How to Send Email Like a Startup

This guide is a practical resource for developing a set of transactional emails that will move your new users through the sales funnel toward becoming happy, engaged, and paying customers.

Chances are, these are emails you’re already sending, but they’re probably not driving your bottom line. We’re here to change that.

The Pirate Metric Model, the Super Short Version
There are plenty of great explanations of the Pirate Model, including Dave McClure’s original presentation (which, by the way, specifically mentions automated emails) but if you’re unfamiliar, here’s a quick rundown of what we’re talking about.

The Pirate Model is so named because it consists of five stages that make up the user life-cycle: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue – or « AARRR ».

Acquisition
People hear about you and land on your site. For the purposes of email planning we’re also going to include anything that gets you a user’s email address.

Activation
People actually use your product. They get to that “Aha!” moment when they experience the value proposition your company offers.

Retention
People come back. They stick with your product over time and develop an understanding of how it works and why they like it.

Referral
People invite their friends to try your product. They’re good at describing and pitching your product to others, they share your content, or maybe they’re inviting friends for an incentive – that counts too!

Revenue
Acquire Dubloons

See? Simple as that. We love it because it gives marketers and CEOs a consistent vocabulary for planning and reviewing growth strategies. We’ll elaborate a little on each of these steps as we go, so a general understanding should be plenty for now.

Suite : How to Send Email Like a Startup