[This post was originally published on 20th June 2021. It has been updated on 8th July 2022.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Keep in mind your science class in school wherein the instructor defined the idea of “drip irrigation”?
Effectively, if not, let me assist you brush it up.
Drip irrigation serves as essentially the most systematic technique to ship water and vitamins to the crops, thereby facilitating their optimum progress. By utilizing this method, you possibly can obtain the agriculture trifecta by creating the best surroundings and diet system – each with excellent timing.
Now, substitute the identical method on the planet of selling and we’ll get drip e mail advertising campaigns.
Drip advertising refers to a technique that entails breaking down e mail communications right into a collection of messages often known as ‘drips’ despatched over a selected time frame.
Phrases used alternatively for drip campaigns:
- Automated e mail campaigns
- Lifecycle emails
- Autoresponders
- Advertising and marketing automation
What are Drip E-mail Campaigns
A drip advertising marketing campaign features a collection of scheduled, automated emails which might be triggered in response to pre-defined buyer exercise and habits. It supplies a scaffold to interact along with your clients by sending out related messages on the proper time, thereby satisfying the advertising triad.
Right here’s a flowchart to display how drip e mail campaigns work.
Select the best drip e mail advertising software that might greatest fit your business, enterprise measurement, and kind of merchandise you cope with. You need to use Mailchimp drip marketing campaign or HubSpot drip marketing campaign as they’re among the many hottest instruments for companies worldwide. In case you are a small enterprise, Convertkit is among the greatest drip advertising instruments.
Quite the opposite, extra superior drip advertising instruments like Marketo and Salesforce are extra appropriate for giant companies, companies, or enterprises.
Kinds of Drip E-mail Campaigns
There are two distinct kinds of drip e mail campaigns.
Chilly Drip Campaigns
If you ship out drip advertising emails to chilly leads with a purpose to improve their sales-readiness, it is called a chilly drip marketing campaign. These emails are deployed to smaller e mail lists which might be pre-generated by the lead technology staff. You’ll be able to ship these emails primarily based on triggers like e mail opened or hyperlinks clicked-through.
Chilly drip marketing campaign examples are reminders, occasion invites, instructional content material, and follow-ups.
Heat Drip Campaigns
Heat drip campaigns, however, could be despatched to an even bigger viewers together with registered customers or current clients. They’re tailor-made in accordance with the consumer’s interplay with the corporate and different data obtained via the sign-up kind. You’ll be able to hyper-personalize the drip e mail templates through the use of superior variables and triggers.
Why Ship Drip Campaigns?
Drip e mail campaigns include a plethora of benefits if completed proper. Listed below are a number of the the reason why it’s value investing in a drip e mail technique.
1. Drip e mail campaigns assist to reinforce subscriber engagement and loyalty.
As drip e mail advertising campaigns are triggered in accordance with the consumer actions, they are going to be extra related to the readers.
For example: If somebody has signed up for a free trial of your service, you possibly can ship out a collection of ‘drip emails’ to allow them to know the way they will use it to the utmost potential.
You can even ship out completely different assets within the drip e mail templates that might be helpful to the brand new customers. It’s a good suggestion to formulate a sequence of welcome e mail collection to put down a strong basis of drip e mail campaigns.
2. Drip campaigns are well-aligned with the client’s journey.
Drip campaigns kind an indispensable a part of the inbound advertising technique. You’ll be able to set focused drip e mail automation in accordance with the client’s journey and the extent of buy intent.
Whereas cold-emailing could be helpful generally, it’s typically seen as an interruptive type of advertising. Drip emails, however, are considerably anticipated by the consumer as they’re consent-based.
Listed below are some situations wherein drip emails could be helpful.
Suppose a consumer is within the consciousness stage. It makes extra sense to ship emails that might allow them to learn about your choices and display the utilization of the services or products.
Then again, if they’re within the consideration stage, ship out a collection of drip e mail campaigns that construct belief and facilitate their decision-making course of. Emails with case research or buyer testimonials work the very best for such customers.
For customers within the determination stage, the drip e mail automation ought to embody the pricing and completely different affords that might persuade them to make the acquisition.
As soon as they’ve made a purchase order, you possibly can deploy drip emails that might allow them to know the way different customers have benefited out of your services or products. Additionally it is doable to upsell and cross-sell associated merchandise in these emails, thereby boosting your buyer retention fee.
3. You’ll be able to create a lead nurturing advertising funnel with drip emails.
Chet Holmes Pyramid means that solely 3% of your prospects are shopping for now, 6-7% are open to creating the acquisition, and 30% are usually not desirous about it. The remaining 60% both know that they don’t seem to be or don’t assume they’re .
In different phrases, solely 10% of the potential shoppers are keen to buy from you.
To get these results in convert, you could use drip campaigns to keep up a steady and well-planned circulation of communication to deal with their considerations. These emails work like gross sales pitches with helpful content material, despatched over time.
4. Drip marketing campaign emails can improve model consciousness.
Sending a sequence of related drip advertising emails will maintain you on the prime of the subscriber’s thoughts and provides a leg as much as your branding efforts. In different phrases, when a buyer is searching for one thing that you just provide, they’ll consider your model and attain out to you. Additionally, they’ll let their family and friends learn about your companies, which can, in flip, enhance your word-of-mouth advertising.
Drip emails allow your corporation to construct stronger relationships along with your prospects in addition to current clients. They are going to be extra prone to belief you and select you when they’re able to make the acquisition.
5. Automated drip campaigns can re-engage unengaged subscribers
With the assistance of a collection of drip campaigns, you possibly can attain out to the dormant leads and attempt to revive them. It’s pure that some clients will go inactive and cease partaking along with your emails. Re-engagement emails come into play right here. Let the subscribers know that you just worth their affiliation along with your model and share the most recent updates that they could have missed. Promote the social media advertising channels and provides them an choice to work together with different platforms aside from e mail. As well as, you could additionally enable the customers to set their preferences by sharing a hyperlink to the desire middle.
6. Triggered cart abandonment emails can recuperate the misplaced clients.
ECommerce retailer e mail entrepreneurs can take the assistance of cart abandonment emails to convey again the cart abandoners and encourage them to finish the acquisition. Ship a collection of such reminder emails that may draw the subscriber’s consideration and pique their curiosity. Design these emails in such a method that the shoppers return to your web site and full the checkout course of.
You need to use comparable kinds of emails to convey again individuals who have looked for a selected product however not added something to the cart. These messages will fall beneath the class of browse abandonment emails.
Elements of Drip Advertising and marketing Campaigns
1. Triggers
The occasions that set your drip advertising campaigns rolling by including a brand new result in your pipeline or pushing the lead ahead within the funnel. The kind and triggers shall be completely different for each enterprise and business.
Probably the most generally used triggers for drip marketing campaign emails are:
- When somebody indicators as much as your e mail listing
- If you get a brand new lead
- When a potential shopper leaves the web site with an deserted cart
- When a consumer creates an account in your on-line retailer
- When a shopper downloads a useful resource out of your web site
2. Circumstances
Whereas triggers set the drip campaigns in movement, situations assist to get began with the engagement actions. Merely put, the shopper should meet some predefined situations in order that the engagement actions get activated. You will need to outline the situations on the outset itself when you’re planning out the drip marketing campaign emails.
Circumstances can look one thing like this:
- Ship an e mail when a lead has clicked via a hyperlink within the e mail.
- Wait for twenty-four hours after the cart is deserted, after which ship out the primary e mail of the cart restoration collection.
- Ship the primary re-engagement emails 30 days after disengagement.
3. Actions
As we’re speaking about “drip e mail advertising”, actions are restricted to emails. Nevertheless, you should utilize push notifications, textual content messages, or social media messages to interact the customers and join with them.
Conditions of Operating an Efficient Drip E-mail Marketing campaign
Operating a drip e mail marketing campaign is all about setting the best situations and triggers to ship related emails that may resonate extra with the customers.
Listed below are 5 simple steps that may assist you construct a strong drip marketing campaign technique.
1. Outline the target market.
Perceive your target market and create buyer personas to find out who they’re, what sort of challenges they’re dealing with, and their pursuits or preferences. Accordingly, you possibly can phase them into completely different lists and ship out extra impactful emails, tailor-made in accordance with their persona.
Segmentation is the important thing to creating efficient drip advertising marketing campaign.
In drip e mail advertising, there are two kinds of trigger-based segmentation.
i. Motion-trigger primarily based segmentation
This kind of segmentation considers the kind of interplay of the customers with a purpose to divide them into segments.
For example: Transactional emails informing the consumer about cargo standing fall beneath this class.
ii. Demographic-trigger primarily based segmentation
In demographic-trigger-based segmentation, you must monitor the shopper’s habits and propel them in direction of conversion. It considers facets like previous purchases and cart abandonment to ship out the drip emails.
2. Set the objectives of your drip e mail campaigns.
In keeping with your corporation kind and business, you could set SMART objectives on your drip campaigns.
Setting clear SMART targets will allow you to formulate the motion plan to attain them.
As an example: You would possibly need to persuade the shoppers into making the acquisition via the drip campaigns or just nurture them and construct a stronger rapport. You need to use several types of drip emails to attain unbiased objectives.
3. Draft your emails.
After you could have outlined the target market and objectives, you could create emails that might meet the advertising triad of delivering the best message to the best individual on the proper time. Your e mail should immediately join with the consumer and immediate them to take the following motion. What would you like your subscribers to do after studying the e-mail?
- Would you like them to go to your web site and obtain the content material useful resource?
- Would you like them to take a look at the brand new options of your product?
- Do you need to promote your YouTube channel and get extra subscribers?
Based mostly on the reply, you could draft a collection of partaking emails with actionable CTA and appropriate visuals.
4. Chalk out the marketing campaign workflow.
After you have the drip marketing campaign emails prepared, you could ensure that they associate with the circulation. They need to foster continuity of communication with the shoppers. Plan out the emails such that they’re consistent with the consumer’s pursuits and purpose of the marketing campaign.
Check out this guidelines to know higher.
- Decide the variety of emails that shall be deployed within the marketing campaign.
- Set the frequency and timing of the emails.
- Get them organized correctly in order that they information the customers to take the motion.
- Maintain the emails aligned to the triggers.
- Work out how you’ll analyze the outcomes of the e-mail marketing campaign and the metrics to be thought-about.
5. Get your marketing campaign going.
After you could have every part in place and you’ve got examined your drip e mail workflow, you could schedule the emails. It’s advisable to have a strong CRM software so to automate the complete strategy of drip e mail advertising. With such CRM or drip advertising instruments, it is possible for you to to streamline the method of segmentation, e mail scheduling, and retrieving e mail analytics stories. For those who go for instruments like Marketo or Salesforce, additionally, you will get options like lead scoring and predictive analytics to make the campaigns much more efficient.
6. Optimize the campaigns primarily based on the outcomes.
Maintain an in depth eye on the metrics and accordingly optimize your e mail campaigns for greatest outcomes. In keeping with the aim of your drip campaigns, determine the metrics that might matter essentially the most to you. For instance: In order for you your emails to drive conversions, the click-to-conversion fee shall be an important metric to trace.
Many entrepreneurs map out the drip campaigns after which neglect about them. That’s an enormous blunder. You will need to continuously monitor the analytics and make vital adjustments as and when required.
Vital Emails to Embrace in Your Drip Marketing campaign Technique
Contemplating the purpose of your corporation and the business it belongs to, you possibly can have completely different messages within the drip e mail technique. Let’s check out essentially the most extensively used drip campaigns on the planet of emails.
1. Welcome Emails
When a subscriber has simply signed as much as your e mail listing, they’re most definitely within the consciousness stage. You will need to introduce your model and the services or products you’ve got to supply. Let the customers know your organization’s strengths and ship out instructional content material that might transfer them forwards to the consideration or determination stage. Embrace a collection of three to 5 welcome emails to go away a profound impression on the subscriber’s thoughts.
It’s a nice concept to incorporate social proof like buyer testimonials or case research in these emails. You’ll be able to even provide an incentive or free trial to extend the potential for conversion. In case you are within the SaaS or B2B sector, you possibly can curate your hottest content material assets within the welcome emails.
Let me share two completely different examples – one for the eCommerce sector and one other for the B2B business.
Workplace sends out three emails of their welcome collection.
The primary one welcomes the subscriber and shares the USPs
The subsequent e mail within the collection shows the bestselling merchandise to the brand new subscribers.
The final e mail within the welcome collection makes an attempt to get the subscriber’s birthdate with a purpose to want the subscriber on their special occasion.
You’ll be able to actually have a drip e mail marketing campaign for such events.
The primary birthday e mail could be despatched out every week previous to the D-day. It should make the subscriber really feel particular and allow them to know that you’re not simply one other title within the contact listing.
Ship out the second e mail on the delivery date. Want the subscriber and embody particular low cost affords that might tempt the birthday boy/lady to splurge and make the acquisition.
Prolong the birthday provide and ship out the third birthday e mail three to 4 days after the large day.
2. Lead Nurture Campaigns
Contemplating the Chet Holmes Pyramid, it’s of utmost significance to ship out lead nurturing e mail campaigns to make the leads sales-ready. These automated and personalised emails are constructed with the assistance of analytics, consumer information, and their interplay along with your model.
With the assistance of lead nurture campaigns, you possibly can affect decision-making and make the customers extra inclined to buy from you. You’ll be able to keep related to the leads who are usually not able to make the acquisition in the intervening time and win their confidence until they’re lastly prepared. Simply just be sure you personalize these communications in order that you don’t come off as determined or pushy.
Let me current the most effective b2b drip marketing campaign examples.
Final month, I signed up on Buffer to streamline the social media advertising for my enterprise. As quickly as I signed up, I obtained a welcome e mail that launched their primary choices to me.
Over the course of the following few days, they despatched me personalised emails that helped me to make use of the platform within the excellent method.
In one of many drip marketing campaign emails, in addition they shared their Instagram deal with to spice up social media visibility and get extra followers.
eCommerce entrepreneurs also can use this tactic to yield conversions as Birchbox does.
Birchbox sends out completely different affords to woo their clients and tempt them to buy the subscription.
3. Deserted Cart Emails
On-line purchasing has turn out to be such a craze in current occasions. Even when we’re not trying ahead to purchasing something, we merely add gadgets to the cart after which neglect about it. The identical goes on your clients too. It is among the most unlucky occasions for any eCommerce marketer.
However you possibly can recuperate a few of these clients by sending out a collection of cart abandonment emails. Set these automation drip campaigns to softly nudge the shoppers to finish the checkout course of. Remind them of the superior product that they’ve left behind. You’ll be able to even incentivize them with a reduction provide. Alternatively, you possibly can faucet on the FOMO intuition by creating a way of urgency. Use phrases like “Hurry up”, “Provide legitimate until shares final”, “20% OFF just for as we speak”, and “Time is working out”. You’ll be able to even use a countdown timer to additional amplify the FOMO impact and generate immediate conversions.
Wayfair has nailed its cart abandonment drip campaigns with 4 well-designed emails despatched over a interval of 16 days.
The primary e mail is shipped 1 hour after the cart abandonment. It not solely contains the picture of the deserted product but additionally a catalog of standard merchandise and limited-time offers.
The subsequent e mail is shipped after 24 hours of the cart abandonment and follows the identical theme as the primary one.
The third e mail is shipped out 12 days after the consumer abandons the cart. The headline is drafted in such a method that it attracts the subscriber’s consideration and brings them again to the shop.
Despatched after 16 days of cart abandonment, the final e mail of the collection creates a way of urgency through the use of the headline: “Solely 8 left!”.
The highest picks shared within the e mail are complementary to the product added within the cart, which can improve the probability of cart restoration.
Like cart abandonment emails, you possibly can ship out browse abandonment e mail campaigns too. These emails could be despatched every time somebody searches for a specific product however doesn’t add it to the cart.
Right here’s how Amazon does it.
It additionally applies when the consumer downloads a useful resource however doesn’t take any motion even after a number of days.
4. Affirmation Emails
After you could have closed the sale or persuaded a buyer into renewing the subscription, you possibly can ship out a sequence of drip emails to substantiate the transaction and thank them. You can even use these emails to upsell and cross-sell associated services or products that complement the earlier buy.
Calendly sends the proper B2B drip marketing campaign examples. They deploy a collection of emails after a consumer indicators up for his or her free trial.
Within the first drip marketing campaign template, they thank the customers for making an attempt out Calendly and share the generally used options.
Within the second e mail, they showcase the completely different occasion sorts and a hyperlink to customise the settings.
The subsequent e mail informs the consumer about their cellular utility that might make scheduling calls simpler for them.
As soon as you’re completed with the “affirmation” drip e mail campaigns, you possibly can ship out post-purchase emails to spice up model loyalty. Ask for the shopper’s suggestions and incentivize them for his or her evaluate and helpful time. Some manufacturers even use these emails to share helpful ideas that may assist the shoppers use the product to its greatest potential.
Take this chance to understand the shopper’s affiliation along with your model and invite them to affix your VIP program. You’ll be able to even promote the referral advertising technique and purchase new clients for your corporation.
See how Carnival Cruise Line has promoted their VIP program within the drip marketing campaign template and highlighted the perks that it comes with. Such emails will assist you get repeat purchases and construct a loyal buyer base. It should additionally improve the word-of-mouth advertising for your corporation and assist you purchase new clients.
6. Newsletters
Newsletters can serve to interact the shoppers and maintain your model on the highest of their minds. In case you are focusing on the present clients, you possibly can ship out particulars concerning the VIP program or tips on how to earn referral rewards by bringing new clients to the enterprise. These newsletters also can embody the most recent articles or curation of the very best weblog posts within the business.
So far as potential shoppers are involved, you possibly can spotlight attention-grabbing enterprise updates and user-generated content material that might pique their curiosity and make them buy from you.
In case you are utilizing ConvertKit for your corporation, you’ll be acquainted with such newsletters that they ship.
Via these emails, they share helpful content material assets like how-to guides, product updates, and the most recent tales related to the readers.
In addition they use newsletters to introduce new product options and improve subscriber engagement.
7. Suggestion Emails
Retaining clients is crucial if you wish to convey a gradual circulation of enterprise income. Suggestion emails go a good distance in getting clients again to your retailer, thereby encouraging them to transform.
For instance: Suppose your eCommerce retailer offers with kitchenware. If somebody has bought a crockery set from you, you possibly can ship out a suggestion e mail selling a dinner set or eating desk cowl or different comparable merchandise.
Such suggestion emails will let your clients learn about appropriate merchandise that they might be excited about.
Check out this order affirmation e mail that shares three product suggestions with the shoppers.
Platforms like Shopify, Netflix, and a number of other different manufacturers use suggestion emails to maintain the customers hooked to their model and proceed utilizing the companies they provide.
8. Re-engagement Emails
Some friendships and relationships fade away with time. Similar to that, some clients will lose curiosity in your model and cease partaking along with your emails over time. To win these clients again and immediate them to buy once more, re-engagement emails work the very best.
Ship out a collection of three to 5 re-engagement emails to get the shopper excited about your choices as soon as once more.
Check out this re-engagement e mail collection by Simpl.
Within the first e mail, they’ve supplied a sure cashback whereas the following e mail promotes an even bigger cashback quantity. Such ladder reductions would entice the shoppers to make the acquisition.
Additionally, did you discover how they’ve created urgency by letting the subscriber know that the provide is legitimate for the week solely.
9. Chilly Emails
Do you obtain promotional InMails on LinkedIn that share some random services or products that you’re least excited about?
That’s precisely what chilly emailing is all about. It is part of outbound advertising technique wherein the lead technology staff creates a listing of potential shoppers who could be searching for one thing that you just provide. These emails would solely work for those who perform correct profiling of the prospects after which method them with related messaging.
Chilly drip emails can be utilized to:
- Share content material assets with related viewers
- Discover affiliate entrepreneurs and new companions
- Join with business influencers and thought leaders
- Invite audio system and attendees to occasions
- Ship webinar invites to individuals who could be excited about your area of interest
- Provide a free trial or demo of your product or companies
Suppose you need to invite a speaker to your webinar.
Right here’s how your chilly drip e mail marketing campaign circulation will seem like:
Day 1: Introductory e mail
Personalize the e-mail as a lot as doable. Your e mail should replicate that you’ve researched nicely and use a persuasive tone.
Introduce your self and invite them to talk to your webinar.
Additionally, let the reader know “what’s in it for them”. It have to be convincing sufficient to get them and hit the reply button.
Day 3: Observe-up e mail
Our life is busy and the digital world, filled with distractions. It’s fairly apparent that the reader would possibly neglect to answer even when they’re . Ship out the follow-up e mail to remind the prospect about your earlier e mail. Ask them if the date and time is handy to them and provide to alter it for his or her comfort.
Day 6: Observe-up + Ask if one thing else must be labored on
In case you haven’t obtained a reply even after 6 days, ask the reader if there’s something else that must be labored on. Ask them if they will get on a name to debate additional. Share your Calendly hyperlink for those who assume that might make issues simple for you.
Day 10: Goodbye e mail
That is the final and ultimate try to obtain a reply. Politely, let the prospect know that you wouldn’t attain out to them after this e mail. Request them to contact you if they alter their thoughts or have any questions concerning the occasion.
You’ll be able to spend money on premium instruments like Mailtrack to watch whether or not the consumer has opened the e-mail or not. This may assist you to plan your future emails higher.
Finest Practices for Drip E-mail Campaigns
1. Section your clients and personalize your emails
As cliched and apparent as this sounds, you could phase your clients with a purpose to create tailored drip marketing campaign examples. Relevance is the important thing to constructing a successful drip e mail marketing campaign technique. The shopper’s journey ought to be thought-about as an vital facet whereas planning drip campaigns. Determine the shopper’s ache factors and fine-tune your drip advertising marketing campaign accordingly. Doing so will assist you strengthen the connection with the shopper and produce optimum outcomes from the emails.
2. Preserve a constant ship cadence
Sending too many emails will most definitely annoy the shoppers or depart them bored. Subsequently, you could set your e mail workflow in such a method that it doesn’t get too overwhelming for the reader. There are such a lot of manufacturers that ship out an e mail each day. I strongly really feel that that is completely pointless. You’ll be able to ship out emails twice or thrice in every week. That will be sufficient to maintain them engaged along with your model.
For instance: Actually Good Emails sends out two emails in every week and I actually look ahead to their emails.
Alternatively, you possibly can let the subscribers set their e mail frequency preferences so that you’re spared of all of the guesswork and trial-and-error strategies.
Some manufacturers embody a disclaimer of their welcome emails about their ship frequency. I assume that’s a fairly good concept too.
3. Abide by the e-mail copywriting greatest practices
Attempt to present most worth to the readers via your emails. Maintain the copy brief and to-the-point. Observe the Downside-Agitation-Answer formulation to make the e-mail partaking for the readers. Share a narrative that might intrigue the readers and join with them on a private or emotional degree. Eliminate all of the technical jargons within the emails and use a duplicate that’s as simple as ABC.
Use the Hemingway App editor to ensure that your e mail is comprehensible for all subscribers. Bullet factors, numbered lists, and separators can be utilized to reinforce the e-mail readability.
In addition to the copy, watch out of the type of visuals you’re utilizing. Too heavy photos will decelerate the e-mail loading and finally hamper the deliverability fee.
Your CTA have to be clearly seen and actionable. The colour of the CTA button have to be in distinction to the remainder of the e-mail.
4. Join your e mail advertising with different channels
Drip e mail campaigns can’t carry out nicely in a siloed setup. You will need to ensure that your advertising channels impart a constant expertise to the readers. Let the subscribers learn about your social media presence and promote comparable content material throughout all these channels. Attempt to create an omnichannel advertising expertise along with your copy, tone of communication, and the design components.
5. All the time take a look at and A/B take a look at your campaigns
Calibrate your e mail campaigns by finishing up A/B testing. Ship two variants of your e mail campaigns to find out what strikes the best chord with the subscribers. That is vital as a result of your buyer preferences are continuously altering. What labored nicely a month earlier than won’t work as we speak.
Testing your emails for correct rendering is one other greatest follow that can’t be missed. Your emails should look good, whatever the e mail shopper and display screen measurement they’re accessed on. I can vouch for testing instruments like Litmus and E-mail on Acid as they supply detailed rendering stories together with e mail accessibility stories.
Wrapping Up
Have a look at your drip e mail marketing campaign technique as a journey and conversions because the vacation spot. The e-mail campaigns you ship ought to be positioned on the proper junctions on the proper time in order that the subscriber can attain the vacation spot. In different phrases, sending out helpful emails on the optimum timing is the inspiration of highly effective drip campaigns.
For those who need assistance with establishing drip e mail campaigns or creating pixel excellent designs for a similar, E-mail Uplers may help you out.
Simply attain out to us and we might love to help you. Whether or not you’re utilizing Mailchimp drip marketing campaign or HubSpot drip marketing campaign, now we have specialists who can cater to all of your wants.