The Art Of The Perfect PR Follow Up
As any successful PR agency will tell you, it’s all about the follow-up! When you’re sending out countless wellness and wedding PR pitches, it’s important to check in on your efforts to ensure that they were received and to stay in touch for future PR opportunities. Today on our PR blog, we’ll be sharing the tips and tricks we’ve learned after working in wedding public relations for over 15 years. The result? You’ll truly learn the art of the perfect PR follow-up!
What Should Be Included In A Follow-Up Email?
In our experience, the shorter and sweeter your follow up email, the better. The goal of a follow up is to move your email to the top of your contact’s inbox – Not to reiterate your entire first email! Try to keep your follow up to 3 sentences or less. If it’s too wordy, you risk your recipient not reading it at all because they get overwhelmed by the quantity of information and don’t have time to really sit down and review.
In your email, be sure to include what you’re following up on, any pertinent information they may need to know before reviewing your PR pitch (e.g. a deadline or timely element), and a quick thank you. That’s it!
How Often Should You Follow Up On An Email?
Different public relations firms will tell you different time frames, but for us at Be Inspired PR, about one week tends to be the right amount of time between sending an initial email and a follow up email. A full week gives your recipient ample time to receive and respond to your first email. Have you ever received a follow up less than 24 hours later? It can be off-putting! It’s important to remember that in today’s digital world, people can receive tens if not hundreds of emails per day. Give them the benefit of waiting before sending a follow up and you’ll come off much more respectful of their time.
The exception to this rule would be on something extremely time-sensitive. Use your best judgment to determine whether or not you should be following up sooner!
How Many Times Should You Follow Up?
This may be the toughest question to answer, and in the end, it all comes down to your relationship with your recipient. If you know that they often take 3-4 weeks to respond to one of your emails, plan to follow up 2-3 times on your initial reach-out. If they usually respond sooner if they’re interested in your PR pitch, feel free to move on if you haven’t heard back after 1 follow-up.
Should You Start A New Email Chain When You Follow Up?
Usually, no! Keeping all of your emails and follow-ups in the same email chain makes it easier on your recipient to keep track of your communication. That way, they can easily refer back to your initial pitch, and can read through the entire chain at once without having to search a cluttered inbox. In our PR experience, the fewer the chains the better! Too many separate email chains can lead to information being lost, emails being missed, and mistakes being made in final features.
Keeping track of PR pitches and follow-ups can be a full-time job! However, that’s what our team is here for. If you need help staying above water when it comes to your wedding submissions, expert interview features, or other types of pitches, we can help. We take the entire PR pitch and follow-up process off your plate with our project-based and retainer PR packages. If you’re interested in learning more, contact our public relations team today! We can’t wait to work with you.