Email Marketing for New Founders & CMOs: Step-By-Step Guide

You have set up a new company. Among the many hats you wear, a CMO hat is the most colorful one. You like the vibrancy and the promise of potential it offers, but not having been trained as a marketer, you know your limitations!

Don’t worry. It is exactly here where this blog becomes relevant to you. 

Let’s cut to the point and lay it out: Email marketing is your trusted ally and for a good reason. 

This hottest marketing tactic is businesses’ favorite because it drives a fulfilling Return on Investment (ROI). 

It brings in $36 for every $1 spent. And that, to be fair, is a pretty decent return. 

Let’s dive deeper to unlock the potential of email marketing for Founders & CMOs. 

Understanding Email Marketing for New Founders & CMOs

Imagine you are setting up a new service/product business. The biggest challenge you face after creating the service/product is to take it to your potential customers. 

This is where Email Marketing comes in. 

It’s like a digital pen pal of your company. You land in your audience’s inbox directly inspiring them to be more than just an audience: to be your customer!

Email marketing for new businesses

• Works with audiences from various sectors and industries, each with unique requirements and challenges.
• Has a number of services to offer, like web design, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and more.
• Requires understanding of the latest trends and developments, if any, in the digital marketing sector.

How to do it right?

1. Craft an email showcasing your product’s Unique Selling Points (USPs); in case of a service, highlight the perks of working with you.
2. Tailor the email marketing campaigns as per the unique needs of your audience.
3. Design the campaigns in a way that promotes each service/product individually and the business as a whole.
4. Should be mobile-friendly, visually appealing, and optimized for better email deliverability and engagement. 

6 Stellar Examples of Email Marketing Campaigns for New Founders & CMOs 🚀  

Let’s pull some brakes here … Let’s understand the basic differences you need to understand as a new founder wearing the CMO hat before you roll out your first email campaign or an email blast.

• An email campaign is sent to a target audience for a predefined goal, while an email blast means reaching out to as many people as you can.
• An email campaign means sending a series of strategic emails to nurture your relationship with the recipient and drive sales. However, an email blast means sending a single message with the aim of creating a broad impact without any need to follow up.

Here are the six examples of email marketing campaigns that drive results:

1. Welcome email

This is the best welcome email example by Stills. Minimal design, a pretty loud Call to Action (CTA), and easy-to-skim content divided into different sections. Stills has just done the job well.

2. Promotional email

Headspace has a cool way of promoting any product. The email example is just a treat to the eyes. Beautiful colors, attention-grabbing design, brief and catchy content, and bold CTA. Don’t you think that this is one of the best examples of a promotional email ever?

3. Newsletter email

This is a pretty good example of email newsletters by Ticket Tailor. Beautifully designed, has a perfect subject line, and is the best-crafted email copy ever. The content is properly divided into different paragraphs, and new features mentioned in bullet points make the email copy easy to read and digest. 

4. Seasonal email

This seasonal email example by 8fit will surely make you go wow. Refreshing colors, juicy email design, brief content, and CTA are just like a light, cool breeze to welcome summer. 

5. Trigger email

This amazing example by Uniqlo speaks volumes about what a trigger email is. The clothing brand has just restocked the customers’ most loved item and announced it beautifully. What a perfect color combo, catchy content, and a loud CTA. Uniqlo has just done a super job.  

6. Confirmation email

Isn’t this confirmation email example a masterpiece by Tradewinds Hotel? The design itself speaks that it’s all about reservation. When it comes to crafting content, the brand stands out again with brief and easy-to-skim content. 

Why Is Email Marketing Important for Your Business?

Are you concerned about whether email marketing is an effective strategy for your business? YES, it is.

We have, over a period of time, created in-depth studies on email marketing for

• digital agencies
• e-commerce brands
• real estate agencies
• small businesses

If you are the new founder of a business that does not fall in the above categories of industries, hang on, we are demystifying email marketing for your business.

Here’s how email marketing serves you:

1. Increases service and product awareness by landing customers' inboxes at the right time.
2. Incredibly effective in welcoming new customers and building a lasting relationship. 
3. One of the cheapest ways to reach your consumers.
4. Has a larger reach when compared to social media marketing. 
5. You can track the metrics to better know what’s working and what’s not. 
6. Keeps your communication current, nurtures leads and drives results.  

5 Steps to Elevate Your Email Marketing Game

Let’s have a glance at how digital agencies can do email marketing in just five steps:

Step 1: Set goals 

The very first step in email marketing strategy is to set your goals. 

Decide whether your goal is to generate leads, maximize Return on Investment (ROI), or retain customers. Once you are done with defining the goal, start working on it. It may be helpful to be aware of email marketing insights so that you know how realistic and achievable your goals are. 

Step 2: Define email strategy, design, and content

👉 A perfect email marketing plan includes:

• Defining your audience. 
• Leveraging signup sources and segmenting & grouping your audience for better communication. 
• Identifying the type of email you should send. 
• Define the tone and cadence of your email marketing content.
• Making a schedule of sending the email at the best time. According to HubSpot, the two perfect times with the highest engagement rate are 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

👉 Here are a few design tips that will make your email visually appealing:

• Go for a minimalist design.
• Use trendy GIFs.
• Add a loud CTA.
• Choose a 3D illustration that compliments the content.

👉 Here are a few email marketing content creation tips to make your recipients go wow:

Now comes the juicy part!

Step 3: Choose the best email building partner 

You have laid out the plan and the blueprint. It’s time to execute it all. How do you do that? 

As a new founder, you have a business to run and multiple jobs to do, so you need an execution partner that takes the maximum load off your plate without any compromise in the quality of your email building. Go for the best partner you can have: 

Unlayer 

Features: 

• Drag and drop email builder
• 1800+ HTML email templates
• Integrate with different email marketing platforms like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, etc.
• Mobile, desktop, and tablet preview
• Personalization features like dynamic content and merge tags
• Reusable custom blocks and custom tools
• Responsive landing page and email builder  

Pricing:

• Free trial for 14 days
• Based on the user type, paid services start from as little as $15 per month

Design Engaging Emails With Unlayer

Beautiful Templates. Fully Responsive. White-Labled.

Sign Up Now!

Step 4: Set up email automation

Leverage email automation and invest your energy in demanding tasks like increasing ROI. 

Well, the two email automation tools are worth investing in:

1. Mailchimp  

Features: 

• Marketing calendar
• Real-time analytics
• Integrated with CRM, social media, developer tools, and e-commerce stores 
• Targeted emails through automated customer journey builder

Pricing:

A go-to email platform for startups, small businesses, and digital marketing agencies because of the free services it offers.

• Send emails to 2,000 subscribers for free
• Paid plans start from $11 per month

2. ActiveCampaign

Features: 

• Audience segmentation 
• Managed deliverability 
• Real-time analytics

Pricing:

• Does not offer a free package
• Paid plans start from $9 per month 

Step 5: Test emails

If you want to stand out in the email subscriber’s inbox, you have to:

• Check how your email appears in various Email Service Providers (ESPs).
• Get feedback from colleagues and friends.
• Run A/B testing.

Step 6: Measure performance

The very crucial step is to check if your marketing efforts are up to the mark. 

There are different metrics like:

These metrics help you track your performance and also customize your email marketing campaigns according to customer preferences. 

9 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid 

Let’s dive deeper into the common email marketing mistakes that you should avoid: 

1. Not having a goal 

The very first mistake is not understanding the who, what, and why of your email campaign. Any email campaign without a purpose is like you are moving but going nowhere. 

2. Not targeting a specific audience 

Sending irrelevant content to your audience is one of the biggest mistakes. It not only frustrates and annoys your customers but also badly damages your brand and your reputation. 

3. Not optimizing emails for mobile

As you know, the majority of emails are opened on mobile devices. So, not making your emails mobile-friendly is one of the crucial mistakes that will cripple your email marketing efforts.

4. Writing a boring subject line

The subject line is an important part of email. They either make or break your marketing efforts. Using a boring subject line means you are giving your recipient the choice not to open that email. 

5. Being too wordy

People want to read short content. When you write a wordy copy, chances are that the reader doesn’t even go through it and ignores the meat of your message. 

6. Overlooking email regulations

Failing to adhere to email regulations is one of the biggest mistakes ever because it costs you heavy fines and damages your reputation, too. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act penalizes companies for not offering options to customers, such as the ability to unsubscribe. 

7. Skipping welcome emails 

By sending welcome emails, you actually avoid one of the crucial email marketing mistakes: making your clients feel like they’re only numbers on the screen. Sending your subscribers a welcome email shows that you take care of them. 

8. Adding too many CTAs

Although adding a CTA in your email is a good strategy, overdoing it is not a good practice at all. 

In a survey conducted by Databox, 43% of marketers said that they use just one CTA in their email, while 30% said that they use two CTAs. 

9. Sending emails without proofreading

Sending emails with grammatical, spelling, and factual errors may mark your email as spam. So, how will you think of marketing your product or services to your targeted audience when you can’t even land in their inbox? And even if it isn’t marked spam, it sure does reflect poorly on your eye for detail. 

You must also be sure that all links inserted in the copy are functional and are directing your audience to the relevant landing page. Otherwise, your lack of professionalism would turn off your audience.  

Meanwhile, you are setting up robust email marketing for your business as a new founder, do not forget to invest some time establishing personal branding on the side. Remember, people buy from the people they know and trust!

Over to You!

Well, that’s everything you should know to master email marketing for Founders & CMOs. 

Now, instead of wondering, “Can I manage email marketing as a new founder,” ask yourself, “Am I willing to put in the effort”? If the answer is yes, then and only then you can get the most out of this fantastic marketing tactic. 

Here’s to a rewarding email marketing journey ahead. Tada! 💪