One of the most neglected classes of email is the enquiry response. So many businesses spend ages crafting an online sales campaign, but then disappoint prospects with unworthy emailed replies to their enquiries. What do the best replies look like?
It’s essential to personalise the response. If someone’s made an enquiry, we have their details, so it’s unforgivable not to address them by name at least. Plenty of the follow-ups that I get don’t bother with this. There may be a lot more we can add, depending on how much we know about their business. I still rarely see it, but a personalised video message can be stunning.
Providing a quick response is obviously essential. However, holding off to ensure the email is received at the best time of day also merits consideration. I think that a reply received late in the day can easily be noted and forgotten; we’ll probably all have different ideas about that though.
Is there an obvious call to action? Just like the original sales piece, the enquiry response should use similar techniques to continue the conversation. Urgency, a special offer …whatever works.
And finally, what about a ‘thank-you’ for enquiring? This needn’t be anything physical, just access to something useful, some tips, a related study or white paper. Again, whatever works.
Enquiry responses merit as much care as sales emails.