How to follow up with a client who ghosted you (with templates)

If you freelance for long enough, a client goes quiet on you. You send a draft, a question or the final files, and then nothing. A day turns into a week, and you start rereading your last email looking for the thing you got wrong.

I'm a web developer, and I've done that rereading more often than I'd like to admit. What helped wasn't a cleverer email. It was deciding the follow-ups in advance, so each one is routine instead of a fresh act of courage.

This post is that plan: why clients go quiet, three emails for day 3, day 7 and day 14, and the emails I'd never send.

#Why clients go quiet (it's rarely about you)

Silence feels personal. It almost never is. The usual reasons are boring:

• They're busy, and your email isn't the most urgent thing in their inbox this week.
• They need someone else first: a boss to approve, a partner to read the copy, an accountant to release the money.
• They don't know the answer yet, so they're putting off the reply until they do.
• They think they already replied. Some of them did, in their head.
• Your email asked something open, like "any thoughts?", and open questions are easy to postpone.

None of these get better if you sound upset. Most get better with a shorter email, one clear question, and a schedule.

#Before you send anything, check your side

Spend two minutes on this first:

1. Search your inbox and spam folder for their name and domain. Replies get filtered.
2. Check the ball is really in their court. If your last message said "I'll send the next version on Friday" and you didn't, they're waiting on you.
3. Write down the one thing you need from them. Not "an update". A yes or no, a file, a date.

That third step makes everything below easier.

#The 3-email cadence

Count the days from your last unanswered email. Day 3 is a light nudge, day 7 is the clear version, and day 14 is a polite close. Each one gets a little clearer. None of them get louder.

The examples use a made-up project: say you're building a website for a bakery, Dana is your contact, and you're waiting for her to approve the homepage draft. Swap in your own details.

#Day 3: the light nudge

Keep it short and reply on the same thread, so the context is right there.

Subject: Re: Homepage draft for the bakery site

Hi Dana,

Just a quick note on the homepage draft I sent on Monday. Are you happy
with the layout, or is there anything you'd like changed before I carry on?

A one-line reply is plenty. If you need more time, just say so and I'll
plan around it.

Thanks,
Sam

One narrow question, an easy way out, and no guilt.

#Day 7: the clear version

Now say what the silence is holding up, and give a date.

Subject: Bakery site: your OK on the homepage by Friday

Hi Dana,

Following up on my note from last week about the homepage draft. To keep
the launch on the 31st, I need your approval or a list of changes by Friday.

Rough notes are fine, even "looks good, swap the photo". If something is
holding it up on your side, tell me and I'll help.

Thanks,
Sam

It names the item, the date, why the date matters, and makes the ask smaller ("rough notes are fine") so replying feels easy.

#Day 14: the polite close

By two weeks, the email isn't working, so make it easy to answer with anything at all. If it's true, say what you'll do next. A default works well here, as long as you actually follow it.

Subject: Bakery site: one reply to keep things moving

Hi Dana,

I've written a couple of times without hearing back, so I wanted to follow
up properly. The homepage draft is still waiting on your OK, and the launch
date depends on it.

If I don't hear from you by next Friday, I'll carry on with the current
version and fit your changes in after, which may move the launch date.

Even a short "give me until next week" helps me plan. And if something has
changed on your side, tell me and we'll work out a new plan together.

Thanks,
Sam

If the project is already finished and the client went quiet after handoff, the shape is the same but the question changes to something like "Did the site go live OK?", and you can space the emails out more: about a week, two weeks, then a month. There are three versions of that email on the client not responding after delivery page. If an invoice is still open, mention it once, plainly, and read polite ways to chase an unpaid invoice.

#After day 14, change the channel

Three emails with no reply means email isn't the right channel for this person right now. Call them. A two-minute phone call often clears what a week of email couldn't. If you know someone else at the company, ask them politely whether Dana is still the right contact.

If the work really is paused, say so once, in writing, and only if your agreement says so. Then stop sending. A fourth and fifth email rarely gets a different result, and it makes the eventual reply more awkward for them.

#What not to send

Some emails feel satisfying to write and make things worse:

• "Just checking in." It asks nothing, so it gets nothing. Always ask one specific question.
• "As per my last email." Everyone knows what it means. Restate the ask instead.
• "You still haven't..." Shame makes people avoid your inbox. State the date something was due and leave it there.
• A long recap of everything you've done. Short emails get answered.
• A new version attached to the follow-up. Two things to review is twice as easy to put off.
• Deadlines you won't keep. If you say you'll carry on by Friday, carry on by Friday.
• Threats or legal-sounding words. They end relationships that a phone call could have saved.
• Five emails in one week. Three days of silence isn't an emergency. Space them out.

#Make the next project harder to ghost

A lot of ghosting is set up at kickoff, so a few habits help:

• Say the follow-up schedule out loud at the start: "If I haven't heard back, I'll follow up after 3 days." Then your reminders are something you both agreed to.
• Get one named person on their side who can approve things.
• Ask for everything you'll need on day one, as a list. I wrote more about that in getting website content out of clients before the deadline.

If you'd rather not write these from scratch each time, the free follow-up email generator gives you calm, clear and firm versions for a few common situations, no signup needed.

I kept writing the same follow-ups for the same handful of things (files, answers, an invoice), so I built Tickoff for it: one link where the client sends the files, answers the questions and pays, with polite email reminders on a schedule until it's all done.