Email marketing is a powerful business tool. By harnessing the direct and personal nature of email, you can make impactful customer connections and experiment with various strategies, from weekly newsletters to one-time promotions. A drip campaign is one such strategy. It delivers relevant content through email and SMS, guiding potential buyers from awareness to purchase.
Here’s why you might want to start drip marketing, what types of drip marketing emails to send, and how to set up a successful drip campaign.
What is drip marketing?
Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends—i.e., drips—an automated, scheduled set of emails or other messages to customers and prospects over a given period. It’s designed to nurture leads, provide valuable information, and guide recipients through the sales funnel at a steady, predetermined pace.
For example, an ecommerce company selling specialty coffee and brewing equipment could set up a drip campaign where the first email offers a 10% discount on the customer’s first purchase of a premium espresso machine. Subsequent emails might include brewing tutorials, coffee bean recommendations, and early access to new product launches—all aimed at cultivating a community of coffee enthusiasts and driving ongoing engagement and sales.
Why use drip marketing?
Setting up your own drip campaign can maintain engagement, build relationships, and increase conversion rates by delivering relevant content at strategic intervals.
Drip marketing keeps users engaged with a brand without overwhelming them with too much information at once. You can monitor customer progress in the buying journey, identifying actions like browsing or cart abandonment to send tailored emails. For example, a customer viewing a product might receive a feature-focused email, while another abandoning their cart gets a coupon to prompt a final purchase.
Email drip campaigns let you stay top-of-mind with your audience by providing timely and pertinent content that aligns with the customer’s position in the buying journey.
When should you use drip marketing?
- Welcome drip campaign
- Onboarding emails for new customers
- Product recommendations
- Re-engagement campaigns
- Abandoned cart reminders
- Renewal or upgrade prompts
- Educational content series
Drip marketing is a powerful strategy for delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. Here are different types of drip campaigns to implement:
Welcome drip campaign
When a new subscriber joins your mailing list, use a drip campaign to roll out the red carpet. Welcome emails introduce new subscribers to your brand, set expectations, and provide valuable information. This first touchpoint sets the tone for the new customer-merchant relationship.
Carefully crafting each welcome email to address common questions, highlight key product features, and offer guidance sets the stage for enduring engagement with new audience members.
Onboarding emails for new customers
Onboarding emails for new customers are where drip marketing campaigns shine, guiding new customers through a series of tailored emails that educate them about their purchase and how to get the most out of it. These emails are powered by marketing automation tools that automatically send out messages at predetermined intervals or in response to specific customer actions.
For example, a smartwatch company could send post-purchase welcome emails that provide tips on syncing the watch with other devices and workout plans that highlight the watch’s fitness features.
By using drip marketing campaigns in onboarding, your business can increase satisfaction and minimize customer churn, ensuring new users feel supported from the start.
Product recommendations
Drip marketing campaigns can deliver targeted service or product recommendations to customers based on their interactions with your business. You can set up drip campaigns that trigger based on specific customer actions—like browsing certain product categories or making a purchase—to automatically send relevant, curated suggestions to encourage further engagement and sales.
This tactic helps customers receive a highly personalized shopping experience, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Re-engagement campaigns
Re-engagement drip marketing campaigns aim to reignite interest among less active or disengaged users. They remind these customers of their value and incentivize them to return with personalized, timely messages. A re-engagement drip campaign strategy often includes special offers or updates that can spur renewed interaction with your brand.
Abandoned cart reminders
Email drip campaign emails for abandoned carts are carefully timed gentle prompts aimed at re-engaging shoppers who’ve left items behind, nudging them to complete the purchase. They often come with a special offer or a reminder of the item’s limited availability.
Renewal or upgrade prompts
This kind of drip marketing campaign encourages customers to renew their subscriptions or consider an upgrade. Automating a sequence of reminders and incentives leading up to the renewal date ensures consistent communication. This strategy can promote timely renewals and help upsell customers on more premium offerings, potentially maximizing your customer’s lifetime value and revenue.
Educational content series
An education content series is designed to transform subscribers from novices to experts. By delivering a structured sequence of informative emails, you boost their understanding of your product line.
These educational emails can incorporate various formats, such as informative articles, how-to guides, video tutorials, infographics, case studies, and interactive quizzes to cater to different learning preferences and keep the content engaging.
How to set up a drip campaign
- Define your goals and target audience
- Segment your email list
- Craft your message and content
- Decide on the timing and frequency
- Choose your drip campaign software
- Test and optimize your emails
- Measure and adjust the campaign based on performance
Drip campaigns can nurture leads, re-engage customers, and ultimately boost sales. Here’s how to set up a drip campaign that keeps your brand top-of-mind and drives results:
1. Define your goals and target audience
Start by pinpointing your drip email campaign objectives. Are you most concerned with nurturing leads, welcoming new subscribers, or driving repeat business?
Next, create a detailed profile of your potential customer or existing customer segments, considering demographics, behavior, and purchase history. Use this data to tailor your campaign’s messaging strategy to resonate with their needs and interests.
2. Segment your email list
Accurate segmentation is key to delivering personalized content that will boost engagement and click-through rates.
Segment your email list based on campaign-relevant objectives, such as past purchases for a cross-sell campaign or user activity for a re-engagement campaign. Use marketing automation tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, or ActiveCampaign to dynamically segment lists, ensuring subscribers are always in the most relevant group.
3. Craft your message and content
Focus on providing valuable insights that solve audience pain points, such as tips for syncing devices or guides to unlocking product features they may not be aware of. Use clear, concise language with a conversational tone. Personalize whenever possible by including recipient names and referencing past interactions.
Conclude each email with a compelling call to action that drives users to your desired action—whether that’s a website visit, resource download, or product purchase.
4. Decide on the timing and frequency
Timing can make or break your drip email campaigns. Schedule the first email to trigger based on a specific action, like a sign-up or purchase, with subsequent emails spaced out to maintain engagement without overwhelming your audience.
Then, adjust the cadence and content based on the customer lifecycle stage to maximize user engagement without causing fatigue.
5. Choose your drip campaign software
Select email marketing automation software that supports the complexity of your drip campaigns and offers the flexibility to adjust parameters easily.
Look for features like drag-and-drop builders, drip campaign templates, A/B testing, and integration with your existing marketing tools and customer relationship management (CRM) system for efficient campaign management. Consider advanced features like lead scoring and interactive content for further personalization.
6. Test and optimize your emails
Before launching your drip campaign, conduct A/B testing on elements like newsletter subject lines and email content to determine what resonates best with your audience. Monitor performance closely after sending the first few automated emails, and be prepared to iterate on your approach.
7. Measure and adjust the campaign based on performance
Once your campaign is live, regularly analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Gather valuable insights from this data to refine your segmentation, content, and timing.
Adjust your drip campaigns by regularly analyzing key metrics and customer feedback. Experiment with email frequency, different subject lines, and more engaging visuals to improve relevance and effectiveness.
Drip campaign FAQ
What does “drip” mean in marketing?
In marketing, “drip” refers to sending pre-scheduled, automated messages to customers or prospects over time.
What is an example of drip marketing?
An example of drip marketing is a sequence of welcome emails new subscribers receive that gradually introduce them to various aspects of a service or product.
How do you track a drip campaign?
To track a drip campaign, use analytics tools such as Shopify Analytics or Mixpanel to monitor open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and subscriber engagement over the course of the email sequence.
