Exploring Automation: Drip Campaigns 101

Have you ever bought an item online and, shortly after, received a series of company-related emails? Maybe you received a confirmation email, and then a few days later, a promotional email with recommendations. Either way, you now have an inbox filled to the brim with information about the company’s news and promotions. In fact, roughly 60% of consumers say email marketing affects their purchasing decisions.

So how do these businesses send emails so often? They must have an enormous team of marketers, right? Wrong!

With so many different customer relationship management platforms (Mailchimp, Hubspot, Pardot), you can now easily automate your email marketing processes, including your email campaigns, at a low-cost. These are specifically called drip campaigns. Drip campaigns are defined as a series of automated pre-written emails that move the customer along the buyer’s journey or marketing funnel to a final point of conversion.

Automated drip campaigns are a powerful way to create more engagement because it allows you to send personalized and segmented emails while aligning with the customer’s journey. Creating automated email campaigns provides many cost-effective benefits, including:

1. No more repetitive tasks (Save the most valuable and engaging copy for reuse)
2. 86% open rate
3. 196% click-through-rate
4. 320% more revenue than standard emails

There are so many reasons to integrate drip campaigns into your marketing strategy. Below are a few examples of automated email campaigns you can use to take your marketing efforts to the next level:

Welcome Emails

Welcome emails help to create a first impression with your newly subscribed contacts, without feeling like a pushy salesman. Within the welcome email, you have the opportunity to showcase your most popular content or products. For a higher open rate, make sure to send these emails right after someone subscribes.

Onboarding Emails

Offering trial periods is an excellent way for your leads to have a first-hand experience with your business, but the ultimate goal is for them to make a purchase. By creating a drip strategy that works with your welcome email or newsletter, you can educate your leads about the product and facilitate a better customer experience.

Cart Abandonment Emails

One of the biggest pain points amongst e-commerce sites is when a customer abandons their shopping cart. Businesses don’t know why, but what they do know is that the customer was one step away from conversion. By sending an abandoned cart email, you have the potential to re-capture those customers. Be sure to make it super simple to check out so they can’t say “no.”

Emails Targeting Behavioral Characteristics

Amazon is a genius at suggestion products within emails based on search and purchasing behaviors, but you don’t need to be a big business to implement this strategy. These emails are great because not only are you engaging your customers, but you are leveraging your consumer data to cross-promote different products of your business they might enjoy.

Confirmation Emails

Sending a confirmation email not only gives the customer additional information about their purchase, but it is a great time to say “thank you.” Most online shoppers expect a confirmation email because it doubles as their receipt. You can also send another email a few days later, asking them for a review.

Renewal Emails

If you provide a subscription service, make sure to send a renewal email notice. Once again, make it simple that there are no reasons not to renew. Maybe the first email in the campaign is a reminder of when the subscription ends with a call-to-action to auto-renew. If they don’t auto-renew, maybe give them the option to update their account info. No matter what, this campaign will not only help retain customers but improve their overall experience with your business.

Engagement Emails

Engagement emails are all about interacting with the customer. Triggered by on-site activity, or even the lack of engagement, send emails to remind the customer of a product they were looking at on your website. Or send an email noticing the lack of activity saying, “We miss you.” Be consistent in your communication, so your contacts are aware of your business.

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Unsubscribe Emails

Not everybody is going to love the content you send, but having an unsubscribe campaign strategy can help you retain your contacts. If they do end up opting out of email communication, find out why by asking questions. You can then gather this customer data and potentially optimize your drip campaign strategies.

The Bottom Line

There are so many ways to create a conversation with your audience using email communication. Drip campaigns are a proven way to engage your consumers consistently, with a specific end goal in mind. Go ahead, brainstorm different ways you can implement this marketing strategy within your own business.

You won’t regret it!