Ever sent a proposal and heard crickets? You’re not alone—and you’re definitely not doomed. In this replay of one of my most downloaded episodes, I’m breaking down why follow-up emails are non-negotiable if you want to book more clients (without being pushy).

Then I’ll fast-forward to 2025 to show you how I’ve upgraded this strategy with a storytelling twist that makes your emails feel personal, powerful, and high-converting.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to follow up without feeling awkward or salesy
• My exact 3-email sequence to turn leads into clients
• What email tracking actually tells you (and what it doesn’t)
• The 2025 glow-up: how mini case studies boost conversions
• The magic email I use to get closure—or a yes

Want my plug-and-play follow-up templates? Grab them for just $9 in the Systems Shop: https://coliejames.com/follow-up-emails/

Let’s make ghosting a thing of the past.

Hey y'all, it's time for another replay.

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Today.

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I'm gonna take you back to

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the Magic of Follow-Up emails.

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Now, my passion about sending

follow-up emails after you have given

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someone an offer has not changed.

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I do think it is one of the most

important things that you can

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do inside your business because

the funds are in the follow up.

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What has changed in the last 18

months is how I think you should

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approach writing these emails.

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And so what I wanna do today is allow

the original episode to play in its

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entirety because the information

in there is still really good, and

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it's actually like a really good

starting place for you to write these

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emails, put them out into the world.

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Then once the episode has played,

I'm gonna come back and give

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you a 2025 approach if you are

ready to uplevel these emails.

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Now, if you're interested in buying my

follow-up emails, I do sell them in the

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Systems Shop, and they are only $9.

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So go ahead and look in the show

notes if that is of interest to you.

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And now here's the episode.

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All right, y'all, I'm going

to start with a question.

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Let's say that you've had an amazing

consultation call with someone or someone

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has filled out your contact form and

they feel like they are a perfect fit

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for your services and what you offer.

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So you decide that you want

to make an offer to them.

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You send it out and you hear crickets.

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What do you do?

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Are you following up?

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And if you are following up, how many

times are you following up before you

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give up and just archive that inquiry?

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That's what we're going

to talk about today.

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Hello, hello, and welcome back to

the Business-First Creatives podcast.

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I love talking about follow up emails.

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It is like, if I could pick one thing to

be known for, it would be the follow up.

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Because so many of us have an innate

fear of rejection that it stops

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us from following up with people

that have seemingly ghosted us.

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Now, I'm not saying that the things

that we're going to discuss today, are

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going to help you close each and every

lead that come into your business.

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Because the truth is you are probably

still getting wrong fit leads.

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You are getting people, that are going

through your website or seeing you on

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social media, and even though there

are a few red flags or they're not

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quite the right fit for you, they're

still filling out your contact form.

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And then you are still going to

get some people that you have a

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consultation call with them, and

there don't seem to be any red flags.

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Like they still seem like they're

a good fit for your business.

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So you send the proposal, you

make the offer, and then you

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never hear from them again.

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But what I want to make sure that we all

realize is that those people ghosting you,

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and those people getting on a consultation

call with you, you know, telling you that

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they're ready to work with you, and then

you send the offer and you hear nothing,

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should not define what you do in your

business to follow up with all inquiries.

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Every single inquiry that comes into

your business, you should be following

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up with them a minimum of three times.

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Let me say that one more time.

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Anyone who inquires with your business,

and that you have actually made an offer

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to work with you, you should be following

up with them at least three times.

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Now, some of these followups

are like really small things.

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Like you send them an automated email

24 to 48 hours after the initial

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offer to be like, 'Hey, I sent over

that proposal that we discussed.

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Just want to make sure that you got it'.

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It takes absolutely no effort from you

to set that up in your CRM and in most

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of them you can do it automatically.

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You can have it to where it watches the

proposal or the smart file or the brochure

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or whatever it is that your CRM calls it.

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But when you've sent the offer, if

they haven't committed by filling it

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out, signing your contract,' and paying

your deposit, your fee, whatever it

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is, your CRM can automatically send

them an email that's like, Hey, just

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making sure that you got the offer.

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If you didn't let me know and

I'll send it a different way'.

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That is like the least pressure

follow up that you can do.

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And in fact, I would argue that by

sending that automatic email 24 to 48

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hours after someone has told you they are

interested in working with you, you are

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actually doing a service for that client.

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Because you don't know for a fact that the

proposal actually landed in their inbox.

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What if it went to spam?

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What if you made the offer and you didn't

realize that they had a typo in the email?

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What if the email gods were

just not on your side that day?

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And for some reason, it

just didn't get delivered.

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You have no way of knowing that someone

got it, opened it and just ignored it.

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Because I do want to say 1 thing

about the tracking that's happening

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inside of a lot of these CRMs.

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I don't know if you guys know

this, but email providers like

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Gmail are now scanning incoming

emails looking for viruses.

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And what you may not know is that

Gmail scanning that email is tricking

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your CRM into thinking that your

client actually open that email.

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I have seen it with my own eyes.

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I will have my email program, Gmail open

in a different tab, and I will be testing

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my systems because, hey, everyone should

be testing their systems before they

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make them live for an actual client.

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But I'll be testing and it will all

of a sudden say, you know, sent one

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minute ago, opened one minute ago.

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Well, guys, I'm still, I'm

still doing what I was doing.

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I haven't been to Gmail.

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I haven't opened that email.

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I haven't looked at it, but my CRM has

already indicated that the email has

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been opened, which in fact is a lie.

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That was Google scanning it.

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That something else was happening

behind the scenes, but I definitely

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had not opened that email.

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So, I just want to say, if you are

using that in order to determine if your

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potential clients, your leads are opening

your email and just deciding not to work

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with you and just closing the email, that

in fact is not an accurate way to do this.

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Now.

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If you've sent a proposal and you can see

in your CRM that they've actually clicked

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the proposal, that is in fact accurate.

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I have not come across anything where

if a CRM says that a form was clicked,

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that it wasn't in fact clicked.

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So, every time someone opens your offer

and opens the proposal by clicking the

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button, and they don't immediately book

with you, if you want to assume that that

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means that the offer wasn't right for them

or that they found someone else or that

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they just don't want to work with you.

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I mean, I still don't think that's

accurate, but I will give you

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points for, you know, looking at

your data and making a decision.

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So the one thing that I want to talk

about today is that no one should assume

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if you send an offer out and you don't

get an immediate acceptance, you haven't

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heard back from them in 24, 48, 72 hours.

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I don't want you to assume that it means

that person doesn't want to work with you.

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People are busy.

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We all have lives.

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Even people that I am excited to work

with or that has an offer that I know

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is closing on like a particular day.

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Sometimes life just gets in the way

and I forget to complete the proposal,

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to sign up for the course, to do

whatever it is that I intended to do.

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I mean...

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I feel like I don't really

have a brain anymore.

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All I do is drive.

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If that's happening to me, I know

that that's happening to people that

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are in my audience, my potential

clients, my leads and so forth.

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So the first thing that I want

to encourage you to do is to not

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make the assumption that someone

doesn't want to work with you if

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they don't immediately say yes.

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So if we can get you to have that mindset,

what possibilities does it open for you to

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feel comfortable following up with them?

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Now, I do want you to do it

in a very easy way at first.

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Uh, there are some people that would

say you could do follow up text

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messages, you could give them a call.

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I'm going to admit that I'm not that

kind of person that does feel a little

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aggressive for me, but also depending on

what kind of offer you have, depending

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on whether or not your audience would

prefer a follow up phone call rather than

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an email is something that you need to

determine for myself and my audience.

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For the majority of my follow

ups, an email feels good.

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So, I've already told you what

follow up number one is for me.

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24 hours after someone has received the

offer from me, so they've gotten the

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proposal, it has the contract attached,

it has the invoice, all they have to

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do is fill it out, and they are booked.

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If I have not heard back from them

in 24 hours, my system automatically

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sends them an email that's just,

hey, making sure you got the offer.

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If you have any questions,

please let me know.

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I have also started adding a, if

you have decided not to work with

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me at this time, please let me know.

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And I will close out your

inquiry and make sure that you

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don't receive any additional.

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Follow up emails.

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Now, for some people that may have

not been interested in following up

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with you, they've already decided

not to work with you and they just

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don't want to hurt your feelings.

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Those people might actually be inclined

to respond to that initial time.

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Automatic email and say, Oh, I have

decided to go in another direction.

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Can you close out my inquiry?

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Because you are warning them that if

they do not acknowledge that they have

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decided to work with someone else, that

you are going to continue to send emails.

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So some people will give you closure just

so that you don't send any additional

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follow ups, which is fine with me.

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Like, I don't really mind if

I've chatted with someone and I

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thought they were a good fit, but

they decided not to work with me.

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I look at it as a blessing in disguise

because if someone hears my offer.

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And gets on a consultation call with

me and sees everything that I can

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do for them and their business, and

they don't want to work with me.

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That's okay.

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That means that I wasn't the best

person for them, and I don't want them

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to work with me and it be a bad fit.

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Like, to me, that's worse

than them just saying no.

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So that's my first follow up.

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My second follow up occurs either 24

or 48 hours after the first follow up.

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Now that email is not automated.

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I take the time and exactly

5 minutes guys, like I don't

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literally set a timer, but.

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Like five minutes is my max.

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I will take five minutes and customize

an email template that is going out to

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them, that is asking them if they have any

hesitations, can I answer any questions

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for them, goes back over whatever

the offer it is that I made to them.

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And then I add a little bit where

I am telling them how I can solve

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their specific problem, what their

business will look like on the

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other side of working with me.

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And to be honest, that's different

for every single person that comes

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into my business because I am

customizing that part of the email,

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depending on what kind of issues.

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And fears they have indicated to

me on the consultation call, or

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even in their contact form, like,

whatever they are really feeling,

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whether it is an urgency to get this

done, because they're overwhelmed

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with their leads or whether or not.

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You know, they had an instance where

they couldn't get the client to

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fill out the client questionnaire,

and they forgot to follow up.

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And then they showed up at a session and

didn't know anything about their client.

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Like, everyone is usually experiencing

something that is making it worthwhile for

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them to get this problem solved right now.

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And so whatever it is that they

told me, I customize that email.

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So again, not automated,

customized in less than five

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minutes, and then I send it.

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The third email is an email that

I can't actually take credit

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for, but it's actually the email

that gets you the most closures.

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So I really wish that I had

written it, but I didn't.

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It is a magic email.

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And if you want, if you Google

magic email, you will see it has

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an entire website dedicated to it.

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But basically the line is, I

haven't heard back from you.

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Your priorities must have changed.

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No response is necessary.

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Guys, I know that sounds rude.

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I don't exactly send my magic

email just like that, but I

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think it gets the point across.

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And what it does is it usually

pushes someone to give you closure.

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Now, I will admit, in most cases, it's

not that they're going to contact you and

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immediately be ready to work with you, but

Most people don't like to be seen as rude.

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So when they get that third email,

when they get that magic email, they're

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like, Oh my gosh, I'm being so rude.

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I should just let them know that I

am not going to be working with them.

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And so you get a response that's like, I'm

not ready to work with you at this time.

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Thank you for following up.

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And then, you know, to close the

inquiry and not follow up anymore.

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I mean, they are doing you a

service by telling you this so

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that you don't waste any additional

time and resources on that lead.

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And I soften the email just a tiny bit.

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I say, I haven't heard back from

you, so maybe you've decided

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to go a different direction.

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I am going to close out your

inquiry so that you do not receive

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any additional follow up emails.

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If you change your mind about working

with me in the future, please reach out

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for updated pricing and availability.

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So I've done a couple of things.

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Number one, I told them I'm not

going to waste any more of my

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time following up with them.

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Number two, I've let them know that if

they contact me in the future, I might

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not have the same availability and

I might not be the same price point.

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That usually gets people

to do one of two things.

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If they're interested in working with

you, but they just haven't had the

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time to fill out the proposal or do

whatever it takes to commit to the offer.

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Oh, they usually do it right then.

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Or they send me an email that says, Oh

my gosh, this just fell off my plate.

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Um, when I get home later tonight,

I am going to fill out this proposal

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and finish the booking process.

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Thank you for reaching out.

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That's one kind of email that I get.

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The other kind of email that I get is

one that just says, yeah, I'm sorry.

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I decided to go a different direction

or I decided that it wasn't in the

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budget to get this done or I'm going

to try to continue to DIY my services

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and when I get a bigger client roster,

I will reach out to work with you then.

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I mean, those are the kinds of email

responses that I get to the magic email.

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Man, y'all, I told you

it was a good episode.

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It still has some really juicy information

about how you can set up a follow-up

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system inside of your own business.

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But what has changed for me from

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emails that I described to you, I

still send with one big difference.

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Every single one of them has a

mini case study inside of it.

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Because the power of social proof and

case studies and client transformations

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is what gets people to buy your service.

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The very first email that I send 24

hours after I have made an offer to

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someone is actually a snippet from

one of my clients, Maddie Peschong

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She was on my podcast and I took the

opportunity to to write an email to

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kind of go through her transformation.

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Initially, she didn't think that

she needed an entire setup from me.

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She only wanted, in her

words a fancy proposal.

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But once we actually did her strategy

call and we took a deep dive.

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Look into her systems, she started to see

all of the holes, all of the places where

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her client experience could be better

with some additional communication, some

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additional information for her clients.

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And so that is what email

number one looks like to me now.

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Now, does it still have

some of the same language?

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Oh hey.

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I sent you an offer 24 hours

ago just popping in to make

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sure that you received it.

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Of course, that is the

purpose of the email.

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It still includes that part, but it also

includes information on that case study

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as well as two different ways that they

can look at the case study if they'd like.

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They can either listen to the

podcast episode or they can click

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over and read it on the blog.

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My second email is

actually extremely similar.

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It is a case study from a

different client, but this

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one focuses on automation.

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It focuses on how much ease my

client got after working with me to

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where everything was laid out, and

she was no longer babysitting every

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single step in her client experience.

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And again, I invited them to

listen to a podcast episode or

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check it out in a blog post.

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Now the third email that I send does

still have the magic email touch.

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It does still say, Hey,

your plans may have changed.

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Maybe your systems aren't as

important to you as they were

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when you first contacted me.

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Um, if I don't hear from you by end

of day, I will close out this email.

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And if you would like to work together

in the future, please reach out for

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updated pricing and availability.

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So what I told you before is all in

the three emails, but now I am really

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focusing on more storytelling and more

highlighting of client transformations.

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So now that you've listened to the

original episode and you've heard

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my new 2025 take, if you will, are

you ready to implement some follow

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up emails inside your business?

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I sure hope so.

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You can either take this information from

this podcast and run, or if you're like,

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Hey, Colie those emails sound really good.

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Don't forget, you can get them inside the

system shop and they are a whopping $9.

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So visit the show notes

and there's a direct link.

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All right.

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That's it for this episode.

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See you next time.