Email follow-up statistics: Why persistence pays off in business communication
Summarize
Follow-ups are a crucial part of email marketing and the sales process, whether you’re selling a $1,000 gadget or $10,000 software. In email campaigns, every detail matters: email design, accessibility, day and time of sending, mobile optimization, and more. All of these factors directly impact the results.
However, even a perfectly crafted email doesn’t always get a response on the first try. That’s where follow-ups come into play: a tool that helps recapture the recipient’s attention to significantly increase the chances of getting a reply.
Next, we’ll share key follow-up statistics and break down how to use these insights to drive better results for your business.
Top eight key email follow-up statistics you should know
- Email is ranked as the most effective sales channel by 40% of marketers.
- Email is the preferred channel for 72% of consumers for interacting with brands, ahead of social media and other platforms.
- Even a single follow-up attempt increases your chance of a response by 11%.
- A total of 60% of customers refuse an offer up to four times before sales happen, so don’t rely on a single follow-up attempt.
- After just one attempt, 44% of sales professionals stop following up, while 92% disengage after four rejections.
- Eighty percent of deals are closed only after multiple contacts, typically between 5 and 12.
(Source: Profitoutreach) - Reply rates are highest for the first follow-up, outperforming subsequent emails by 40%.
- By the fourth follow-up, unsubscribe rates triple, and the likelihood of being marked as spam increases more than threefold.
Always focus on your customers, their needs, and the subscriber experience. Consider numbers with only that in mind.
Open rates of email follow-ups: How many emails get opened after the first send?
As the numbers show, you shouldn’t rely on just a single initial email; closing deals in the sales process requires multiple touchpoints with the customer. Follow-ups aren’t optional; they’re essential.
On average, open rates of sales emails range between 43.46% and 45.37%. They tend to drop with each subsequent follow-up, and the same is true for response rates. However, you can influence this through personalization because personalized subject lines can boost open rates by at least 50%.
Put your customers and their interests first. Each follow-up should be more than a simple reminder of your company; it should provide value, share useful information about your product or service, and help move the customer closer to making a purchase.
Click-through rate statistics for follow-up emails: What the data shows
The average click-through rate of all emails across all industries was 2.09%. Not very encouraging, but there are ways to improve this metric:
- keep your subject line short, as it can boost CTR up to 17.57%. Stay within 41–50 characters and make it impossible for the recipient to ignore;
- personalize both the subject line and the cold email body to make the message more relevant;
- include a strong and clear CTA to guide recipients toward the desired action;
- optimize your emails for mobile devices to ensure readability and usability;
- add images to your emails: Emails with visuals achieve a CTR of 4.84% compared to 1.64% without.
(Source: Mailerlite)
Follow-up email response rates: Key data insights on what recipients decide
The highest response rate comes from the initial email (8.4%), followed by a significant decline with each follow-up: 7.8% on the second follow-up, 6.8% on the third, 5.8% on the fourth, and 3.8% on the fifth.
(Source: Belkins)
However, the first follow-up email has a 40% higher reply rate than later follow-ups, so you should focus on making your first follow-up as engaging and valuable to the customer as possible.
As shown earlier, don't stop after just one follow-up. Despite later follow-ups showing lower response rates, they still give you the opportunity to remind the recipient of your offer and share information that may be meaningful to them.
Boost response rates with the Stripo follow-up templates.
Miscellaneous cold email statistics
- for B2B cold emails, the average bounce rate is approximately 7.5%;
- one-fifth of sales reps' time during the day is dedicated to writing cold emails;
- beyond writing cold emails, sales reps also spend 17% of their time on data entry;
- the average conversion rate for cold emails ranges from 1% to 5%.
It’s best to take a multichannel approach to cold outreach, combining email marketing with calls and social media. This is an effective strategy for marketing teams, allowing them to integrate different channels for maximum impact and to measure the overall success rate across campaigns, optimizing each touchpoint for better engagement and conversion.
How many follow-ups should you send? Statistics on optimal sequence length in cold email campaigns
Are there any specific numbers when it comes to sending follow-ups? How long should follow-up sequences be to get email recipients to take action: 3, 5, or 7 emails? How do you avoid becoming so annoying that the client unsubscribes?
In my opinion, how many sales emails you send is not as important as what they say. Still, let’s start with the stats.
There’s no magic number of follow-ups that will help you both close a deal and stay out of the spam folder.
One study suggests that the ideal number of follow-ups for optimal results in a B2B outreach campaign is two emails. Another advises planning for at least 5-8 touchpoints per lead.
So, knowing these figures, you need to decide how many follow-ups to send based on your industry and your audience, because you understand them best. Persistence, when done correctly, pays off.
The key is to find the sweet spot without crossing that invisible line. For 43% of people, the main reason they unsubscribe from an email list is that the sender emails too often. There’s also data showing that your fifth consecutive email triples the unsubscribe rate while triggering spam filters and more than tripling spam complaint risks.
(Source: Belkins)
Subject line performance in follow-up email outreach
As previously discussed, the subject line directly impacts both open rates and click-through rates. That’s why you should keep it concise (up to 50 characters) and always include personalization.
Data shows that nearly half of email opens (47%) are driven by the subject line. Adding the recipient’s name to the subject line can deliver an average reply rate of 43.41%, significantly outperforming industry benchmarks. Subject lines personalized around prospects' pain points achieved an open rate of 28%.
Your subject line should be clear and catchy, so it doesn’t get lost in a crowded inbox and helps the recipient instantly recall what your email is about.
(Source: Klenty)
Here are a few tips about compelling subject lines for you to try:
- personalize for each recipient;
- keep it relevant;
- experiment, test, and repeat;
- no clickbait;
- test the use of numbers, emojis, and questions in your subject lines, as the data on their effectiveness is mixed;
- skip bland subject lines like “Following up” or “Just checking in.” Make them personal by referencing your last email or the prospect's specific needs, for instance, “Answering your question on...” or “More details on...“
Timing and frequency of follow-up emails: Are Monday and Tuesday the best sending windows?
Statistics around email send timing may be surprising. One study shows that Monday delivers the highest open rates by around 20%.
Another source reports that emails sent on Tuesday achieve higher click-through rates (about 2.73%), while Thursday stands out for higher open rates (around 18.6%).
Some data points to Friday at 6 p.m. as the strongest overall sweet spot, when open rates and clicks peak simultaneously. Do you agree that Friday evening is really the best time to send an email? Personally, I’m not fully convinced. Share your thoughts in the comments.
(Source: Mailerlite)
Meanwhile, other research advises avoiding Friday afternoons due to minimal engagement levels.
However, everyone agrees on one thing: The best day and time to send emails is the one you’ve tested and proven within your industry and with your audience. So, experiment with different timeframes, track which days and hours deliver the strongest open rates, CTR, and conversion rates, and then double down on what performs best.
Keep in mind the different time zones if you work with clients from all over the world. Don’t expect a response from a client the next day; wait a few days before sending a follow-up. Data shows that allowing a three-day gap before following up by email leads to a 31% higher response rate.
Mobile vs. desktop engagement: How devices impact follow-up statistics
When it comes to the impact of devices on email performance, I’m not going to tell you anything new. Stats prove that about 64% of people open their emails primarily on mobile devices, and more than 50% delete messages that aren’t mobile-friendly.
(Source: Zerobounce)
Therefore, make sure to optimize your follow-ups for mobile from the start and test how they appear across different email clients and devices.
You can test your emails across all major email clients and devices easily, thanks to Stripo's Integration with Email on Acid.
Personalization in follow-up emails: The statistics show why it works
Highly personalized cold emails get results. Incorporating advanced personalization into cold emails can dramatically boost engagement, with response rates reaching 18% compared to just 9% for generic messages.
When sending a follow-up, you can use multipoint personalization to remind the customer of your previous interactions and any agreements or outcomes that have already been achieved.
Continue the conversation by suggesting the next step based on the information you already have about the client. Keep your follow-up concise: cold emails longer than four sentences (optimal length around 150 words) see a 15× higher average response rate than longer messages.
Write a personalized message, spark curiosity, offer clear value (without resorting to clickbait), ask questions, and use social proof. Do all of this with the customer’s interests in mind.
Now that we've looked at the numbers, let's move on to template examples. I've prepared a few ideas to help make your follow-ups not only impactful but also visually appealing.
Follow-up email templates: What the data tells us
Here are some tips on what to include in your follow-up emails to make them valuable for your customers and effective for your business:
- focus on delivering value to the customer while gently nudging them toward a decision;
(Source: Stripo template) - if the customer has had the opportunity to try your product, ask for their feedback, and check whether further offers are still relevant to them;
(Source: Stripo template) - you can also suggest the next step once a customer has already tried your product. For example, Cineplex thanks them for their visit and offers a chance to win a free annual subscription if the customer shares their experience;
(Source: Email Love) - a great option for your first follow-up is to thank them for the meeting and immediately arrange the next one;
(Source: Stripo template) - Juliet offers the customer a discount for returning to make a purchase;
(Source: Email Love) - here’s an example of a thoughtful and unobtrusive reminder from Levi;
(Source: Email Love) - Loom created a minimalist design with a focus on a clear CTA and a brief comment on how it will benefit the client;
(Source: Email Love) - LEGO creatively reminds customers about unpaid purchases while highlighting important information for them (which items they selected, that their order qualifies for free shipping, and that returns are free);
(Source: Email Love) - one follow-up option is to reach out after a customer has taken the first step toward a purchase or has shown interest in your services and subscribed to your newsletter. You can offer them even more benefits by sharing free resources from your website.
(Source: Stripo template)
Use follow-up templates from Stripo’s 1,650+ templates, as this greatly simplifies your work and saves time. But make sure to personalize each email as much as possible.
Wrapping up
Now you know the key statistics on follow-up emails. They're quite varied, so test them, adapt the numbers to your industry and clients, and find the best approaches for writing and sending follow-ups. You should implement a follow-up strategy in your email marketing to track cold email metrics and experiment with new ideas.
Use Stripo's templates to take the worry out of design and focus on analytics and your customers’ needs.