Understanding Drip Campaigns: A Quick Overview
Itâs odd, isnât it. How many marketing terms keep cropping up all over the internet. I Assume all the big shots are spewing out lists and infographics and whatnot - sometimes it does feel rather overwhelming. But I digress.
What I mean to say is that if youâre feeling a little lost or confused about some words that the experts throw around, donât worry - youâre not alone. That said, whether youâre a beginner or an expert looking for inspiration, it never hurts to refresh your knowledge of things like drip campaigns.
Now before you start thinking this is a whole new animal you need to learn to tame, let me put your mind at ease - theyâre not as scary as they sound. Simply put, drip campaigns are basically automated emails that have been scheduled for distribution over specific intervals of time.
Like digital clockwork if you may. These emails can be personalised based on the consumerâs needs and journey with your business.
The best part about them is that once set up, theyâll continue engaging customers and nurturing leads even while you sleep. The easiest way to look at drip campaigns is to think of them as a way to automate processes while making sure your brandâs messaging remains effective and relevant in every stage of a customerâs journey. They keep prospects engaged with what your brand has to offer and gently guide them towards making purchase decisions.
You could say itâs like planting seeds in fertile soil and then letting the natural order of things take care of the rest till itâs time for harvesting. Sort of. Drip campaigns are really quite clever - there are different types of such emails with varying objectives; each working together in tandem towards closing deals successfully.
Crafting Compelling Email Content
No one enjoys getting an email that sounds like it was written by a bored robot - or worse, an overeager salesperson whoâs been promised a new toaster if they sell more this month. Creating genuinely engaging content for drip campaigns is about respecting the person on the other end. I think youâd want to surprise your subscribers - or at least sound like youâre talking to them instead of at them. You know what turns people off.
An email thatâs far too long and makes readers feel like theyâve accidentally tuned into a weird infomercial they canât turn off. An email that opens with âDear customer, we have some exclusive offers for youâ is far less fun than one that says âHave you checked out our site lately. Weâve been doing up the place. â That could mean almost anything, and people are naturally curious - which is why theyâll keep reading.
Keep things concise and interesting. You donât have to be overly informal (unless your brand is built on being a total goofball) but you definitely donât want to sound so formal it feels sterile. It might be hard to imagine when thereâs so much pressure to sell, but people appreciate authenticity more than anything else. If you donât have something genuinely exciting or useful to say, maybe donât email your subscribers with more empty promises and forced urgency.
That just turns potential loyalists into quick unsubscribes. I find it also helps to add in stories - the real kind. Not just ones about how someone named Jamie spent $5000 with you and now has perfect teeth, but ones about who Jamie actually is and what they do.
If all else fails, tell them your own story. Why did you start this business. Where do you want to take it. People love stories because stories help us connect with each other as humans.
And well, if AI has taught us anything at all in 2024 - itâs that customers really want to buy from other people.
Segmenting Your Audience for Maximum Impact
Sounds Like grouping people is often frowned upon. People donât want to be put in boxes, labelled or judged as a certain type. But the truth is, boxes help us bring order to chaos. Putting people into categories also helps them feel seen and understood (if done well).
So, while most people think theyâll hate being put in a box, they are secretly hoping they fall into the right one. While you can group your audience in many ways, the most effective way is by behaviour. In this context, weâre talking about how your audience interacts with your website.
Are they visiting a certain page. Have they downloaded an eBook recently. Are they signing up for a webinar or your newsletter.
All of these actions or behaviours will show you what matters most to each person. This knowledge is going to be invaluable when it comes time to decide which email drip sequence to add them to. Knowing what behaviour matters and how much weight to assign each action will require a different kind of segmentation - revenue segmentation.
Essentially, this means creating a data-driven method that divides your customers based on the business outcomes you hope to achieve with them. For example, if you are looking to fill more spots at an event, you might target people who already bought tickets (encouraging them to invite friends or family). Or if you are occasionally looking to generate donations for an NGO, you could target people who have previously donated in the last year.
Thereâs no right or wrong way to segment your audience. There may be some best practices but nothing says that it has to be done that way. As long as you can usually trace the activity back and attribute revenue to an action by your audience, youâre free to start box-checking all over again.
Timing and Frequency: Finding the Perfect Balance
We all know someone who likes to talk just a little too much - those conversations with them tend to lose their charm rather quickly, wouldnât you agree. Itâs the same with emails. It may be tempting to push a ton of emails out to your audience at once, but it can come across as intrusive and bothersome, especially if thereâs not much value in what youâre sending them. The way I see it, itâs crucial that you find the sweet spot between being consistent and being annoying, because consistency is what gets you the results youâre looking for from your email campaigns.
We recommend an email every 1-2 weeks so your brand stays top-of-mind for your audience, while giving them enough time to respond to previous emails. For one-time events or promotions, you can send out one email per day to increase visibility and hype. Drip campaigns, on the other hand, should ideally see 2-3 emails per week. For sales emails like in drip campaigns, too many can drive your users away, but spacing it out too much can reduce engagement and conversions.
Itâs also important to focus on when youâre sending out these emails - Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 9 am and 3 pm are seldom great times for B2B audiences. For B2C customers, Tuesday and Thursday mornings work best. Weâd recommend some testing before settling on a schedule so you can rather find a day that works best for your audience. The way I see it, it comes down to what works best for your audience though - every business is different and so is every audience.
While general best practices should work for most businesses, finding the right cadence may take some time. Donât worry about it - monitor metrics like open rates and unsubscribes closely so you can evidently make adjustments as needed and see what works best for your audience.
Analyzing Results: Metrics to Measure Success
Here's what they don't tell you about sales drip campaigns - they're only as good as the numbers they rack up. Don't get me wrong, it's satisfying to see your emails go out into the void (or inboxes), but a good campaign is more than that. You need metrics to measure their effectiveness.
It's not just open rates and click rates, although those are vital too. You need to consider other numbers like bounce rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Not enough marketers do this, I've noticed, but looking at these numbers can tell you if your campaign is likely actually working or if you're just sending emails for the sake of it.
I think there is also something to be said about tracking time spent on each email by each customer or lead in your pipeline. It's fairly easy to see who's interested in what based on what they click and how long they spend reading. More or less.
Keeping an eye on that can really help refine your messaging and make your future campaigns more effective. Lastly, it's important to remember that analysing results is an ongoing process. The point of looking at metrics is so you can improve what you're doing to get better results.
And that's something no one ever gets perfect immediately.
Best Practices for Effective Follow-Up Emails
Sometimes, it seems to be that the best emails get buried in a cluttered inbox. I cannot think of the number of times that someone has been excited about what I have to offer and I never hear back from them. The follow up email is like an insurance policy for ghosting.
If theyâre not ready yet, you can still bring your offer up top of mind by providing value or starting a conversation. Itâs important to ensure that all your emails are relevant, not just the first one. A customer may miss a single email but if every one they open provides value, they will look forward to it. For instance, I think about my favourite newsletters.
In a sense, even though those are not drip campaign emails, they are top-of-funnel sales emails trying to build trust in the sender so when it is potentially time to buy something I buy from them. The other thing with follow up emails is that there needs to be an impetus for someone to reply. Simply following up doesnât do anything for either side unless thereâs something happening.
There are only so many times you can say âJust following upâ without sounding desperate. But ultimately, this boils down to clarity. Do you know why you want them to reply.
If you do and youâre clear about it in your email, it will come through regardless of what any âbest practicesâ say - though structure and good copywriting helps quite a bit too.