Your Guide to Effective Email Drip Campaign Techniques

How successful was your last email campaign?

Email remains one of the most popular lead generation tools available, but email campaigns are no longer one-and-done. Improvements in marketing automation have allowed email campaigns to evolve into long term, sequential campaigns, with much better results.

However, starting your own email drip campaign can seem a daunting prospect.

Let’s go over how to make the most out of your drip email campaign with these tips. 

What is an Email Drip Campaign?

Drip campaigns are sets of emails that you send out via automation on set timelines. They let you keep in touch with groups of users based on set events. These events can be the date they signed up, or how often they visit your site.

Each batch of drip emails comes from a selection of pre-written emails. This means there’s no need for you to write out each one and send them yourself. You can even personalize them with things like the name of your contact.

Its success comes from providing the right information to people at the right time. For example, for a new user, your drip campaign could send out a welcome email. A few days later, it could send another email recommending your most-read content. The benefits of drip campaigns are clear.

Tips for a Successful Email Drip Campaign

So, if you want to cash in on the benefits of drip campaigns, here are some tips to get you started.

Choose the Type of Drip Campaign to Suit Your Business

The first step is to work out what sort of email drip campaign you want to run. There are 4 general types:

1. New Subscriber

2. Current Subscriber Nurture

3. Current Subscriber Upsell

4. Current Subscriber Retention

You can get more detailed with this of course, but to start you should identify what it is you want to achieve first. What is your goal for your drip campaign? Which of those four categories does your goal fit into? Once you know this, you can then begin planning out the details.

Plan it Out

When planning, use a flowchart or a mind map tool. Make sure it contains different pathways that your readers can choose. You should base these off their interests and behavior.

This will help you see the bigger picture of your campaign. You’ll be in a better position to see any problems or holes before you get too far in.

The key to success with any digital marketing strategy is personalization. The more personalized your drip campaign is, the more likely it is to bring in results. 
Also, make sure that you have different drip campaigns for different goals. Instead of doing one long, complex campaign, make a few smaller, more focused drips. For example, you could have a different drip for:

– A new user who downloaded something from your website landing page

– A current user who used a certain coupon for a purchase

– A specific buyer profile

– A lead from a specific geographic area

There are innumerable ways you can segment your email lists, so work out what will make the most sense for your company. Always remember that the best results come from the most relevant, focused content.

Experiment with Frequency

A common downfall of email drip campaigns is inundating your users with too many emails. You can’t send too many out in quick succession.
There are many factors to consider when trying to work out the best frequency for your business. You need to think about the group you’re targeting, and where down the sales funnel this group is. You also need to think of the nature of the email and what content it contains.

The only real way to find your perfect frequency is to experiment. You want to aim for a click-through rate that is around 2-5%. This is a sign that you’re getting the email frequency right.

If your click-through rates are low, this could be because of a few things, like:

– You’re sending emails too often, and users don’t do anything as they heard from you the day before.

– Your emails are too far apart, and users don’t do anything because they don’t remember your company.

– Your content isn’t engaging to the user or isn’t what they expect.

– You don’t have a call to action or it’s unclear.

Have a Good Use of Subjects and Previews

Make sure you’re customizing the preview and subject lines. This is a crucial element of attracting users to open your email. Use a bold, punchy subject line that will draw the user in. You don’t want to use anything to generic or long.

These are the first impressions for your user. If they have a bad one, the rest of your emails will be going in the bin. You want to attract the user in and give them a reason to read more. It shouldn’t be messy, and make sure that it gets right to the point.

Make Your Email Drip Campaign a Series

Users appreciate knowing what to expect in advance. For example, if you’re running a campaign promising helpful tips, don’t leave it at that. Make it into a five part series over the course of a month.

If your users engage with the first few tips, it’s likely they will stick with the whole campaign. Series campaigns also reassure your users that you won’t be bombarding them each week.

Welcoming New Users

If your marketing has worked, you’ll have a whole host of new users flooding your site. To reel them in, you want to keep them engaged. You can start by sending out a welcome email. It might not seem like a lot, but it will make all the difference.

Your welcome email will let the user know you value them choosing you. It’ll also introduce them to how they can use your site. Make sure you always include links to highly-viewed content and your products.

Lead Generation

Once the welcome emails go out, your drip campaign will kick in. The next emails you will send are likely to be lead generation emails. These re-engage your users, as well as set you up as an authority figure in your niche.

Usually, they’re “best practice” or “how-to” emails. You can include tips for using a new product, or insider insight into your niche area. You can also use this email series to promote extra products or services.

Promotional Drip Campaigns

Want to draw attention to a new deal you’re promoting? Bring out a drip campaign.

You can target promotions only to email subscribers. You can offer special promo codes, for example. This will give users a sense of exclusivity. Everyone loves to feel exclusive and special.

Remember that as this is a drip campaign, you’ll need more than one email ready to go. You can send the first email to tease and hint at an upcoming promotion. Then you can send another right before launch, when you launch it and before it ends. This gives users plenty of time to get in on the deal.

Webinar/Event Announcement

This is similar to a promotion email, but you’re promoting a certain event this time. Drip emails are useful with this because it can help you get last-minute attendees.

Having a variety of touchpoints with your users all the way up to event day is crucial to success. Email is a quick and easy way to set this up. With an eye-catching caption it creates a sense of urgency that will help draw in those attendees who were on the fence before.

Measure the Success of Your Drip Email Campaign

As we have already covered, a lot of your campaign’s success comes in the goals you have set yourself. It’s important that you measure this success to make sure you stay on track. Most email software now comes with analytics tools luckily.
Four important metrics to pay attention to are:

– CTR

– Conversion rate

– Open rate

– ROI

It’s important to pay attention to these, but also remember your goals depend on what you want your users to do when they reach your page. For example, were you trying to reclaim lost users who abandoned their carts?

A lot of email services will offer you Google Analytics integration. This will allow you to track your users’ activity with more accuracy. You can also set this up yourself with an Analytics Tracking Code. It’s well worth doing.

You also want to choose a service that will test for ultimate success. Most services will be able to A/B test your emails to make use of it. Test your subject lines, CTA, from name, creative, and so on.

Stay in Touch

As you go through your marketing campaigns, make sure you are replying to and following up with users. This is something a lot of companies, even the big ones, forget. It can leave your users feeling as though they aren’t valued.

It’s one thing to ask for feedback and replies, but if you aren’t responding to them, users will feel like you don’t really want to listen.

When getting in touch with users, don’t rely on an impersonal auto response. Take the time to get in touch yourself. This way, you can build a connection with your users. This, in turn, will help users come to trust your business and be more likely to engage with your emails.

Go Mobile

Millions of users are now turning more to their mobile phones to browse their emails. To succeed, you have to make sure your email templates are able to work on both mobile and desktop. Having a strong mobile marketing strategy is key.

Luckily, you can get a huge range of email templates that are up to the job. If you want to make your own, make sure it’s a responsive one. Test it first before launching it live. You want to make sure it’ll work with different apps and devices.

You can also use your analytics tools to see which platforms and devices your users are using most. This can help you see where to put your focus.

Test, Test, and Test Again!

It doesn’t matter how confident you are in your emails, always test it out. How else will you know if you have the best strategy if you aren’t testing different things? There are email marketing services out there that will allow you to test out your strategy.

Once you’ve tested out all your options, you’ll be in a better position to pick one that best suits your needs. By continuing to track your success, you can make tweaks and improvements as you move forward.

Keep to Your Promise

Your business is there to fulfill a promise, and so are your emails. They should provide content that your target audience will find relevant and engaging. For example, if someone signs up for a free download or newsletter but you only send promo emails, you’re breaking that promise.

There’s nothing wrong with including promos, but if you promised something else, you need to deliver it too. If you don’t, you can irritate your users and drive them off.
A good rule is to keep to your main point. Only have ONE call to action and stick with ONE idea. Any more than that and you’ll risk confusing and distracting your users.

A Successful Email Drip Campaign Can Make All the Difference

If you follow these useful tips, you’ll be well on the way to having a successful email drip campaign.

Make sure you set out your goals before you start and plan your campaign out. Set out your target audience and always produce content they’ll engage with. If you promise something, make sure you deliver it, or you’ll drive users away.

Keep a personal touch to build rapport, but replying to your users yourself. This will ensure all your users feel valued and trust your business.

Most importantly, always analyze the success of your campaign. This way to can tweak as you go and make sure you’re reaching your goals.

If you want to make sure your current digital marketing strategies are up to scratch, contact us today for a digital marketing review.