What is a Drip Campaign and Why Should I Care?

When you hear the word drip, you probably think of annoying water drips from a faucet. In sales and marketing, drip is a good thing. A drip campaign is a marketing strategy that sends automated emails or “drips” with pre-written content to customers and prospects over time. A drip campaign is also referred to as drip marketing, automated email campaign or marketing automation. Drip campaigns are different from traditional email campaigns, because it uses time and behavioral triggers to send messages.

Why should you care about drip campaigns? Does it really make that big of a difference in lead generation verses a monthly email? YES!

Here are a few statistics to show the necessity of drip campaigns:

• Automated emails get 119% higher click rates than broadcast emails because they catch people at the right moment to take an action. Source: Epsilon
• Companies who automate emails are 133% more likely to send messages that coincide with the purchase cycle of their customers. Source: The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups
• Relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails by using the collected data to segment subscribers, and create targeted, automated emails. Source: Jupiter Research
• Welcome emails typically have 4x the open rate and 5x the click-through rate of other mailings. Source: Experian
• 74.4% of people expect to receive a welcome email right when they subscribe. Source: BlueHornet
• Subscribers that receive a welcome now show 33% more long-term brand engagement. Source: chiefmarketer.com
• The #1 reported benefit of marketing automation is to create more and better leads. Source: Pepper Global

As you see with the statistics, drip campaigns are very beneficial. Drip campaigns through segmentation values prospects and customers by making them feel like you are listening and sending them content that is relatable and beneficial. Drip campaigns keep you on top of their mind and nurtures your relationship with them.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to focus on the best practices of drip campaigns. In our next blog, we are going to focus on your first interaction with a prospect after they fill out your contact form. That first interaction is the Welcome email. What should it say? When should you send it? Should you follow up with a phone call after the email? We are going to answer these questions and share Welcome email best practices.