Sure, Marketing has evolved a lot in the last decades, but some things are still relevant now as they were back in the days, namely the importance of user experience and the power of email marketing. In this interview we asked
Aquibur Rahman how his platform,
Mailmodo, manages to reinvent email marketing and boost the ROI of its users’ campaigns.
Please describe Mailmodo’s story: How did it all start, and how has it evolved so far?
It started while I was leading marketing at a large fintech in India. I realized that email is closely tied with all other growth metrics, so cracking email becomes important for businesses. When Google announced the AMP Email for the Gmail app, I knew there was much potential in AMP emails for a marketer like me who wants to improve email conversions.
This technology could allow email marketers to insert interactive elements like forms, accordions, dynamic data and API, etc. inside emails without needing to open a new webpage. I think it is one of the most innovative things that has happened to email since email first started.
I thought of the impact. If my subscribers could take action inside the email itself without moving to a different webpage, that would be a game-changer in customer journey.
However, I also discovered that using AMP emails is not easy for a marketer. AMP emails require coding, and technical know-how to set up, in terms of sending configuration and whitelisting. None of the ESPs supported creating and sending AMP emails.
This gap in the email marketing landscape set me on a journey that gave rise to Mailmodo, which my aim is to help marketers get better conversions from email marketing using interactive widgets and forms within the email.
In the early days, we started experimenting with a customer and AMP emails and saw conversion rates on the first campaign increase by 257%. It was such a huge success and we knew there was amazing potential in this email tech.
Today,
Mailmodo is one of the few pioneering ESP’s that support creating and sending AMP and HTML emails with all the regular features of an ESP like bulk emailing, email automation, transactional emails and contact list management.
Fast forward to today, what distinguishes you from other email marketing platforms?
Mailmodo stands apart from all its competitors in the email marketing ecosystem by being the only platform that lets marketers create as well as send AMP emails with zero tech intervention.
The interactivity inside emails, powered by AMP email framework, requires specialized coding. Even the sending of AMP emails is tricky as one needs to understand the protocols established by email clients. Mailmodo resolves these pain points by providing a drag-and-drop editor to create and customize AMP emails in minutes. It also manages all the processes involved for sending AMP Emails at its end saving users time and effort.
Combined with the power of email automation, pre-built templates, contact management, regulated deliverability, and other traditional email marketing features, Mailmodo presents marketers with a complete email marketing solution. Mailmodo also provides expert email consultations to help customers boost conversions and business growth.
Has Covid-19 affected your business, customers, and industry?
Mailmodo started exactly when Covid-19 had hit. Initially, due to covid and the declining economy, a lot of investors were skeptical in investing in a new business idea. As a result of which our funding processes got delayed.
On the positive side, it helped a lot in terms of saving costs while acquiring our initial customers. In a pre-covid world, customers expected to meet you, see your team and then decide to buy your product. But now we can sell our product over video meetings which saves both time and money. We don’t have to go to company offices and since we’re looking at a global audience, we don’t have to set up offices in every country.
In your opinion, what is the future of email marketing? Will emails ever be replaced?
The AMP for email technology is bringing the much-needed upgrade that emails needed. The problem with email so far was that it had barely changed as a technology since it first became ubiquitous in the 1990s.
When the internet started, there was Web 1.0 having just static content on a webpage. Then Web 2.0 came, where users could interact with the webpage, fill forms, add comments, like and share etc. And now we’re talking about Web 3.0. Somehow emails couldn’t come out of Web 1.0 but with AMP for email, Mailmodo is changing that and marking our name in history for that.
Younger people may increasingly depend on social media platforms for messaging, but the world still sends 300 billion emails every single day, and the number is increasing. All businesses are dependent on email to sign up their users and once users have left the platform, email is the only channel to communicate with them. So it’s safe to say, email isn’t a dying communication form but an increasingly popular one. And with Mailmodo it is getting the much needed upgrade.
Can you share some Tips for building an email marketing list?
To create an email list from the ground up, you should provide an initial incentive or valuable content that appeals to your audience. This might include lead magnets related to your offerings, granting early or exclusive access to content, or offering complimentary products or free trials.
Once you have an incentive for people, have an email signup form linked to it. This way you can get an initial number of email addresses for your email list. You can increase your email signup by marketing your incentive across your social media platforms, so more people come across it.
Keep in mind certain points for your list-building to work well. You need to offer high-quality content so that people sign-up. Deliver your incentive within the promised time and then use double opt-in, i.e., ask for the user’s permission to be added to the regular mailing list. That way you have a list of email addresses who have consented to receive your emails and don’t unsubscribe after the initial incentive.
