As a marketer, don’t you think rather than sending bulk emails to customers with the same monotonous tone, you should send them personalized emails that address their needs at every stage of the sales cycle. And what if every personalized mail was automated at regular intervals in the sales cycle.
What Exactly Is a Drip Marketing Campaign?
Modern farmers spray their crops using drip irrigation where they irrigate their crops drip by drip, giving the plants precisely the amount of water, they need and when they need it.
A drip campaign is like small droplets of information sent to customers at regular intervals every time they need it.
E.g. When a prospect fills your contact form, a welcome drip email could be automatically sent to him or her thanking them for being a part of the journey. It starts the initial interaction, and then you continue the conversation at regular intervals guiding him towards making a sale.
It is about a customer getting a personalized response that doesn’t consume too much of your time and effort.
So, you automate all the personalized messages in your drip marketing campaign. That way, you can spend more time on creating better content and getting relevant data.
So, with drip marketing, you set the messages as per when and what time you want to send them, it is all up to you.
Who Needs Drip Marketing in 2023?
Anyone with a digital presence in 2022 needs drip marketing. If I am specific, drip marketing is extremely useful for B2B and B2C marketing.
You do not need to have a huge budget for it neither does the size of your company matters. If you are running an event management company or a marketing firm, if it involves engaging your customers, drip marketing is a great way to do it. But do they work?
“Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone email blasts.”
– DemandGen Report
According to Forrester Research, companies that nurture leads make 50% more sales at a 33% lower cost than companies that don’t nurture leads.
Marketers who employ drip marketing have seen great results in the form of more leads and better revenue.
The philosophy of drip marketing
It isn’t about selling in the first interaction, not even in the second instead it is an approach where you track your prospect’s behavior and send them pieces of information that are interesting at regular stages of the buyer journey and sell them once they seem ready to buy.
What are the critical elements of drip marketing?
Triggers-
Triggers are anything that set the drip campaign in motion. It can be the entry of a lead to your sales funnel, to a first-time user coming to your online store, or a new subscriber on your blog.
Conditions-
If triggers start your drip campaign, there needs to be certain conditions that must be met to keep the campaign in motion.
Like once a lead is generated, waiting for a day to send him or her the first email or after the first email has been waiting for four days to send the second follow up email.
So here, the time interval is the condition.
Actions-
Once the drip campaign is triggered and the conditions are met, it is time to act. The automated emails that go to the prospect when they abandon their e-shopping cart, or a thank you mail to the new subscriber are all types of drip campaign actions.
What are the features of drip marketing?
It is relevant marketing-
Every lead is different- they are unique individuals with their own set of opinions, preferences, likes, and dislikes.
In this digital era, bulk copy-paste email campaigns don’t work because people are tired of being spammed about different products and services.
So, each lead needs to be approached differently based on their purchasing behavior, likes and dislikes, and needs.
It is personalized-
It is about engaging your leads in a customized and personalized manner sending drips of content that grip your customer.
When I say personalized the kind of content posted is based on their recent activities and their areas of interest rather than sending something generic.
It is pre-written-
You don’t have to write fresh content every time a lead is generated. The campaign flow is predetermined, and the emails are pre-written.
It is automated and sent on a schedule-
Yes, they are automated based on the time between every stage in the sales cycle.
Why is drip marketing essential?
One of the most prominent factors drip marketing brings onto the table is- Relevancy. It makes your marketing more effective and precise.
Customers today want the right information at the right point of time, and drip marketing exactly does. It fits into your sales funnel and helps you deliver valuable pieces of information at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
It helps you build meaningful relationships with your customers with planned effort and at a lesser budget. And the best part is you don’t need to send out the same email to a thousand people in the name of email marketing.
