How to Send the Perfect Follow-Up Text

How to Send the Perfect Follow-Up Text

Believe it or not, there’s a lot of finesse involved in crafting the ideal follow-up text message after a meeting, phone call, or other interaction. You want to be polite and friendly without being too pushy or annoying. After all, there’s nothing worse than hounding someone who may not be interested in doing business with you or your company.

Let’s unpack the ins and outs of drafting a compelling follow-up text.

Importance of Follow-Up Texts

Why is it important to send a follow-up text? It’s important to send a follow-up text because it can help keep your message top-of-mind, show that you’re invested, and increase your chances of a response.

To Keep Your Message Top-of-Mind

Life gets busy and chaotic at times, making it easy for things to get lost. However, you don’t want to lose that big sale, proposal, or business opportunity just because things got busy for your customer or client. That’s why sending a follow-up text after an appointment, meeting, or phone call is important to ensure that the discussion topic stays in mind. It’s a gentle, non-invasive reminder that helps prevent that topic from getting forgotten or overlooked.

To Show That You're Invested

When you send a follow-up text message after a proposal or important meeting, it’s a sign that you’re invested and being proactive. This is especially crucial if you’re trying to move something along, like a business deal or sale. Sending a timely follow-up text message expresses that you’re prioritizing the topic.

To Increase the Chances of Getting a Response

How often have you forgotten to reply to an email or return someone’s phone call? If it’s happened to you, it could also happen to your customer or client. That’s why sending a polite follow-up text after a phone call or email conversation is a great way to jog their memory, put your conversation back on the table, and encourage them to take action.

When to Send a Follow-Up Text

Now that you understand the importance of these messages, when should you send a follow-up text? There are a few instances when it’s appropriate to send a follow-up text message, including within 24 hours of your initial message, a few days after not hearing back, and then again in a week or two if you still haven’t received a reply.

For instance, reaching out with a customer follow-up text within 24 hours of your initial contact is a good idea. So, if you just had a conversation in person, on the phone, or by email, you might send a quick message thanking them for taking the time to discuss and reminding them of the next steps.

If you don’t hear back after that first follow-up sales text, consider letting a few days go by before checking in again. You don’t want to bombard them, but a polite follow-up text can help get you back on their radar.

If it’s been a week or two, and you still haven’t received a response, you may want to send a final follow-up text to your client or customer. At this point, you don’t want to come across as needy, annoying, or aggressive, so look at this as your last-ditch effort. If they don’t bite, you may have to cut your losses or wait until they’re ready to come to you.

What to Include in a Follow-Up Text

Now, it’s time to learn how to optimize your copy and craft effective follow-up text messages. So, what should you include in your follow-up text? You should include a brief reminder of your initial message, a call to action, and a personalized touch.

A Brief Reminder of Your Initial Message

When sending a relevant follow-up text message to a client or customer, it helps to reference your previous communication. For example, you might remind them of the email you sent last week or your phone conversation earlier this month. Or, perhaps you’re reminding them about their interaction with your business, like if they abandoned their online shopping cart or signed up to receive your newsletter. Therefore, your sales follow-up text will remind your recipient of your prior engagement and provide you with a reason for following up.

A Call to Action

If you want to write an effective follow-up text message, including a call to action is crucial. Think about what it is you want your recipient to do. For instance, do you want them to make a purchase, close a deal, or provide you with feedback? Whatever it is, clarify why you’re following up and what you would like to happen next.

A Personalized Touch

A personalized follow-up text can go a long way because it shows you’re individually texting the recipient rather than just including them in a mass text. So, how should you personalize your follow-up text? You should personalize your follow-up text by using the recipient’s name, referring to something specific from your recent conversation or interaction, and clarifying why you’re texting them. Doing these three things can help get their attention and increase their chances of replying when they realize you took the time to write a custom message.

How to Format Your Follow-Up Text

At this point, you’re probably wondering how to format your follow-up text. Keep the following things in mind when formatting your text: keep it short, ensure your message is clear and concise, and avoid spammy practices.

Keep It Short

The most effective messages are the ones that are short and simple. After all, your customer or client doesn’t have time to sit down and read a novel-length message. When writing your text, think of ways to get your message across in fewer words, making sure your recipient can get the gist of the message while scanning the content.

Use Clear and Concise Language

Don’t make the recipient need a dictionary to decipher your message. Instead, use clear and concise language so they can easily understand why you're contacting them.

Avoid Using Spammy Language and Practices

When writing any kind of message to your customers or clients, you want to avoid spammy practices, but it’s vital when writing follow-up texts. How do you avoid sending spammy follow-up texts? You can prevent spammy follow-up texts by only sending messages to those who have expressed interest in your business, ensuring your messages are relevant and helpful, not using all caps or exclamation points, and avoiding grammatical errors.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Now, what are some common mistakes to avoid when sending a follow-up text? Some common mistakes to avoid when sending a follow-up text include not sending one at all or sending one too soon, along with sending messages that are too long or short, too formal or informal, and too pushy or passive. Finding the right balance is the key to sending the perfect follow-up text message.

Not Sending a Follow-Up Text at All

Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take,” that’ll be the case for you if you’re not sending follow-up texts after interactions with your customers or clients. If you don’t send one, there’s a good chance your interaction could get lost in the shuffle and maybe even forgotten about.

Sending a Follow-Up Text Too Soon

While being proactive is good, you don’t want to come across as too eager—or desperate. Give your customer or client breathing room before bombarding them with a follow-up message.

Sending a Follow-Up Text That is Too Long or Too Short

You need to find a sweet spot regarding the length of your messages. If the text is too short, the recipient might find it too vague or not understand what you’re referencing, but if it’s too long, they may not even finish reading it.

Sending a Follow-Up Text That is Too Formal or Too Informal

You’ll also want to know how formal or informal your messages are coming across to the recipient. For example, if the tone is too formal, it might confuse the recipient, and if it’s too informal, it could be off-putting.

Sending a Follow-Up Text That is Too Pushy or Too Passive

How should you avoid being too pushy? You can avoid being too pushy by limiting the number of sales follow-up texts you send, not coming across as demanding or aggressive, and giving the recipient time to respond. However, you don’t want to be too passive either, so send at least one message with a polite yet clear call to action.

Handling No Responses

Even if you follow all these tips, there’s still a chance your message may get left on read. So, how should you handle no response? There are a few ways to handle no response, which include sending one final follow-up text, not taking it personally, and then moving on if you still don’t hear back. Remember that it’s a numbers game—the more client and customer follow-up text messages you send, the higher your chances are of getting responses.

Understand Tracking

The last piece to this puzzle involves tracking your results. This means monitoring the reporting and analytics features that provide you with performance data and metrics, such as how many follow-up texts you’ve sent, how many have been opened, and how many recipients have responded. This is crucial to your follow-up strategy because it helps you stay organized and prevents you from over- or under-messaging your clients and customers.

Furthermore, when you grasp how your follow-up strategy is performing, you can experiment with different timing and content to see if you can improve your response rates.

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