Email marketing for startups: 8 best practices to get started

For startups, it’s a priority to find cost-effective and impactful marketing channels. While there are many scrappy and off-the-cuff methods (which we’re all for) to bring in those leads, email marketing stands strong as the tried and tested most effective way to get clients, and stay within budget. Research shows that email marketing delivers an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, outperforming other digital marketing channels. But, why is that?  

In simple terms, Email provides startups with a direct line to their audience, enabling them to build relationships, nurture leads, and drive conversions. When done correctly, it can serve as the backbone of any startup's customer acquisition and retention strategies.

In this article, we’ll share how to get started with email marketing, and best practices to make it your most fruitful channel:

1. What is email marketing?  

2. What does email marketing look like for startups?

3. How to get started with email marketing - 8 best practices

4. 5 different types of emails to send 

5. Must-haves in an email marketing software

6. Best email marketing software for startups

What is email marketing?  

Email marketing forms part of a digital marketing strategy, that uses email as a means of communicating with prospects and customers. 

This can range anywhere from simple announcements or promotions, to complex automated workflows designed to guide leads through a sales funnel. And let’s not forget communication post-sale, in order to retain clients or create repeat business.

Unlike other methods, like social media, where the audience is owned by the platform, email marketing allows startups to have complete control over their list and message delivery. It’s a reliable way to reach your audience, build trust, and generate revenue.  

What does email marketing look like for startups?  

For startups, email marketing can serve as a cornerstone strategy due to its scalability and low cost. With limited budgets and resources, startups can use email marketing to: 

• Build awareness of their brand
• Educate potential customers about their products or services
• Drive conversions with targeted promotions and campaigns

What sets email marketing apart is its high ROI, 4 times higher than any other digital channel in fact, but it’s not all rosy. Below we highlight the core benefits and drawbacks of email marketing for startups. 

Benefits of email marketing for startups  

Although we’ve already discussed some of the benefits, here is a deeper dive into why email marketing can be beneficial to businesses that are just starting out.

Cost-effectiveness: Email marketing tools are generally quite affordable, with many offering free or low-cost plans that fit startup budgets with enough functionalities to carry out successful campaigns.  

Higher personalization opportunities: Email allows startups to segment their audience based on behavior, preferences, or demographics, enabling highly tailored messages. If you start doing this from the get-go, it makes it far easier to scale up your email marketing in the future.

Direct communication: Email lands directly in the user’s inbox, giving startups a personal channel to engage customers and include clear calls-to-action (CTAs).  

Scalability: Whether you're sending out 20 emails or targeting 2,000 recipients, email marketing scales easily without significant additional cost.  

Measurable impact: Metrics like reply rates, click-through rates, and conversions allow startups to track performance and make data-driven decisions.

Drawbacks of email marketing for startups

While email marketing can be a powerful channel, it’s not without challenges, especially for startups:

Deliverability issues: Poorly managed email warm-up and campaigns can lead to spam filters flagging your emails, reducing visibility, and hurting your domain reputation.

Time-intensive setup: Building a quality email list, creating compelling content, and setting up automation workflows require significant upfront effort.

Saturation: With so many companies using email marketing, standing out in crowded inboxes can be a struggle.

How to get started with email marketing  

Getting started with email marketing involves laying a solid foundation. Success doesn’t come from sending random emails; it comes from understanding your audience, crafting valuable content, and ensuring your emails land in the inbox. This requires a combination of strategy, compliance, and technical setup.  

Start by defining your goals: Are you aiming to generate leads, nurture prospects, or retain existing customers? From there, build your email list and choose the right tools to execute your campaigns. Below are 8 best practices to guide your startup's email marketing efforts.  

8 best practices for getting started with email marketing  

1. Build a quality email list (inbound & outbound)  

The foundation of email marketing is your email list. There are two main ways to build it:  

Inbound: Capture emails through forms on your website

If you’re in B2C, this might be signing up for product offers, discounts, or newsletters. In B2B gated content (like free tools, eBooks), or demo requests and signups for events and webinars.  

Outbound: Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator or contact databases like Apollo or GoodFit to reach out to potential leads.  

Pro Tip: Always verify email addresses through a tool like a Safety Net to ensure your list stays clean and avoid deliverability issues.  

 2. Know your ICP (ideal customer profile)  

Before launching campaigns, define who your ideal customers are, or at least who you want them to be or who you think your product would be best suited for. This will help you target the right people and craft messages that resonate. 

Pro tip: If you’re unsure of your ICP, start broad and analyze engagement metrics to narrow it down.  

 3. Outreach to only quality email addresses  

Yes, we mentioned quality above, but we must stress, that while inbound leads may seem more reliable, they’re not always of higher quality. Focus on validating all email addresses, as sending messages to invalid, low-engaging, or frequent spam reporters can damage your sender reputation. It’s important to have list-cleaning hygiene in place, no matter the size of your company.

Pro tip: Always run your contact lists through a risk-analysis tool before sending any kind of campaign, regardless of where the leads came from.

4. Create engaging content that avoids spam folders  

The best-designed email won’t matter if it ends up in spam. Ensure your content is:  

• Relevant to the recipient
• Balanced between text and visuals 
• Free of spam triggers like excessive capitalization or misleading subject lines 

Pro Tip: If it’s the first time you’re reaching out to a specific contact for the first time, avoid the use of any links and images – yes, this doesn’t sound super engaging, but it’s not worth the risk of damaging your sender reputation. Once a recipient engages with your content, you can send them emails with more bells and whistles.

5. Stay compliant with regulations  

Compliance is critical to avoid penalties and maintain trust. Adhere to GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other email regulations by:  

• Including clear unsubscribe options  
• Using proper sender identification  
• Only emailing users who’ve opted in

Pro tip: If you’re sending bulk/mass emails, you must include a one-click unsubscribe feature. This was included as part of the Google Sender Guidelines, released in February 2024.

6. Test different channels and strategies  

Email marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all. Experiment with various sending times, subject lines, and content types. A/B content testing can help identify what works best for your audience. 

Pro tip: Use a content testing tool to see which versions of your email will generate higher spam rates, and therefore impact your sender reputation 

7. Collaborate with other departments  

Coordinate with Sales, Customer Success, and Operations teams to unify messaging. Overlapping communications can lead to email fatigue and hurt your domain’s sender reputation.  

8. Monitor your sender reputation  

Your sender reputation is a score all email domains have, which essentially determines whether your emails land in inboxes or spam folders. You can use a tool like Google Postmaster to monitor your spam rate scores.

Pro tip: Ensure your email domain is correctly set up for sending emails in the eyes of email service providers, and monitor your reputation score cross-departmently to ensure no email activity affects your sender reputation.

Now we’ve discussed the best practices for sending emails, let’s take a look at the types of email you should be sending.

5 different types of emails to send  

Startups can leverage various types of emails to engage their audience, aside from just mass email outreach:

Welcome emails

‍This is your chance to make a first impression on a new subscriber, and they set the foundation for your relationship. 

These emails typically have higher open rates than any other type of email, making them a golden opportunity to introduce your brand, share your values, and let subscribers know what to expect.

Educational emails

‍This type of email is not just about selling; it’s about providing value. These could include newsletters, how-to guides, industry tips, or product updates that align with your audience’s interests or challenges. 

For example, a SaaS startup might send an email detailing "5 ways to save time with X." using the email to provide valuable insight, whilst boosting product features that can also be complimentary.

These emails position your brand as a helpful authority, build loyalty, and keep your audience engaged between promotions.

Promotional emails

Promotional emails are designed to drive action—whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource. 

These emails should have short, compelling, subject lines, clear calls to action (CTAs), and a sense of urgency when appropriate. 

Although it’s paramount that you don’t use vocabulary that is likely to trigger spam filters and balance is key—sending too many promotional emails can lead to unsubscribes or email fatigue.

Transactional emails

‍Transactional emails are essential for ensuring a smooth sales cycle and customer experience. These are triggered by user actions, such as signing up, making a purchase, or updating account information. 

Examples include order confirmations, shipping updates, and password reset emails. Although often overlooked as a marketing opportunity, transactional emails have high open rates and can include subtle cross-sell or upsell messages. 

For your startup, these emails are critical for reinforcing professionalism and trustworthiness.

Re-engagement emails

Use this type of email to rekindle interest among inactive subscribers. These emails could feature incentives like discounts, personalized recommendations, or simply a friendly “We miss you!” message. 

For example, an eCommerce startup might send a discount code to users who haven’t purchased in 90 days. They’re also an opportunity to gather feedback through surveys or polls, helping you understand why users disengaged in the first place. 

Successfully re-engaging users can improve your ROI and keep your list clean of those users who no longer engage.

So, it’s clear what kind of emails you should be sending and who to send them to, but the question that remains to be answered is ‘how’? 

Below we detail what to look out for when choosing email marketing software, as well as some recommendations for the best players in the market.

Best email marketing software for startups

Must-haves in email marketing software  

To maximize your email marketing efforts, choose software with these features:  

1. Affordability

Startups should look for cost-effective plans that fit within their budgets without sacrificing essential features. Many tools offer free or entry-level plans, allowing you to scale as your needs grow.

2. Automation

It’s crucial to set up workflows to send personalized emails at scale, such as welcome sequences, warm-up marketing automation, or even abandoned cart reminders. Automation saves time and ensures consistent communication with your audience, even with limited resources. 

3. Segmentation

You need a tool that allows you to divide your audience into meaningful groups for targeted messaging based on demographics, behavior, or purchase history. This feature ensures your campaigns are relevant, boosting engagement and conversion rates.

4. Integrations 

Although we’d love to believe that there really is a one-size-fits-all platform out there, it’s just not the case. Instead, ensure your email marketing software can integrate with relevant tools that drive email success, like email deliverability software, for example.

Here are some of the best providers for startups that offer these must-haves and more.

Best email marketing software for startups  

1. Mailchimp: Ideal for beginners with a user-friendly interface and free plan that includes basic email automation and templates. It also offers advanced analytics and integrations for when you’re ready to grow your email marketing efforts. 

2. Sendinblue: An affordable email-sending solution, with added SMS marketing capabilities, making it a great choice for multichannel campaigns. It also includes a built-in CRM, simplifying customer management alongside email outreach. 

3. HubSpot Starter: Combines email marketing with robust CRM tools, and also is set up to ensure seamless alignment between your marketing, sales, and CS teams. Its easy-to-use interface, integrations, and scalability make it a pretty smart choice for startups planning for long-term growth.

As we’ve highlighted throughout, email marketing can be a game-changer for startups – when done right. With its cost-effectiveness, high ROI, and scalability, it’s a channel no startup can afford to overlook. 

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By following best practices, focusing on quality content, and choosing the right tools, your startup can harness email marketing to drive growth and build lasting relationships.  

Remember: A great email is only as good as its deliverability. Keep your campaigns compliant, monitor your sender reputation, and ensure every email lands in your recipient’s inbox.

If you want to ensure you’re nailing email deliverability from the get-go, you can book a free 15-minute audit here.