Date: 23 August 2023
Email newsletters are a very useful tool to keep your customers and target audience informed about your new services, products or campaigns. However, they can bring with them a small problem: New members who sign up for your newsletter will only see the emails you send them after they sign up and will not have access to the information you sent them before they signed up. This is where the “drip marketing” strategy, also referred to as drip campaigns, autonomous e-mail campaigns, lifecycle e-mails or marketing automation, comes into play.
The basic logic underlying all of these concepts such as drip campaigns, autonomous e-mail campaigns, lifecycle e-mails or marketing automation is similar, but it is as follows: A chain of marketing emails to be sent automatically on a schedule. So what is drip marketing in more detail, what are its advantages? When and under what conditions should it be used? Details are in this article.
What is Drip Marketing?
“Drip” marketing (also referred to as a “drip” campaign in some sources. It is a type of marketing based on sending pre-planned and autonomized messages to existing and potential customers. The term “drip”, which means “dripping” in English, is actually used in this type of marketing to refer to a chain of emails that “drip” step by step. The aim here is to increase engagement by stimulating interaction among the audience to whom these planned messages are sent. This multi-step communication flow can be attributed to many different triggers, such as time, the recipient’s action in the previous interaction, their interaction with the website, or other predetermined parameters. If a user is a new member of your blog site, you can send them a “Welcome” email immediately, and 2 days later you can send them an email listing the most read blog content. In another example, a potential user who has been lingering on your “Premium Membership” page for a few weeks but hasn’t made up their mind yet could be sent a drip campaign, an email with 5 reasons to buy your premium plan. Based on research, we can definitely say that relevant and targeted emails generate 18 times more revenue than generic emails sent globally.
In simpler terms, drip marketing is all about giving the right information to the right people at the right time. The best part is that all these processes automatically reach the user segments determined by you with the triggers you set.
What are the Advantages of Drip Marketing?
The main objective of most drip marketing campaigns, especially e-mail, is to communicate with the consumer on a regular basis, without having to spend time with each individual customer. The advantages of drip marketing can be listed as follows:
1-Automation
The biggest advantage of drip marketing is that it is an autonomous process, which guarantees time savings. From the moment you plan your message chains, you let the autonomous software do the rest. As you can imagine, this is the most challenging and laborious part of creating a drip marketing campaign. We are here to make this whole laborious process easier for you with the different tools, software and CMS programs we use. Meanwhile, you can focus on your sales and building your products or services.
2-Quality Lead
Drip marketing campaigns are very adept at bringing you quality and qualified leads. Let’s say you sent an email to a potential customer promoting your service, they opened it, read it and came to your site via email. Of course, after all this progress, you don’t want this to be the last contact the customer has with you. An autonomous drip campaign will automatically send them a second email thanking them for visiting your site and letting them know that they can get a free trial of your service. Nice, isn’t it? When your prospect can experience your service for free, the likelihood of them buying your service increases exponentially – especially when compared to sending a single promotional message and not building an ongoing relationship. In most cases, two emails won’t be enough to generate these kinds of leads. Therefore, in order to get quality leads through drip marketing, you need a regular, steady and continuous flow.
So What is this Lead?
We can define “lead” as consumers requesting contact information from a brand to receive marketing and sales offers related to products or services. Although there is no clear equivalent in Turkish, we can express it as sales opportunities, potential customers or users interested in products/services.
3-Timing Perfect Information Flow
No brand wants to send inaccurate or outdated information to its target audience. An email drip campaign can help you avoid this. We can remove outdated information, add new information or update old information within the framework of a drip campaign to ensure that your lead gets the information they need. Another advantage of drip marketing when it comes to information flow is that customers are sent relevant information about the steps in the sales cycle. You wouldn’t send the same email to a customer who has a membership and pays you regularly and a new prospect, would you? That’s where the drip campaign comes in and ensures that the right data reaches the right people thanks to the customizable triggers we set.
Shape your communication according to the user’s behavior.
Welcome emails
When someone new joins your audience, it’s important to make a good impression. By using welcome drops, you can instantly share the information that newcomers need. You can also use welcome emails to keep in touch with someone you have physically met at an event or conference. A drip campaign is one of the most effective ways to engage newcomers to your audience, keep in touch with them about ongoing campaigns and activities, and let them know that you share their values.
Automations after the first purchase
When someone makes their first purchase from you, there are always great opportunities to thank them for it, to remind them of the features and quality of the product or service they purchased, to share tips on how to get the most out of it, to recommend products that other consumers have purchased and confirm that they made a good choice. Expressing your thanks at this early stage makes your user feel like part of a special community and takes your brand-consumer relationship to the next level.
Product recommendations
One of the best ways to further increase sales when someone makes a purchase is to offer relevant products. This could very well be included in an order confirmation or shipping notification. For example, when someone buys a dress on your site, you could suggest belts or shawls that other buyers have bought with the dress. Alternatively, you could send a follow-up email a few weeks later – preferably close to the estimated expiration date of the consumable they purchased – asking if they would like to reorder their purchase.
Emails to keep your audience informed
When a user interacts with your customer service or sales team about order status, shipping time or anything else, you can get them to do much more by activating a drip campaign. For example, if they’ve searched for a missing invoice or payment, a drip campaign can encourage them to opt in to an electronically auto-sent invoice service or direct debit order service. Likewise, if they started a product demonstration video on your site and didn’t complete it, a drip campaign can help them watch it all the way through and connect with your brand.
Abandoned shopping carts
Online buyers often add a product to their cart and then remove it right before purchase or abandon the buying process altogether. A well-designed abandoned cart email can make your potential buyers reconsider their purchasing decisions. It is important not to be overly pushy here; it is important to nudge the user in a balanced way without making it obvious that you are too involved in their choices and actions. For example, if a user has decided against buying a specific skirt, you can send them an email about a spring collection designed by a special designer without mentioning the product they are considering.
Lead collection
If a user has signed up for a whitepaper, a webinar or a similar engaging tool, it’s time to reach them with relevant content. For example, if you offer gardening services and a lead has signed up for a how-to guide on winterizing the backyard, you could send them an email with additional tips and special promotions just for them. Quality lead nurturing can take many different forms, such as giving your leads more detailed information about product features, informing them about what they can learn from your online course, or educating them about your services. This campaign, which we call “lead nurturing” in all its forms, will not only increase your sales, but also your purchase value.
Unsubscribe emails
After someone signs up for your newsletter, you can send them a follow-up email asking for feedback. If they unsubscribe from your subscription service, you can also ask for feedback as well as an initiative or offer with the theme “How can we get you back?”. Another option is to send them an email 3-6 months after they unsubscribe to check their status.
Is Drip by Drip Marketing?
Of Course!
In fact, the essence of drip marketing is very simple: you can use drip marketing campaigns to showcase your business’s promotional offers, opportunities, possibilities and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
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