What is a Drip Campaign? Benefits of Drip Campaigns Explained
If your company already does email campaigns, you have been using drip email campaigns without even knowing it. What is a drip campaign? Simply put, a drip email campaign involves regular and consistent dissemination of information to buyers with the purpose of eventually converting the recipients to sales. First off, if you don’t have a CRM (customer relationship management system) then I’d highly recommend you to check out our CRM Specialist blog after this so you can understand how to integrate drip marketing with your customer database.
Benefits of Drip Campaigns:
Branding through repetition.
If you regularly send emails in a consistent format with your logo and tagline looking the same and in the same place every time, it eventually makes a recognition imprint in your customers’ brain. Really. It’s called brand recognition or brand memory and it’s one of several methods of brand recognition.
Buyers tend not to act the first time.
Especially on something that they don’t quite understand or is new. It sometimes takes multiple passes with repetitive statements and formats to get buyers familiar with the item and message. Think about when you buy something as a result of an email, even if it’s something you’ve wanted for a while or your business desperately needs—do you buy the first time you receive an email? Not necessarily. The first 3 times you might be too busy to act or you might be doing your own product research while emails 2-5 come through. Again, it’s just the way the brain works. What is a drip campaign for if not to convert people over a period of time – think long term.
Repetition in numbers makes for more conversions
One traditional sales method assumes conversions happen only 10% or less of contact times; therefore, quantity ensures conversion rate. The more emails you send out, the more receivers will convert to sales.
How to Start a Drip Campaign
If you have a contact list and you are already sending out informational emails about your product or service, good for you, you’re on the right track. Check their regularity and content. Look at your analytics. See if you recognize a correlation between frequency and/or content and conversions. Do conversions increase or decrease according to the content or the frequency? For example, around the holiday season in the United States (November through February), retail companies will send as often as one email every day because these months are considered the most profitable days of the year and the public is in buying mode—even buying frenzy mode—so conversions are higher. During the rest of the year, not so much, so fewer emails are sent.
If you are first developing your drip email campaign, or you’re trying to improve it, here are a few tips.
1) Email list
The core of your drip campaign is your contact list. Before you send out your messages, make sure it’s solid and contains serious potential buyers. Because even though that old sales method is true, the preferable method is to reach qualified buyers who want to see what you’re selling, even if they don’t act the first several times.
2) Create template(s)
Pay attention to the template design because it may make the difference between a buyer paying attention versus ignoring you. Make the email look clean and neat, add pictures or simple graphics and make sure the logo and tagline are consistent and in the same place every time. This may sound totally obvious, but formats can vary computer to computer and system to system. ALWAYS remember that each viewer is a potential sale and you want to make sure you are using conversion marketing to make readers into buyers.
3) Content
You may have heard the quip “Content is king.” It’s true. If your content is not pertinent to the recipient, it will be ignored. If your content is not well written or is filled with errors, that reflects on your product or service, no matter how much people are raving about it. Make sure everything you put in that email is focused to the audience you’re sending to. You might therefore have more than one list and you might send a different message to each.
4) Important: Subject line.
Use a powerful subject line—one that resonates and attracts your buyers. Use action verbs and calls to action here. Be blunt and obvious. People like that in their emails.
Don’t say:
Our first sale of the holiday season! Come see all the items drastically reduced at 50% off! Something for the whole family!
Do say:
50% off for the whole family!
Don’t say:
Come check out our new inventory! We’re fully stocked and ready to find you the perfect item.
Do say:
2016 Nike Air Max
Recap of Drip Marketing Campaigns
The main benefit is brand recognition. The second is reaching the right buyers. If your email list contains truly interested parties, you format your emails consistently, you send out information that you know the buyers want to see, and you monitor response, you’ll see the benefits of sales conversions faster. And if your product or service stands up, those conversions will turn into loyal customers. What is a drip campaign to your customers? An opportunity to remind them about other products / services, and make them buy again!
Low Cost Automation
Don’t have time for all this? That’s why we’re here. We can help you create drip campaigns with low cost automation. We can create successful conversion marketing drip campaigns that include consistent, appropriate messages.
Our blog “What is a Drip Campaign” was designed to show the value of automated marketing.
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