What To Do If Someone Doesn't Reply To Your Email?

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Published: May 12th, 2020

So you sent an email a few days ago and you're expecting a reply... but you're getting nothing!

Note: Remember, people are busy and you are probably not their #1 priority.

What should you do if you don't hear back? Simple. The best thing you can do is just send a follow-up email.

What I tend to do is something like this:

Your response rate to this simple follow up email will likely be very high. Often you'll hear some reasoning from the recipient, such as:

"Totally missed your first email!" or
"Sorry, It went to my spam filter!" or
"Last week I was traveling and didn't have an internet connection..."

If they don't respond to that one, then you should try again (in a reasonable time) and also try reaching out via another form of communication, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever you think you'll have the best chance of reaching them.

Should you pretend as if you didn't email them before?

No, you don't need to reference it specifically, but you can assume they got the mail.

You can just forward the original email along with a short message, such as:

The gentle push

Think of these kinds of correspondence as a "gentle push" - a nice reminder that really does make a difference.

Here are some more tips that can help you get more responses to your emails:

1 - End your emails with a call to action

If you want to make sure they’ve gotten the email, then just ask!

Try to end your emails with a simple yes/no question or call to action, such as “does that work for you?” or “if you’re interested, reply with a thumbs up and I can send more info.”

Try to make it as easy as possible for the recipient to respond to you. People are lazy, make it easy!

2 - Use email tracking

If you use Gmail or G Suite, there are loads of plugins that help you track if your emails have been received.

I use Pigeon for Gmail (full disclosure, I am the creator of the app) to track if my emails has been read.

3 - Set reminders to follow up

Sometimes, you simply forget to follow up because the email has been lost in your inbox.

Set a reminder to follow up right after you send the email - you can use a tool like Pigeon for Gmail to do this.