How to Politely Ask for an Update on Emails? — Complete Guide - (2023)

Emails are one of the most popular modes of personal and professional communication. It is projected that over376.4 billionemails will be sent daily by 2025.

Nowadays, many different types of emails are sent, likecold emails, marketing emails, follow-up emails, etc. A business and professional need to learn how to send different emails to achieve the desired results.

In this article, we will focus on how to politely ask for an update via email. You will also learn how to structure follow-up emails to get a higher response without sounding too pushy.

So, let’s get started.

What Do You Mean By Update Emails?

Update emails or follow-up emails are the emails that you send to a recipient with whom you are already in touch. These emails are primarily sent to receive responses to your previous emails.

Update emails also help to request information or send reminder aler
ts. For example, if you have a meeting booked with a CEO on a certain date or time, you can send an update email to confirm the meeting status.

The most effective update emails are short, professional, and to the point. The emails are designed to keep the conversation moving. Therefore, shorter emails will help to build an email sequence.

Why Should You Ask for Updates over Emails?

Today, you have several communication channels at your disposal—from phone calls to instant messaging apps. But why is asking for updates on emails still preferred?

Here are some reasons that will help you understand the benefits of asking for updates on emails:

Increase Response Rate

Update request emails will likely increase the chances of getting a response to your previous email. Sometimes recipients forget to reply to your email, or your email gets lost in the recipient’s inbox. In that case, your update emails can popup the previous email back in the recipient’s inbox and motivate them to reply.

Nurture Leads

Through email sequence, you can build a relationship with a recipient. You can better understand their pain points, interests, and other behavioral traits. This knowledge will help you draft personalized emails and turncold leads into hot ones.

Complete the Project Faster

Update emails are very important for businesses to complete projects on time. Using emails, businesses can request constant updates on project status to ensure that recipients intend to follow the timeline. In addition, emails can help employers to remind project details and additional information to recipients.

Build a Personal Relationship

Cold emails are the most used marketing technique today. And follow-up emails are crucial to improveresponse ratesfrom cold emails. With follow-up emails, businesses can build relationships with cold leads and nurture them to take action.

Why Write Update Emails Politely?

Politeness is a key factor in writing an email. Especially when you are sending cold emails, it is important to choose your words carefully. That is because you never know who will read your email and how they will react to a certain tone or words.

Also, while sending reminders or asking for project updates, sounding too pushy can negatively impact a reader’s mind. Thus, no matter what type of email you write, politeness is vital during email communication.

3 Key Elements of Update Requests

To request an update on emails, you have to focus on the three key elements:

Be Direct
Don’t beat around the bush and directly ask for updates. A lengthy justification can make your message look vogue and unclear. Plus, nobody has time to read your long emails.

However, you should not ignore politeness while being direct. You might be taking readers directly to the point, but you can still use soft words to make recipients understand and comply with your request. For example—

I would love to hear how the infographic design is coming off? Could you give me a quick status update?

Make It Time Centric

Make it clear in your email when you accept a response. You can mention a particular date or time for a faster response. This way, recipients will know what you expect from them.

If the recipient doesn’t respond within the given timeline, you can further send follow-up requests.

One of the common mistakes that most people make is either they set too far or short deadlines to respond. It is important to give a realistic deadline to recipients so they can properly think before replying. Also, too far response deadlines can slow down your workflow.

The main purpose of setting a deadline is to create a sense of urgency. But if you set a too short response timeline, it will not look polite. However, you can add a simple justification in your email to tell why you have set a certain time frame. For example—

Last Saturday, we discussed some growth strategies over lunch, and I found your thoughts very insightful. In yesterday’s staff meeting, I discussed your strategies with other team members, and they also liked them.

So, I was hoping you could create a proper proposal by Tuesday as our department head is going on 10 days’ leave afterward?

Add a Strong Call-to-action
The CTA is the step that will take your readers to the next step. In general, you should always end your emails with a clear call-to-action line or paragraph. This way, recipients can quickly take action.

Therefore, adding a clear and strong CTA while asking for updates, so readers don’t miss it. The main reason to draft follow-up emails is to encourage recipients to take a certain action. Thus, requesting an update without CTA is useless.

Here’s how you can add a CTA to your email—

I read your blog post about content marketing strategies yesterday. I liked how you explained different content distribution channels and which one is suitable for fast lead generation. I have also written a blog post on content marketing channels. Here’s the link.

I would love to know your thoughts on my work.

How to Write/Send an Email Asking for an Update

Asking for updates via email is easy as well as tricky. It is tricky because you can not gauge readers’ responses in real-time. And you simply have to trust your email content to generate responses.

However, when you know how to write and send emails asking for an update, there is no better way to communicate with your recipients.

So, let’s see how to write/send emails for requesting updates.

Choose a Time to Send the Email

First of all, decide when to send the follow-up email. For this, you have to consider—

• How much time has passed since you sent your last email?
• When do you require a response?
• What was the purpose of your last message?

Usually, it is ideal to wait for 3-5 days before asking for an update if you don’t receive a response. But this is not a hard and fast rule. If you need a response urgently, you can ask for updates sooner or send an email once the deadline is passed.

Clearly State the Purpose

Before writing a follow-up email, determine the main objective of it and what information you expect to receive in response. When you have a clear purpose for drafting an email, you can select the right tone and format to reflect it.

For example, if you have to send an update message to your senior, using a formal tone will be more appropriate. On the contrary, when you are requesting updates from leads, an urgent tone can bring results.

Create a Catchy Subject Line

An email without acatchy subject lineis nothing. It’s what motivates recipients to click on the email and read it. If your email doesn’t have an attention-grabbing subject line, you will not get a response.

You can use a direct subject line for a fol
low-up email to refer to your original email. For example—

• Reference to our last conversation on XX
• Reminder for our meeting scheduled on XX

Use Simple Writing Style

Unlike cold emails, there is no need to experiment with different writing styles while requesting updates. A simple and short email body is the best to write updates. There is also no need to add visuals or too many links to your email.

The best follow-up email contains—

• Greetings to your recipients like ‘Hello’ or ‘Hey’. You can also personalize greetings by using recipients’ first names.
• After that, write your email content, which should not be more than 100-150 words.
• Write a proper call-to-action to close off your message.
• Finally, add your signature at the bottom of your email.

Proofread the Email

After writing your email, spend some time polishing your grammar, sentences, and tone. There is nothing more unprofessional than sending poorly written emails. So, take your time and properly sharpen your writing before hitting the send button.

Send the Email

Finally, you can now send or schedule your emails once you are happy with them. If you request updates from different departments or write on behalf of your company, you can CC them the email. You can also add email addresses to the BCC section if you like to keep correspondence email addresses private.

Things to Do While Asking for an Update over Email

Do you want to receive an instant response to your follow-up emails? Then, make sure to consider these things while requesting an update:

Follow-up shortly
Don’t wait too long to send follow-up messages. Try to keep the conversation active. You can keep the recipient focused and engaged when you send them a prompt follow-up. Thus, try to request updates within 5 days of your previous message.

Stimulate a response
You should write email content in such a way that it can encourage recipients to respond. For example, you can ask questions or time bond replies to trigger responses.

If you have planned to ask questions in the email, use a polite tone and soft words. Sometimes questions can come across as rude and direct, which can offend some people. Thus, select your words smartly while asking questions in emails.

Provide some value
Before requesting updates, you can state why you need them. This can tell recipients that their response is highly valuable to you. You can also mention how their timely response can benefit them.

Use a short paragraph
Nobody likes to read a big wall of content. Large paragraphs can demotivate readers. Thus, try to write 2-3 lines in a paragraph. If possible, break paragraphs using bullet points, numbers, etc.

Highlight main parts
You can further make it easy for recipients to skim through your email content. You can use bold or italics to highlight the main parts of your email message so that recipients can quickly read and reply.

Things Not to Do While Asking for an Update over Email

There are a few mistakes that you should avoid while asking for an update on emails:

Never leave recipients in the dark
First of all, always send your follow-up emails on the same email thread. This way, readers can easily refer to the previous messages to get clarity.

Secondly, reiterate on whichsubject matteryou are looking for updates. Just write one line to explain the context of your email message.

Not using personalization elements
The most crucial mistake that you can make while writing emails requesting updates is not personalizing your message. It is always seen that personalized emails have better response rates than non-personalized emails.

Just mentioning the job title or company name is not sufficient. You have to use different personal touchpoints to make your message stand out in the crowd.

For example, you can refer to a person while requesting an update. Here’s how the email will look—

I had dinner with Tom Hardy yesterday, and your name came up. She said you are still looking for a technical writer to create your software documentation. I was wondering if your search is still ongoing?

As I can suggest you a professional and experienced writer who can help you. I can schedule a quick 15 minutes call between the two of you for better understanding. Should I make that happen?

Asking for an Update on Email Templates

On the final stop, we would like to share some simple templates that you can customize to ask for updates from your customers, colleagues, or other subordinates.

1. Asking for More Information

You can use this follow-up email template when you want to ask for details on a subject matter within a timeframe.

Subject line: Property lease transfer details

Hey Alison,

I spoke with you on the phone yesterday regarding moving out from (property name) in May. I am planning to transfer my apartment lease to Justin Miller, CC to this email, starting June 1 to September 15.

Can you please tell us what paperwork we need to complete the lease transfer process? Also, I would like you to look at the Justin’ rental application to make sure everything is fine. I am going out this weekend and would appreciate you getting everything ready before that, so there won’t be any problem when Justin moves in. Could you please update me by 6:00 pm tonight?

Thanks,

Donna Miller

2. Requesting updates on a job role

Have you applied or interviewed for a job role? But haven’t received any update in a week? In that case, you can use this template to request an update.

Subject line: John Smith project manager role

Hey Tom,

We had a telephonic conversation last week regarding the new project manager position. At the time, you stated you wanted to hire a qualified and well-organized manager who could complete your projects within a short timeframe.

I wanted to check whether you have found the right candidate yet or not. If not, I would like to forward my resume. I have five years of project management experience at (company name). I also have leadership and communication skills to manage large projects.

Would you be kind and inform me whether the job position is still available? And if it is open, please let me know when we can schedule a short call to discuss further.

I’m looking forward to hearing back from you.

Kind Regards,

John Smith

3. Simple and short follow-up email
If you are looking for a polite and short follow-up email sample, here’s the one for you. It is a casual message that you can send to follow up on your last cold email.

Subject line: It’s great to hear from you

Hey Madonna,
I w
as elated to receive a response from you. I am just getting in touch to know whether you had a chance to check my email on (topic) and when can you reply?

If I don’t hear from you in the next few days, I’ll give you a call.

Best regards,

Ryan Gosling

Bottom Line

Asking for an update on an email is a simple task. You just have to use a polite tone and short messages. With politeness, you can easily impress the other person and get a quick response from them.

In this post, you have learned everything about getting an update on email—from writing to sending. So, let’s use this knowledge to create polite yet direct follow-up emails now.