Reading time: 3 minutes

Drip emails (or drip campaigns) are for marketers a quintessential piece of a long-term email strategy. The basic principle of an email drip campaign is “dropping” relevant and frequent touch points, or content into the hands, or inboxes, of leads along their buying journey. Up to 80% of people who visit your website for the first time simply aren’t ready to buy. So, how does a marketer make sure that these potential leads are nurtured until they are ready?

A drip campaign is a highly effective solution to this marketing conundrum. This automated approach allows companies to pre-set emails to send to contacts based on how long they have been subscribers, where they sit in the funnel, or any unique action or triggers they set off. These campaigns are set to a specific timeline, usually over a long period of time, sending consumers numerous emails from a pre-written queue.

Although email drip campaigns sound fairly straightforward, there are several best practice tips you should consider to make your campaign most effective:

1. Target the Campaign

By segmenting your email lists, you can create meaningful drip campaigns that are catered to each unique segment. The more detail you put into the segments, the more effectively you can cater your drip campaign. Whether you are trying to keep leads engaged or you are looking to educate customers or engage in a contest, these small details are important when planning who from your email list will receive the drip. Some common types of drip campaigns include:

•         Top-of-mind drips to keep leads engaged.
•         Educational drips to educate consumers on their next purchase.
•         Re-engagement drips to engage leads that have gone cold.
•         Promotional drips to excite customers with limited time offers or contests.
•         Training drips to move users through training programs or to educate new customers.
•         Competitive drips to show customers that your product is better than a competitor’s.

2. Customize the Features for a Better User Experience

Personalization is the new black in email marketing. Catering an email experience, even in small ways, adds true value to a drip campaign. Let your subscribers choose their own adventure. If you tailor the type of content you’re producing to the individual by including their name in the subject line, or body content, allow subscribers to choose the topics they prefer and frequency of communications, you’ll find engagement levels may rise along with the value you are bringing to your leads and customers.

3. Test, Rinse, Repeat

As with all digital marketing plans, drip campaigns require ongoing testing so they can evolve and continue to meet the needs of the subscriber. By re-evaluating your goals and making revisions based on results from A/B Testing, you will discover what aspects of your drip campaign are working most effectively. In addition to this, you will also be able to keep track of things such as bounce backs, unsubscribes, clicks, and purchases, which will offer invaluable insight on how consumers view your email drip content.

4. Make Use of Tools

Drip campaigns are largely automated services, which means you must invest in high-quality tools and software to properly implement the campaign. By taking advantage of segmentation offered by purchased email lists as well as all your other social media, analytics, and visitor tracking services, your marketing campaigns will become even easier to manage and your drip campaign will almost write itself.

With Clickback’s Email Lead Generation Software, you will notice a significant increase in your leads, productivity, and sales from email marketing and drip campaigns.