American Business Brokers - April 2021

Craft the Perfect Follow-Up Email

The (Not So) Secret Recipe

When it comes to securing leads, the follow-up email is hard to beat. One study found that a 12% response rate from two emails increases to 15%–16% with a third email. If you play your cards right, the success of your email marketing could, in large part, depend on your follow-up emails. So, how do you create ones that maximize positive responses from leads? Know your goals. You should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your email campaign. Which metrics are most important to you? The number of times recipients open your follow-up email? That they click a link in the text? That they reply? Maybe tracking total conversions resulting from follow-up emails is important to you. Whatever the case, knowing your goals is a good first step. Find the ideal number of follow-ups. Obviously, not following up at all is a recipe for abandoning several potential leads. However, sending too many follow-ups can leave potential leads annoyed and unwilling to look into your business. According to several studies, the ideal number of follow-up emails is no less than three, but no more than seven.

Time your follow-ups right. You don’t want to space your emails so far apart that leads forget about you, but you also don’t want to spam their email box so often that they get annoyed. A good rule of thumb is to wait at least 48 hours before sending a follow-up email after the initial email. After that, wait 2–4 days before sending another. Craft appealing content. This point is worth its own article, but briefly put, your follow-up email content is incredibly important. Create a subject line that will grab readers’ attention. Then, be polite, direct, friendly, and personable in each email. As you send out more follow-ups, become more specific about the deal you’re offering and make it more enticing. Above all, you should constantly tweak your follow-up content and overall strategy as you gain new information. As you continue to create follow-up emails, you’ll learn what works best.

What Do You Want to Do

AFTER SELLING YOUR CONVENIENCE STORES?

At one time or another, we have all thought about what we would do if we sold our business. I am sure the idea of moving to where it is warm and being able to enjoy life sitting under a palm tree is one of those thoughts. That said, though, how many people actually get to do this? Well, my friend Bob O’Connor did just that. When I first met Bob, he was not interested in selling his convenience stores. As a matter of fact, he and his business partner Tim were happy with their stores and their business, and for good reason: They were very good operators. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Bob and Tim were some of the best operators I had ever met. However, Bob knew the convenience store industry was consolidating, and the value of convenience stores had been increasing.

So, he was willing to listen to and learn from what I had to say. After a couple years of maintaining a dialogue with Bob and Tim, they decided the time was right for them to consider stepping away from the convenience store business. Like most exit plans, certain issues needed to be addressed for the plan to work, including the timing, taxes, and the financial side of the exit. Together, Bob, Tim, and I met with their accountant and attorney and were able to create the right plan to allow Bob and his business partner to step away from their business. And did Bob do what he wanted to do after he exited the convenience store business? Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and from the photo, I would say Bob and his dog, Whistle, are having a pretty good time!

2

WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM

800.805.9575

Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog