5 Ways Startups can Create More Email Leads

Email is a fantastic way to build goodwill with current and prospective customers.
With more people using email than any social network, it is essential for all new startups to take list building very seriously.
The question is this: how can startups create more email leads without becoming overly aggressive (a big turnoff) in their tactics?
Below I discuss 5 tested (and proven!) ways that startups can capture more emails without losing customer goodwill.

1.) Integrate Email into Your Offering

Oftentimes, a startup’s homepage can be utilized to gather emails in a very natural way, such as taking the product or service for a test-drive.
One great example of this in action can be found over at BidSketch (proposal creation software), where founder Ruben Gamez collects emails on his homepage for test-proposals:


The key with these integrations is incentive and trust.
Whether you’re pitching potentially game-changing software or simply some LOLcats, you’re offering needs to speak to people’s needs enough that it warrants an email sign-up.
Additionally, you must be considered trustworthy (and actually be trustworthy!) with your potential sign-ups.
This means being completely honest and transparent about what handing over their email means for them.
If you plan to include them in your newsletter after the sign-up, notify them. Many people will not object to this at all, but if you try to “sneak” them into something when all they wanted was to sign-up, you’ll create a lot of discontent (not to mention kill your credibility).

2.) Resources, Resources, Resources!

My apologies for the overly trite headline, but providing informative resources for your readers is an absolutely essential strategy for startups (in fact, I’d say it’s one of the top list building strategies available).
What exactly is a “resource” though, and why are they needed?
A resource would be an informative guide of some sort that explains to customers some aspect about your business or your industry. This allows customers to become more familiar with your product, why they need your product, and just what headache your product can solve.
The medium is up to you, as I’ve seen resources in all of the following formats:

• e-Books
• Whitepapers
• Slideshows & presentations
• Videos & webinars
• MP3s

Over at Help Scout, we’ve dedicated an entire page to resources, including guides, e-books, webinars, and more. They range from informative content on creating a better customer service experience to whitepapers that explain (in detail) how Help Scout works.
This page has easily been one of our most utilized and most successful in creating new email leads, and it’s also a great way to position what our offering is about to curious prospective customers.

3.) Promote Your Resources

This one is going to seem like a no-brainer, but when I dive in to exactly what I mean, I think you’ll start generating some great ideas.
The thing about resource-style content is that it was made for promotion: while blog posts and regular articles are a great way to reach out to people (“Hey, thought you might like this recent piece we did on…”), you can get a lot of mileage out of a good set of resources.
One way to do this is to take an already existing resource and transfer it to a new medium for promotional purposes. Slideshows are pretty much the perfect platform for this.

Read more...