I’m riding the wave of some query success – I sent an idea over to a new publication and within 16 minutes I had a new assignment and an opening to be a regular contributor. Yes! That makes up for all those publications I contacted last month that never responded. In fact, only two did – the two writing publications, thankfully. Shows that they practice what they preach.
But to be honest, I didn’t follow up with all of them, so my success rate could have been higher. Right now, think of how many queries you sent out and didn’t follow up on. Yep. That’s about where I am, too.
So here’s the assignment for this week (and I’m taking part, as well): Follow up on all those queries from last month. All of them. I usually hit Forward, send the note back to them, but remove the “FW:” in the subject line – for some reason, spam folders love to eat these messages. Just type them a little note asking them if they received the query you sent XX weeks ago. If not, you’re resending it for their consideration. Thank them. Repeat with the next one.
How often do you follow up with client projects or article queries? Do you send thank-you notes regularly to job posters who have sent you “thanks but no thanks” notes? Try it. You’ll be amazed at how much of an impression that leaves.
Lori, this post forces me to admit that I've really been slack when it comes to following up. And to be honest, I never even considered sending a thank you note to those job posters who bother to take the time to respond to my emails(my mother would cringe and wonder where she'd done wrong raising me if she were reading this admission).
Bottom line: it's just good etiquette and I can't imagine it NOT leaving a positive impression. Thanks for the tips!
Lori, thanks for the reminder to follow up. Instead of getting mad for being ignored, I should take it upon myself to remember to follow up more!
Chantal, I don't know how anyone could – or would – ignore you. 🙂
Kimberly, likewise. My mother would say "That's insane – I know you know better" and then my head would hang in shame. 🙂
I follow up approximately every 3-4 months and check in around as often with the "maybes, keep in touch."
Looking at my stats, from direct mails, I get between 4-10% landing-job rate with the first direct mailing, but 25% from each followup.
After seeing Devon's stats on the follow-ups, I'll have to be more diligent. I tend to move on to the next market instead of following up. That will change immediately. I have one key LOI I'll follow up on right now.