5 Steps to a Drip Marketing Campaign
What Is a Drip Marketing Campaign?
Drip marketing is a form of digital marketing where material is sent to prospective customers steadily over a specified time period. In other words, marketing materials “drip” to potential leads. In the past, this was primarily done through the use of direct mail campaigns, but now it refers to automated email campaigns, with social media being a secondary means of contact. The goal is to cement a product or service into the minds of consumers.
5 Steps to a Drip Marketing Campaign
Drip marketing is a very effective technique when it’s properly executed. Although the precise process may vary, there are typically five primary steps to a typical drip marketing campaign:
Identify Your Audience
As with any marketing initiative, you’ll first want to identify your target audience. With this first step, you’ll create buyer personas based on specific information such as age, gender, online activity, hobbies, income, career, etc. This is also where you’ll want to identify the objective of your campaign in terms of which demographics you’d like to target and what actions you want your audience to take.
Write Excellent Copy
As they say, content is king. Every bit of your email’s content should be written clearly and professionally. You can have a little fun with it, of course, but everything from your subject line to the body of your message to the signature should show that you’re clearly putting your best foot forward. A general rule of thumb is to grab their attention with the use of humor, wit, relatable stories, and anything else that helps your message stand out.
Offer Genuine Value
Whatever type of product or service your company is offering in its drip marketing campaign, you need to present that offering as having value to potential customers. You need to show how the product or service will solve a problem they’re having or how it will enrich their lives. You can also offer value in terms of providing free consulting, video downloads, white papers, webinars, and other items that they would find of interest.
Don’t Rush the Effort
It’s human nature to get into a rush and expect results right away, but that’s not how a drip marketing campaign typically works. Although some recipients may react right away, others might be a tougher nut to crack. However, this doesn’t mean you should bombard them with multiple emails in a short period of time. To paraphrase a popular notion, slow and steady often wins the race.
Track and Optimize
The last thing you want to do with a drip marketing campaign is send it out into the world and totally forget about it. It’s important that you monitor and A/B test your content, subject lines, sending frequency, landing pages, calls-to-action, etc. Then, if the results show that something isn’t working, you’ll need to tweak future campaigns to optimize the results.
Benefits of a Drip Marketing Campaign
If you follow the above steps, you’ll successfully begin a drip marketing campaign in no time. By using these types of campaigns as part of your marketing endeavors, you can successfully enjoy these benefits:
Boosts Engagement
By keeping customers aware of your product or service, they’re more likely to engage with future emails. This is true before they buy your product or service, but also after they’ve made a purchase. In the post-purchase period, you can engage with customers to provide them with additional information. If this includes tips and tricks about a particular product, they’ll be even happier with their purchase.
Improves Loyalty
One of the most effective ways to build your company is to improve each customer’s loyalty. By staying engaged with customers via a drip marketing campaign, they’re more likely to appreciate you as a whole. If you can keep this going, there’s the potential for your customers to become brand ambassadors and do some of the selling for you.
Relevant Content
By knowing where each potential buyer fits into your sales cycle, you’ll be able to create more relevant content in each email campaign. This may include sending out emails that answer particular questions. You could also provide emails to recent customers that show them how to get the most out of your product or service. Another good strategy is to share information on other products or services that would complement what they’ve already purchased from you.
Brand Awareness
We’ve discussed the importance of brand awareness ad nauseam because it’s exactly that — important. Keeping your brand in the minds of previous, current, and potential customers is one of the best ways to grow your business. Sending out automated emails via drip marketing campaigns is a wonderful way to accomplish this.
Re-Engagement
The truth is that consumers are constantly being exposed to multiple businesses at any given time. This can cause some people — including loyal customers — to fall off the grid for a while. By executing a well-crafted drip marketing campaign, you’ll often be able to re-engage with past customers (or would-be customers) who have remained dormant for quite some time.
Capture Old Carts
Many companies seem to have the attitude that an abandoned shopping cart is simply a lost cause. Instead of looking at it this way, you should see it as a potential opportunity. After all, the customer got far enough into the purchasing process to drop a product or service into their cart. They were obviously interested at some point. Creating a drip marketing campaign that focuses on these abandoned items can get these customers to return to your website and complete their purchase.
Contact P3 Agency to Begin a Drip Marketing Campaign
As the leading marketing agency in Tampa and Clearwater, the P3 Agency can assist you with drip marketing, website design, social media, buyer personas, lead nurturing, and all other aspects of digital marketing. If you have any questions or would like a free marketing assessment, give us a call at (800) 515-9422 today.