Effective follow-ups are the backbone of any sales or GTM campaign. Following up with potential buyers is a crucial part of any sales person’s job, but it’s important to strike the right balance and not come off too pushy.

Studies reveal that only 2% of sales take place after a first meeting or connection, so while first impressions are important, follow-ups have to be even more compelling than your initial pitch if you want your leads to convert.

Email is perhaps the most popular outbound sales method in 2024. Studies show that 29% of marketers believe it is the most effective channel, while recent figures suggest that sales and marketing emails generate an ROI of $44 for every dollar spent.

But in a world where the average person deletes 48% of the emails they receive, how many follow-ups should you send after your first message, and when is the best time for them to land? How many follow-ups do you get with contacts before they turn cold, or even worse, unsubscribe?

In this article, we’ll answer the question – how many follow ups do you get with contacts?

We’ll also look at the best SDRs and how AI can optimize your outbound emails for more responses and conversions.

How Many Follow Ups Do You Get with Contacts? What the Data Says

There is no magic number in terms of how many times you should email new prospects, and it depends on several factors. Let’s look at what the data tells us.

• According to recent research by Marketing Donut, 80% of leads require five follow-up messages after initial contact to close a deal.

• Stephen Hart, CEO and Founder of Cardswitcher, claims three emails is the sweet spot for cold emails, sent over the course of 2 weeks. Any more than that, and Hart claims you’re wasting your time.

• Email platform Woodpecker found that the first follow-up email is the most effective, resulting in a 40% higher response rate than the initial email.

• The same research shows that response rates tail off from there. The 5th, 7th or 7th follow-up email brings you only a fraction of the percentage of the first, so sending more emails is not necessarily a smart move.

• Multiple studies found that frequency is more important than the quantity of follow-up emails and that sending follow-ups too soon can come across as pushy. It’s best to leave 2-3 days between emails to give your prospects time to consider your offering.

• The ideal number of emails in a get-to-market (GTM) campaign, which is usually focused on quick wins over long-term nurturing, is 2-5.

• AI SDRs (sales reps powered by AI) can increase your email response rates by helping you automate follow-up emails, scale outreach, respond quickly to leads and streamline your processes. They can help you decide when to use sales plays vs motions and find new leads to target.

Persistence and Professionalism: Striking a Balance

One thing’s for sure – you can’t force buyers to make a decision. The role of sales communication is to demonstrate the value of what you’re selling and generate interest, not to pester your prospects.

Email privacy is a big deal in 2024, and people may feel you are intruding on them if you send them too many unsolicited emails. It’s important to strike a balance between persistence and professionalism. Here are some tips.

Avoid Spam Triggers

Sending too many emails can trigger spam filters and hurt your reputation as a sender – another reason not to send too many follow-ups.

Other ways to trigger spam filters include writing in all CAPS (especially subject lines), using grammatically incorrect language, using the word ‘Dear’ before merging the recipient’s name, and having more images than text in your email body.

Use a Gentle, Conversational Tone

Your recipients are likely to delete your email or unsubscribe from your mailing list if your tone is aggressive or overly commercial. You don’t want to come across as desperate or pestering in your emails.

You should also avoid overly formal language, as this will make you sound like an AI. Focus on representing your product or service in a positive, light-hearted way, and keep your tone conversational. If you wouldn’t say, don’t write it.

Make Sure Follow-Up Content is Timely and Relevant

Not only will seemingly irrelevant emails trigger spam filters, but sending them will also make you look unprofessional.

Be careful to automate your email follow-ups correctly to make sure that new leads receive gentler, top-of-the-funnel content, and have a separate campaign stream for re-engaging cold prospects or trying to bring back previous buyers.

High-intent leads should receive quick follow-ups that focus on a pain point they’ve expressed, while low-intent leads should wait longer between follow-ups so you don’t overwhelm them.

If you’re emailing enterprise buyers, you’ll want to focus on strategic, long-tail follow-ups that are highly personalized. E-commerce leads should receive short, high-impact emails driven by urgency or special offers.

Oversee Even the Best SDRs

Using an AI SDR for your follow-up emails is a great way to ensure the right emails go to the right people while you save time and money.

But even when you’re using the best SDR on the market, it’s important to oversee your email campaigns for quality control and to add personal, human elements.

Use Topo, the Best SDR for Follow-Up Emails

The best SDRs can help to streamline and perfect your outbound sales process, taking care of the entire funnel.

Using replicative artificial intelligence, Topo’s SDRs can help you identify the ideal timing and tone for your follow-up emails by engagement signals like open rates, clicks and responses. We can also adjust email sequences based on prospect behavior, helping keep your campaigns timely and relevant using dynamic, real-time data.

With an AI sales solution like Topo, you can achieve personalization at scale, helping you create tailored messages based on lead job titles, industries and known pain points.

So you won’t waste any time or resources, our AI SDRs will tell you when to pause sequences for unresponsive contacts. Topo also integrates with CRM systems to exclude engaged contacts automatically.

This intelligent automation reduces the guesswork and time-consuming manual tasks associated with outbound sales, freeing you up to focus more on more valuable sales tasks.

Optimize Your Follow-Up Campaigns with Topo

So how many follow ups do you get with contacts before they either convert or turn cold? The answer is, it depends.

While the data suggests the “sweet spot” is somewhere between 2-5 emails, it really is contingent on several factors, including the industry you’re in, the type of outreach and whether you’re conducting sales plays vs motions.

However many follow-ups you decide to send, it’s important to strike that balance between persistence and professionalism and take steps to steer clear of spam filters.

Topo is the best SDR solution on the market, balancing intelligent automation with human oversight, and helping you optimize your email campaigns and get higher response rates.

If you want to benefit from automated workflows, data-driven insights and industry-specific personalization, find out more about Topo or book your demo today.