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5 Tips to Create a Successful Email Drip Campaign

Drip campaigns are an easy way to provide timely information, generate leads, and reengage with current or past customers. A drip campaign can be defined as a multiple touch point outreach strategy that actually “drips” emails to individuals based on the actions taken. Below are five best practices to consider when building out a drip campaign.

Establish your objective

Every campaign should have a clear objective. There are three main reasons you would want to use a drip campaign: to stay top-of-mind, to inform, and to reengage. Once a goal is established, this will dictate the actual content that should be included along with the timing associated with the drip. Every email created within the campaign should strive to get you closer to achieving your objective.

Tailor your campaigns

People hate spam, so avoid flooding in-boxes with useless information. One way to avoid your emails being viewed as spam is to tailor the message to your target audience. Drip email campaigns should be segmented and contain relevant information that addresses the needs and concerns of the audience the campaign is targeting. With a drip campaign there are multiple touch points, so make sure each email within the drip tells a story and that the story makes sense.

Encourage action

Every email that falls within a drip should require a certain action to be taken. Whether it be to download a white paper, to watch a video, to request a demo or to schedule a meeting – there needs to be an action for the audience to take. Drip campaigns should be set up so that whatever action a person takes will determine the next email they will receive. A well thought out drip campaign will require an action and based on that action, a person will receive one of two (or multiple) messages. For example, if person X downloads a whitepaper, they receive drip A. If person X does not download the whitepaper, they receive drip B.

Determine appropriate timing

There is no one-size-fits-all method when it comes to determining the timing of a drip. In most cases the first few touch points are a bit closer together and then over time get more spread out. The timing will be influenced by the objective of the campaign. If the objective is to stay top of mind, it may be best to drip emails once a month whereas if your goal is to educate someone to make a purchase, the sales cycle of your offering will dictate the timing of each drip. Know your audience and the underlying objective of your drips to determine a frequency that is appropriate for the task at hand.

Measure your success

Every campaign should be measured to determine its success. Look first for the obvious measures of open and click rates, but then take another step to measure the conversions of the actions you required. For example, how many downloads came directly from each drip, and what clients have we heard from due to our reengagement emails. At the end of your drip campaigns, go back to the original objective you decided on and examine how the outcomes of your drip got you there.