There is a saying that goes, “Timing is everything.”
Perhaps you met your partner at exactly the right time, or you ended up with the perfect job after a few failed interviews…
Whatever happened, you needed to be in the right place at the right time.
The same is true when it comes to sending an email or a follow-up message.
When should you send an email? When should you send a follow-up?
Getting the balance just right could mean a happy prospect that replies with positive feedback or a super annoyed one who tells get lost.
Let’s dive in…
Does timing really matter in the world of cold email?
The answer is yes.
We have the example of Jermey, who had just finished a podcast about AI. And to his surprise, he received a cold email from a company that developed AI and how they could help QuickMail.io with artificial intelligence.
Jeremy was super stoked and happy to reply, as he had just spoken about AI on the podcast.
But he mentions that if he had received this email two months prior, he probably would not have been interested in responding.
So this brings us to the question, when is the perfect moment to send a prospect a cold email that will get them to reply?
The simple answer is, you wouldn’t know; in fact, it boils down to being a roll of the dice.
BUT there is a way to ensure that your cold email will eventually get seen at the exact right time.
How?
By spacing the emails out.
Why do follow-up emails need to be spaced out?
Have you ever received follow-up emails from salespeople, and they pretty much spam your inbox with daily emails that you don’t care about?
(In some of the worst cases, you might even get 5 or 10 emails within an hour.)
If you have, you would probably have done these two things:
1. Unsubscribe from the mailing list
2. Mark the email as spam.
The reason for this is that it is irritating to get flooded with emails that add no value to you as a person.
In many cases, these “spam” type emails are sent via automation tools, so there is no real human interaction, which makes it easier to ignore these types of email campaigns.
So it is vital to space out your follow-ups during email marketing so that you can get a positive response while prospecting and not a negative one.
You also have to realize that you would have a better shot at approaching your prospects on the right day by spacing out your cold emails over a period of months instead of days or weeks.
Meaning, you should get more replies if you are doing a good job at sales cadence.
It’s also important to note that stats show that the more follow-ups you send over time, the more replies you will receive.
Here are stats from the last 1 million replies detected on QuickMail.
Metrics Break Down
- The first email got a reply rate of 37.5%. Of course, some people got more replies and others less, but if you look at all the replies on average from the stats, it means that the first email brings in about one-third of all your responses. This means if you stop here, you are passing on two-thirds of the replies that you could get.
- The first follow-up (or your second touch), according to the stats, shows that you will get 31.5% of replies from your first follow-up email that you send out.
- From the third touch or second follow-up, the replies get less. The stats show that you will receive a reply rate of 17.7% with the second follow-up email, and then the third follow-up email will only bring you a reply rate of 8%.
Does it mean that you should stop sending emails after 4 or 5 follow-ups?
It depends. Remember, these stats don’t take into account sales teams who have stopped sending emails after three follow-ups and never get a reply.
Some sales reps send up to 24 follow-up emails, and they still get replies, albeit the reply rate is as little as 0.001%.
Therefore what can you take away from this?
1. If you keep sending emails, you will keep getting replies.
2. The replies will start diminishing from the second/third touch.
3. BUT if you have valuable prospects, it makes sense to keep reaching out several times. Maybe between 5 and 12 follow-up emails for consistent outreach.
4. Either way, you will want to send follow-ups, and if you stop after the second touch, you will lose out on a lot of potential customers.
What is the best frequency of emails for great results?
When it comes to lead generation and email marketing campaigns, finding the right balance is essential for the best results.
If you still want to email prospects after six months, eight months, or even a year, you will need to get your spacing just right.
There are two ways in which you can do this:
1. The Easy Way
If you are new to cold emailing, the easiest way to find the right cadence is to do this:
From your first email, wait three days or 72 hours between each touch. (Make sure that it is business days.) This ensures that there is enough timing between each email and that they are not too frequent to annoy your prospect.
This also ensures that if you only have 5 or 8 touchpoints, your messaging is spaced out enough to reach your prospect when it is the right time for them.
You don’t just want high open rates and hundreds of just any kind of reply. You want positive replies because this will close deals in the end.
On a side note:
If you decide to send emails more frequently, note that you will receive more replies, but they might not all be positive.
Therefore try an a/b test to see what works best for you. Take note of how many positive and negative replies you get when your emails are sent out.
Do you receive more negative replies from annoyed prospects when you send many emails closer together? Or do you have a more positive response when you wait a day or more?
2. The Italian way – AKA “The Fibonacci sequence.”
What is the Fibonacci sequence? Well, in short, it’s a set of numbers that you can use to space out your email segmentation.
The best part of the Fibonacci sequence is that it follows the idea that the more emails you send in a short space, the more replies you will receive. BUT it starts to back off over time so that you are not seen as annoying.
How does it work?
The Fibonacci Sequence is the series of numbers:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …
The next number is found by adding up the two numbers before it:
- the 2 is found by adding the two numbers before it (1+1),
- the 3 is found by adding the two numbers before it (1+2),
- the 5 is (2+3),
- and so on!
So you can then use this sequence for email cadence.
You start off by sending your emails quite close together. You would send a message on day 1, day 2, day 3, and then on day 5, 8, 13, and so on.
This helps in the sense that initially, your emails are frequent, but then they slow down over time.
You will have the benefit of expanding your campaign over time so that you can reach your prospect at the right time for them.
Be cautious, though:
This DOES NOT mean that if you are using the Fibonacci sequence or the three days apart rule, you can send lazy follow-ups.
You still need to send the “right email.”
Always make sure you have a good follow-up that has personalization, excellent copy, and something valuable.
There is no magic one size fits all email template, so make sure that your entire message works before sending it off.
Each email should have value and not just be a boring bump email with the same info. Remember, you don’t just want click-through rates, but rather conversions and meaningful replies.
(Click here to read an article on how to write the perfect follow-up email)
Also, note that there are times when the “easy way” and the “Fibonacci sequence” do not apply.
Example:
If there is an event that you are emailing prospects about, it won’t make sense to use the Fibonacci sequence or the 3-day rule.
The better option would be to almost reverse the Fibonacci sequence.
So, send your email two weeks before your event. If you still don’t get a reply, send it a week before, and then two days before, a day before, and on the day.
Why this works is that there is a specific time date for the event. Therefore, as you get closer and closer to the event’s date, the emails become more frequent, especially if the prospect has not replied, reminding them that the event will occur.
The Takeaway
Timing is everything when it comes to your outbound sales.
Remember not to spam prospects (if marketers tell you otherwise, be cautious) but instead use data-proven spacing for success.
How?
There are 2 ways in which you can get the perfect email cadence.
1: The easy way (Wait 3 days between follow-up emails)
2: The Italian Way (Making use of the Fibonacci sequence)
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