Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools for startups, but you need to be smart to optimise your campaigns for success

Despite social media being a new rage among marketers, email marketing remains to be a preferred tool for most marketers to fuel their growth.

Want to know why?

Emails prompt purchases three times than that of social media.

What’s more, email marketing offers the ROI of US$38 for each US$1 spent.

Now, tell me my friend which marketing channel offers better ROI than emails.

None!

However, not all marketers are able to get the optimum ROI of their email marketing campaigns.

In today’s post, I’m going to share with you five proven email marketing tips for startups. After reading this post, you will know the best practices to boost the ROI of your email marketing campaigns.

Without further ado, let’s discuss these email marketing hacks:

1. Know your target audience 

Can you hit targets if you randomly shoot in the dark? No, you can’t. In fact, nobody can. Running email campaigns without knowing your target audience is like shooting in the dark.

You should know your audience before you start email marketing or any other kind of marketing. Else, you won’t achieve your objective.

Also read: 7 ways to supercharge your startup’s email marketing campaign

Here is a list of the top five things you must know about your target audience:

  • Who they are (age, gender, location, socioeconomic status)
  • What they buy
  • Why they buy
  • What motivates them to buy
  • How they buy (online or offline)

The better you know your target audience, the more persuasive email copy you can write.

2. Craft irresistible subject lines  

The success of your email campaigns largely depends on the subject lines.

Why?

People decide after reading email subject lines, whether they should open emails or not.

If your subject line doesn’t persuade recipients to open, engage, and act, the message will be lost, no matter how great your message it.

When you are going to write subject lines for your emails, think about Don Vito Corleone of The Godfather.

Make an offer in the subject line that email recipients can’t refuse.

How can you make that kind of offer?

Here are a few points to consider:

  • Keep your subject line short and sweet
  • Use personalisation
  • Don’t tell exactly what’s inside — give only a hint
  • Start with action oriented words
  • Never make a false promise 

Also, it’s very important that you should not use spammy words in your subject lines.

So, the next time you are going to create email marketing campaigns for your startup, give an irresistible offer in the subject line.    

3. Write concise copy

Around 53 per cent of emails are opened on mobile phones. So what?

You should make your email copy concise. Else people will not read your emails. After all, nobody wants to read long emails on mobile phones.

Now you must be thinking how you can write concise, clear email copy.

Well, here are a few techniques:

  • Use simple words and short sentences
  • Break text into small paragraphs of 2-3 sentences
  • Eliminate unnecessary words
  • Write in active voice
  • Use bullet points

The golden formula to write effective email copy is to deliver what subject line promises.

Also read: 3 dead simple rules to get better with content marketing

If you fail to do so, you will break the trust of your audience. And once the trust is broken, the email open rate will reduce drastically.

4. Personalise your message 

Have you ever walked into your favorite restaurant or eating joint and a waiter there immediately recognised you?

And he said something like, “Hey Nick, we just made your favorite dish that we last time was not able to serve you.”

It would be surprising, isn’t it? Not because it is a coincidence that your favorite dish is ready today, but for the waiter remembers you.

This is the power of personalisation.

Personalised emails offer 6x transaction rates. However, 70 per cent organisations fail to do so.

Here are a few practical methods to personalise messages:

  • Collect data (name, location, favorite thing)
  • Use personalised information to benefit users
  • Personalise with related content to engage users
  • Make use of location and time
  • Set up automated behavioral trigger emails

Use these techniques to personalise your email campaigns.

5. Do A/B testing 

As an email marketer for your startup business, you must ensure that you run an email campaign that yields better results. But how can you ensure it?

The only way is to conduct A/B testing. It allows you to send two slightly different emails to your audience so that you can gain information on which triggered the most engagement.

Also read: Software testing and development: Why bots and AI are the future

Here is a list of a few tactics that will help you run successful A/B testing:

  • Conduct only one test at a time
  • Test one variable at a time
  • Decide what you want to test (you must include CTA and subject line in testing)
  • Split your sample group randomly
  • Test minor changes, as well

Split testing will sharpen your marketing emails and boost the ROI.

Follow these 5 email marketing tips and boost the ROI of your email marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools for startups. But to optimise the success of your email marketing campaigns, you need to act smart.

When you are making email marketing strategy for your startup business, know your target audience, craft irresistible subject lines, write concise copy, personalise the message, and do A/B testing. This will certainly boost the ROI of your email campaign.

What about you?

Which tip do you want to add to the list? Share it in the comment section. I’d love to hear about it.

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