Why Email Drip Campaigns?
- I want to establish a relationship with my clients/audience
- I want to nurture a pre-existing relationship with my clients/audience
- I want to increase downloads
- I want to draw more contest entries
- I want to generate event registrations
- I want to increase checkouts
- I want to boost referrals
- I want to establish more credibility
- I want to increase repeat site-visits amongst one-off site visitors
If any of the above goals pertain to your needs, email drip campaigns are an integral tool to utilize. Email drip campaigns consist of strategic messages that are sent (“dripped”) in a pre-defined sequence at a pre-set interval to encourage a specific end-result. Such emails are personalized, targeted and timely. And, they are automated through resources like MailChimp, Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor, for example. In essence, drip campaigns keep your users connected with you more systematically and continuously – step-by-step, you can actually smoothly lead them to your end-goal, whether it be purchasing a product, using a service, attending an event or simply engaging with your platform as a trusted source of information.
The numbers do all the talking, when it comes to drip campaign benefits –
- Open-rates – 80% higher
- Click-through rates – 3x greater
- Sales opportunities – 20% more
Nurturing your leads through drip campaigns generate 4-10 times greater responses than mass email blasts. Compared to one-off emails, nurtured leads actually make 47% bigger purchases.
Popular Drip Cycles
To clarify how a drip campaign could be structured even further, let’s take a look at two commonly used cycles –
Cycle 1
Welcome email with sign-up discount (triggered by new subscription) < Reminder email (remind customer the promo offer is about to expire) < Complete your purchase email (triggered by customer adding products to their cart, but not checking out)
Cycle 2
Sales confirmation email (triggered by successful transaction) < Dispatchment email (triggered by product being sent out for shipment) < Order fulfilment email (triggered by product being received by customer) < Suggested co-related products email (triggered after X days of customer having received their order) < Reminder “time to re-order” email (triggered after X days of customer having received their order, before they run out)
You get the hang of it!
How To Setup A Drip Email Campaign
1. Once you’ve setup a specific, measurable goal for your drip campaign, you’ll need to compile content that is powerful in both design and copy. You do not want to send emails your audience will consider spammy and irrelevant.
2. You will need to map out a logical sequence to lead your prospect to your intended goal. For example, if you want to increase sales for your e-commerce based luxury tea brand, you might want to setup a drip campaign that begins by establishing credibility through providing your audience with useful information about different types of tea categories and their health benefits, then highlighting premium cafes and restaurants that source their teas from you, and then offering a limited-time promotional discount to consumers.
3. If you have any analytics on-file from previous campaigns, take that into account when setting the trigger timing of each email in your drip campaign. There is no cookie-cutter approach regarding timing between emails. It really depends on a case-by-case scenario.
4. Monitor results of your campaign to see how effective it was, and whether you need to make any future adjustments. You will need to check your Website’s analytics to identify traffic engagement and flow, in addition to any reports you receive from the email automation service you’re using.
Pro Tip – Setting up parallel campaigns that are tailored to specific segments will be even more targeted and successful. For example, if your Website has products for both men and women, creating drip campaigns that lead to different sections relevant to each gender will draw more promising results than content that is very generic.
Most Common Email Automation
There are many tools available for setting up automated drip email campaigns, with popular contenders being –
- Drip
- Marketo
- Autopilot
- Campaign Monitor
- Constant Contact
- Customer.io
- Vero
- Outbound
- Mail Chimp
- Iterable
- ActiveCampaign
Before picking an email marketing software, assess the following based on your individual requirements –
- Features – Are you receiving all the features you require for your drip campaigns?
- Usability – How easy is it to use the platform?
- Analytics – How specific are the analytics you’ll gain access to?
- Support – Is an online/offline support system in place in case of issues?
Pure Design Solution specializes in email drip marketing campaigns. If you want to understand how useful drip campaigns will be for your particular business, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team here.
