III. Before You Launch

Two marketing channels to focus on

There are numerous marketing channels you can use:

Word of mouth: people telling other people about what you’re building
Ads: Facebook Ads, Adwords, LinkedIn ads, etc.
Partnerships: finding other companies that have a similar audience to you, and cross-promoting
Events: throwing a party, hosting a conference
Traditional lead-gen and sales: purchasing lists, cold-calls
SEO: finding relevant keywords, and writing good content that matches those keywords
Content marketing: blogging, info graphics, viral videos, good landing pages
Email marketing: building an interest-based list, sending weekly newsletters

I’ve tried all of these. I’ve tried them with SaaS businesses and digital products (like eBooks, and downloadable software). For me, and everyone I know, content marketing + email marketing is the clear winner.

“If your goal is to build a business and make sales, and you could only pick one channel, it’d be tough not to choose email. It’s a push notification as opposed to a pull notification. You get to send them a message to their ‘sacred space’: their inbox.”

- Corbett Barr, Fizzle

Before you launch (and after) I’m going to recommend that you focus primarily on content marketing and email. Together, they’ll give you all the ammo you’ll need to create buzz about your product, positive word of mouth, and ultimately, more sales.

Why email works

Nobody likes getting spam. As technical people, we’re particularly averse to it.

However, email is still the internet’s best marketing channel.

“My email list is my most valuable asset.”

- Nathan Barry

Why, in the age of social media, is email still your most effective tool for reaching customers?

Email is for grownups

While teenagers might prefer texting on mobile apps like YikYak and Snapchat, email is still the dominant messaging medium for adults. Think about it: each step towards adulthood brings with it an increase in email usage. When you go to college, you receive a school email address. When you get a job, you get a corporate email address.

So while only 11% of teens use email on a daily basis¹, 91% of adults check it daily², and 470 million of the world’s email accounts are corporate.³

“The inbox is where work happens. People run their businesses off email. It’s read and acted on, or ignored.”

- Brennan Dunn

When you have a product, you want to target people with money. Adults with email addresses (especially corporate email addresses) are employed or own their own business. Most people’s problem solving occurs in their inbox. That’s where you want to be.

Email is a daily habit

In 2013, Lifehacker asked its readers this question: What’s the first thing you check each morning?

The responses were as follows:

Email: 44.77%
Social networks: 17.23%
News: 8.77%
Favorite website: 8.42%
RSS feeds: 8.32%
To-do list or calendar: 3.52%
Other: 8.97%

When people wake up, they roll over and reach for their cell phone. The first thing most of them are checking is email.

Email has more permanence

Posting a link on Twitter is like dropping a paper boat in a rushing river. Your tweet is quickly lost in people’s feeds.

An email, however, will sit in a recipient’s inbox until they act on it. Confirmed open rates for email trend between 25% and 50%. A tweet will normally be seen by only 10% of your followers.⁴

Email captures website traffic

A normal website visitor listens to your pitch once. If they leave, they’re gone forever. There’s no way of following up, and there’s no way of presenting your product’s value differently. You need a way of capturing those drive-by visitors. One way is doing retargeting ads, which we’ll discuss later. The best way to nurture leads from “interested” to “purchased” is with email.

Email converts to more sales

I recently ran a sales campaign that used three main channels: email, Twitter, and my website. Here are the sales breakdowns:

Email: 263 sales (12% conversion from 2,192 visitors)
My website: 37 sales (6% conversion 616 visitors)
Twitter: 8 sales (1% conversion from 800 visitors)

Of course, your conversion rates will depend on your audience and your product. But across all markets, email consistently outperforms other channels. In a 2014 survey, 57% of marketing managers said that email was their top lead generation channel.⁵

Tactics to grow your list

Now that we’ve covered the why in the next chapters will dig into the how. This includes specific tactics for writing great content that attracts new subscribers to your mailing list.

Pew Internet, 2010 ↩
ExactTarget, Mobile Behavior Report, 2014 ↩
Pingdom, 2010 ↩
linkedin.com/pulse/20140711200612-7775134-new-twitter-analytics-reveal-10-organic-reach ↩
DialogTech, 2014 Marketing Measurement Survey Report ↩