Email Follow-Up Reminder

Get reminders to follow up on important emails that haven't been replied to in 3+ days

Gmail integration that tracks email threads and reminds you to follow up on stale conversations. Never let a lead or prospect go cold due to forgetfulness.

Every morning at 9:00 AM, Nora searches your Gmail account for messages sent with a designated follow-up label. It checks these threads for incoming replies. If an email has sat unanswered for three or more days, Nora retrieves the original message content and sends a summary reminder directly to your preferred channel, such as WhatsApp or web chat.

The sales rep who previously had to manually check their sent folder or manage a separate spreadsheet now starts their day with a list of stalled conversations. They review the reminders, decide which leads still need attention, and instruct Nora to either draft a follow-up email, label the thread as closed, or snooze the alert for another two days.

Runs daily at 9:00 am using Gmail, run by your Sales Dev Rep.

How it works

1. Run the daily query — At 9:00 AM, Nora uses the Gmail search API to find sent messages carrying a specific follow-up label. You define this label when setting up the automation, such as 'awaiting reply' or 'prospecting'.
2. Check for thread replies — For each matching message, Nora checks the email thread for new activity. It looks for any incoming messages from the original recipient to confirm whether a response has been received since the initial outgoing email.
3. Calculate time elapsed — Nora calculates the exact number of days since the last message in the thread. It filters out any conversations where the most recent message is less than three days old, leaving only the genuinely stalled exchanges for you to review.
4. Handle out of office — If the only reply in the thread is an automated out-of-office response, Nora flags this as a special case. It notes the return date if visible in the text and pauses the standard three-day follow-up clock.
5. Send channel reminder — Nora constructs a summary of the unanswered emails, including the recipient, subject line, and a snippet of the original text. It sends this list to your WhatsApp or web chat for review.
6. Draft requested follow ups — When you reply in chat telling Nora to bump a specific thread, it creates a draft reply directly in your Gmail account. You can review the draft in your regular mail client before clicking send.

What this replaces

A sales representative opens their sent mail folder every morning and visually scans for important outgoing messages from earlier in the week. They open each thread to check if the prospect replied, cross-reference this against a CRM, and manually type out a quick bump email for the ones that went cold.

• Scroll through the sent mail folder to find outreach messages.
• Open individual threads to verify if a reply was received.
• Check dates to calculate if enough time has passed to follow up.
• Write and send manual bump emails for stalled conversations.

Rough estimate rather than a measured figure: about 15 minutes a day, assuming 15 to 20 active outreach threads and 45-60 seconds to check each one and write a quick bump.

What it needs to run

Accounts and plans

• A Google Workspace or personal Gmail account.
• A connected channel like WhatsApp or web chat to receive the reminders.

Access it asks for

• mcp__gmail__search_emails to find the sent messages matching the follow-up criteria.
• mcp__gmail__get_email to read the contents of the stalled threads.
• mcp__gmail__draft_email to prepare follow-up messages when requested.
• mcp__gmail__list_labels to identify and apply the correct tracking tags.

What Nora reads

• Sent emails carrying the designated tracking label.
• Incoming replies within those specific email threads.

What Nora writes

• Draft emails created in response to your follow-up instructions.
• Label changes to mark threads as resolved or snoozed.

When it goes wrong

• The Gmail API rate limit is exceeded during a large query Nora pauses the search and respects the 250 quota units per second limit. It waits for the quota window to reset, resumes the query, and completes the check without missing threads.
• A prospect replies from a completely different email address Nora cannot link the new address to the original thread automatically. It will surface the original thread as stalled. You tell Nora in chat that they replied elsewhere, and it drops the reminder.
• No sent emails match the tracking label criteria Nora completes the daily check and takes no further action. It does not send a blank summary or an alert to your channel, keeping your notifications clear.
• The OAuth refresh token expires or is revoked Nora stops the scheduled run and sends a message to your chat channel stating it cannot access Gmail. It provides a link for you to re-authenticate the connection.

Who this is for

Worth it if

• Sales development reps managing 30+ cold outreach threads a week.
• Account managers at small agencies who juggle multiple client proposals.
• Freelancers who rely on timely responses to invoices and project scopes.

Not worth it if

• Teams using a dedicated CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot that already handles sequence automation.
• Support desks where every inbound ticket requires an immediate reply rather than a delayed follow-up.
• Users who send fewer than five trackable outreach emails a month.

A worked example

An independent recruitment consultant sends 20 candidate pitches a week. They configure Nora to watch their Gmail for any sent message labelled 'Pitch', triggering a reminder if three days pass without a reply.

Reminder: 3 stalled pitches found today.

1. Thread: "Senior Dev role at Apex"
Sent to: mark@example.com on Tuesday
Status: No reply in 3 days.

2. Thread: "Q3 Hiring Plans"
Sent to: sarah.j@logistics-corp.com on Monday
Status: No reply in 4 days.

3. Thread: "Introduction - Data Eng candidates"
Sent to: founders@newstartup.net on Tuesday
Status: No reply in 3 days.

Reply with the thread number to draft a bump, or tell me to snooze them until next week.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change the three-day waiting period to something else?

Yes. You just send Nora a message in your chat channel asking it to wait five days instead of three, or to use different wait times for different labels. Nora updates its schedule immediately. There are no settings panels to navigate; you simply state the new rule in plain English.

What happens if I reply to the prospect myself before the reminder?

Nora reads the entire thread history during its morning check. If it sees that you have already sent a follow-up message, it resets the clock based on that latest sent email. It will not remind you again until another three days have passed without a response.

Does Nora send the follow-up emails directly to the prospect?

Not by default. When you ask Nora to bump a thread, it uses the mcp__gmail__draft_email permission to create a draft in your Gmail account. You can open your mail client, review the wording, and hit send yourself. You can instruct Nora to send them directly if you prefer.

How does Nora know which emails are important enough to track?

It relies on a specific Gmail label that you apply to the outgoing messages you want monitored. Nora only queries the inbox for that exact label. It ignores all other sent mail, keeping its read access strictly confined to the conversations you explicitly mark for follow-up.

Connects to

• Gmail — all 52 Gmail automations

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