Drip Marketing: Definition, Working, and Examples

Marketing is critical to the development and success of any business. Marketers currently use a variety of marketing tactics. You've probably heard of email marketing. Popular corporations and brands utilize this type of marketing to send promotional emails to clients who signed up for their website using their email addresses. It may contain advertising and be designed to promote sales or leads.

 

Similar to email marketing is Drip Marketing. A drip campaign is a series of automated emails sent to those who do something particular. You may select the number of emails to send and the rate at which they are sent for every specific activity. These cold emails may be customized by including information such as the recipient's name and specific references to the action they did.

 

In this article, we are going to delve into the concept of drip marketing.

 

What is Drip Marketing?

 

Many direct marketers use drip marketing, which involves sending a steady stream of marketing materials to clients over a period of time. Drip marketing aims to generate sales by repeatedly exposing its receivers to the promoted goods and services over time. 

 

Drip marketing entails sending a continual stream of pre-written communications to potential consumers or purchasers via various channels such as email, direct mail, and social media. Drip marketing refers to delivering a series of emails in a gradual and steady manner. It might be two, five, or whatever number you believe is the ideal way to stay in contact on a certain issue without going overboard.

 

Drip marketing began with physical mail and flyers distributed to a recipient from a marketing list or following initial contact. Drip marketing is now mostly conducted over the Internet and its numerous communications alternatives.

 

The principle is the same: drip campaigns, also known as drip marketing, automated email campaigns, lifecycle emails, autoresponders, and marketing automation, are a collection of marketing emails that will be sent out automatically on a schedule. 

 

A drip marketing campaign could be initiated by someone placing a purchase, attending a store event, signing up for a webcast, enrolling for a report or white paper, abandoning a shopping cart, contacting customer care, or not placing an order in a long time.

 

How does drip marketing work?

 

Because of its low cost and ease of automation, email is the most popular drip marketing channel. Email drip marketing often begins with a prospective consumer filling out an online form, which then inserts the individual into an autoresponder program that administers the campaign from there.

 

Drip marketing strategies, in which social media account updates and news feed items are updated on a regular basis around a content marketing effort, are becoming more popular. Direct mail has long been employed in drip marketing campaigns, and it has been upgraded to incorporate software and digital printing to automate, customize, and control mailer production and delivery.

 

What are the key elements of a drip campaign?

 

Now that you know what a drip marketing campaign is, let's look at the many components that make it up:

 

1. Triggers:

 

Triggers are the events that start your drip marketing campaign by either adding a new lead to your pipeline or moving an existing lead further down the funnel. The range and number of triggers may differ depending on the specifics of your organization. Some of the most typical drip marketing triggers are as follows:

 

• a new blog subscriber; 

• the generation of a lead; 

• a potential client abandoning their shopping cart without paying; 

• the establishment of an account in your online store.

 

 

2. Conditions:

 

Triggers kickstart the campaign and get the wheels turning. However, a series of predefined requirements must be satisfied before the engagement actions may begin. Drip marketing campaign conditions, like triggers, are established by the marketing manager who is organizing the campaign; hence, they are only limited by the creativity of the aforementioned manager.

 

 

3. Actions:

 

Actions are the real interaction aspects that form a relationship between the business and its consumers in drip marketing. These activities can take the shape of emails, SMS messages, social network direct messages, or push alerts, depending on the sort of drip marketing in the issue.

 

Also Read | Healthcare Marketing

 

When should one conduct a drip campaign?

 

Drip marketing is a broad word that refers to a variety of marketing methods. The aim, though, remains the same: keep consumers interested in your offering. Here are a few circumstances when you should use drip marketing to keep your customers engaged:

 

1. It can be used to welcome new customers:

 

Drip campaigns can be used to welcome new customers to the company. It will help them understand your product better and grasp all the functionalities. It will make your customers feel welcomed, informed, and important, adding to a better customer experience. 

 

If someone signs up for your newsletter, you can set up a welcome drip to send them some of your most popular blog content. Try a drip with case studies on how other customers are utilizing your product if you obtain a new trial-level registration for your service. Welcome emails are a good way to say, "Hey there, lovely to meet you!" at the very least.

 

2. It can be implemented to nurture new leads:

 

Marketing leads are potential clients that you believe will purchase your goods in the near future. They may only require a little nurturing or hand-holding till they are ready to acquire your stuff. Lead nurturing may take many different forms, such as teaching consumers about your business, assisting them with certain features, or providing free trials.

 

You can't personally guide every user through the process of discovering and purchasing your product, but drip emails can. You may nurture your leads and make them ready to become paying customers by using welcome, onboarding, engagement, or abandoned shopping cart drips, as well as additional drip email campaign ideas we'll look at below.

 

3. It can be used to alert customers who might have abandoned their carts for a while:

 

You created intriguing mailings, advertised flash sales, and ultimately persuaded your user to click the golden "add to basket" button. Then your hard-won sale is gone. It's more frequent than you may expect to abandon a completely loaded shopping cart.

 

You can re-engage those hesitant clients and lure them back to the "purchase" button using an automated drip campaign. Use a drip to follow up with consumers who leave non purchased goods in their basket and ensure that it is still available. You don't even have to offer tangible goods to make this work.

 

4. It can be used to recommend products to your customers:

 

"You might also like" isn't only for binge-watching Netflix—recommendation engines are a staple of practically every major online business (ahem, Amazon). The more information a corporation has about you and your purchasing patterns, the more it can forecast what you'll enjoy and what you would not. They can use that information to send you personalized drip emails with items or promotions according to your buying habits. Use drips to target user groups depending on the features of your service they use the most or what kind of material they're interested in. When you consider the potential returns, it's easy to see why Amazon and others put so much effort into their suggestion emails.

 

5. It can be used to confirm the user’s purchase:

 

You've made the sale, or better yet, you've persuaded a customer to extend their membership for another year. However, your drip email work isn't finished. Set up a "thank you" autoresponder that goes out shortly after they press the "buy" button to confirm your user's purchase renewal using a drip campaign. You might include links to your product's newest features in that confirmation drip to re-engage them with your brand.

 

Sending your customers an email receipt after they make a purchase should go without saying, but you can also utilize that communication to promote related items and upsells. Send a brief email a day before the event to place any key confirmation codes at the top of the user's inbox with confirmations for things like plane tickets and hotel accommodations. Then, a few days later, the same drip might send them another email, asking them to evaluate your product or service and offering a coupon for future purchases.

 

Is Drip Marketing really useful?

 

By converting visitors into purchasers, increasing repeat transactions, and reengaging a dormant audience, drip marketing may help you increase sales. You establish a relationship with your audience and demonstrate that you're a valuable resource for their requirements by articulating your company's worth.

 

According to a survey of 2,000 individuals, half of us are "constantly searching for goods, services, and information to encourage behavior change." This tendency can be aided by a drip campaign. Drip campaigns are also effective because they are targeted, which means they are based on a specific activity and can be customized. More than 90% of customers think they are more inclined to purchase from businesses that identify and remember them.

 

Some examples of drip marketing:

 

Here are some famous examples of drip marketing:

 

1. The Welcome Drip Marketing Campaign by Drift:

 

The first email users receive after joining up is the good old welcome email. These kinds of communications are crucial since they establish the tone for the rest of your email campaign. If your message does not resonate with your audience, they may immediately unsubscribe. As a result, if you want to keep your subscribers and move them along your sales funnel, you must do this right.

 

Drift has one of the greatest welcome email drip campaign examples. Welcome emails are usually in the form of a landing page thanking you for signing up and highlighting the benefits you'll receive as a subscriber. Drift, on the other hand, foregoes the formality in favor of getting down and dirty with what really counts.

 

2. The Trello drip marketing:

 

Trello used an aggressive sales strategy to encourage members to convert by emphasizing the numerous benefits of their services. With its "Twelve Days to Trello" campaign, Trello took a novel approach to this concept. The title of this drip campaign is a play on words from the song "12 Days of Christmas," and it was launched over the holiday season.

 

The email included links to pages explaining how to use Trello as a productivity tool as well as a project management tool. The strategy is also appropriate for the holiday season, which is exactly what Trello was hoping to do with its drip email. You may increase sales and build more interest in your product by including a timely message in your drip campaign.

 

3. Netflix’s Win-Back drip marketing:

 

Because businesses with comparable products/services face stiff competition, being strategic with your re-engagement strategies is essential. In this instance, a well-crafted win-back drip campaign that is tailored and appealing enough to entice your consumer back is your best bet.

 

Netflix has a superb win-back drip program. Lost subscriptions have cost the company money in the past. To counteract the problem, Netflix developed a clever win-back drip campaign to lower churn and increase engagement. While the email content isn't particularly interesting, Netflix hopes to reclaim customers by incorporating a brightly colored call-to-action.

 

However, it isn't the only way to get those lost memberships back. For the next three months, the brand will send out a series of emails to former customers informing them of all the new movies and TV shows that they are missing out on. Netflix gives former customers extra incentive to renew their membership by displaying newly added series alongside the user's top selections. Netflix sends a targeted email after a series of customized drip ads to show clients what they need to do to enjoy all of the benefits emphasized throughout the email sequence.

 

The whole brand's win-back strategy revolves around reminding customers how much pleasure they had during their membership. To recover your lost income, all you need to do is favor simplicity and explain to your clients why they should reinvest in your brand.