Email marketing is one of the most affordable ways for bootstrapped startups to attract and retain customers, and it’s easy to get started.
This article will provide a step-by-step guide to setting up and growing an email newsletter. It will cover everything from building your list to crafting emails people enjoy reading, find valuable, and are motivated to act on.
Let’s break it down.
Table of Contents
- The benefits of email marketing for startups
- Choose an email marketing platform
- Create a landing page
- Drive traffic to your signup page
- Incentivize subscribers
- Write engaging content
- Avoid spam filters
- Grow your email list over time
- Track analytics
- Summary: Building a successful email newsletter for your startup
- Email marketing quick guide
- Key takeaways
1. The benefits of email marketing for startups
Have you ever encountered a subject line that stops you in your tracks? Email marketing is a great way to attract potential customers and establish stronger relationships with existing ones. Most successful companies utilize email marketing for a good reason – it delivers results.
Here are a few benefits of email marketing for startups:
- Cost-efficient: Get up and running quickly with little budget.
- Direct: Communicate directly with your audience and foster a personal connection.
- Targeted: Tailor campaigns to unique groups of customers.
- Measurable: Get detailed metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and more to refine your approach.
- Scalable: Easily adjust your email campaign strategy based on audience needs and growth.
The benefits of email marketing are clear, and as a small company with ambitious growth goals, you can’t afford to ignore email marketing. You must pursue building an email list and sharing engaging content to grow a sustainable business.
Let’s walk through setting up an email newsletter following these 8 steps:
2. Choose an email marketing platform
You’ll need to leverage some technology to power your email marketing efforts, and there are many tools to choose from. Your chosen platform depends on your business needs, personal preferences, and budget.
What to consider in an email marketing platform
Selecting the right email marketing platform will save you headaches down the road. You want something that supports your business needs and your expected growth. But you must also consider your personal preferences, cost, ease of use, and more.
- Integrations: What existing tools (CRM, E-commerce) do you want to connect with your email marketing tool?
- Cost: There’s a wide price range for email marketing tools today. How much can you afford to spend every month or year?
- Deliverability rates: Make sure the platform you choose is reliable and doesn’t have a reputation for sending undelivered emails.
- Automation capabilities: What type of automation are you looking for? Triggers? Drip campaigns? Auto-responders?
- Customization of templates: Many email marketing tools enable you to create eye-catching campaigns with pre-existing templates, while some require more design skills.
Start with this: Redefine your email marketing strategy and research tools that fit your business needs. Use the list below to get started.
Popular email marketing platforms
The right email marketing platform will help you manage your subscribers, create templates, and track your performance. There are many options available, and it can be overwhelming to determine the best platform for your startup.
While this is not an exhaustive list, the following email marketing platforms are a great place to start:
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular choice. It’s been in the game for a while and has many loyal customers and subject matter experts. While it offers a free plan, its service can get pricey if you send a lot of emails to a large audience.
Ideal for: Small businesses that require high-quality template designs out of the box.
2. HubSpot
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer service platform with robust email marketing features. They focus on building intuitive and powerful tools for businesses of all sizes.
Ideal for: Businesses seeking more than just email marketing, such as an easy-to-use CRM that connects seamlessly with email campaigns and customer service inquiries.
3. Kit
Kit prides itself on being easy to use while offering powerful features for entrepreneurs new to email marketing. In addition to providing email marketing tools, it allows you to create landing pages to capture new subscribers and build your list.
Ideal for: Creators and small businesses who want to focus on automated email campaigns.
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is known for flexible email automation capabilities and powerful CRM integrations. They’ve leaned heavily into AI-powered features to help business owners create successful email campaigns.
Ideal for: Small to medium-sized businesses who want to create personalized and automated customer experiences.
5. MailerLite
MailerLite is a multifaceted platform that provides business owners with tools for building websites, signup forms, and paid newsletter subscriptions. It balances affordability with powerful but intuitive features without all the bells and whistles of larger platforms.
Ideal for: Small businesses, startups, and creators new to email marketing.
Once you’ve decided on a platform, you’ll need to create a signup form to capture subscribers.
3. Create a Landing Page or Sign Up Form
Every newsletter needs a signup form so people can opt-in to receive emails. A well-designed signup form can mean the difference between capturing a subscriber’s interest and losing it altogether. With the right strategy, you can create a landing page that stands out and encourages signups.
Follow these tips for creating an effective landing page that captures subscribers from day one:
- Keep it simple: Avoid long forms that deter sign-ups. Ask for minimal information, such as name and email address only.
- Highlight the benefits: Tell users what they’ll get by signing up. Mention incentives, freebies, or access to exclusive content.
- Use an engaging CTA: Make your CTA button clear and compelling. For example, “Get Access” or “Sign up for weekly tips.”
- Optimize for mobile: Over 58% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, so your landing page must be optimized accordingly.
- Place it in strategic locations: Make your signup form easily visible from your homepage, within blog posts, in your website’s footer, or using a pop-up window that can be quickly closed. Don’t make your signup form annoying.
- A/B test different designs: It’s okay to experiment with different design approaches and various types of content to see what works and what doesn’t.
⌁Example
Buffer used a simple landing page with a solid call-to-action to grow their email list.
Helpful tools: Leadpages and Unbounce offer solutions for creating signup forms and landing pages.
4. Promote Your Sign Up Page & Drive Traffic
Once your landing page is live, you must drive traffic to generate leads and convert subscribers to paying customers. It’s a numbers game at this point. If you’re offering a compelling product or service that truly solves a problem and attracts the right audience, a percentage of those visitors will become subscribers. A percentage of subscribers will ultimately convert to paying customers.
The main goal is to attract the right audience, whether through leveraging social media and optimizing for search engines or running paid ads.
Drive traffic to your signup form using these tactics:
- Use social media: Post your landing page across your social platforms using eye-catching visuals and compelling copy.
- Optimize for SEO: Use relevant keywords and effective headings throughout your landing page copy, and include a meta description, title tags, and alt text for images.
- Use pop-ups and banners: Surface your signup page using pop-up notices, banners, and slide-in modals to promote your signup page.
⌁Example
Glossier promotes its email list through Instagram stories, highlighting the value of its exclusive newsletter content.
Start with this: Add your signup page as a CTA in blog posts and social media stories.
Helpful tools: Use social media management platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer to automate posting.
5. Incentivize Subscribers With a Lead Magnet
Lead magnets are free resources or incentives offered in exchange for a visitor’s email address, and they’re a key player in getting people to sign up for your email list. They provide value upfront while growing your email list and nurturing leads.
Whether it’s access to your knowledge, a free template, exclusive interviews with experts in your field, a discount, or an E-book, lead magnets can draw in subscribers and build a loyal audience that results in paying customers.
Start with this: Create a lead magnet such as an E-book, a simple discount, or a free resource like a template.
⌁Example
CoSchedule offers a free marketing calendar template as an incentive for new subscribers.
6. Write newsletters that you’d want to read yourself
It’s not enough to show up in a subscriber’s inbox. You must consistently produce high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your audience.
Creating high-quality content establishes your credibility and builds trust. Poorly written content will result in unsubscribes, stalled growth, and tarnish your brand’s reputation. You can’t afford to publish lackluster content as a startup. In fact, you’re better off not publishing anything at all.
Your content should encourage users to open your emails, read them, and click your CTAs.
Start with this: Create a content calendar for the first month and include content where you share industry best practices, important updates, and special offers.
Helpful tools: Use tools like Grammarly to refine your email copy and Canva to design engaging visuals.
⌁Example
The Skimm grew its subscriber base by delivering short, engaging news summaries that readers looked forward to daily.
7. Avoid Spam Filters & Stay Compliant
It’s pretty painless to get started with email marketing. The most novice marketers can get up and running with their first campaign on day one. However, there are many email marketing laws you should be aware of.
Breaking email marketing laws is illegal, but it can get you flagged and cause many downstream problems with your emails. Not being compliant with email marketing laws can result in your emails landing in your subscriber’s spam folder instead of their inbox.
To ensure your emails are delivered successfully, follow these best practices:
- Get permission: Every country has different laws around email marketing, but most stipulate that you must have permission to send emails to your list. Play it safe and always use a double opt-in method to confirm your subscribers’ desire to receive your emails.
- Include a way to unsubscribe: Make it easy for subscribers to opt out of receiving your messages by including an unsubscribe link or button in every email you send. This keeps you compliant with regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
- Use a recognizable and relevant sender name: This ensures subscribers won’t accidentally misidentify your email and mark it as spam. It also helps build trust and reduces the possibility of spam filters flagging your email.
- Include your physical address: Most countries require a physical mailing address in your emails. If you run your business from home, you might consider getting a P.O. Box as a business address for privacy reasons.
- Send a test email first: Most email marketing platforms allow you to easily send a test email before distributing your message to your list. These tools will give deliverability feedback and ensure your email looks good across multiple devices.
Start with this: Use double opt-in, including an unsubscribe option and your business address.
Helpful tools: Platforms like MailChimp and Kit have built-in features to help you comply with anti-spam laws.
⌁Example
Patagonia ensures email compliance and builds trust by including clear unsubscribe options in every newsletter.
8. Stay Consistent & Patient to Grow Your Email List Over Time
Growing your email list is a continuous effort. It’s one of your most valuable assets for long-term success, and you have far more control over this marketing channel than you do with others, such as ever-changing social media algorithms. Prioritize email marketing and treat your list as a living, growing asset.
The more awareness around your newsletter, the faster it will grow. Promote your newsletter through multiple channels and mention it to customers during sales and onboarding calls.
Growing your list is more than just getting new subscribers. Take time to maintain its health by removing inactive or disengaged subscribers. This reduces the chance of landing in spam folders and ensures that the people who matter most see your messages.
Start with this: Use social media contests, collaborations, and content marketing to attract new subscribers.
Helpful tools: Consider using tools like OptinMonster for pop-ups and forms.
⌁Example
BuzzFeed grew its email list by promoting quizzes that required users to sign up to get results.
9. Track Your Key Metrics
“What is not measured cannot be improved”
- William Thompson Kelvin
You need to know what works and what doesn’t so you can focus on areas to improve.
Any email marketing platform you choose will give you access to key metrics such as open rates and click-through rates – use those metrics to make data-driven adjustments and fine-tune your email marketing strategy to achieve your business objectives.
Start with this: Set a calendar reminder to regularly monitor open and click-through rates. Start with a couple of metrics, and add more as you learn.
Helpful tools: Mailchimp and Kit off built-in analytics to track these metrics.
What Success looks like: Success can be defined by how well your emails engage your audience – generating traffic to your site, driving sales, or increasing customer engagement.
⌁Example
A typical benchmark for email marketing is an open rate between 15-25% and a click-through rate of 2-5%. Adjust your strategy based on these benchmarks and performance indicators.
10. Summary: Building a Successful Email Newsletter for Your Startup
A good newsletter allows you to connect with a large audience more directly than any other marketing channel. Starting a newsletter is simple, but you must follow laws to be compliant and approach it strategically to align with your business goals.
Ultimately, an email newsletter can be used to build long-term customer relationships and drive sales. How you do that depends on your business needs.
Start a newsletter today using a simple signup form. Approach it with a “crawl, walk, run” method to avoid getting overwhelmed or lost in the weeds. As you embark on your email marketing journey, you’ll continue to learn and evolve. Stay focused, experiment with new strategies, and your email list will expand.
11. Email Marketing Quick Guide
Share this list with your colleagues or cofounder to align your email marketing strategy and begin growing your list. You can also print it on your desk as a helpful resource.
- Define your audience and strategy
- Choose an email marketing platform
- Create a sign-up form
- Build a lead magnet
- Segment your email list
- Craft engaging content
- Test your emails first
- Monitor key metrics
- Adjust and improve
12. Key Takeaways
- Choose the Right Platform: Pick an email platform that fits your budget and needs.
- Build Your List: Use subscription forms, landing pages, and incentives to grow your email list.
- Write Engaging Content: Keep your audience engaged with valuable, consistent content.
- Stay Compliant: Ensure you follow email marketing best practices to avoid spam filters.
- Keep Growing: Continuously attract new subscribers through social media, partnerships, and lead magnets.
- Track Analytics: Regularly monitor metrics like open rates and click-through rates to gauge the effectiveness of your emails. Use these insights to adjust and optimize your strategy for better results.
