Many small business and startups worry about the branding of their company. They often get confused as many marketing channels are available at their fingertips. You cannot ignore the importance of email marketing that still ranks among top numbers. Hence, a good email marketing strategy is must for any business. With 33% less cost than other lead-generating mechanisms, emails generate 50% more sales. Plus, it is simple and effective- if done correctly.
Why do you need an email marketing strategy?
More than 122 billion emails are flooding inboxes worldwide every 60 minutes. Marketers need to be on the lookout for strategies as the market today is highly dynamic. But when it comes to delivering rich content and personal connection, email is the most robust marketing tool that can be relied upon as it can be blended with other marketing strategies easily. According to a survey conducted by Hubspot, 86% of professionals prefer to use email while communicating for business purposes.
How can you develop an email marketing strategy which targets your business?
With start-ups, the main objective is to drive traffic and results as quickly as you can, as you are already struggling with cash. Here are some tips which will help you to create a successful marketing strategy:
1. Identify your audience
Before you decide on what to say, you first need to know who you are speaking to. It is very important to know your buyer’s persona. Gaining an insight into what kind of people will be or are reading your marketing emails can help you build strong buyer personas. You can know more about your audiences through surveys, interviews, and research.
2. Build an email list
Always go for an opt-in email list. Never ever buy an email list. Buying an email list sounds like a quick way to get your brand your startup, but it actually is a huge waste of money. As the data can be incomplete or outdated. You can also be marked as a spammer and eventually would have poor response rate and more unsubscribes! You can build your own genuine database through customer surveys, advertisements or hosting events. Create blogs of your niche business, and seek subscriptions.
3. Segment your email list
Segment your list to send relevant content to the relevant audience. Segmentations can be based on Preferences (the likes and dislikes of a user), Demographics and profile (age, location, gender), Psychographics (What will they be prone to do and react to owing to seasons & events) and Behaviour (purchases, opens, clicks, website browsing, etc). Segmentation is your gateway to send out more relevant emails, thereby enhancing the performance of your email campaigns.
4. Use email designs which look good
Standing out with a catchy, clean, and well-designed email is a must, it’s way more engaging than just a boring lump of text. Use images, personalizations and make it relevant. Keep the main message and call-to-action above the fold for better visibility.
5. Keep it simple
The email content should be simple yet engaging. To make it more readable, you can include subheading and bullets, so that your audience can quickly scan through. Make sure you include interesting takeaways and benefits of using your product.
6. Appealing subject lines
The first point of contact between your email campaign and your subscriber is your subject line. Make sure you keep it interesting enough for your audiences to click. Getting people to click is half the battle. Your subject line should give clarity about the email and create a sense of urgency.
7. Personalization
Personalizing your promotional emails can take your email campaigns to a whole new level. Sending personalized emails gives your email a personal touch. It helps your customer to build trust and increase the chances of conversion. You can send some personalized offers to your customers or wish them on their special days.
8. Email automation
The first benefit of automating your emails is that you can send emails to customers that they are interested to open and read. It is the technique of sending the right content to the right customer at the right time based on the behavior of the customer. Using email automation you can create and send triggered emails like welcome email, transactional emails, cart abandonment emails, etc. Below is the example of the triggered welcome email.
9. Optimize for mobiles
Nowadays, more email is read on mobile than on desktop. Stats say 47% of email is now opened on a mobile device. So make sure you make your emails mobile responsive.
10. Testing
Testing of your email campaigns lets you assess the effectiveness of all the components of your email. Test your emails for subject lines, CTA’s, personalization and content at different time slots to know what works for your business. Optimize and A/B test on opening rates, click rates and all other parameters.
Email marketing for startups requires time and effort to produce results. The goal of your email marketing should be branding and engaging your customers. Email marketing could bring in recurring revenue and it usually creates a most loyal customer base for startups. The success of your email marketing depends on how well you use all the available resources.
Using Juvlon email marketing, you can send personalized campaigns and triggered emails to your customers. Opt for a free trial now.