You’ve heard it a thousand times before: if you want to grow your business, you need email marketing.
Great, you’re probably thinking. I’ll just add that to my mile-long to-do list.
As a startup, you don’t have time for projects that don’t drive results. You don’t have time to spare, period.
The thing is, email marketing isn’t a nice-to-have. For any business, especially in its early stages, email marketing is a must-have. Don’t believe me? Let me hit you with some numbers.
Email marketing has the power to get you 40 times more customers than you ever could using Facebook and Twitter. You get a return of $44.45 for every dollar you put into it. Most importantly, people love it – 95 percent of people who opt into email messages find those messages useful.
Email just works.
Not yet convinced of the awesome power of email? I’ve got seven more reasons why your startup needs email marketing – like, yesterday.
“Fail fast” is the go-to mantra for startups. If something isn’t working, pivot and try again. And again. And again.
Email gives you a way to get your ideas in front of your audience ASAP. Lots of business owners (like this one) use email as a way to gather feedback so they can improve their services over time. That’s because email isn’t a one-way street. It’s a conversation between you and the people who care about your business the most.
In the beta phase of launching a dating app for foodies? Ask your subscribers for ideas to make your app even better. Starting a blog about cat grooming? Ask your subscribers about their specific cat grooming challenges so you can create content that applies to them.
No matter what your product or service is, using email to get early feedback is an awesome way to learn and grow.
Pro-tip: Want feedback? Just ask your subscribers to reply directly to your email. Be sure to respond back!
If you’re a startup, you’ve got updates – lots of ‘em. Ninety percent of people prefer email newsletters for updates over any other medium, while only 10 percent prefer Facebook.
Why the big difference?
Facebook posts are easy to miss if you aren’t glued to your feed 24/7. Typically, only two percent of your Facebook fans will see your posts. But once you land in someone’s inbox, you’ve got their undivided attention.
Take advantage of your captive email audience and keep people in the loop about the evolving state of your business. Let them know what you’re working on and tell them how excited you are to launch.
Regular communication with your audience is ridiculously important, especially in the early stages of your business.
Pro-tip: Give your subscribers the scoop on what you’re working on before anyone else. They’ll love you for it!
Remember what I said about grabbing your audience’s undivided attention? There’s a reason why you have it in the first place: the people who sign up for your email list are genuinely interested in learning more about you.
When someone shares their email address with you, it’s a big deal. It’s the beginning of their relationship with you.
Don’t take that for granted. Your can turn your new subscribers into raving fans by simply letting them get to know you. Tell them why you started your business. Address common questions people have about your industry. Give them a heads up on news that is relevant to them.
Then, when it’s time to promote your latest offering, those subscribers will be a lot more likely to become paying customers.
Pro-tip: Send your new subscribers your best content in your first few emails. You can only deliver your paid products or services after you’ve delivered a ton of value up-front, for free.
Stay tuned for Part Two tomorrow!
This article was contributed from our partners at Aweber. They make email marketing simple with seamless integrations, easy importing and live expert customer support.
