How to write a follow-up email to a client – 10 examples & template

Follow-up emails to a client can be challenging to write. Learn how to write a follow-up email to a client after sending a business proposal, after a quotation, after receiving no response, or after a meeting.

Email is an essential communication tool for working with clients, but what happens when you receive no response? Sending a prompt and polite follow-up email to a client can re-establish a connection, getting your relationship back on track.

In this guide on how to write a follow-up email to clients, we provide 10 examples to show you how to do it. We also give some evidence-based tips for creating the most effective follow-up emails that are (almost) guaranteed to get you a response.

P.S. If you're tired of endless, repetitive follow-ups, use MailMaestro's AI email assistant to write your emails for you!

Why send a follow-up email to a client?

A professional follow-up email to the client can act as a gentle reminder, reconnecting you with an existing or potential customer. 

There are several reasons why you may want to send a follow-up email to a client, including:

• Sending a follow-up email to client after quotation
• A follow-up email to client after sending a proposal
• Follow up email to client for payment
• Follow up email to a prospective client
• An email follow-up after a meeting
  

In an ideal world, a follow-up email wouldn't be necessary. However, workers are drowning in digital correspondence, which means that millions of emails are ignored every day. A 2015 YouGov study in the USA found that the average adult has 500 unread messages in their inbox.

Some people are better than others at answering emails. Research has found that while 70% of emails receive an immediate response, up to 30% of emails can languish unanswered in inboxes.

Ignoring work emails isn't acceptable, says New York Times columnist and organizational psychologist Adam Grant, but it is understandable, he says. The problem is that most of us don't have time to respond to the hundreds of emails we receive daily. 

The solution? Sending a follow-up email to a client. It's an essential tool to get things back on track and power your business forward.

When should you follow up with a potential client?

There are two types of follow-up emails: those that are time-limited and those that aren't.

If you need an example by a specific date, for example, then you should send a follow-up email whenever you need to.

Without a response, you're left unable to plan or make progress, so a follow-up email is understandable. In urgent cases, you may need to send an email on the same day – and that's fine. 

If your email isn't time-limited, we recommend waiting between two to three working days before sending a follow-up. We have covered this approach more extensively on our blog post about how to write a sales follow-up email. Many of us have strategies for dealing with unread emails in our inboxes – such as answering them at a certain time – and this gap gives them time to respond.

A follow-up three days after the first contact ensures you're fresh in their mind. Any sooner, and you could appear desperate.

How do you follow up with clients without looking desperate?

If your email is ignored, it can create feelings of anxiety, say researchers in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Many of us can take the lack of response personally, but we shouldn't.

There are many reasons why someone may not have responded to your email. They may have been on leave, experienced sickness, or simply been too busy. If you're interested in learning more, Forbes journalist Amy Morin has a fascinating insight into why your emails aren't always answered.

You must have confidence in the importance of your message. To ensure your email doesn't appear desperate, you need to strike the right tone. We illustrate this below in our examples. Of course, you also need to send it at the right time.

Emails sent at 10 am, and 1 pm have the highest open rates, says Hubspot, so being intelligent with your email can have the best results. And never send emails outside of the working day, say researchers.

We've explained above why your email may have been missed, but should you send a second follow-up email? Yes, you should.

But how? Let's take a closer look.

5 tips for writing effective follow-up emails to clients

1. Keep it short: An estimated 81% of emails are read on a mobile device, so keep it short and get to the point quickly. 
2. Timing matters: Send it at the right time during the day, never on weekends or after hours. Wait two to three days before sending a follow-up email (unless you need a response sooner).
3. Be personal: While email follow-up templates, such as those provided below, are a great starting point, you should personalize your emails to create a stronger connection.
4. Include timings: If you need a response, be explicit about dates and times. If you are requesting information from your client, tell them precisely what you need and when. Don't forget to tell them what you will do with the data.
5. Focus on the future: There's no need to ask for an explanation for no reply; focus on the future relationship. 
   

These tips provide some common-sense tips for creating better follow-up emails. We're not going to go into the fundamentals of writing professional emails or specific aspects, such as how to start an email or best ways to end an email as we've covered them in the previous posts.

Follow-up email samples to clients

In the next section, we provide 10 samples of follow-up email samples to clients, where you can see us put this into practice.

1. Sample follow-up email to client after sending a proposal

After sending a proposal, a follow-up email to a client is a common courtesy that you should always extend. It's advisable to send a follow-up email on a proposal to a client around two-three days after sending your proposal. However, you can send a follow-up email to the client after sending the proposal sooner if your submission is time-limited).

Here's a sample follow-up email to a client after a proposal.

2. Follow-up email to client after quotation

A follow-up email to a client after quotation is similar to the email example featured above. Still, it is likely to focus more on the cost of work, not the content or context. In some cases, you may want to offer a discount or flexible payment terms in your follow-up email to a client after sending a quotation.

Here's a follow-up email to a client after a quotation sample.

3. Payment follow-up email to client

If a client or customer has failed to settle an invoice, a polite follow-up email to a client for payment should be your first option. There may be many reasons why someone hasn't paid an invoice, so we recommend keeping any follow-up email very clear and straightforward. You don't need to go into detail, simply state your demands and offer no apologies.

4. Follow-up email to client after no response

Sometimes clients can go cold and fail to respond to emails. The question of how to get an unresponsive client to respond is challenging. Every client, individual, and organization is different, so take the time to personalize this follow-up email to unresponsive clients before sending it. 

5. Sample follow-up email to a prospective client

This follow-up email to a prospective client template provides a simple reminder to someone who hasn't responded.

Sending a follow-up email to a prospective client takes care and sensitivity. You want the client to know you're serious, but you don't want to appear desperate. It's all about finding the right tone of voice, something we've written about previously.

Check out follow up email to prospective client sample.

6. Follow-up email to client after meeting

A friendly follow-up email to a client after a meeting is standard business practice. The rules on emailing clients after meetings aren't as established as some of the other examples here. You can bring in some personality if you want to build on the connections you created in the meeting. 

Here's a sample follow up email to a client after meeting you can use.

7. Follow-up email to client after a phone call

A follow-up email to a client after a phone call is similar to the email sample above. You've already spoken to the person, so it's about reminding them of that connection and pushing for further contact. It's essential to send a follow-up email to a client soon after the phone call. In some cases, it may be suitable to send an email minutes after putting down the phone if you think it's necessary.

8. Follow-up email to client for documents

If a customer has promised to send some information to you but they haven't, a focused follow-up email to a client for documents should get you what you need. Don't embarrass or upset the recipient, so stick to the facts and focus on the future.

9. Follow-up email to old clients

A well-written and targeted follow-up email to old clients can help to re-establish a relationship with a former customer. It's often easier to reconnect with an old customer than to find a new one. 

You have nothing to lose by sending an email. Here's an example of a follow-up email to old clients.

10. Second follow-up email to client

If you receive no response to a first follow-up, consider sending a second follow-up email to the client. This example is similar to the previous one. Still, it acknowledges that you have already reached out to them and waiting for a reply.

Follow-up email template to client

Writing a follow-up email to a client is not hard if you follow our best practices and examples. The samples introduced in this blog post provide you with a framework which should always be personalized to reflect the client and occasion.

There's, however, an even easier way. MailMaestro is an AI-powered writing tool that turns your instructions into ready-to-send emails and messages that are personalized.

Still hesitant about how to write a follow up email to a client? We hope not.

The next time you need to send a follow-up email to client after quotation, sending a proposal, meeting, a phone call, not receiving a response response or for payment, proposal, documents just keep our examples in mind or try our AI email writer, MailMaestro and use our email template to write a follow-up to a client.