Plan a polite follow-up sequence

Overview

A first email often gets no reply. That does not always mean "no": the reader may be busy, on holiday, not the right person, or may simply not have seen it. A follow-up is a later email that refers back to the first one. Done well, it is helpful; done badly, it is nagging.

In this lesson, learners plan a short sequence for a fictional travel agency, write one follow-up in full and decide what to do with five different replies.

• Level: upper secondary, vocational, bachelor and continuing education; works in business English classes from about B1.

• Time: 90 minutes.

• Learners do: sort follow-up lines, plan a sequence on a grid, write one email, give peer feedback, decide how to react to replies.

• Outcome: a planned sequence of three or four steps and one finished follow-up email per pair.

Key terms

• Sequence: a planned series of emails to one person, sent with pauses in between, which stops as soon as the person replies.

• Step: one email in the sequence.

• Thread: emails that belong together and show as one conversation. A reply in the thread keeps the subject (with "Re:") and the earlier email below.

• Angle: the idea an email is built on, such as an example, a useful document or a different question.

• Last email: the final, friendly message that closes the sequence and leaves the door open. Some people call it a "break-up email".

• Opt-out: the person says they do not want any more emails.

Materials

• The scenario and the first email below, on screen or printed.

• The worksheet (tasks 1 to 5), printed or on screen.

• The phrase bank.

• Optional for homework: the follow-up email trainer.

The scenario

All companies, people and figures are invented for teaching.

Margie's Travel is a business travel agency in Manchester. Priya Shah, an account manager, has read a job advert from Lamna Healthcare, a home care provider. It says care coordinators "travel regularly between our Manchester, Leeds and Bristol offices", and the company's news page says the Leeds and Bristol offices opened this autumn. Lamna's website lists Daniel Okafor as operations manager, with his email address. Lamna Healthcare is a limited company in the UK, where an email like this may be sent to a company if the sender says who they are and offers a way to opt out (an overview, not legal advice).

Priya sent this email on Tuesday, 3 November 2026. There has been no reply.

The five rules of a polite sequence

A reply in your own thread is honest: there really is an earlier email. A fake "Re:" on a first email is not, and in the US it can break the rule against deceptive subject lines in the CAN-SPAM Act (FTC guide).

When the sequence stops

The law backs this up. An overview, not legal advice: under the GDPR, Article 21, a person can object to direct marketing at any time, and under Article 15 they can ask what data you hold about them and where it came from. In the US, CAN-SPAM requires opt-outs to be honoured within 10 business days. In Germany, § 7 UWG generally requires prior consent for advertising emails in the first place, so a cold sequence would not be sent there without it (cold email and the law).

Step by step

1. Warm-up (10 min). Project the first email. Ask: "Daniel has not replied for a week. Why might that be?" Expected answers: busy, on holiday, did not see it, not the right person, not interested, the email landed in spam. Point out that only one of these means "no".

2. Input (15 min). Go through the five rules and the "when to stop" table. Ask the class which rule they think is broken most often. Ask what makes "just checking in" annoying: it asks the reader to do work (go back and read the first email) and gives nothing in return.

3. Task 1 (10 min). Pairs do the sorting task. Discuss the line "I am following up on my previous message": polite, but it adds nothing.

4. Tasks 2 and 3 (25 min). Pairs fill in the planning grid for steps 2 to 4 (step 1 is given), then write step 2 in full. Walk round and ask each pair: "What is new in this step?"

5. Task 4 (15 min). Pairs swap and use the peer check. Each pair gives one thing that works and one thing to change.

6. Task 5 (10 min). Go through the five replies together. Spend most time on "not now" (agree a time, ask permission) and on "no" (stop, no last attempt).

7. Wrap-up (5 min). Exit question: "Name two moments when a sequence must stop at once." Set the homework.

Worksheet

Task 1: adds something new, or adds nothing?

Each line is the start of a follow-up to Daniel Okafor.

Task 2: plan the sequence

Fill in steps 2 to 4. Step 1 is the email above.

Task 3: write step 2

Write step 2 in full: 30 to 80 words, one new angle, one question, your signature and the opt-out line.

Task 4: peer check

Task 5: what do you do?

Decide what Priya should do after each reply, and write the first sentence of her answer where one is needed.

1. "Thanks, but we already work with a travel agency."

2. "Not now, we are still settling in. Maybe in March."

3. An automatic reply: "I am out of the office until 16 November."

4. "Please take me off your list."

5. "Who gave you my email address?"

Differentiation

Easier.

• Give the angles on cards (an example from a similar customer, a template to send, the right-person question, the last email). Learners only put them in order and add dates.

• Learners write step 2 with the phrase bank, 30 to 50 words.

• Task 5 as a matching task: each reply goes with one action from the "when to stop" table.

Harder.

• Plan a branch: what happens after a "not now" reply in step 2? Write that answer too.

• Plan a second sequence for Lamna's finance manager, with different angles (invoices, cost control).

• Justify the timing: why these gaps for this reader? What would change for a school, which has holidays?

• Compare the plan with the law in Germany and explain why it would not be sent there without consent.

Phrase bank

Homework

Write the last email of your plan (at most 60 words) and an answer to the reply "Not now, maybe in March". Or do the follow-up email trainer, which checks both emails as you type.

Solutions