Email marketing 4 Startups by Susan Su of @500startups and @500distribution -- from 500 Startups Growth Camp, Taipei March 21, 2015

1. MARKETING
4 STARTUPS
EMAIL
with Susan Su

2. EMAIL Marketing + Startup Metrics
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Revenue
Referral
EMAIL MARKETING 4 STARTUPS
email collector is (almost) the top of your funnel
lever to turn site/product signups -> active users
engage users to keep them coming back
the “hard sell”
tell ur friends!

3. Email
WHAT IS EMAIL MARKETING?
BLAST! Good email marketing:
● extends beyond any
single standalone blast
● campaigns that show u
know WHO ur
subscribers really are,
and WHERE they are in
their user lifecycle

4. This email got a 60% open rate:
ANATOMY OF AN EMAIL
5 factors that influence open rates:
1. Subject line
2. Sender
3. List quality
4. Snippet Preview
5. Content
“2015 "Vegas, Baby!" 500 Founders' Weekend”

5. But Rome wasn’t built in a single email.
EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
Campaigns
Welcome Onboarding / Activation Engagement Reactivation
Transactional

6. So START NOW:
Welcome — Confirm signup, set the email expectations
Onboarding campaign — multi-installment series that gets subscribers to your activation
threshold
Engagement campaign — emails that get subs to your next activation threshold — from 1st
time to repeat users
Reactivation — incentivized wake-up call for dormant users
Retention — event-based triggers aimed at retain users about to drop off
Conversion — “the hard sell”
Referral — tell ur friends (goal: get friends’ email)
EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
EMAIL IS A FUNNEL. Very few people buy at the top of the funnel.

7. 1. ABC: Always Be Collecting
● Persistent across ur site
● Popups works
● On EVERY staff’s profiles and signatures
● Paid acquisition campaigns
● Offline works too
GOLDEN RULES
OF CONTENT MARKETING

8. 2. Subject lines MATTER.
But they don’t just impact open rates.
They impact a subscriber’s perception of your ENTIRE email.
Subject line testing isn’t just about boosting open rates,
but boosting total conversions.
First 10-15 characters MOST important: use action words.
GOLDEN RULES
OF EMAIL MARKETING

9. 2. Subject lines MATTER.
GOLDEN RULES
OF EMAIL MARKETING
Snooze…!

10. 3. Target and segment
Don’t be random. Some targeting you can do:
● demo
● based on previous behavior (open, click, buy)
● based on events outside of email (ie, use MixPanel)
GOLDEN RULES
OF EMAIL MARKETING

11. 4. Measure what matters
● OPENS. Standard open rate is below 30%.
○ Email open behavior secret: every other.
● CLICKS.
● CONVERSIONS.
● SUBSCRIBES.
● UNSUBSCRIBES.
GOLDEN RULES
OF EMAIL MARKETING

12. 5. MUST. TEST.
1. Subject line: copy, length, emotion
2. CTA: language, size, color,
commitment level
3. Content layout
4. Content length
5. Show prices vs. not
6. Simple vs complex
7. More vs fewer choices
8. Send time / day
9. Personalization
10. “From” name
GOLDEN RULES
OF CONTENT MARKETING
PS -- Intuition still matters.

13. 6. The Content REALLY Matters
GOLDEN RULES
OF CONTENT MARKETING
● subject line
● preview text
● IMAGES
● body
● always have a CTA
● include link reminding people
who you are & what you do

14. 7. Mobile First
Over 65% of email gets opened on mobile
FIRST.
GOLDEN RULES
OF CONTENT MARKETING
● Responsive layout
● Content brevity (short paragraphs,
even if u have lots of them)
● Subject and preview are mobile-
optimized
● ALWAYS TEST mobile
● High open rate but low click rate…?

15. LOTS MORE!
From hacks to high level strategies
@susanfsu
susan@500.co
Or come to my office hours!