“Use Email Marketing to Execute a Successful Startup Launch”
SEO keyword: why email marketing
560 words
by: Kris Gutknecht
For: The Mission Suite Blog
Email marketing is an excellent way to drum up interest in the days or weeks before your product launch. Launch day is a one-time event, sink or swim, and you can’t engage with customers beyond that. But when you strategize with email marketing, you create a fanbase and test group, to which you can return, before and after launch.
Pre-Launch
This is the time to make connections by sharing your enthusiasm with the public. Add an email sign up form on social media and your website, and pick an affordable, effective ESP like Mission Suite that can integrate your entire online marketing campaign.
Utilize the passion and involvement of your team. They are your greatest supporters at the pre-launch stage: their social media presence and word-of-mouth promotion can bring in a core group of supporters. Make sure your team has company business cards, and train them to encourage friends and colleagues to sign up for the newsletter to find out about important product updates.
Choose your newsletter email format that reflects your brand and use it consistently. Similarly, develop a signature with your company mission statement and ask all staff members to use it for all company email. These standardized closings pull together your message and make your team look like a professional, reliable group.
Train staff on what you want your company voice to sound like, so that all email communications sound like they’re coming from the same person, be it billing, IT, or customer service.
Sending the Pre-Launch Newsletter
Gathering emails when you don’t have a product to sell can be tricky. Try to boost enthusiasm for the planning stages of your product by trying tactics:
- Post newsletter updates about once a month. Over-posting is more irritating than under-posting.
- Guest post on related blogs.
- Pass out literature and business cards at conventions and other events.
As a new business, you’re excited to talk about your product, but all information you send by email should put the customer first. What are they interested in? Does this newsletter inform them about product updates, solve a problem in their life, or offer a solution? If you’re updating just to inform them about a new hire, or changes they can’t detect in the software, you will likely annoy and lose subscribers, or even be marked as a spammer.
Release the Beast
The best pool of people to beta test your app is your email list. Why?
- They’ve been with you from the beginning. They may even be friends and family, follow you on social media, or work in your industry
- They’re a closed group. You can send them exclusive codes and passwords, links to downloads, and other information to test the product, with relative assurance that you know who is getting the information and whom to ask for feedback.
- If something goes wrong, your built-in supporters are less likely to assume the worst. And since you issued the testing code over email, you only have one place to go to issue an explanation.
After Launch
After public launch, keep up with your email list. They’re the ones who have been with you your entire journey, and may have invested money through your Kickstarter or Paypal button. Don’t forget to thank them with sincere posts, and with bonus codes and downloads.
Kris Gutknecht 