An email drip campaign is a form of automated marketing outreach. It’s comprised of a series of emails automatically sent to a specific audience after they take a pre-determined action. Because they are automated, they can scale. Many of today’s email platforms offer excellent personalization, making each communication more meaningful to the reader. Good drip campaigns are informative without inundating the prospect. They provide value. As with any content you develop, they must be authentic to your brand. Drip campaigns can be used for many purposes. Whatever your intention, there are some basics of email drip campaigns.
Objective
As with any marketing effort start by defining your objective. Is the purpose of your campaign to nurture leads, upsell or cross-sell, promote a new product or service? What action do you want your audience to take? From there plot the path you want people to take in order to reach your goal. Your objective will shape content as well as the number of emails in your campaign. Is your recipient another business or a consumer? You can message B2C prospects more frequently than B2B.
It is important to know how someone ends up in this drip campaign. Did they download a white paper and provide their email address? Are they subscribers to your blog? Previous customers? Knowing how they got to you will let you know something about their pain points or intent. It will help you understand what will get them to open an email in the middle of the day as well as what will make them unsubscribe.
Email Drip Campaign Plan
With this information you can decide how many touches you think will be necessary. What will you have for Calls-To-Action? You can have more than one CTA per campaign. Some marketers have one in every email. Emailing a person who has opened 2 emails without taking action, try a new CTA. A person who has never opened an email will require a more enticing subject line.
Monitor your email campaigns regularly. Drip campaigns may be automated but they are no different from other marketing strategies. You must watch performance. What emails get the best open rates? Which emails/CTA’s get the most response? A/B test copy to optimize your results. Try different subject lines. Look to find the most efficient path to your objective.
Just as important as knowing how someone entered your drip campaign you should also know when to end a campaign. If you have constructed a five touch email campaign and a prospect has not reacted, then accept they are not a viable prospect and remove them from the target list for a while. Similarly, if someone does convert, make sure your automation removes them from the campaign. A good way to lose trust is to have a person sign up for a free demo on Tuesday and then get a personalized email on Thursday asking them to sign up.
No matter the industry, email marketing is a great way to nurture leads, onboard new customers, and keep your brand top-of-mind all while saving precious time. Drip campaigns have proven to have far higher open rates and engagement than single email blasts. You can send dozens or even hundreds of personalized emails automatically, saving time and money while driving results. The time initially invested is more than repaid by the number of prospects you can successfully communicate with. If you follow the basics, Email drip campaigns are a great way to scale your business.
