The most primitive digital marketing technique known to marketers is email marketing and it is still one of the most relevant marketing channels. Marketers send email newsletters all the time to promote their products and services.
But what if new subscribers sign up to get updates? They will start getting all these new emails all of a sudden, which will be extremely abrupt and will probably make the subscriber ignore the emails. Time is of the essence when email marketing is concerned, more so in this competitive environment.
Here is where drip marketing comes in. Drip marketing involves an automated email responding program that sends out a set of marketing emails at regular intervals to keep prospective leads in the loop. Drip marketing helps you to nurture leads in the long run and increase sales opportunities eventually.
What is Drip Marketing?
Drip marketing generally consists of a set of pre-structured emails that are mailed at regular intervals based on a specific timeline or actions of new subscribers. With marketing automation tools, you can personalize each of these mails which is a nice touch.
Basically, drip marketing makes your emails more relevant and meaningful to subscribers. For example, if someone has just subscribed to your blog, instead of receiving the new emails that you have been sending out to regular subscribers, the person will receive a welcome email. This email will help them to explore your products or services and understand what it is all about.
Drip emails are trigger-based and depending on the action of your subscriber a suitable email can be sent to them.
Drip emails can range from welcome emails to some freebie that you’re giving out to subscribers. You can easily segment your subscriber base through drip marketing and focus on the groups that are close to make a buy. Keeping close tab of your subscribers through drip marketing will not only boost sales but it will also lead to fewer unsubscribes.
Drip mails work most of the time but be sure not to overuse this gem of a technique. It is one of the most thoughtful and easiest way to nurture leads. You have to make sure that you don’t annoy your subscribers by emailing them frequently.
How to Set Up a Drip Marketing Campaign?
It is extremely easy to set up a drip marketing campaign. Following are the simple steps that will help you get an idea about how to set up such a campaign for your subscribers.
- Identify your Audience: The very first step of a drip marketing campaign is to separate your audience into different groups. Each group will be formed depending upon their demographics and general interaction on your website. Depending upon their actions on your blog or website, you will group them so that they receive emails relevant to their interactions. The relevance in your emails will keep them interested in your website for a longer period of time
- Construct your Email: Now that you are aware of your target audience by segmenting them, you will have to grab their attention through your emails. You have to create an email that will be helpful to your cause and make them interested in your products. In drip marketing it’s the words that count and not necessarily the email design and layout. Keep your message simple yet provocative, so that the subscriber is curious to click on a link and take a step further in their buying cycle. Also, make sure you compose a catchy subject for your email so that subscribers are eager to open it and check what’s inside.
- Set a Plan: It goes without saying that when you are thinking about launching a marketing campaign, you will chalk out a plan that will lay down the guidelines of the campaign. Your drip marketing workflow should start from the welcome and then gradually move over to sale and finally lead to support. Relevance is the key as your emails should be the direct effect of a subscriber’s actions. There’s nothing worse than sending generic emails to your subscribers that does not seem to generate any response at all.
- Evaluate: Once you have carried out the above steps, start your campaign but do not forget about it afterwards. Always keep following up on the campaign so that you can supervise what is going on. Tweak your campaign where necessary so that you get better results. You will be able to reach your goals through a process of trial and error. In the end the process will be extremely enriching and rewarding.
Types of Drip Marketing
Depending upon your audience segmentation, you can employ different types of drip marketing for each segment at the same time. Marketing Automation software like Act-On, Autopilot, Hubspot, Marketo, Lead Squared and others make this task extremely easy for you.
- Top-Of-Mind: Just as the name suggests, this type of drip marketing will keep your leads engaged all the time. It is a very effective way of nurturing leads and transform them into valuable customers.
- Educational: This type of drip helps you to educate your subscribers about your products so that they can make their buying decision accordingly. It can also be a training program meant for new users of your product so that they can use it effectively.
- Re-engagement: Often there are leads that grow cold all of a sudden and in order to win them back, a re-engagement drip campaign can be used.
- Promotional: Very common among marketers, promotional drip campaigns help promote new products, or maybe a limited time offer applicable to subscribers only.
- Competitive: Competitive drip marketing is targeted on users of your competitor’s products in order for them to switch over to your product.
All in all, drip marketing is a fascinating subject that allows you to effectively attract new leads, nurture them and boost sales. Drip campaigns are easy to organize and give you enough room to modify and adjust according to customer demographic.
Need help in scaling a drip email campaign? send us an email to [email protected] with your queries.