The importance of checking back with recipients can never go unnoticed, especially in business communications. Imagine sending an email regarding an issue with your work computer to the IT team and no one responding. The same applies to communication between a brand and customers.
If you seek higher engagement rates and sources of valuable information with your emails, follow-up emails are your best pick. The following post helps you learn the importance of follow-up emails and the steps for sending emails with reminders in Microsoft Outlook. In addition, you can also learn the steps for flagging emails for follow-up in different scenarios.
What Are Follow-up Emails?
Follow-up emails are emails sent at a specific point of the customer journey, generally responding to the customer’s actions. One of a follow-up email’s primary objectives is collecting specific information. For example, businesses can send follow-up emails to customers on their mailing list asking for feedback on the latest products.
Here are the specific reasons to focus on follow-up emails. It can help you increase conversions and build trust. In addition, it also serves a crucial role in filtering your audience. You can use follow-up emails for different purposes of business marketing, such as product sale follow-up or free trial follow-up emails.
How To Follow-up Emails in Outlook
Microsoft Outlook, the most reliable email client, offers a dedicated follow-up option. It is the program’s email reminder tool and helps remind users about emails on a specific date of your choice.
Interestingly, you can configure follow-up emails in Outlook to alert the recipient or you regarding the necessary action. How will you flag a message as a follow-up email in Outlook?
1] Marking Follow-up Email for Self
As the sender, you need a response and can follow up with an email. It will ensure you don’t forget about the request, and the flag could ensure you seek a response again. The flag will add to the Tasks and peek on Outlook. Here are the steps to flag a follow-up email on Outlook.
- Choose Message and then click on the follow-up option.
- You must select your choice from Today, This Week, No Date, Next Week, Tomorrow, or Custom options.
- Add a reminder by clicking on follow-up and then on Add Reminder.
- You can enter the date and time for viewing the reminder dialog box.
2] Marking Follow-up Email for Recipient
The follow-up email mark for recipients helps in adding extra emphasis to the email. If the recipient also uses Outlook, the email would go on their to-do list. Here are the steps to mark a follow-up email for recipients.
- Select the Message option and then follow up.
- Choose the Custom tab and click on the Flag for Recipients box.
- You can enter the reminder action or description in the default Flag to section in the Custom tab. The text would be visible to the recipient over the From the line of an email.
- You must also select the Flag for Recipients box to add a reminder to recipients. You can enter the time and date you want the reminder to display before your recipients.
The flag dates in follow-up emails on Outlook also offer a credible advantage. You can find default start dates, reminder times, and due dates for each flag date, with the possibility of customizing each setting.
How Do You Flag Email Messages for a Follow-up?
Flagging is an integral part of creating follow-up emails on Microsoft Outlook. You can flag emails and track the responses to your messages. Here are the different scenarios for flagging email messages for follow-up on Outlook.
1] Flag for Reminding Recipients for follow-up
If you want a timely response to a particular email, you can flag the email message for recipients. Here are the simple steps for adding a flag to remind recipients.
- Access the Tags group and choose to follow up.
- Now select Custom and Flag for Recipients, where you can locate a Flag to list.
- You will have a reminder by default with the task. The info bar shows the flag text for recipients.
2] Flag for Reminding Self to follow-up
You can follow up on a message you want to send by using the following steps.
- Choose the Tags group in the Message tab and select follow-up.
- You must choose the flag specifying when you want a reminder about the message.
- The option for customizing the reminder time with the Custom tab helps you create Start dates and Due dates which don’t come on the list.
3] Flagging an Email for follow-up for Self and Recipients
You can also flag a new message for recipients and you with the following steps.
- Select the Tags group in the Message tab and choose to follow up, and select Add Reminder.
- Choose Flag for Recipients and clear the Reminder check box if you don’t want to send a reminder alert.
- Choose the Flag for Me option and the Reminder check box, specifying the Start date and Due date in the Flag for Me section.
- Specify the flag text you want in the Flag to list or type it and hit the Enter key.
- Make sure you have specified a time for the reminder if you have set them for yourself or recipients. Click on OK after completing all the steps.
4] Removing the Flag
You can also remove the flag for follow-up emails in Outlook with a few simple steps.
- Right-click on the message flag in the message section.
- Click on the Clear Flag option. If you have opened the message in its separate window, you can select the message and follow-up before choosing the Clear Flag option.
5] Removing a Reminder
If you remove a flag from a follow-up email in Outlook, you will automatically remove the reminder. On the other hand, you can use the following steps to remove the reminder on your own.
- Right-click on the message flag followed by the Custom tab to open a dialog box.
- Uncheck the box beside the Reminder option. You can go through the Message tab, follow up, and the Custom dialog box if the message is open in a separate window.
6] Find Responses for Flagged Messages
You can search for responses to flagged messages by using the following steps.
- You can open the message in the Sent Items folder or the sent message with the flag in the To-Do section. You can also try opening messages that respond to the original message, then choosing the Info Bar. Finally, you can select the Open original flagged message option.
- Choose the Info Bar and click on the Find related messages option. You will find the Advanced Find dialog box, which searches for messages that respond to flagged messages.
7] Track Complete Messages
Upon removing or clearing a flag or reminder in a follow-up email, you are less likely to know whether the message was a priority. If you have completed the follow-up action for a specific email, then you can mark it as complete. Here are the steps for tracking complete messages in Tasks.
- Click on the concerned email in the message list and right-click on the flag.
- Select the Mark Complete option to help you view the completed emails easily.
8] Blocking an Email Conversation Tracking
If you don’t want to track a message, you can clear the flag or reminder on the email. Here are some steps for doing the same.
- Open the Message tab and the Tags group in the message draft and choose to follow up. Now, click on the Clear Flag option.
- If you used a flag for self and recipients, you must delete the email in the To-Do section. Right-click on the message in Outlook and choose Clear Flag or Mark Complete option.
- You can remove a flag when a flag reminder emerges by right-clicking on the reminder alert. All you have to do is click on Mark Complete or Clear Flag option.
- You can remove a flag when a response to the email arrives by choosing the Info Bar. Subsequently, you can choose the Open Original Flagged Message option and the follow-up tab in the Tags group. Click on the Clear Flag option to remove the flag.
9] Flagging Received Messages
You can flag received messages for follow-up with one of the following steps.
- Choose the flag column near the message in the message list.
- Right-click on the flag column near the email in the message list, then choose the due date for the task.
Conclusion
The methods for adding a follow-up email in Outlook could help you improve an essential aspect of your email communications. As we already know the benefits of follow-up emails in communication, it is necessary to find the best steps for making the most of the follow-up feature in Outlook. You can rely on the different practical suggestions based on guides for using Outlook and flagging emails for follow-up. Learn more about follow-up emails and best practices for writing one right now.
How Do I See Follow-up Emails in Outlook?
You can choose the Folder tab and then the New group option, where you can click on New Search Folder. Choose Mail flagged for follow-up in the Reading Mail section and hit OK to view follow-up emails in Outlook.
How Do I Keep Track of Emails To Follow Up?
Adding a Reminder, you can keep track of emails to follow up in Outlook. In addition, you can also mark the completed messages with a distinct flag which can help you maintain track of the emails to follow up.
