Have you already pitched for guest blogging on a popular website? Congrats! You have completed the first step towards a glorious blogging career.

But,

The difficult part is getting acceptance from the respective editor of that blog. It’s natural that the editor’s mouse clicks on the “delete” button most of the times. It might be due to the improper structure of emails or they have simply forgotten about your pitch.

If you have been waiting for a long time after pitching for a guest blogging, it’s high time to follow-up now.

A blog editor receives guest post pitches daily and even almost hourly. That’s why there are no other ways except showing interest from your part.

Follow-Up Email Strategies

I won’t explain the importance or benefits of follow-up emails, as I hope, you know that pretty well. But, when it’s a question of guest blogging follow-up, you need to be extra careful.

Why?

An editor can easily get annoyed with a poorly-written follow-up email because they have to handle lots of tasks regularly and expect some excellence and intelligence in pitches and follow-ups.

So, you have to make sure to fulfill these criteria with a brilliantly-written follow-up (I assume that you have already sent a nicely-structured guest blogging pitch).

It’s a general scenario but some editors can also be there who overlook small mistakes and errors. However, you can’t take any risk because by sitting in front of a system, it’s not possible to judge a person so playing a safe game is the best idea.

I’m going to compile some possible scenarios that usually annoy editors in times of the following-up for guest blogging.

Sending Follow-Up Email in a Separate Email:

Many people do the same mistake by sending follow-ups in separate emails that have no link with their previous emails.

What might be the result?

A straightforward silent rejection

Editors are super busy people and they don’t have time to discover the connection of your emails.

A Possible Scenario:

Suppose, your pitch has gone through just perfect and moreover, it has reached to the right editor by compiling all the guidelines and rules of that blog but you were not receiving any response for a long time and so decided to follow-up via an email.

Then, you have brilliantly composed a follow-up email and sent it to the respective editor. But, the problem is you just have referred to your previous guest post pitch and thus it hasn’t been attached to the old pitch. It will act as a loose paper without any staple to the original document.

The result?

The editor will go through your follow-up email and might simply ignore it or enter the “delete” button.

What could be the Solution?

The solution is extremely simple. You should always and always send your follow-up email in the same email thread of your first pitch.
And thus it will display as a second email in the thread that further enables the editor to go through your first email at a glance.

Brief or Wordy:

Editors want to receive just the perfect pitch. And now if you have sent a properly-structured pitch and now are about to write your follow-up email, then you have to remember some points.

First, you shouldn’t include the introduction or the same lines that you’ve already included in your first pitch.

But, that doesn’t mean you’ll send a follow-up email with one or two lines. By only saying “Hi there! Remember me? I’m waiting for your reply”, you’ll be showing an unprofessional attitude.

On the contrary, including unnecessary lines in your follow-up email will also show an unprofessional attitude. Unless you have anything important to say, the follow-up should be of up to one paragraph.

And if your pitch had a time-based relevancy, it can be mentioned in the follow-up. Don’t include unnecessary information in your follow-up email, including more about yourself, the list of all articles of theirs that you’ve read last week etc. Excess information won’t secure your post.

An Ideal Email Template for following-up

“Hi [Editor’s Name],

I am [Your Name] following-up for the guest blog pitch that I sent a few weeks ago. I can assume that you’re very busy now with your works but I thought that sending a simple follow-up email was my responsibility. I guess I haven’t interrupted you.

Thanking You.”

You should customize this email template, as per your requirements.

Sending Follow-Ups After 3 P.M.:

According to a study (regarding guest post pitches) showed that most of the editors preferred getting emails during the morning time.

The reason?

Since morning is the fresh start of the day, the editor has not yet been occupied with lots of works. It has been shown that 69% of them preferred morning, 22% preferred afternoon and 9% preferred evening. We can conclude that sending emails in the morning could increase the email response rate.

If you enter the “Send” button of your properly-written follow-up email at 5.00 PM, then most probably the editor would forget about it the very next day. And your email will also be buried under the other emails.

To get rid of this annoying possibility, you just have to check the time before following-up. And if the time has passed 3 PM, just wait till the next day morning. You can also take help of an email scheduler to send your follow-up email at a particular time.

The Waiting Period:

You have sent a pitch for guest blogging and after just one day you’re thinking of sending a follow-up email, right?

No, it’s a wrong strategy.

You have to give sufficient time to the respective editor for going through your email. So, having patience is a must. Wait up to four to five days and then start composing a follow-up email.

The Bottom Line

Sending follow-up email is important because you have invested sufficient time in researching about that publication, the guest blog requirements and even in discovering an innovative blog post idea. So, don’t let your hard work in vain. Send follow-up emails and hope for the best.

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