What is Drip Email Marketing and Why Do I Need It?

What is Drip Email Marketing and Why Do I Need It?

By Lindsay Valenty -

Email marketing automation is useful for a variety of reasons, and not just because it saves time.

According to recent data, marketing automation (such as email drip campaigns) can lead to a 14.5% increase in sales productivity.

Sounds great, right? But what exactly IS it? In this post, we'll go over what drip campaigns are and how to use them.

What is Drip Marketing?

In the world of email, an email drip campaign is a sequence of automated emails sent on a set schedule to subscribers who have met/set off a specific trigger. The trigger could be as simple as subscribing to your newsletter, or because they downloaded an ebook. Depending on the type of drip campaign you want to set up, the triggers may vary.

Drip Email Marketing not only saves time but works for a variety of reasons. Martech Zone noted that open rates for drip campaigns are about 80% higher than stand-alone emails.

What Rules of Thumb Should I Use with Drip Marketing?

The beauty of drip marketing is that is can be highly personalized (and should be) to maximize engagement.

Ensure that you're setting up your email to include your recipient's name as much as possible: in the subject line, in the introduction of the email, etc. 

Send your email from a real person whenever you can. As lovely as it is to get emails from a company, most people would prefer to get a "personalized" email from someone they can reach out to if they have questions/comments.

Who Should Be Receiving My Drip Campaigns?

To determine who should be receiving your communications, you should first look at what the objectives are. Are you looking to:

• Upsell/Cross-sell a Product?

• Onboard Users?

• Nurture Leads?

• Increase Conversion of Free to Paid?

• Improve Customer Experiences?

• Build a Sales Pitch?

Now that you've narrowed down your objective let's look at who your target audience should/could be. Your audience could include:

• Blog Subscribers

• New Customers

• Leads Who Downloaded Content

• App Downloaders

• Trial Users

Now that we've determined what the objectives are and who would be interested in them, it's time to set up your trigger. It could be when a contact/customer:

• Tags You (such as via social media)

• Is Added to a List

• Fills Out a Website Form

• Clicks an Email Link

How Should I Set Up My Drip Campaign Emails?

Your emails don't need to be super lengthy or full of content that doesn't apply to your consumers' needs.

When crafting your email, make sure it makes sense and applies to the target audience and objective

As you start your drip email series, determine what you want your waiting period to be between emails. 

If this is a new customer who hasn't expressed a lot of interest in your company/product/service yet, perhaps a drip cycle of once a month would be best to warm up the lead and not come across as spammy. 

If this is for someone who has shown a great deal of interest and moved up to a qualified marketing lead, once or twice a month might be a better frequency.

How Do I Know My Drip Campaign is Working?

The best way to know if your campaign is working is to keep an eye on the metrics. Was your goal to: 

• Get a lot of Email Link Clicks?

• Get a High Open Rate?

• Sell a Product/Service?

• Educate Your Consumer (offer downloadable content)?

Look at the results you receive from each email in the series, and if you aren't getting the type of engagement you're looking for, tweak the format. 

Don't be afraid to A/B test your emails, but be sure when testing that you only change one variable at a time.

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