As a startup, you will be constantly thinking about ways to grow your business. You also need a strong advantage to face the competition. Email marketing can drive revenue as well as brand growth and engagement.
Read on to discover why investing in email marketing is an intelligent and inexpensive marketing leap for your small business. And discover our recommendations for the top email marketing platforms for startups and small businesses.
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Email marketing is a form of digital, direct marketing that uses emails to convince a lead or existing customer to take a specific action. This effective digital marketing strategy is a must if your want to grow your new business in 2022.
There are loads of reasons why email marketing should be up there on your list of priorities, along with growing organic traffic through SEO strategies and mastering the art of social media marketing.
The reason is clear. Email is a truly effective way of nurturing your relationship with customers and boosting loyalty. Shout about a special offer, exciting brand news or campaign to people who already have an interest in what you have to offer. An email list for your startup or small business is a priority and the first step.
If you are wondering how on earth you start to grow a list of email addresses fast then you are not alone.
If you have heard that buying email addresses from a third party is a good idea to quickly get you started then think again. Not only may this impeach GDPR regulations (sharing of other people's data without their consent) but you will be mailing people who have no interest in your brand, service or product.
A better solution? A starting point for absolute newbies could be inviting everyone in their friend email list to join. This will get you off the ground but remember, your list should contain the right email addresses, not just contacts, but leads.
Always capture email addresses from every customer (ensure at this stage you are GDPR compliant). Further, build this out by capturing email from new leads to your website. You can do this via a pop-up, although pop-ups can lead to high bounce rates which you need to avoid. Alternatively and less obtrusively you can add a link to your header and footer on the website inviting users to join your mailing list.
Next, let’s try and double your growing list by asking your email subscribers to refer a friend. Incentivise this by offering a giveaway, voucher or percentage off a product or range.
Example:
“You are one of our most valued customers! For a limited time, if you refer a friend you will enjoy 10% off your next purchase… and they will get 10% off too!”
A common mistake made in email marketing is sending one email to your entire subscriber list. Email segmentation is one of the secret ingredients added to a successful email marketing strategy.
Every email you send should target a specific audience, to prevent unsubscribes, your emails must be relevant and valuable.
Segmentation is simply dividing the people in your list into buckets based on demographics or behaviours. Below are some ideas to help your start segmenting your list;
So, you are on board with email marketing being a must-have tool for your new biz, but what software do you need and how much is it going to cost?
Email marketing software provides an easy way to create visually appealing emails, target and segment customers and automate your campaigns.
Costs associated with email marketing and software can be quite high.
Take MailChimp for example, its biggest downfall is its pricing, although it does offer a free plan which allows its users to send up to 10,000 emails to up to 2000 contacts per month. Read more about MailChimp and its pros and cons here.
In contrast to Mailchimp, MailerLite doesn’t hide features behind different paywalls – all the features available as part of the email marketing platform are available to all users with a paid plan.
With MailerLite’s free plan, users can send a maximum of 12k emails to up to 1000 subscribers. Users can also benefit from A/B testing, and advanced segmentation.
A unique feature of MailerLite is that all paying customers can send an unlimited number of emails to their customers, with the price rising only to accommodate for a greater number of subscribers.
Read our full review of the best email marketing tools and platforms and find software that fits your business and budget.
However, it’s not quite as simple as building a mail list, investing in software and sending an email every now and then. To have a successful email marketing campaign you have to get the attention of your target audience to ensure that they open your emails and don’t unsubscribe.
#1 Only Target Relevant Email Addresses
As mentioned earlier, buying email addresses from a third party is a bad idea for a number of reasons and will yield zero return. Build out your email list with customers and genuine leads and then segment when sending emails into relevant groups.
#2 Smash Your Subject Line Every Time
Craft a subject line (email title) that people really want to click to open. Be incredible, not forgettable.
#3 Data Is King
Use data to drive your email marketing strategy. Seeing a pattern of unsubscribes? Dig into the data to find out why.
#4 Design
Your emails should resonate with your customers so keep them on-brand with a clear tone. Think clean layout with a logical hierarchy, easy to read headlines and plenty of white space
#5 Strong Call to Action
Following on from your subject line, a good call to action is a simple theme that runs throughout the email and has clear content that incentivises a clear action. Don’t overcomplicate your messaging.
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