Email marketing for startup businesses – what you need to know

by Startacus Admin

Thinking of using email marketing to promote your startup? Here are a few of the key things to consider when doing just that...

Email marketing is, by far and away, the method of marketing which generates, pound for pound, the quickest and highest level of return. It still is the online killer app and this a route to your target audience which all startup businesses should consider allocating part of their marketing budget to.

Let’s look at what you need to know about email marketing for startup businesses in 3 minutes.

Is email marketing really better than any other form of marketing?

Yes and the statistics prove it. For every £1 spent on email marketing, you’ll benefit from an average turnover return of £42 according to the UK Data and Marketing Association.

The average return on investment (ROI) for Google Ads is £8 turnover for every £1 spent. Telemarketing generates £11 worth of turnover for every £1 spent on it. 

Social media ROI is notoriously difficult to prove as is investment in website content marketing. The other consideration with these forms of promotion is that it takes time to see results – an SEO-optimised, high-quality blog you write today may not appear on Google’s first search engine results page for the keyword you want for another 12 months.

Email marketing delivers higher returns than Google Ads and telemarketing and the cost of entry is much lower in many cases.

Where do I get lists from?

You already have two lists already – your customer list and your prospect list.

Make sure you stay in touch with your customers as often as you can – this is a great way of generating new business particularly on quieter months.

Your prospects are the people and companies who have been in touch with you about your products and services but who have not bought from you yet. Your prospects may only be one or two nudges away from getting in touch with you so, whatever you do, make sure you stay in touch with them.

You should always be trying to build your own email database too. Make sure that, every time a visitor comes to your website, you ask for their email addresses and permission to send them updates.

What about buying lists in from an email marketing agency? If you’re selling B2C, you’ll find it difficult to locate list owners and brokers with targeted consumer databases because of the GDPR data protection laws but they’re still out there. If you sell B2B (or to schools or to the public sector), you’ll find an abundance of suppliers.

What’s the best type of email to send?

Selling emails – emails designed to sell.

If you’re a start-up, forget about “brand building” for now – you need to focus on revenues. Decide on your mission and your market, stick to that mission and market, and your “brand power” (whatever that means) will follow. 

The concept of “brand” is pretty vague for very small businesses anyway whereas the need to pay the bills and make a profit is absolutely clear.

Email marketing, over the course of 12 months, allows you to repeatedly promote your products and services to the groups of potential buyers with the greatest need for what you sell. Use every email as an opportunity for initially sceptical buyers to convince themselves about your company, its credibility, its experience, and the ability of the products and services you’re marketing to provide satisfaction.

Remember that the consumers or business decision makers you’re emailing may be buying what you sell from your competitor so give them a reason to try you instead.

How often and what afterwards?

Email once a month – if you can email more without annoying or boring your target audience, you should do so.

Why? At any given point of time, only 2-4% of the people and business decision makers on your lists will be in a position to buy. That’s a big pointer to the reason why you should be trying to sell to them with each email campaign – they may not be receptive again to offers for months or years to come so you should strike while the iron is hot.

And, just a quick note here – if you’re working with a copywriter, ask them only to write the email for that 2-4% because there’s very little you can include in an email to persuade someone to buy when they’re not ready. Just think – would you be receptive to a great home insurance deal if you’d just renewed the week before? Of course not so your copywriter should not waste their time and your money trying to convince those recipients not for turning.

There’s no way to identify from your lists the 96-98% of people and business decision makers who are not ready to buy yet. 

Only a few of these will open your email anyway so, for those who do, reinforce the value and utility of your products and services because, on average, someone needs to see your company and what you sell up to 13 times before they buy from you or leave their details for your sales team to follow up.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.

• #
• #marketing
• #tips
• #email

Published on: 8th April 2021