How to refine your startup support programme’s email marketing campaigns
Email marketing campaigns remain one of the most effective ways to reach an audience and turn engagement into action. Leveraging your resources in the right way can maximise your email potential.
Marketing your startup support programme through targeted emailing might seem archaic in our modern era of algorithms, social media feeds and generative AI, yet it remains one of the most effective ways to turn prospective client engagement into action.
There’s a reason why every retailer and agency still sends monthly newsletters and email advertisements. It’s an easy, cost-effective way to build trust and familiarise recipients with the more nuanced details of your programme.
Having put together email campaigns for clients, our own brand and The Pitch year on year, we’ve had first-hand experience creating effective newsletters and email outreach that makes an impact with small businesses. Follow our tips below to improve your startup support programme’s outreach and create a more effective email campaign.
Think scheduling, strategy and segmentation
Before designing anything, take the time to finalise your content plan and be sure to accommodate existing employee workflows. You’ll likely need to slot your new email marketing campaign into an already-established company schedule.
It’s wise to segment your prospective audience before outlining your strategy, so think about the following:
Who are you hoping to appeal to and how?
What are the needs of each demographic that you’re catering to?
Should you deliver separate campaigns for different parts of your programme?
How will language and copy differ in each campaign?
Are multiple campaigns possible with your current resources?
Keep in mind that handling multiple campaigns doesn’t have to be a juggling act. You might schedule two campaigns with one newsletter each per month, for example, but publish them two weeks apart. A smooth workflow will help you keep things manageable and realistic.
As you launch and maintain your schedule, it can be tempting to delay output during busy periods of the year. Marketing your support programme can seem less pressing than existing client work, as the returns are not always obvious or immediate. As a result, email outreach can easily slide down the priority list. Try to avoid this.
Consistency is essential to success and building an established relationship between your programme and its intended audience takes time. Trust the process and pay attention to feedback. Tweak your creative process to improve efficiency. Build templates, frameworks and style guides to save time.
Use imagery that authentically reflects your demographic
Newsletters are a good opportunity to boost your brand’s image and aesthetic without too much hassle. There are plenty of user-friendly design applications available online to help you construct impressive emails with relative ease; gone are the days of HTML headaches and complicated coding.
An enticing visual flair can go a long way in boosting your programme’s appeal and help you stand out amidst the competition. Consider logos, playful patterns and brand-appropriate colours. Reinforce your programme’s look and attitude. Your email campaign should complement your main website, brochure or event. Think of it as an extension and treat it as such.
Here’s an example of our own newsletter. We’ve purposefully incorporated branding across every section, utilising our signature colours alongside shapes to clearly split each section of content.
Be sure to include lots of imagery that represents your audience and promotes the nuances of your specific programme in an obvious way. If you want people to engage, they’ll need to see themselves reflected in your content. This will indicate that you understand your demographic and who you’re creating for.
Most of us skim read emails at outrageous speed, so your design must be easy to understand and digestible quickly. If a recipient can’t decipher your email instantaneously, they’ll be clicking somewhere else.
Use frequent calls to action and ensure content is intentional
With that being said, it can be easy to get carried away with quirky designs, snappy headers and amusing captions for email marketing campaigns, so much so that you may forget what the purpose behind your content actually is.
Always keep your intentions at the forefront of your decisions. Why are you launching a campaign? Why should readers open your email over the hundreds of others in their inbox? Your copy should frequently encourage action or participation from the recipient.
Converting passive engagement into applications can be tough, especially for startup support programmes where budgets are tight and windows of opportunity are limited. Consider including these in your campaign:
Plenty of call to action buttons that are obvious and clear
Hyperlinks on most images and external links within paragraph copy
Founder or employee LinkedIn profile links
References to other useful resources; even third-party ones
Direct links to sign-up pages
As long as you curate accordingly and balance content with call to action buttons, you’ll be able to provide ample opportunities for users to get involved with your programme.
Optimise for both mobile and desktop viewing
Handling both mobile and desktop layouts simultaneously for emails can be a nuisance, particularly if one template looks perfect and the other a disjointed mess. Trust us, we’ve been there.
The trick is to keep tabs on both as you’re developing your campaign. Don’t polish up a complete desktop design without ever checking the mobile version, for example. You’ll likely find that spacing, image sizes, headers and links are scattered about the page in an illegible jumble. Both are of equal importance, so treat them as such.
Accessibility is important for any marketing campaign, but especially so if you’re a startup support service that champions diversity and inclusion. Insert alt text descriptions and choose visuals that are easy for anybody to understand and read, regardless of what device they’re viewing from.
Check your previous email engagement statistics and determine how many of your recipients open emails via mobile or desktop. You can use various third-party services to do this, such as Mailchimp or Mailer Lite.
It’s common to have a mix of both, depending on your audience and what time of day you publish your campaign. Use this data to inform your designs and copy choices. Mobile readers will want less text and immediate information, with a greater emphasis on imagery, while desktop users may tolerate slightly more detailed copy.
Whatever your numbers, always ensure your content is optimised and readable on all platforms.
Focus on human connection and ensure copy is accessible
Who says copy has to be boring? If you’re advertising your startup support programme or delivering a newsletter roundup, feel free to be a little playful and personal with your copy. Don’t go too far and overdo it, obviously, but strike a balance between informative and friendly.
A snappy, topical or relatable subject line can do wonders for email open rates, for example. Consider including a little information on your team’s work outings or an off-topic anecdote to mix up your content. In this new, AI-generated landscape, displaying genuine human connection can bring recipients closer to your brand in a healthy and effective way.
This philosophy is a main driving factor for many current, successful social media strategies, including big brands like Duolingo and Ryanair. As long as it's appropriate for your organisation’s subject matter, feel free to let loose ever so slightly here and there. Stay on brand, but don’t be afraid to show a little humour.
We’ve been experimenting with more personal copy ourselves, including more team photos and office content in our recent newsletters. It helps loosen up the stiffness that can often creep into marketing campaigns if left unchecked.
At Inkwell, we create compelling content that connects organisations with startups and small businesses. Get in touch with our team for more details on how we can help your programme or initiative reach more entrepreneurs.
