Get After It 007: The art of the follow up email

Yes -- there is an art.

Hi everyone, happy new year!

If you sent out a spate of emails at the tail end of 2023 telling previous and current clients that you have capacity for work this quarter, you’re probably either tapping your fingertips waiting for work – or about to tap away at the keyboard to follow up.

Many freelancers will say that following up is necessary when it comes to getting work from new or current clients. And, a decade into working for myself, I can completely attest to the power of the follow-up email. In this time, I’ve also learned a good amount of how to send these follow-up emails without feeling like I’m bothering someone else.

For better or worse, emails are how we communicate and have conversations these days, and I encourage folks to think of emails as how we would converse in person. If you’re face-to-face with someone else, and you ask them a question but they don’t reply, wouldn’t you naturally want to say, “Hey, did you hear what I said that first time around?” 

In this newsletter, I’ve asked three people who I know have excellent strategies around client relations, outreach, and emailing for their advice around sending a good follow-up. I, too, have included my thoughts as needed! 

AUSTIN L. CHURCH is a CMO, writer, and mentor for freelancers. He runs Freelance Cake, a business coaching program for small business owners, which also comes with its own newsletter. He expands on how to send a strong follow-up email here. 

ANNE HELEN PETERSEN is a writer, author, and founder of CULTURE STUDY, a newsletter about the world we inhabit. She wrote a great newsletter last spring about how to write an email asking for someone else’s time. (Subscription required)

PAULETTE PERHACH is a writer and writing coach with work in The New York Times, Elle, Real Simple, and many other national publications. Her software, The Writer’s Welcome Kit, helps writers to stay organized, and her group coaching program, Powerhouse Writers, leads writers to establish a foundation for a thriving freelance business.