The business landscape is expected to undergo certain levels of change and adjustment over the coming months and years and it is likely that we will witness an increase in companies’ hiring freelancers as they navigate their way through a post-COVID-19 society.
In addition to this, one outcome that is expected is that groups of individuals will pool their skills together and we will see an increase in start-ups as the landscape adjusts to a new reality and people look to grasp opportunities that present themselves.
While there are ample opportunities for those looking to take the leap into the world of start-ups and entrepreneurism, there are also high levels of competition with others looking to make a name for themselves.
As a start-up you need to ensure that you find and utilise an edge over your competitors to get ahead in an increasingly competitive market. Taking the time to assess everything and putting a plan in place can pay dividends in the long-term. When you are looking to establish a new business and increasing brand awareness, developing an effective communication strategy is essential when it comes to achieving success in the long-term.
One of the best ways in which you can start working towards this is to plan and develop an email marketing strategy to engage with your existing database of contacts and grow your audience in the long-term. Take a look at our top tips to help you achieve email marketing success in both the short and long-term.
Build & Develop your Email List
A strong list of contacts is the core foundation for achieving email marketing success and enables you to reach relatively large numbers of people on a limited budget and drive traffic to your website. One way of doing this in the early stages is to encourage your contacts to subscribe to your newsletter database and for them to refer others who they believe will be interested in your products or services.
Following on from this, incentivising these contacts to then refer others and share links on social channels – usually this can be done as part of a competition and can prove to be hugely successful, especially when it comes to social media channels.
Alternatively, if you are an eCommerce start-up then offering a discount code for those who refer others to your newsletter can also be a lucrative tactic.
Enter Users into your Sales Funnel
Sending out newsletters via email marketing is a great way in which to stay in your audience’s mind while increasing interactions that encourage them to become loyal customers in the long-term. You do not necessarily need to be too aggressive in terms of introducing your paid services at first, but you can increase their knowledge of your company and then gently push them down the path of converting into a loyal paying customer.
While emails that focus on your products or services are crucial in generating revenue, you should make sure that you are sending out a mixture of informative and fun content to gently introduce your wider company and then begin to move your contacts further along your funnel.
Focus on Upsells
Most start-ups tend to offer a freemium option for customers as a way in which to assist in generating interest, reach and revenue in the early stages of the business’ lifecycle. This is essential for all businesses to help them grow but in the long-term it is not necessarily advantageous. This is why it is essential to gently guide your database towards your sales funnel as early as possible in order to start generating increased amounts of revenue and growing your business.
You need to create content that highlights the advantages of your paid content and compel users to upgrade their account. One way in which you could achieve this is by presenting your free options alongside those in your email communications – this is not overly pushy and gently helps the recipient to understand the benefits for themselves.
This is an option that often proves to be highly lucrative as it encourages end users to discover the features for themselves and helps to generate a feeling that the user is missing out on additional advantages that the product or service offer. This is a tactic that many SaaS providers implement by incorporating it into their actual product, as well as complementing it with email marketing to draw attention to emphasise these additional features.
Invest in your Content
Taking the time and assigning the right resources to your email marketing content is essential and can make all the difference when it comes to increasing levels of engagement and generating increased amounts of revenue for your business.
To get users to open your emails and engaging with your business you need to make sure that your copy captivates their interest. Try to ensure that your subject line stands out from others and intrigues the recipients; think about your own inbox and what works for you, chances are you ignore the standard and mundane subject lines.
Try to promise something interesting that drives curiosity, makes people worried about missing out on something or by offering a small discount – all of these can pay dividends in increasing your open and engagement rates.
Automations
Marketing automation is a powerful tactic that has many advantages for businesses of all sizes, especially start-ups. Email Marketing is the perfect channel to use this to your advantage and there are ample opportunities to incorporate it into your Marketing strategy.
These could include welcome email series, abandoned cart notifications and even personalised discount codes based upon previous purchase history.
All of these are ideal for making sure that you stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds and are working towards retaining them in the long-term while increasing revenue and growing your company.
