If you’re not familiar with marketing automation, you may find the concept intimidating. But the reality isn’t scary at all. It’s relatively easy to set up and makes your life simpler by automating processes you would normally do manually. Once you’ve got your systems in place, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.
One example of marketing automation that can provide great ROI without much effort is an email drip campaign.
What is an Email Drip Campaign?
These are prewritten, predesigned email messages that send automatically when triggered by a specific action according to a set schedule. They are named email drip campaigns because they “drip” messages to your subscribers based on a timeline or trigger of your choice.
For example, someone fills out a form on your website requesting to download a white paper about graphic design trends. You now have a “warm” lead. You can automatically send them the white paper, then send a follow up email a few days later with similar content, such as graphic design tips.
If they open and/or click a link in your emails, you could send a final email with information about your graphic design service and a CTA to schedule a consultation.
Other types of campaigns can include:
Welcome Emails
These are among the most common automated emails. You use your email address to purchase something with a new retailer and immediately receive a welcome email, sometimes with a special offer to entice you to shop again.
Birthday and Holiday Greetings
These types of emails are triggered by a date, such as a customer’s birthday, holiday, or in advance of subscription or membership renewal dates.
Onboarding
When you join a membership-based organization, you may receive an email nudging you to complete your next steps. Or if you started, but didn’t finish, an online form or registration, you may receive an email reminder to complete the process.
Order Confirmations
Other common automated emails are shopping confirmations, shipping notices, payment receipts, and satisfaction surveys.
Event and Registration Signups
When you purchase concert tickets or sign up for a webinar, you’ll receive an automated confirmation email. You’ll likely also receive a follow up reminder in the future as well as emails about other events you might enjoy.
Abandoned Shopping Cart
Have you ever started to order something online and then changed your mind or gotten distracted? Chances are the retailer will send an automated email reminding you of the items left in your shopping cart.
Customer Service Replies
After contacting customer service, you might receive an automated email to let you know your message has been received and when you might expect a reply.
How to Set Up Your Campaign
So long as you have a list of valid email addresses, it’s easy to set up this type of automation in CRMs and email marketing tools such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact, Salesforce, etc.
All you have to do is decide on your objectives, triggers, timing, upload your contact lists, write and design the emails, and let the software do the legwork for you! Then measure how your emails are doing and make tweaks if needed.
Why Should You Use Email Drip Campaigns?
These types of marketing emails are an effective way to engage your audience and keep your brand top of mind with the ultimate goal of converting leads into customers. Drip campaigns also allow you to better segment and personalize your lists.
Rather than blasting all your contacts all the time, drip campaigns let you to target those who are interested, reengage lapsed contacts, and weed out those who are uninterested or dormant. Not only does it mean less work for you, but it also means fewer unsubscribes, better engagement, and a higher conversion rate.
Best Practices
As with most things in marketing, the key to success is giving your audience good content and timing it right.
- Provide relevant content
- Keep your emails short (a few paragraphs max)
- Include a CTA button at the end
- Review your stats to assess what works and what doesn’t
- Adjust your campaigns accordingly
- Check back periodically to ensure your campaign hasn’t become outdated
Need help setting up your marketing drip campaigns or other automations? Our experts are ready to help!
