Follow-up ·Agency ·Professional
Get agreement on the record and the next step owned by someone.
Write a plain-text follow-up after a meeting with [WHO WAS THERE], covering [WHAT WAS AGREED]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
This email becomes the record. Write it so that if someone reads it in six weeks, they know what was decided.
Rules:
- 90 to 130 words.
- Open with one sentence naming what was agreed at the highest level. Not "thanks for your time" — that can go at the end in four words or not at all.
- Then [WHO DOES WHAT], as a short list. Each line is an action, an owner and a date. Put my own actions first; leading with theirs reads as an invoice.
- Include [THE OPEN QUESTION] explicitly, with who is expected to resolve it. Unwritten open questions are the ones that surface as a disagreement two months later.
- Do not summarise the discussion. Nobody rereads a recap of a conversation they were in.
- Do not pitch, do not attach a proposal unless one was asked for, and do not suggest a next meeting unless one was agreed.
- Never invent a number, date, figure or commitment that was not in my notes. If something is unclear, write it as an open question rather than resolving it in the email.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 45 characters naming the project. Return subject, body, sign-off.
Follow-up ·SaaS ·Friendly
Deliver what was promised, and give the interested ones one next step.
Write a plain-text follow-up to [ATTENDED OR NOT] for [THE EVENT]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
Rules:
- 90 to 130 words.
- First line delivers [WHAT WAS PROMISED], with the link. That is what the email is for, and burying it under a thank-you is why these get closed unread.
- Adjust the opening to [ATTENDED OR NOT]. Someone who came should not be told what they missed; someone who did not should not be thanked for coming. Getting this wrong is the most visible way an automated follow-up shows its seams.
- State [THE ONE IDEA] in a sentence or two — the thing worth remembering. An attendee who never opens the recording should still get value from this email.
- Give [THE NEXT STEP] once, at the end, as an ordinary sentence with the link inside it. If there is no genuine next step, leave it out rather than inventing one.
- Do not include a feedback survey and a resource link and a sales call in the same email. Pick one.
- Never invent a number, statistic, attendance figure or quote from the session. Where a figure belongs and I have not supplied it, leave a bracketed placeholder.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 45 characters naming what is inside. Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.
Follow-up ·Local service ·Professional
Get a decision. A no now is worth more than a maybe for six weeks.
Write a plain-text follow-up to someone I sent [THE QUOTE] to, who has not replied. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
A clear no is a good outcome here. Write it that way.
Rules:
- 60 to 100 words. Shorter than the quote email.
- Reference the quote and roughly when it went, so they do not have to go looking.
- Address [THE OPEN QUESTION] in one sentence — the thing they were probably weighing. Naming it is what turns a nudge into a useful email, and it often surfaces the real objection.
- Do not discount. Do not offer to "work with their budget". A price that drops on the first follow-up was never the price, and they will remember that on the next job.
- State [WHAT CHANGES WITH TIME] only if it is genuinely true. If nothing changes, say the quote stands and leave it there.
- Make a no easy and explicit: one line inviting them to say if they have gone another way, with no guilt attached.
- Never invent a number, statistic, price or deadline beyond what I have supplied.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line of five words or fewer referencing the job, not the follow-up. Return subject, body, sign-off.