Launching a startup? Business founders will know that it takes guts. But more than that, it requires the right set of skills and best-fit tools.

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools a startup can have in its toolbox. Why? Well, email is by far the most popular form of marketing communication. It’s ubiquitous – more than half of the global population use email in 2022 (that’s over 4 billion people).

What’s more, email marketing yields impressive ROI. According to a 2021 survey, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $36.

If you’re looking to adopt email marketing software in 2022 but aren’t sure where to start, this guide will walk you through the why, the how, and the what.

Why is email marketing important for startups?

Email marketing is the bedrock of every digital marketing strategy. It is the primary means by which a brand can communicate with customers and leads, showcase its products and services, talk about promotional offerings, and convey company news.

Best practice email marketing can take brand engagement from zero to hero. It strengthens the brand-customer relationship and in turn increases customer retention. And with a strong relationship, a brand can safely collect customer data which will allow it to deliver more personalized communications.

For a startup, the main goal is to get a quality lead to open your email. Once they do, you’ll have their full attention (as long as the content is relevant, displayed properly, and doesn’t go straight to spam…we’ll get to that later). Emails can be interactive and dynamic, and as they are not subjected to an algorithm, recipients will see what you send them. It’s then up to you to convert them.

What is email marketing software?

Email marketing software enhances email marketing efforts to reach a higher quantity of quality leads. It allows users to easily create and send marketing emails and measure performance metrics such as open rates and click-through rates. It automates manual and laborious tasks like sending one-off emails, designing email templates, and separating marketing campaigns across multiple platforms.

The use of such marketing automation tools enables companies to integrate their email, digital advertising, social media, and lead generation campaigns, while also measuring the impact of the entire customer journey.

The numbers paint a clear picture: According to VentureBeat, companies using marketing automation software report an 80% increase in leads and a 77% increase in conversion. The proof that marketing automation is effective is in the pudding.

The benefits of using email marketing software in a startup

So, you know the importance of communicating with customers and prospective customers over email, but why should you invest in email marketing software? Below are five reasons.

1. Efficiency

Business founders are notoriously time-poor, so implementing tools that can speed up productivity and efficiency is key.

For example, manually sending a one-off email every time somebody interacts with your website or purchases a product is impossible – especially since the aim is to scale your business. Email marketing software allows you to automate cumbersome tasks, freeing up your time to focus on more important things like your marketing strategy.

2. Content relevance

While email is the go-to communication channel, it does present challenges. According to Statista, there are more than 333 billion emails sent and received every day, and that number is forecast to be 376.4 billion by 2025.

With so many emails landing in our inboxes daily, a startup has the difficult task of standing out amongst the crowd and getting the word out about its business.

This is why it’s paramount that the content you are sending customers and leads is content that they are actually interested in. But, how do you know what they are interested in? With email marketing software, you can collect and analyze audience data, e.g. where a lead came from (lead source), and customer preferences based on their purchase history and interactions with their brands, to tailor the email content they receive.

By segmenting your audience, you can experiment with targeting. For example, you can A/B split test email subject lines to determine the type of content that resonates the most with your audience.

Ultimately, the more you know about your audience, the more relevant you can make the content you send them, and the higher the engagement rate will be.

3. Personalization

Following on from the above, the more you know about your audience, the more personal touches you can make. Almost three-quarters (72%) of consumers say they now only engage in marketing with messages that are personalized and tailored to their interests. Personalized emails have a 4.5% greater open rate than the average email open rate (26% and 21.5% respectively). 

Adding personalization can be as simple as adding the customer’s name to the email subject line. Or you can showcase the types of products you know prospective customers are interested in, based on their visits to your website. Ortto users can find this information easily using our Google Ads integration to track visits to unique pages and send personalized email follow-ups based on previous contact behavior saved in your customer data platform (CDP).

4. Mobile optimization

According to Litmus, Apple iPhone is the world’s most popular email client, with more than one-third (34.2%) of emails being opened on the device. In second place is Gmail at 30.7%. Another study found that seven in 10 users delete emails that don’t display correctly on their phones, and 15% of users will unsubscribe because of this.

The takeaway here is clear: ensure your emails are optimized for mobile. In fact, focus on how emails look on mobile before considering the desktop display.

Email marketing software like Ortto simplifies this task. When previewing your email campaign, click the mobile toggle to view the mobile-optimized version of the email.

5. Email templates

Launching a startup requires cutting corners, but with email marketing software, you don’t need to compromise integrity.

Email marketing software like Ortto allows you to build an email template to your liking – the right image/text ratio, CTA buttons in the right place, etc. – and save the template. You can also build your own Brand Book, where you can set your brand colors, logos, padding, etc. Then, the next time you want to send an email, simply drag and drop your fresh content into the pre-built template and the email will automatically adjust to your branding.

Ortto offers a collection of free email marketing templates that are fully customizable with a drag-and-drop email editor - from welcome emails to new feature annoucements. Try them out for yourself below.

Email templates

Email marketing templates

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How to choose the best email marketing software for your startup

Comparing email marketing software can be a minefield. To simplify the decision-making, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What’s your biggest pain point?

First, consider the main problem you’re trying to solve. Email marketing software can address many issues – for example, maybe you want an easier way to manage your campaign process and flow, or maybe you’re focused on lead management and want to improve how to generate and nurture leads.

As a startup, though, your biggest challenge is probably transforming strangers into leads and leads into customers.

2. What features are you looking for?

What is at the top of your shopping list? Do you need help segmenting your lists into leads and customers? Do you want to browse pre-built email templates? Or do you want to build personalized email drip campaigns? Maybe you want to analyze customer journeys and compare the performance of each email?

3. What channels are you targeting?

Do you target customers across multiple channels like Facebook, Google, SMS, and email? Are your customers spread far and wide and do they consume content in both the digital and physical space? Do you need to deliver a range of competitive content strategies?

4. What is your lead management strategy?

Do you have an existing customer relationship management (CRM) software and need a way to integrate it with a marketing automation platform? Do you have a collection of leads and customers scattered across spreadsheets, event lists, or sales marketing tools?

5. What can’t you live without?

Do you need to integrate with Salesforce, Pipedrive, or other CRM software? Do you need to personalize your messages and keep your marketing on-brand? Do you need a way to build customer journeys and collaborate across teams?

To help you visualize what appeals to you most, below is a list of the top marketing platform automation features:

Once you’ve determined what features you’re after, it’s time to choose what software is right for your business. Below is a round-up of different options.

10 best email marketing software for startups

1. Ortto

Known for: unifying all your customer data to enhance personalization in email communications; giving you a single view of your customer, and robust reporting and analytics.

Ortto’s email marketing software is a one-stop shop for best-of-breed email marketing. Users can build beautiful branded emails, personalize messages, A/B test, harness AI, and track and analyze results. Think all the bells and whistles but none of the complications.

Unlike other software, Ortto’s customer data platform has reporting functionality, giving users a single view of customer journeys and helping them to visualize customer activities and behavior.

Main features:

• Team collaboration and sharing

• SMS marketing

• In-app messaging

• Drag-and-drop editor

• Brand book

• Visual journey builder

• Mobile insights reporting

• Marketing automation

• Lead management

• Lead scoring

• A/B split testing

• Smart segmentation

• AI tools including subject line recommendations

• Facebook and Google ads

• Marketing automation templates

• Known and anonymous visitor tracking

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2. HubSpot

Known for: being powerful; all the bells and whistles.

HubSpot’s email marketing software is powered by CRM data and is best for larger businesses. It enables marketers to house all marketing tools in one platform, rather than dealing with scattered customer data, freeing up time to focus on converting customers at scale.

Its main features are:

• Lead generation

• Drag-and-drop email templates

• Dynamic content

• Build personalized emails

• A/B split testing

• Audience segmentation

• Goal-based reporting

• Facebook and Google ads

• High email deliverability

• Basic reporting

3. Mailchimp

Known for: batch and blast email marketing.

Mailchimp’s simple, entry-level email marketing software is known around the world, with 13 million businesses across 175 countries using its services. With Mailchimp, marketers can put the audience at the center of their marketing strategy, making it easy to send emails that convert.

Its main features include:

• Drag-and-drop editor

• Mobile insights reporting

• Marketing automation available on every plan

• Lead management

• High-volume sending

• A/B split testing

• Facebook and Google ads

• Marketing automation templates

• Basic reporting

4. Campaign Monitor

Known for: highly personalized emails.

Campaign Monitor is a straightforward email marketing tool that allows marketers to build highly personalized, well-designed emails. Its drag-and-drop email builder is easy to use and engagement-based segmentation functionality means that targeting subscribers is simple.

Main features:

• Build and personalize emails

• Drag-and-drop builder

• Email and mobile preview

• Manage email lists

• High-volume sending

• Manage email deliverability

• Automated email responses

• A/B testing

• Basic reporting 

5. Moosend

Known for: interactive, multimedia emails.

Moosend is a marketing automation and email marketing platform that allows users to easily create email newsletter campaigns, subscription forms, and landing pages.

Main features:

• Email and mobile preview

• Build and personalize emails

• Automated email responses

• Manage email lists

• High-volume sending

• Management email deliverability

6. Omnisend

Known for: omnichannel marketing.

With Omnisend, marketers can build automated custom workflows for all stages of the customer journey. The omnichannel functionality provides greater control over customer interactions across multiple channels in addition to email – SMS, social media, website, etc.

Main features:

• Build and personalize emails

• Automated email responses

• Dynamic content

• Mobile optimized

• Segmentation

• Online behavior tracking

• Basic reporting 

• ROI analytics

7. SendinBlue

Known for: automated emails and texts.

SendinBlue is an all-in-one platform for marketers to engage with their contacts and build better customer relationships. With SendinBlue, growing businesses can send thousands of emails per month for free, and even more with an upgraded plan.

Main features:

• Pre-built templates

• Tracking (e.g. open rate, time to open, etc.)

• Campaign performance reporting

• Domain reputation reporting

8. Privy

Known for: its ecommerce focus.

Privy is a marketing platform specializing in growing ecommerce businesses. Users can build email lists, save abandoned carts, send automated emails and texts, and more.

Main features:

• Email and mobile preview

• Build and personalize emails

• Manage email list

• Manage deliverability

• High-volume sending

• Pre-designed templates

• Mobile optimized

• Basic reporting

9. AWeber

Known for: entry-level, user-friendly email marketing.

AWeber is an email platform purpose-built for small businesses and entrepreneurs. It allows users to easily segment their email lists, build well-designed emails, and nurture leads.

Main features:

• Data import & export

• Email and mobile preview

• Build and personalize emails

• Automated email responses

• Manage email lists

• High-volume sending

• Manage email deliverability

• A/B testing

• Basic reporting

10. GetResponse

Known for: global email marketing.

GetResponse is a marketing software with over 30 tools in an easy-to-use platform, available in over 20 languages. GetResponse also offers landing pages, a CRM, and a webinar solution.

Main features:

• Build and personalize emails

• Manage email deliverability

• Automated email responses

• Landing pages and forms

• Dynamic testing

• A/B testing 

• Mobile optimized 

• Marketing lead database

• Segmentation

• Lead scoring and grading

• Basic reporting

Email marketing tips for startups

1. Grow your email list

As a startup, raising brand awareness from scratch to attract high-quality leads can be a headache, but since digital marketing is constantly evolving, you have multiple avenues to explore.

First, you need to grow an email list. An email address is gold dust to marketers. People don’t advertise their email addresses to anyone – they must be earned. So, if someone is giving you their email address, they are effectively agreeing to hear from you, and they want to know what you have to say.

The most common ways to grow an email list are as follows:

• Harness social media to encourage signups: Using targeted ads based on audience demographic and behavior, you can talk to your target audience and promote your content and/or products and services. Tip: Instagram has a higher engagement rate than Facebook (due in part to its ecommerce features), and TikTok is the fastest-growing social network with a 105% user growth rate between 2019 and 2021.

• Implement email signup forms on your site: Most ecommerce sites incorporate a visible signup form, either on the sidebar or as a pop-up.

• Collect emails at checkout: Perhaps the easiest way to grab someone’s email address is when they are purchasing a product or service on your website. This email address holds value because they are already a customer.

2. Segment leads and customers

Once you have a list of emails and information about your leads and customers in one place, it’s time to segment them. Lead segmentation is an important aspect of a marketing strategy because different people have different needs and are at different stages of the buying journey.

You can segment leads based on demographic, behavioral, event-based, transaction, and firmographic data. Examples of activity/behavior are:

• Homepage visit

• Email subscriber

• Existing customer

• Content download

• Product/service page visit

• Repeat visit

• Abandoned shopping cart

Once you’ve completed audience segmentation, you can send them relevant email content to improve engagement.

3. Send personalized emails

Create personalized, pixel-perfect emails using a pre-designed email template or by designing your own and saving it to your template library. Automate email marketing campaigns with time-zone-based delivery (based on customer data) to improve open rates.

Ortto users can take email personalization to a whole new level by dynamically inserting products from abandoned carts or inputting subscription information with ease.

4. A/B test to improve conversions

Best practice email marketing involves A/B testing to determine what’s working and what isn’t. A/B test language and communication style within your email subject lines, content, and CTA buttons to improve open rates, conversions, and revenue. Ortto customers can utilize AI content recommendations to optimize email performance.

5. Ensure good deliverability

Did you know: One in six emails get sent to the spam folder or are blocked from subscribers’ inboxes altogether. This discrepancy is down to email deliverability.

Email deliverability refers to the landing place of your email in your recipients’ inbox – i.e. if your email goes straight to a recipient’s spam folder, that would be a reflection of poor deliverability.

Deliverability depends on how ‘trustworthy’ a mailbox provider deems your emails. For example, if the mailbox detects spam trigger words it will likely categorize it as spam, never to see the light of day. Another reason for poor deliverability is the quality of the email list. For example, if you’re constantly emailing unengaged contacts who do not interact with your emails, the mailbox provider may consider your campaign to be of low quality and redirect it to spam.

All of these factors will influence your sender’s reputation and the deliverability of your emails. To remedy this, give your contacts the option to unsubscribe from your emails or receive fewer emails, so your lists will include more high-quality leads and your engagement rates will improve.

6. Track and analyze performance

Analyze the performance of your email marketing strategy to ensure continuous improvement. Ortto’s marketing dashboards are designed for every use case (ecommerce, SaaS, B2B), offering you a complete picture of your data. What’s more, with built-in revenue attribution, you can visualize your performance and analyze how it compares to each period.

The final word

As a startup, the road ahead will seem like an uphill battle, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right email marketing software, you can automate time-consuming manual tasks to ensure email marketing best practices and in turn regain valuable time better spent on analyzing performance and improving strategy. In fact, leveraging the help of an email marketing tool will have you thinking and planning like a marketing pro in no time.

If you’re curious about how Ortto can take your startup from zero to hero, sign up today.

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