others. A follow-up gives it a second chance. A fourth, fifth and sixth mostly produce irritation.
Why one email rarely is enough, and why five is too many
A purchasing manager, CEO or sales director receives your first email on a Tuesday in the middle of an already full week. The email gets read in passing, or not at all. That doesn't mean no.
At the same time, there is a limit. If you carry on after three emails, you start to look like the thing many of our readers have grown tired of themselves: outreach that measures activity instead of replies. It also hurts the sender in the long run. If several recipients mark you as spam, it affects how your later emails are received, something we cover in the article on why emails end up in the spam folder.
Short three-step sequences are also how we run cold email ourselves. Never mass mailings, and always few emails per inbox per day.
Follow-up emails step by step: three emails in one thread
The starting point is that the first email is already good. If you write it following the steps in the guide to writing a sales email, you have a clear recipient, a concrete reason for getting in touch and a simple question. The next two build on that.
- Day 1: the first email, with a short reason and one question.
- Day 4 or 5 (working days count): follow-up one, with a new angle.
- Day 10 or 11: follow-up two, with an easy way to say no or point you elsewhere.
Preferably send between Tuesday and Thursday. Mondays are full of whatever happened over the weekend, and Fridays are read with half a mind. It isn't an exact science, but it's a good starting point to adjust from once you see your own replies.
If you get an out-of-office auto-reply, hold the next email until the day after the person is back. Otherwise you end up at the bottom of an inbox that has already overflowed.
Follow-up one: add something, don't remind
This is the email where most people go wrong. They write that they "just wanted to remind" the recipient or "bump the email up the inbox". The recipient gets nothing new, only a sense that someone is counting days.
Do this instead: reply in the same thread, but take a different way into the same problem. If the first email was about costs in the purchasing process, the second can be about who usually owns the issue in a company like theirs. A couple of sentences is enough.
Hi Anna, I wrote on Tuesday about how you handle quote requests when several departments are involved. Cases like that often get stuck with someone who doesn't own the decision. Is that roughly how it works at your company, or is someone else driving the issue?
Note the question at the end. It can be answered in one sentence, and it can lead you to the right person even if Anna isn't it.
Follow-up two: make it easy to reply, even with no
The last email should be the shortest. Here you give the recipient three ways out: yes, no or "talk to someone else". None of them should require the person to explain themselves.
Hi Anna, I won't bother you again after this. If the issue isn't relevant right now, just say so and I'll remove you. And if someone else at the company is responsible for this kind of purchasing, who should I contact?
It may look like you're giving up, but the idea is the opposite. When the pressure goes away, replying gets easier. Someone who hasn't had time to engage can write "not now, get in touch in the spring", and then you have a useful answer.
Phrases that turn a follow-up email into a plain reminder
A few phrases give away immediately that nothing new is coming. "Just wanted to follow up", "just thought I'd check whether you've had a chance to look" and "bumping this up" are the most common. Replace them with one of the following:
- a concrete observation that fits the recipient's industry or role
- a question that is narrower than the first one
- another person at the company whom you suggest speaking to
- a clear end date for your own follow-up
Keep the subject line unchanged within the thread. If you write "Reminder:" or "Last chance:" in the subject line, you highlight exactly what you are trying to avoid.
How to write follow-up emails: length, tone and when to stop
A follow-up should be shorter than the first email. Three to five sentences, preferably no attachment and seldom a link. Attachments and links give both spam filters and recipients a reason to hesitate.
The tone is the same as in the first email: one colleague writing to another. No exclamation marks, no exaggeration. Write "hi" and a first name, and sign with your own name, not the department's.
And read your inbox before you send the next email. If someone has replied "not now", the sequence is already over, even if day 10 hasn't arrived. Someone who is about to reply and gets a follow-up at that very moment has been left with a bad impression of you.
When follow-up isn't enough
Sometimes the emails aren't the problem. Almost no one replies to any of them, and then it's time to take a step back. Is the target group properly defined? Are you talking to the person who actually makes the decision? Do the emails arrive at all? That last point is checked through SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which we explain in a separate guide for people who aren't technical.
If you don't know whether cold email would work at all in your particular market, it's a reasonable moment to talk to someone outside the company. A free 30-minute call is enough to assess the size of the market and how the ideal customer can be reached.
What to do with the replies that come in
A sequence is only half the work. When someone replies "yes, tell me more" or "not me, but talk to Erik", you should answer the same day, with a concrete proposed time instead of an open question. That's where many cold emails lose momentum. We describe how replies turn into meetings in the guide to appointment setting.
Write down which phrasings got replies and which didn't. After about ten contacts, you have your own basis for deciding which of the three emails actually does the job with your target group.
Start by opening your latest sequence and looking for every sentence that only reminds. Replace it with an observation or a narrower question, and put day 4 and day 10 in your calendar before you send anything.
Frequently asked questions
How many follow-up emails should I send?
Two follow-ups after the first email, so three emails in total, is a good starting point. More rarely bring more replies, but they increase the risk of irritation and spam reports.
How long should I wait between emails?
Wait three to four working days after the first email and five to six working days after the first follow-up. Adjust based on how quickly your recipients usually reply.
What can I write instead of “just wanted to remind you”?
Add something new: an observation from the recipient's industry, a narrower question or a suggestion to talk to another person at the company. That gives the email its own reason to exist.