Drip Email Marketing- An Excellent Tool for Nurturing Leads
If you have a huge customer list and it keeps growing, it becomes challenging to send important email messages to your entire list at once. However, when compared to other marketing channels, emails still have the advantage because once it reaches customers inboxes it will stay there forever. Sending personalized messages to customers will prove to be fruitful.
That is where the drip email campaigns come into the picture. Emails are sent in a sequence to targeted customers based on the buyer’s journey. They educate leads and connect with them in a more meaningful way. This leads to increased engagement and helping them make the right choice when they are ready to purchase.
What is Drip Email Marketing?
Drip email marketing is a form of email marketing where you can send a message in a particular rhythm. It is more of a one-to-one communication where you send a series of emails, like daily reminders, weekly specials, monthly updates, and yearly renewal notices.
Each message should be a follow-up of your past messages and it should set the stage for what’s to expect in the future. Drip emails are sent to someone who is already familiar with your brand and the goal here is to eventually convert them into customers.
Products and services with a long selling cycle will benefit the most from this timed-release drip email marketing.
Benefits of Drip Email Marketing
Drip email marketing is a concept adopted by most marketers globally for its various benefits:
- Keeps existing as well as potential customer engaged
- Will hold customers interest and attention for a longer period of time
- Gives you the opportunity to create brand awareness in the global market
- Drip email marketing is perfect for lead nurturing and lead generation
- Facilitates all your upselling and cross-selling opportunities
- It works both ways as cart abandonment as well as re-engagement emails
- Clear-cut and accurate email segmentation
- The frequency of sending emails can be controlled better.
Important Best Practices to Develop a Drip Campaign to Nurture Leads
Identify and understand your potential customer
Know your customers and prospects before sending an email message. It is best if you segment your list according to their geographical location and interests. Make sure you send a constant flow of messages that will interest your customers and will keep them engaged.
Connect with customers and prospects through multichannel marketing
While drip emails are effective, marketers can also consider using multichannel marketing. They can convey their messages or marker their products through various channels such as SMS text messages, social media posts, direct mails like newsletters, postcards, brochures, telemarketing, email, and event marketing.
You can try different multichannel marketing campaigns to see what works best for you.
Prepare your leads for sales
Once customers show interest in your products they become prime candidates for drip nurturing campaigns. You can send a progressive set of email messages to give them more information about your product. They are likely to make larger purchases with the right information sent at the right step in their purchase journey.
Close the deal after a free trial
Sending drip messages to your prospects will help them get the most out of your product and is likely to improve sales. Giving away free trials will attract customers and become indispensable to them.
Provide them ample details of your products such as tips, best practices, etc. or you can ask them to share their experiences on a message board. Make sure to send notifications to inform when the trial is about to close.
Maintain communication with customers
Maintain regular communication with your existing as well as prospects. This could be a thank you message then followed by ongoing series of messages asking them to write a review for your product and also update them on your new product or service.
Send series of messages
Your existing customers should be kept informed about current products and offers as they are some of your loyal customers who are most likely to buy from you again. You can target prospects with a series of messages right up to the contract renewal date.
Keep in constant touch with inactive prospects and customers
Send drip nurturing campaigns to inactive prospects and customers to keep them updated about your offers and deals. You can inform them about better products and services, or even ask them to refer your brand to their friends and colleagues and assure them an incentive for their re-engagement.
Send creative messages to engage customers
By sending a creative message you can keep your brand top-of-mind with your audience. You can use social media to attract the attention of your followers. You can post a joke or a special deal and it is not a must that your posts should relate to what you’re promoting, but it can align with your brand's identity.
Prepare prospect for new product launch
If you are expecting a better response from your prospects you must keep them informed about your new product launch. If you are changing the look and feel of your website, opening a new store, or promoting an important upcoming event that will interest your prospect, sending a series of drip marketing messages to keep them informed of what to expect can drive conversion.
You can send a teaser email, followed by a formal message and a series of updates about your product. Moreover, event reminders can be scheduled then followed by a thank you note.
Get drip email marketing campaigns automated
Keeping track and sending a series of emails at intervals is a laborious process when done manually. Hence, it is necessary to get drip email marketing campaigns automated. It not only saves time and effort it also reduces costs and boosts overall results.
Types of Drip Email Marketing Campaigns to Nurture Leads
Onboarding Drip Campaign
When a lead submits an email through a form you have to welcome them by sending them relevant information that would interest them and keep them engaged. Here an onboarding drip campaign will add significant value by keeping them engaged thereby encouraging them to connect with your sales team.
You can send blog posts and case studies that would interest them or an exclusive welcome coupon. Based on their purchase intent you can also send them a curation of products that they’ve already shown interest in.
Retargeting Drip Campaign
A retargeting campaign targets users who have already engaged with your content either by downloading a white paper or visit the same page multiple times, etc. If you want them to make a purchase decision you should provide them with even more specific content to bring them back.
You can send a fillable workbook if they have downloaded your ebook recently. Your sales rep can also send an email directly to set up some time to chat. You could also request feedback about the resource they downloaded.
Post-Demo Campaign
A drip campaign would work when you demonstrate your product live. This is usually practiced by sales reps from the tech industry who often provide product demos to prospects and leads. When the demo is finished you need to share your product's success stories from other companies and also guide the higher-ups to buy-in.
For a post-demo campaign to be successful you need to share a list of video testimonials from your past clients. You can also send them a list of seminars on a particular feature in which the lead has shown interest. You must make sure to provide them access to an exclusive free trial offer that you and mentioned during your telephonic conversation.
List of Drip Email Marketing Software
When investing in drip email marketing software you must consider a few points:
- The email and workflow builder should be user-friendly. It should be easy for anybody to create, schedule, and trigger your emails.
- It should provide you with ample and relevant data on key metrics that will guide your optimization efforts.
- It should be affordable and make sure pricing is based on the number of emails you send, how many subscribers you have, and which cost-effective plan offers you drip email functionality.
Top 10 Best Drip Email Marketing Software
• SendX
• Sendinblue
• GetResponse
• HubSpot Email Marketing
• Sendloop
• Customer.io
• MailGet
• Vision6
• Mailchimp
• Mad Mimi
Drip email marketing software can boost your retention and conversion rate. It helps you to connect with your audience seamlessly. An automated Drip email marketing software is the most effective way to conduct successful email marketing campaigns. When used efficiently it guarantees the maximum increase in your business revenue.
Conclusion
Many businesses today are actively implementing drip email marketing campaign best practices to nurture leads and convert them into sales and regular clients. You too must make drip email campaigns part of your email marketing strategy. It is the most effective and efficient way to send relevant messages to your targeted customers.
When you are nurturing leads a drip-email campaign can provide valuable content when your prospect needs it most. You have to strategically plan and create your drip campaigns to make them successful. It should engage and convert your leads and prospects to make a purchase decision which will eventually increase your company’s revenue.