The Secrets to an Effective Email Drip Campaign

Drip Campaigns Explained

A drip email campaign refers to a sequence of emails triggered by specific actions and sent based on what the recipient or user does. They are sometimes also referred to as email automation, autoresponders, or lifecycle emails. The main purpose of a drip campaign is to reduce as much manual effort as possible while communicating effectively with the recipient. For example, an email might be sent out when a user downloads materials from a website. The first email sent will include the PDF. Then a few days later, a second email may be sent to provide the recipient with further resources and information that they may be interested in based on their initial download. The purpose of these emails is to build on the relationship with the recipient, and eventually, senders can move on to sending messages that are designed to engage the recipient further or even encourage them to make another purchase. All of the drip campaign emails are sent out automatically and based on certain triggers, allowing the sender to ensure that they are communicating the right thing at the right time.

Are Drip Campaigns Effective?

When used correctly, drip campaigns can be very effective at helping a company drive marketing goals at different stages of the customer’s lifecycle. It is worth automating anything possible to automate, as this helps to make the operations of the entire campaign much more effective and efficient, freeing up marketing staff to focus on more important tasks. There are lots of instances where drip campaigns can be a very effective choice, including:

Drive Engagement

Engagement rates can often be one of the best indicators of how interested users are in your brand, product, or service. Checking engagement rates can give you a clearer idea of how likely your recipients will convert to customers and allow you to take proactive steps when it comes to further engaging your subscriber base. Drip campaigns can be used to send interesting, engaging, and valuable content such as newsletters, product updates, and blog posts. Inaction is also an action that can trigger a drip email, allowing you to send interesting content to subscribers who’ve been quiet recently, encouraging them to re-engage with your brand.

New User Welcome Emails

One of the most common uses for a drip campaign is welcome emails. As soon as a new sign-up or subscriber appears in your system, this can trigger an action for a new drip email to be sent welcoming them on board and providing them with more information about the kind of content that they can expect to receive from you in the future. More than 70% of email subscribers today expect an immediate welcome email. These can be hugely profitable, with an open rate of around five times more than a regular marketing email.

Lead Nurturing

While getting leads isn’t usually difficult, finding one immediately ready to make a purchase is not always easy. For your business, this means taking steps to guide your leads towards taking further steps, such as trying out your product or service or getting more information from your website to deepen their understanding of your value. Product onboarding drip campaign emails can be an ideal choice for nurturing leads by providing more information and education regarding key features. Drip campaign emails, in this case, might include case studies, video tutorials, access to free trial periods, support, and more.

Reduce Unsubscribes

While recipients may be interested when they first subscribe to your email list, this doesn’t mean they will stay interested or engaged with your content forever. It can be worth triggering a drip campaign to send emails to any contacts who are no longer engaging with your content and are at risk of unsubscribing from your list. Emails could include further information to help re-engage them with your brand or an interactive conversation to discover more about what they want to see more of. You can also trigger a trip email when a user unsubscribes to let them know that you are sorry to see them go and to find out why they took that action. Ultimately, while you can’t send emails to recipients who’ve hit the unsubscribe button, finding out why they did it can help prevent more future unsubscribes.

Reduce Cart Abandonment

Drip emails are commonly used in the case of cart abandonment to remind customers that they have left something in their basket and encourage them to return and pay for it. Abandoned carts are a very common occurrence in the eCommerce industry as many customers might simply be browsing or adding products to their cart with the attention of returning and purchasing them at another time. An abandoned cart drip email trigger can help encourage customers to go through with the purchase and can be very useful for reminding those who may have forgotten. There are many opportunities for success with this kind of drip email campaign, such as offering a limited-time discount if the customer returns and completes the checkout process.

What are the Secrets to An Effective Email Drip Campaign?

Setting up drip campaigns is an important part of the process for many businesses that send marketing emails. If you are interested in using drip campaign emails to engage your subscribers better and get more successful results from your marketing strategies, then there are a few main things to keep in mind.

Identify Your Goals for Drip Campaign Effectiveness

Firstly, it’s essential to have a clear goal for each drip campaign that you set up. When starting, first consider the action that you would like subscribers to take when your drip emails are opened in their inbox. This might be to return to the cart to make a purchase, renew their subscription, buy a product, give feedback, engage with your brand in some way, or something else. When setting goals for your drip campaign, being as specific as possible regarding the actions, you would like subscribers to take will help your campaign be more effective.

Understand Your Audience

Once you have determined the primary goal of your drip email campaign, it’s time to get to know your audience. This step will help you determine that your goals are aligned with the audience that you are marketing to. Your drip campaign needs to reach and speak to the right people to be effective. Before you get started with sending drip emails, it is crucial that you understand the customers that are entering the campaign and why. The more information you have, the easier it will be for you to successfully segment your audience and ensure that each subscriber receives relevant and valuable information.

Create Engaging Content for an Effective Drip Campaign

Once you have gotten to know your audience and put a plan together for your drip campaign, focus on the content that you are creating. When writing the content that is going to be in your drip campaign emails, make sure that you have plenty of time to do this and keep your audience in mind, as the content in the emails will have the most significant impact on how they are received and if they are going to be effective at getting the desired actions to be taken. One of the main things to keep in mind when it comes to drip email content is that every email in the campaign should contain some context from the previous email sent, but it should also be unique in its own way. Include a call to action in each email that supports your goal and encourages the recipient to take the desired action.

How is Drip Email Campaign Effectiveness Measured?

Once you have set up and are running a drip campaign, one of the main things you should do is check on the metrics identified during the planning stage regularly. This will help you determine your drip campaign’s success and effectiveness. Look at some of the most commonly tracked metrics for email marketing, such as open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates. This can help you get a clearer idea of your campaign’s performance and if adjustments need to be made.

A drip campaign can be an effective way to utilise email marketing to welcome and engage with customers, encourage purchases, build relationships by nurturing leads, and more.