Most leads go cold because nobody wrote back on day two. You do not need a CRM to fix that. A sheet of leads plus one Make scenario sends a personalised follow-up two days after each lead arrives, and marks the row so it never sends twice.
What you need
A Google Sheet with columns Name, Email, Date, Topic, Followed up. Any email account Make can send from (Gmail, Outlook, or a plain SMTP account). A free Make account.
The five steps
- Write one good follow-up email as a template with {{name}} and {{topic}} placeholders. Keep it under 120 words.
- In Make, start with Google Sheets Search Rows: Followed up is empty and Date is at least two days ago.
- Add an Iterator so each matching row is handled separately.
- Add Gmail or Email Send an Email, map the address and fill the template placeholders from the row.
- Add Google Sheets Update a Row to set Followed up to today's date. Schedule once a day and switch on.
Useful extras
Add a second scenario for a day-seven message with a different template. If a lead replies, put anything in the Followed up column and the automation leaves them alone.
What this does not do
It does not read replies and it does not decide who is worth chasing. It sends what you wrote, on time, to everyone in the sheet who qualifies. Keep the list to people who contacted you; this is a follow-up tool, not a cold-email tool.
Cost
Three operations per lead. Even 200 leads a month fits the free plan.
Everything above runs on the free Make plan.
Build it tonight; the first run is the test.
Build the follow-up flow on the free Make plan
AFFILIATE LINK. THE PRICE IS THE SAME FOR YOU.