What is a Drip Campaign?

Like the name suggests, drip marketing or a drip campaign is a system of email marketing which sends messages to subscribers in little pieces, on an automated cycle. These drips are part of a larger campaign of already written emails designed to target customer segments based on a set timeline or behavior triggers previously determined by you. Think of it like drops of water from a tap which eventually fill a whole bucket.

In its most basic form, drip marketing aims to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. It focuses on delivering relevant information thanks to heavy reliance on market segmentation, creating a unique experience for individual sets of your audience.

Okay…. But Why is it Essential for My Business?

First and most important reason? TIME. We all know time is money in business, so what’s better than a system which allows you engage your customers and nurture leads through emails automatically? The bonus is a few pieces of content will go a long way and you don’t have to create each mail from scratch, so you can relax later on and let the campaign do the heavy work while channeling your efforts into other aspects of the business.

Drip emails record more reader engagement with higher open, click and conversion rates, producing more revenue than general emails or newsletters. This is because the recipients of targeted emails can relate more to the content and likely to follow through on CTAs (Calls to Action) that are relevant to their current stage in the sales funnel.

What to Consider in Setting Up a Drip Campaign

Again, as with most marketing channels, there are four major stages in planning an effective drip campaign, with factors to consider at each stage.

Set a Goal: drip marketing is a means to an end, so there should be something you’re looking to gain at the end of a successful campaign. This could be anything from boosting site traffic, to increasing reader engagement, driving up sales, rewarding loyal customers, or a myriad of other tasks. Deciding this from the start helps to maximize the effectiveness of the other three stages.

Identify the Target Segment: this is perhaps the most determining factor in the success or not of the entire campaign. These are the sets and subsets of subscribers which are grouped according to different characteristics like demography, stage in buyer’s journey, or even behavior triggers like signing up for a newsletter, or downloading an e-book. It is possible to create multiple target segments for various drip campaigns based on the different goals you intend to achieve.

Map out an Implementation Strategy: it always helps to create a visual representation (think charts, diagrams, or even a whiteboard vibe) of the entire workflow, which shows the progression of your proposed email drips from the first to last message. This includes how many emails to send, when they’ll be sent and what actions need to be taken by the audience before they are sent.

Also, you have to specify in what order they’ll be sent. The content, timing and sequence of the drip emails must correspond with the needs of the audience at that particular time –again, relevance! After making it to this stage, you can then use the marketing automation tools of an ESP (Email Service Provider) like Cloudy to get your campaign up and running.

Measure and Evaluate: this is an unavoidable part of any marketing plan. Not only can you determine the success rate of the campaign, you can keep track of its performance and make adjustments when necessary. If using an external service like Google Analytics, you will need to input UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) codes in the URLs of links or pages you want to track. However, the Cloudy report analysis tools would automatically track these results for you.

Here are a few examples of things you could achieve with drip campaigns:

• Welcoming new subscribers to your list starting with a welcome email immediately after signing up, followed by a mini-tour of your site offerings, or the most popular topics on your site and maybe a fun message which includes a quiz or survey to help you glean more information about your new subscribers.

• Nurturing leads through a series of strategic mails that are designed to educate the audience about your product or service, with a view to closing the sale. This could be in the form of blog posts, course series, downloadable resources, free trials or contact from a sales rep.

• Upselling and cross-selling to customers by making recommendations based on their purchase history, reminding them about renewal orders, re-engaging shoppers who abandon their carts, discount coupons for repeat customers, or even simple acknowledgment messages for payment receipts.

• Reversing a potential loss by reaching out to a reader who clicks the unsubscribe button, with a sorry message which seeks to understand why they wish to leave, or a message offering a solution like decreased frequency or other platforms to connect.

No matter what industry your business is in, or your specific marketing goals, drip campaigns are effective in managing a seamless client relationships at all stages, whether nurturing prospects or customers, without sacrificing additional resources.

If you haven’t started using drip marketing, you can be sure your competition is! Get started with one of our plans today and see amazing returns on your drip investments.

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