How to Write a Follow Up Email that Makes an Impression
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Coach Burk,
I attended a networking event today at AT&T and met with five members of different company sectors. I wanted to reach out and thank them for their time but I don't have a template for a thank you. Do you have a template or something that you use for this?
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This is an email I received from a student who recently attended a networking event for a large corporate company where she met with five members of different company sectors. She wanted help understanding how to follow up with each individual to thank them for their time and solidify the connections made at this event.
While keeping your follow up emails simple is the best strategy to follow, there are some subtle nuances college students can incorporate into their thank you notes which can go a long way towards solidifying new professional connections and increase the chances of building a solid professional relationship with people in their industry as they begin their careers.
When starting to make connections at networking events early in their career, use the simple framework outlined below to follow up, make positive impressions, and begin building professional relationships.
Always Follow Up
You should always follow up and write a thank you note to any individual who took the time to meet with you at any type of networking event. Following up is a small gesture, but something most people don’t do and will end up separating you from the potentially large amount of people your connections met at a given event.
When writing a follow up email or thank you note, I like to stick to a simple formula of: Appreciation, Reflection, and Next Steps.
Appreciation - Express sincere gratitude
Reflection - Highlight takeaways from your conversation
Next Steps - Close for next steps, if there are any
Thank You Template: Following Up with Professional Connections
Here is an example of a follow up email I would recommend sending to anyone you meet at an event to open the door for future conversations or meetings down the road.
Follow Up Template
Hi Mrs. AT&T,
I wanted to reach out and thank you for taking the time to chat with me at the AT&T event yesterday. As a young college student, it really meant a lot to me just to meet you and learn a little bit about you and your career path.
It was really interesting to hear about the evolution of your career at AT&T (or whatever you talked about). Our discussion helped me understand how much my strengths align with roles in this industry and have me really excited about pursuing internship opportunities in this field this upcoming summer.
You mentioned a friend of yours working at Google that may be a good person to be introduced to. If you’re comfortable making that introduction, I’d love the opportunity to connect with them and learn more about their career path and what they are doing with Google.
I appreciate you taking a few moments to connect with me yesterday and look forward to keeping in touch as I start my career in this industry.
Best regards,
Evan Burk
Step-by-Step Breakdown for Follow Up Email
And here is the step-by-step breakdown so you can create your own email to craft an impactful follow up note to anyone you connect with at a networking event or meet in a professional setting.
Professional Greeting: “Hi Mrs. AT&T”
I’d suggest using ‘Hi’ instead of ‘Hey’. ‘Hi’ is more suitable in a professional setting, where ‘Hey’ is a more casual greeting and not really appropriate for an industry professional you just met.
Genuine Appreciation: “I wanted to reach out and thank you for taking the time to chat with me at the AT&T event yesterday. As a young college student, it really meant a lot to me just to meet you and learn a little bit about you and your career path.”
Express gratitude right off the bat, since that is really the point of the email. Because people at networking events could potentially meet a number of people, be sure to drop a few subtle hints about your meeting, who you are, or what you spoke about in your interaction.
Reflection: “It was really interesting to hear about the evolution of your career at AT&T (or whatever you talked about). Our discussion helped me understand how much my strengths align with roles in this industry and have me really excited about pursuing internship opportunities in this field this upcoming summer.”
Share what interested you about your conversation or things that you learned. Even something as simple as thanking someone for sharing their perspective on a certain topic or sharing their career journey is fine, but the more detail and sincere takeaways you can share, the better.
Close for Next Steps: “You mentioned a friend of yours working at Google that may be a good person to be introduced to. If you’re comfortable making that introduction, I’d love the opportunity to connect with them and learn more about their career path and what they are doing with Google.”
If the other (often more senior) person mentioned reconnecting in the near future on a certain topics, potential introductions to people in their network, or future or current job or internship opportunities, make sure you mention this! Remind them what they said, and ask what the next steps would be.
What if There’s No Next Steps…?: “I appreciate you taking a few moments to connect with me yesterday and look forward to keeping in touch as I start my career in this industry.”
If there are no next steps, that’s perfectly fine! You can simply say you enjoyed hearing a little about their perspective on their career, and you’d like to keep in touch with them as you progress towards your first full-time job in the industry.
💡 Networking Tip: Mentioning that you are progressing towards your first role in the industry subtly alerts them that you will be looking for jobs soon, and can start to frame you as a potential job candidate in the near future to this new professional connection. If you were able to make an impression in your first meeting, it may increase their interest in following, assisting, and investing in you and your career path down the line.
Sign Off: “Best regards, Evan Burk”
Keep it simple and remember to include your full name.
Building the Relationship
“You are as good as your network is broad and deep. Relationships are the blood in our veins. Managing and deepening relationships should not be ‘catch as catch can.’ It is an activity ‘on your calendar,’ thought about explicitly and systematically.”
- Tom Peters
It is important to remember that it will be your responsibility to be the one to follow up in the future, to try to continue the conversation, and to build the relationship, since the other person is likely more senior and established in their career. For that next step, I would suggest setting a reminder in your calendar in 3-6 months to reach back out to the individual to either reconnect for a coffee or a virtual meeting.
Simply reconnecting in the future is fine and some might be open to meetings like that, but I’d suggest trying to find a more compelling reason to meet again.
Remember - You are asking for a professional to take time out of their busy schedule to meet with you. Why would they do this? Yes, you were nice to them at the event you met at, but they have real jobs, personal and family lives, and sometimes hectic work deadlines that take priority over a coffee meeting that would distract from their priorities in life.
Some people feel that meeting with college students is a form of paying it forward and may agree to meet you for no defined reason except to simply pick their brain or chat. But not many share this view on relationship building and helping out younger people in the industry, and quite frankly for some taking meetings with no defined agenda or outcome is not very appealing.
A better approach to getting another meeting is to give the other person a specific reason to meet or share a question regarding the profession or industry you’ve been thinking about that you want to discuss with them. The idea of helping someone early in their career, especially helping a college student, is more appealing and rewarding to the other person and can increase the likelihood of securing a second meeting.
Meeting people early in your career is simply the first step in starting to build relationships in your professional network. Some people won’t respond to you. Some people you’ll never see again. Some will be receptive to conversations and even helping you in the future. You don’t know who those people will be, so always follow up with every one you meet and treat them as if they will be your next potential employer, mentor, or friend. It’s an impactful habit that will serve you the rest of your career.
