An email marketing channel is beneficial for you and the customer both to garner more business success. Your customers can learn more about your offerings and make quick decisions in your favor. It’s more effective than newsletters or sending your message completely at one time because drip campaigns are tailor-made with recent developments in your organization and delivered in bits to keep the audience engaged. Offering a solution that can help your customers address their special requirements is the key, and drip campaigns can help you. According to reports, companies adopting drip marketing can generate 80% more sales and enjoy a high open-rate. So, if you want to better connect with your audience and increase your conversion rates, starting a drip campaign can be beneficial. Let’s discuss what a drip campaign is and the benefits you can expect from it.
What is a Drip Marketing Campaign?
A drip marketing campaign is automated marketing where a series of emails are sent automatically over a specific time. These small “drips” of content are sent via email periodically to the targeted audience instead of sending the entire marketing content at once.
Drip marketing is an excellent way to deliver your message to the right audience. It focuses on nurturing leads by sending valuable messages that can educate, inform, and help them in a way. This enables you to interact with your audience regularly, capture their attention, and introduce your products and services along with the benefits they can expect from you. All this helps boost your customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue. Usually, drip emails are written, pre-written, and personalized for the recipient based on their name, actions taken, gender, interests, and other critical information. A drip marketing campaign can be triggered when a visitor:
Signs up for a webinar Places an order Attends an event you have organized Registers for a white paper Reaches out to your customer service Abandons a cart Remains inactive for a while, and so on…
Example: An example of a powerful drip campaign is by Netflix. This entertainment platform has an audience from across the globe. But like other industries, Netflix also sees some churn rates because the subscribers may stop using it for different reasons like a better alternative, loss of interest, etc. At this point, there must be some that can help Netflix win back those subscribers. And a drip campaign is an excellent option for it. When a subscriber cancels their plan, Netflix sends a confirmation email to them with an enticing message and a link to restart the membership in case they change their mind. In addition, it sends multiple emails for the next few days or weeks showcasing the top movies and shows that the customer can find interesting, based on their previous content consumption. Next, they may also send more targeted messages to nudge them to retake the membership.
Types of drip campaigns
You can implement drip campaigns in various ways, each based on the visitor’s or customer’s action. The main types of drip campaigns are:
Welcome emails
When a visitor signs up for your newsletter, website, or service, you can send welcome emails to them, including your company data and other important information. Welcome emails inform and educate visitors and help you develop a connection with them and nurture them to be potential customers.
Engagement emails
Engagement emails aim at engaging a lead and nurturing them. You can start a series of emails when they engage with your website or services but do not complete the purchase or the action you want them to take. By providing essential information via emails, you can help them make quick decisions so they can go ahead and buy what you sell.
Segmentation emails
Segmentation emails are sent to categorize visitors based on different criteria like location, interest, gender, etc. These are targeted and super relevant with clear CTAs to promote a seminar, buy a particular product or service, etc.
Ascension emails
Ascension emails are sent to trigger a prospect into buying your products or services by providing them with an offer. It is highly targeted and specific and goes to a visitor if they could benefit from the upsell or are product qualified. You can give an attractive offer or discount to crave the customers for your products and services.
Re-engagement emails
Re-engagement emails, as the name suggests, are sent to inactive customers due to whatsoever reason and have not used your products, services, or website for a while. By sending emails with relevant, encouraging information with enticing offers can help you win back those customers.
What are the benefits of drip campaigns?
If you execute your drip marketing campaign correctly, keeping in mind your customers’ interests and likes, you can achieve more success in the campaign, purchases, and revenue. Here’s how.
Higher engagement
Drip campaigns aim at engaging your prospects with your brand more by sending valuable emails in fixed intervals. It establishes a connection with them and gives an impression that you care about them. It keeps them hooked with your brand and engages more with your emails. And when you do that, your brand will constantly be in their minds when they think of a product you offer. As a result, they may buy your products and services.
Nurturing leads
Drip marketing also helps nurture your leads by supplying them with the information that could help them decide. You need to constantly tell them how well you can serve them with your services and products.
For example, if they have shown interest in some of your products, you can set triggered emails to help them understand more about the products, their benefits, and why your product excels over others.
Promoting content
You can promote your content, such as articles or newsletters, to help your prospects through drip marketing. Presenting the right information to the right prospects who are looking for something you offer will work well, like a product or a detailed guide on how to use a particular product. You can include product reviews, case studies, answer some common questions, bust some myths, and do a lot of things to inform and educate your prospects.
Customer retention
Drip campaigns are excellent at helping you win your customers back if they have stopped using your product or services or engaging with your website. They may have added products in their carts but abandoned them for some reason. In this case, you can send a personalized email reminding them that they have left something in their cart and highlighting some offers or discounts. It helps redirect their attention to complete the pending purchase.
Boosts conversion
When you constantly engage with your prospects with valuable information that they are seeking, it simplifies their buying journey. It helps them understand your services and products better and resolve any queries they might have that are preventing them from making the purchase. You can send emails with related content to help them take that action. Hence, you automatically move them further down your sales funnel, and there’s a high probability of converting that lead into your customers. Ultimately, it helps boost your conversion rates and revenue.
When to start your drip campaign?
You can set up drip marketing campaigns for the following use cases:
When someone signs up: When someone signs up with your website, service, or subscribes to the newsletter, you can send them a welcome mail. You can also include your most performing content and products to grab their attention. To nurture leads: Some prospects need hand-holding or support with more information before making a purchase; you can do that with drip campaigns. Send them helpful content over a period of time until they are convinced to buy from you. Onboarding: Make the onboarding process straightforward for your customers or subscribers by explaining everything they need to get started. You can introduce your brand values and make them feel comfortable with helpful guides on using your product or service and make the most out of it. Recommendation: If your prospects are looking for something, let’s say shoes, you can recommend the best ones from your store that they would like based on their preferences from past browsing. It can help them make a choice quickly and complete the purchase. Confirmation: Send a confirmation email when a user completes a purchase. You can create a thank you message along with other information or links to check out related products, helpful guides, etc. Renewals: Send drip emails to customers to renew their subscription plans. It will remind them of the due days to make the purchase in time. Engagement: Sending mails in fixed intervals will help your prospects stay engaged with you before and after making a purchase. It will ensure they buy from you and consider you the next time as well.
How to start your drip marketing campaign
Here’s how you can set up your drip marketing campaign.
#1. Think about your goals
Every marketing strategy revolves around a goal. It can be short-time goals or long-time goals. So, think about your goals first before setting up a drip campaign. It can be boosting conversion rates, grabbing more sales, promoting your content, engaging your leads, subscription renewals, addressing abandoned carts, and so on. Knowing your goal will make it easier to choose the type of drip campaign suitable for you.
#2. Know your audience
The next biggest thing is identifying your audience and knowing them, their problems, and their difficulties. You can’t send any email to any customer; it must be targeted, fulfilling some action. Hence, when you have identified your audience, segment them properly like who to send a welcome email, confirmation email, product recommendation, how-to guides, etc.
#3. Plan and strategize
Plan each step beforehand so you can execute the drip marketing campaign properly. Think about:
How many drips do you want to send, in which order, and when Whether your message is triggered for the action, your prospect or customer has taken The logistics Creating personalized emails for every prospect How to measure campaign success
And more… Find the answer to these questions and embark on your journey to create a drip campaign.
#4. Start your campaign
You can use drip software such as ActiveCampaign, Zoho, etc., to get started with your campaign. Next, create a series of personalized emails based on the user triggers and send them on the determined interval.
Use customers’ names Craft an appealing email with useful, triggered information Structure the content properly, ensuring no grammar or spelling mistakes Highlight your value proposition Add related product links Include compelling Call to Action (CTA) to help them take quick action And add other helpful information
#5. Evaluate and optimize
Evaluate the campaign’s performance by measuring the sales, clickthrough rates, number of leads, renewals, etc., over time. If you see something is not working out, optimize it by rewriting CTAs, adding more valuable articles, and more. So, if you are looking for good drip campaign software, here are some of our recommendations.
ActiveCampaign
Automate your customer experience and drive your growth with ActiveCampaign’s email marketing, CRM tools, and marketing automation. It helps you grow your customers’ list and capture your audiences with your pre-set messages that match their personality with the help of precise targeting. Strengthen your connection with the customer and provide tailored guidance and grow your customers’ confidence to remind them of further action to take. Give your customer a wow feeling by delivering what they want and when they want. It will help you provide an incredible experience to your subscribers and get more leads. ActiveCampaign always makes sure you get everything you need and thus makes 22 promises, such as a 2-year price lock, free online training, free migration, free support, pay for marketable contacts only, and a lot more. Send messages and newsletters to your targeted audience as per their interests to establish a connection. Segment the audience as per their location, interest, age, etc., and reach out to them with dynamic content. You can also automate your marketing campaign with a set of welcome series and easily manage and update deals, follow-up, and pipelines with the perfect platform. This will save you time to utilize in other essential works. Let your customers know about offers, recommended products, answer to the questions, and feedback. You can also organize all your data in a single platform and understand what is happening with the advanced reporting tool. Moreover, it offers integrated forms, a site tracking tool, training, Gmail extension, and integration with business tools. Sign up with the plan that suits your business from a starting price of $9/month for 500 contacts. Start your 14-days free trial with every plan you select.
Drip
Drive more customers and revenue with personalized email marketing by building better relationships with your customers and less time doing emails. Choose your preferable email template for your business and make your brand shine with Drip’s visual editor. Drip gives you the flexibility of designing emails of your own with HTML builder. The automation processes help you save time and bring more revenue to your business. Whether you wish to send a welcome series or emails for abandoned carts, Drip has everything so you can relax.
Make a good connection with your customer by providing offers, notifications, discount coupons, etc., at the right time. You can increase engagement even more with email segmentation that helps you enhance conversions and encourage them to come back for more. Drip is working hard to make personalized content containing product recommendations, abandoned cart reminders, deals, and more. What are you waiting for? Take a 14-day free trial today and start with a $19/month plan for 1500 contacts, unlimited emails, and more.
Zoho Campaigns
Turning your business into a brand needs better customer engagement, and thus Zoho introduces Drip email marketing that lets you send the right email/messages to the right person at the right time. Schedule a series of emails after segmenting each visitor according to their needs with personalized content. Let your visitors know what they are looking for precisely so that it will be easy for you to convert them into customers and close more deals.
Understand their needs to start building content and automate the process so that customers will receive notifications regarding product launches, deals, offers, etc., at the right time. Build a better connection to grow your network and segment individual customers into groups based on location, age, needs, etc. Zoho will help you build effective drip campaigns which pay off till last. You can send automated emails to your target customers to identify your audiences, set some goals, create email campaigns, execute your plan, increase your sales, and see the difference. It is great for welcome emails, nurturing leads, onboarding customers, reducing cart abandonment, and boosting subscription and renewals. Zoho Campaigns is free for up to four users, 6000 emails/month, and 2000 contacts. Choose any paid plan if you wish to have advanced features.
EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus provides powerful tools to simplify your drip email marketing strategy. Its drag and drop editor helps you build emails and customize templates according to your business demands. Use audience insights and data through web forms or subscriptions to segment them into groups and send personalized emails to the right people at the right time for more engagement.
Welcome your customers to your world and reach out to new subscribers with automated welcome series to save your time. Also, keep track of everything from opening the email to bounce rates with the EmailOctopus’s campaign reporting. See what is working and dig deeper to get more details to know the historical activities of your contacts. You can integrate EmailOctopus with your favorite applications like Gravity Forms, Squarespace, Shopify, and more to sync new subscribers into the EmailOctopus campaign list. Its free plan is valid for up to 10,000 emails and 2,500 subscribers. Get advanced plans starting at $24/month for 5,000 contacts and 50,000 emails.
Conclusion
Drip marketing can bring more success to your business by nurturing your leads, engaging them more with your brand, and boosting sales. Thus, make an effective strategy based on your goals and audience and start creating your drip campaign using the tools we discussed. You may also be interested in the best marketing automation software.
