How to Get an Email Drip Campaign Up and Running

By: Brittany LeMaro, Betach Marketing Analyst

Many marketers are well acquainted with bulk email marketing blasts (as are most consumers). It’s a unmethodical email marketing tactic that often lacks efficiency, personalization and authenticity. 

What Is an Email Drip Campaign?

Triggered email marketing campaigns are a way of sending emails to users based on interactions that they have with your business. This can include things like web page visits, email opens, social media engagements, and ecommerce behavior.

Put even simplier:

Email drip campaigns are a sequence of automated emails, which are sent based on a particular timeline or on user behavior. Using automated tools, you can create campaigns with different content based on your various market segments using triggers.

Campaigns can be triggered by factors like website actions, purchases, or time factors, with the primary goal being subscriber engagement. These campaigns can be anything from a welcome series or subscriber onboarding.

Email Drip Campaigns for B2B Marketers

B2B marketers can begin with a welcome series, which can be used to introduce a service or product to subscribers, while also building credibility and expertise. This is particularly useful if the product is complex and has longer sales cycles.

Later on, B2B marketers can begin using data from their customers to develop triggered campaigns based on their behaviors, such as their interactions on the company's website or at a conference booth. This keeps the conversation going and helps qualify leads in less time than individual outreach by the sales team.

Getting Started With B2B Email Drip Campaigns

Our experts outlined the initial steps needed to get an email drip campaign up and running:

1. Determine Your Goals

Before setting up a drip campaign it's imperative that you have a clear idea of the purpose. You should have goals like increasing conversions or reducing subscriber dropoffs in mind before you begin. Then you'll want to map out the customer journey for your drip campaigns. One type is a direct follow-up; for example an interaction triggering a phone call from a sales rep. Second, is a campaign for subscribers that don't immediately convert. These long-term drip campaigns should focus more on information rather than sales so your brand remains in the back of your subscribers' minds while they go through the decision-making process.

2. Segment Your Audience

You need to segment your audience to ensure the campaign is delivering the correct information to the appropriate people. A common way to do this is based on how subscribers join the mailing list — whether from an event or downloading a whitepaper, for example.

3. Create the Content

You want to offer your subscribers unique and valuable content. By providing more useful thought leadership content you will minimize your unsubscribes and elevate your credibility when they are ready to take the next step.

The more personal you can make the message, the better. You want to keep the tone friendly and personal, and should take advantage of email platforms that support merge tags or custom fields to insert details specific to the subscriber. Informative and personalized content will build trust with your subscribers, and nurture your leads down the sales funnel.

4. Set Up the Email Campaign

At this point, you can set up the campaign in an email marketing automation tool. There are several platforms that support email automation, like ClickDimensions, PowerAddon or Dynamics for Marketing, in which you can design your email journey and email templates. They work within Dynamics 365 and integrate information within your Contacts and Account.

5. Evaluate the Results

All of your campaigns should be tracked and measured. You need to determine which emails performed well based on critical metrics, and adjust your campaigns from there.

All in all, my biggest piece of advice to marketers is to dive in and get started. Don’t let ambiguity on some of the complexities prevent you from tackling marketing automation. Many platforms are incredibly cost-efficient and can create huge return for your business.

As always, if you have any questions or are interested in learning more about integrating your CRM and Marketing activities, you know where to find us!

info@betach.com
(403) 984-2473