Email marketing enables startups to communicate and connect with their customers, generate leads and turn them into customers. But since everyone receives thousands of emails a day, it can be tough for startups to stand out and convey their message. Here are five important email marketing lessons that every startup should know in order to thrive:
1. Understand Your Audience
You must know your audience before you can sell your products or services. Make sure to research well to determine who your demographics, interests, and likes are. That means researching market trends, conducting surveys, and talking to your customers face to face.
Creating very specific buyer personas can be revolutionary. These personas should capture the behaviours, interests, and frustrations of your audience so that you know exactly who you’re speaking to. You can significantly increase engagement and conversion by personalizing your email message for these personas. Always keep in mind that consumers are more apt to engage with messages that relate directly to their needs and experiences.
2. Build a Quality Email List
And, as you’ll find in the case of email marketing, quality is not necessarily what you get. While you can focus on growing your subscriber base quickly, you’d be better off creating a niche email list of people that actually care.
Utilize tactics such as providing free e-books, guides, and discounts in return for email subscriptions. Take into consideration a double opt-in system to make sure that new subscribers actually want to be included in your emails. This avoids the dreaded low engagement rates that plague purchased email lists. Not only do these lists typically lead to disinterest, they can also affect your sender reputation (an important part of email deliverability).
3. Craft Compelling Subject Lines
Your subject line is your email’s first, and usually only, opportunity to stand out. It determines whether or not your email gets opened, so it is important to take the time to create a catchy subject line. Stay short and concise and try to make your subject line interesting and informative.
Include action verbs, branding, and questions that invite your curiosity. A/B testing different subject lines can also help you determine what really grabs your audience’s attention. Review open rates and be sure to test what you find out so that you can continue to improve your strategy.
4. Personalization is Key
At a time when the masses are inundated with the same marketing copy over and over again, customization can be your startup’s best weapon. But remember, there’s much more to personalizing than adding the name of the recipient to the subject line. Startups should segment their email lists based on user behavior, interests, and demographics. Because you know your subscribers and their needs you can provide them with content based on their specific needs.
Research has shown that personalised emails lead to six times higher transactions than non-personalized emails. With dynamic content, like offering offers and recommendations that are relevant based on users’ past interactions with your brand, you can significantly improve user engagement and loyalty. Remember, the more relevant the email is to the reader, the more engaged they will be with your content.
5. Optimize for Mobile
Now that over half of all emails are opened on mobile, tailoring your mobile email campaigns is not only a good practice, it’s an absolute necessity. This is something startups should be working on, and emails should look stunning and easy to read on every mobile device, tablet, and desktop.
Text should be short and to the point, because email on a mobile device is read quickly. Also, ensure buttons and links are clickable – a strategically placed button will significantly increase clicks. Trying your emails on multiple devices and screen sizes before you send them should be one of the most important elements of your email marketing plan.
6. Focus on Value
A key lesson of email marketing is never stop giving value to your subscribers. Each email should have an intended audience, be it industry insight, special offers, or recommendations. Startups should aim to maintain a healthy balance between content that is educational and promotional. If you’re bombarding your audience with constant advertising, it’ll make them less likely to stick around and unsubscribe.
Use a content calendar to determine what types of emails you will send and when. It can help you plan important updates, announcements, and deals to keep your content fresh and relevant. Always remember that every email contact should feel like it offers them something.
7. Track and Analyze Performance
You can use email marketing analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns. Some important metrics include open rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Keep learning from these observations, testing elements of your emails to see what works best.
8. Automate Wisely
Email automation is an amazing tool that can save you time and make your work more efficient. Create welcome emails, cart abandonment reminders, and follow-up emails through automated campaigns. But don’t let automation rob you of the human element; there should be a balance between automated and human contact.
9. Ensure Compliance
Learn about email marketing laws — including the CAN-SPAM Act (in the United States) and GDPR (in Europe). Give users permission to opt-in before marketing emails are sent and let them unsubscribe. Being compliant will not only make you look good but also preserve your brand image.
10. Test and Iterate
Email marketing is a constantly changing industry, and the tactics you use today are not going to work tomorrow. Never stop experimenting with every aspect of your emails, from the design to the content to the timing. Use A/B testing to learn which approaches are performing the best. Adjust your strategy according to these results to ensure you keep getting better.
Conclusion:
To sum up, email marketing helps startups connect and communicate with their customers, get leads, and convert them into clients. By learning and implementing these 5 lessons, startups can develop successful email campaigns that make a good impression in a crowded inbox and generate conversions.
