Beginning a startup company is not much different from running a presidential campaign. Messy politics aside, it really is all about branding yourself, explaining the uniqueness of your company and product, gaining consumers’ trust, and then delivering what you had promised to them. And just like how a presidential candidate has a team of experts to groom their wardrobe, refine their speeches, and ensure that they are presenting their very best to the public, an entrepreneur must put the same efforts into these details.
Now, it’s understandable–you’ve just started this company and it was already a treacherous journey to create your product and then put it into manufacturing. So how are you going to afford a team of experts to oversee all your marketing efforts? Luckily, we are living in the modern tech age where there are several online resources that will do practically all the marketing for you.
Email marketing has been touted as the best online marketing strategy for years. Though other methods like social media and SMS marketing have cropped up in recent times, it remains the most efficient and stable method.
Email marketing offers a wide range of benefits to boost a company, especially for startups. Here is why:
Content creation
You may have heard that “Content is King”, but honestly the phrase should go “Content is Emperor”. Content is a summary of everything your company stands for and what it can provide. It is anything that relays a message to an audience, be it a blog post, video clips, webinar, infographic, press release, etc. In short, it is you as a company providing valuable information that can connect with followers and foster a relationship. Note that content is not cramming your products down their throat and coercing them to buy it. It has to be thoughtful and relevant material that shows you are a leader in the industry whom they should be in contact with if they want to learn more about your products and services.
So why should a startup even care? Because you and 100 other startups with very similar products are fighting for the spotlight in the midst of a vaster, hypercompetitive entrepreneurial landscape. And because many of you look alike, the public will only be looking at the outside appearance and may assume you’re all the same. But good content resonates personally with individual consumers and underscores your uniqueness.
List segmentation
Would a presidential candidate visit a children’s hospital to discuss tax reform with young patients, or plant a tree to promote environmental awareness at a women’s rights assembly? Hopefully not, because he would be talking to the wrong people about the wrong topic. One of the biggest reasons some email campaigns get marked as spam is because they contain content so generic it’s like you’re being accosted by a used car salesman. Utilizing list segmentation ensures this doesn’t happen provided you supply the right content to the right people. A good email marketing software will allow you to divide your contacts into specific groups, whether they are new subscribers, long time customers, evangelists, etc. From there, it should deliver appropriate content to each group.
Cost efficiency and measurability
It used to cost an arm and a leg to get your ad onto a newspaper or magazine or for a 30-second appearance on television. Advertising isn’t cheap and sometimes even big brands have to stretch their budget for it. But email marketing practically cost pennies compared to traditional TV or print media. It even allows direct response from the intended audience so engagement can deepen quickly. Also with an email marketing software, you can monitor traffic on your site and the demographic and geographic details of visitors. You can use this information to develop your next email campaign.
Anything that is cost-efficient but powerfully effective is a no-brainer for a startup company. Your goal is to reach as many people as you can with a small budget, and that is what email marketing can do. Use it to jumpstart a small startup, and continue to use it again once you explode into a massive enterprise!
