If you’ve ever seen the tv show Silicon Valley, about a tech startup called Pied Piper in the Bay Area, you know that their main priorities were
- Perfecting their product (a middle-out compression algorithm)
- Getting funding
- Generating revenue
And while they faced a host of obstacles, from lawsuits to accidentally giving away their algorithm to a competitor, I couldn’t help but wonder if their lives would have been a little easier, and their ROI a little better, if they had simply utilized email marketing.
Email marketing is easy, effective, and inexpensive. It’s an essential tool for startups looking to connect with customers and generate revenue. It’s reported that for every $1 you spend, you gain $44.
5 Email Marketing Tips For Your Startup
Email marketing is great for startups because it's an easy way to connect with customers without costing a lot of money. But it’s important to note that easy does not equate to lack of strategy.
Below are five tips for optimizing your startup email marketing strategy.
1. Send Welcome Emails
Welcome emails set the tone for your new customers. They should be purpose-driven and build on the excitement of a new opportunity. Because they are usually the first kind of direct contact with a new user, they are likely to be opened, read, and clicked through. In fact, the average open rate for welcome emails is 82%, whereas general emails have an average open rate of around 21%.
2. Use Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are sent automatically in response to a user’s action on your site. For startup businesses, this is a great way to start building your sales pipeline and moving prospects through the sales funnel.
In order to stimulate sales with an email marketing strategy and qualify prospects as leads, transactional emails should include things like
- Informational content
- Special offers
- Coupon codes
- Testimonials
Transactional emails have eight times more opens and clicks than other types of email. When people interact with transactional emails, you move them from the awareness stage into the subsequent steps of the funnel.
3. Segment your email subscriber list
Email marketing works best when messaging is personalized to the person receiving it. If you don’t make them relevant, they’re probably headed straight to the spam folder.
Email segmentation can help you personalize your message. If you’re just starting out and building an email list, you can segment simply based on
- Prospects and leads
- Existing customers
- Investors and shareholders
Once you garner more information and traction with your email marketing strategy, you can begin to get more specific with your segmentation. You can start breaking your list down based on technographic and firmographic information.
4. Conduct A/B testing
As a startup, you’re probably trying to figure out which marketing style is best for your company. Email is a great way to implement A/B testing for different ideas. Whether it’s small design tweaks (logo size or background color) or big structural changes (subject line or body copy), A/B testing lets you know what’s resonating with your audience.
Also pay attention to things like open rates, bounce rates, and click-through rates. Once you have a good amount of data gathered, you can begin to make more data-driven marketing decisions.
5. Include a clear CTA
A call-to-action (CTA) is crucial for prompting a potential customer to take the next desired action. Without a clear CTA, your email is just an email, and your reader is just a reader because it won’t be clear what that next action is.
All of your email outreach should include a CTA button that encourages prospects and customers to visit your website, download a piece of content, read a new blog post, or sign up for a free trial.
Make the most out of email marketing for your startup
Email marketing is a great avenue for startups because it’s easy to implement, low cost, and allows you to start capturing information about your newly forming audience.
Furthermore, you can count on the efficacy of this strategy:
- for every $1 you spend, you gain $44.
- the average open rate for welcome emails is 82%
- Transactional emails have eight times more opens and clicks than other types of email
