Having a great conversation and exchanging business cards with an industry professional is not the final step of the networking process.
It's what you do after the networking event that will have the greatest effect on your success.
Following up with new contacts within 24-48 hours after a networking event will make you standout among the majority of networkers. Following up after a networking is the easy part.
You have already:
- Overcome your fear of attending the networking event
- Told complete strangers a rock star career story
- Convinced industrial professionals to help you with your job search
Just make sure you have the two things you need before attending networking events.
The only thing left to do is follow up! To make it easy for you I've created a networking follow up email template. All you have to do is tweak the networking follow-up email template below.
Subject Line: Nice Meeting You At The (Networking Event)
Hi Bob,
It was a pleasure meeting you last night at the Marketing Mixer. I really enjoyed talking to you about your passion for marketing and how you broke into the industry. I would like to take you up on your offer to pass along my resume and cover letter to the hiring manager and I have attached them to this message. I really appreciate your willingness to help.
Thank you,
John
Use this Networking Follow-up Email Template after your next #networking event.
Why The Networking Follow-Up Email Template Works
It was a pleasure meeting you last night at the Marketing Mixer.
You're letting your new contact know where you met and that you are not a complete stranger.
I really enjoyed talking to you about your passion for marketing and how you broke into the industry.
Here you are letting your contact know the conversation you had at the networking event to get them to remember you. It can be anything you talked about at the event. The more personal the better.
- I can't believe you know my cousin John.
- It's so funny that we have the same breed of dog.
I would like to take you up on your offer to pass along my resume and cover letter to the hiring manager and I have attached them to this message.
You are reminding your new contact in a friendly way that they offered to help you and that you would like their help. It could be a number of different things as well.
- I would love to meet for a cup of coffee and learn how more about you broke into the industry.
- It would be great if you could give me feedback and my resume and cover letter.
I really appreciate your willingness to help.
This is the last and most important part. You are already thanking them for being willing to help you. This makes your contact feel like they need to help you because you already thanked them for something they haven't done yet.
Writing a networking follow up email is really that simple.
The chances are slim that someone you had a great conversation with is going to send you and email and say, "Can you please send me your resume and cover letter so I can forward it to the hiring manager at my company?"
You cannot be a successful networker if you don't send a networking follow up email(click to tweet)
I want you to do three things
- Leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me how following up after a networking event has lead to something great.
- Bookmark this article so you can use the template I created above after you attend a networking event.
