When you're looking for email marketing services, you'll find agencies, DIY email platform options, and email marketing specialists.
What is the best option for a start-up business?
Who can get you set up the fastest?
Who would understand your automation needs?
Who would know how to stop your emails from ending up in spam?
Most of all, who gives a damn?
Nobody wants to be treated like a small fish in a big pool. Especially not a start-up.
Finding & choosing an email marketing service for a start-up
Finding & choosing an email marketing service for a start-up depends on:
- Whether you have capital ($$$)
- How critical it is for your current phase of growth (email marketing maturity)
- How much time you have on your hands (never enough, right?)
Your answer to these 3 points impacts your options. Full disclosure, I'm a Melbourne-based freelance marketer that offers email marketing services for start-ups and SMEs.
Sometimes a start-up's needs are super straightforward - an email confirmation automated post website inquiry or best-practice email templates. These can be quick to set up for those with the know-how.
Tip: 'Free templates' on offer in an email platform may not adopt best-practice for your industry.
Some clients require a full suite of comms developed to nurture the client throughout the purchase journey. This tends to be for services or products with a longer lead time, a complex consideration process, or a high price point. For example, an online platform, a franchise offering, a travel company or a real estate company.
Maintaining comms via email throughout the purchase cycle helps keep your business 'front of mind', making you a more familiar entity. We trust those that are familiar to us, people we know. The same applies to business. Making yourself a 'familiar face' will make you more trusted, and more likely to be selected over less-familiar alternatives.
Choosing email marketing services for a start-up business is impacted by...
1. Capital (Budget)
Email marketing can earn you a killer return on investment - one of the highest in digital marketing. 2022 data averages $36 per $1 spent. Imagine earning that kind of return on the stock market - you might consider hacking the email marketer's laptop in search of all their secrets. If hacking isn't your thing, you could talk to someone like me, an Australian-based email marketer, instead. I'll quote you depending on the email marketing services you require, and we can go from there.
If you're a DIY-er, you may appreciate: a best practice email marketing checklist.
Choosing an email marketing service provider also depends on your...
2. Current Stage Of Growth
You know your circumstances better than anyone else. But, your current maturity as a business does impact what level of email marketing you require. Here's a bit of an overview on the different stages of email marketing maturity.
STAGE 1: UNDEFINED
If you have no defined email marketing strategy (yet) you may view email marketing as a push marketing/broadcast strategy. You may be using no cost or low cost email marketing platforms, with a predetermined template. Your lead or sales response is sporadic, and you don't really have a list growth strategy.
Your staff are contracted or email marketing is a part of a coordinator or admin staff's role. This is usually where a start-up starts before moving to stage 2.
Stage 2: Progressive
You now have an email marketing strategy, but it's in uncoordinated pockets across the organisation. The business values email as a channel of communication and has established workflows that stem from form submissions or social sharing.
There's a budget allocated for email marketing, and campaigns are typically outsourced to an email marketing agency or email marketing specialist.
Stage 3: Mature
The business has email marketing tightly integrated into their customer journey, maximised by a Customer Relationship Management system. Email marketing content is personalised, and engagement is prioritised over list growth.
The email marketing budget is aligned and measured alongside business brand and revenue objectives. Everything is run by experienced in-house staff.
When a business has matured their email marketing strategy, their emails are run like a personal conversation.
Choosing email marketing services for a start-up business also depends on...
3. How much time you have on your hands
You can start down the path of email marketing, (or EDM's), by yourself. The DIY model, as you can expect, has caveats:
- It eats into the time you'd usually spend on your business
- It's a slower path to maturity (and thus return on your time as a resource).
It's these two reasons that most founders or small business owners opt for email marketing services.
However, if you're a DIY-er, you may appreciate: a best practice email marketing checklist.
Compare your options
Email marketing services vary from generic to full-stack offerings. Consider whether your brand or audience could benefit from...
- Platform & template set-up
- CRM integration
- Email launch campaigns
- Automation or drip campaigns
- Audience segmentation
- Retention and lead nurturing
- Conversion Optimisation, A/B split tests etc.
- A wider range of Electronic Direct Marketing (EDM) solutions including SMS
I'm a freelance marketer that has helped companies drive 70% of revenue just through email marketing campaigns. Not bad right? Right, but these kind of results are always a part of an overarching plan. A cohesive email marketing strategy has synergy with your overarching customer journey and that is where I tend to start.
I work with B2B and B2C businesses of all shapes and sizes with their email marketing strategies. From sourcing the best email marketing platform to integrate with your CRM needs, to marketing automation. Need help? Move from a foundational email phase to reaping returns using email strategies specific to your business.
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