Customer Experience and Engagement, How-to Guides, Marketing Strategies, Technology and Mobile

How to Start an Email Drip Campaign

FSSI logo Kelly McConville on October 10, 2017

collection of printed and email marketing communications.

Getting Started with Email Drip Marketing Campaigns?

In Part 1 of this two-part blog series, we explored why an email drip campaign is a great addition to your company’s current content marketing strategy. In Part 2, we will focus on how to set up your email drip marketing and choose an email drip marketing software application that will best suit your company’s marketing needs.


What is an Email Drip Campaign?

Setting up a successful email drip marketing campaign requires working backward. For starters, there is one question you should address first. What is the overall goal of your email drip campaign? Starting with the goal and working down will determine your campaign structure. Many companies utilize drip marketing to increase sales. Others are trying to build better brand recognition. Email drip campaigns are also used to increase customer retention. Those are only a few types of email drip campaigns. Once you have identified your goal, you can identify who your target audience will be and construct an appropriate message.

Target Audience

The great thing about email drip marketing is you can completely customize your campaign to suit the needs of your audience. First of all, be very specific when choosing a target audience for your campaign. Segment your audience into groups based upon the goal at hand. For example, retail companies trying to increase sales might set their audience to be customers who have abandoned items in their online cart for over a week. These customers could be sent a series of drip emails that offer incentives such as coupons or free shipping to encourage them to buy. Another angle is looking at what your current customers or prospects want to learn or what they want to achieve. Your answer will allow you to write a clear call to action for your campaign and help you construct your campaign’s message.

Campaign Message

Always ensure that your email drip campaign conveys a clear message that includes a call to action for your target audience. Here is a quick tip to remember from Zapier.com, “It’s never too late to start an email drip marketing strategy. Most importantly, make sure you aren’t sending current users a bunch of emails that they didn’t sign up for. If they don’t understand why they’re getting an email, they could unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.” Making sure your company’s message is relevant to your target audience is crucial, otherwise, your efforts will be wasted. Using a professional copywriter with experience in drip emails is best in this scenario. The right writer can use this as an opportunity to make announcements or offer subscriptions, deals, and coupons to entice recipients to take action.


Choosing the Best Email Drip Software

Having a concrete plan for your email drip campaign will help your company to choose the perfect software to execute your campaign strategy. There are many different types of email drip software. Do your research and find the software that best suits your email campaign. Listed below are 3 different software options to get your research started.

Drip is a great software application to get your feet wet with email drip marketing. It’s a simple interface and these tools have a low starting price.

Hubspot is an all-in-one marketing automation software application. This digital app is great for users who want to integrate their email drip marketing campaigns. You can integrate with a blog or other pieces. This is accomplished through automated workflows.

MailChimp is a great automation software application for a company that enjoys having choices. In addition, MailChimp offers ready-to-go drip campaigns as well as completely customizable options in the form of user-friendly email design.

Check out Zapier.com’s list of 25 Best Email Drip Campaign Apps for an in-depth exploration of more drip software options.


Test, Evaluate and Repeat

Finally, once you have all the pieces necessary to launch your email drip campaign, then it’s time to test.  Email drip software will make your job easier by tracking and storing data from your campaign for you. Utilize your data for the future by making profiles for recipients that are responding to enable directly targeted future campaigns. Another email drip marketing tip is to use every last drop of campaign data. Use information like, what emails got the most open rates, what copy and call-to-action worked best. Use that data, and readjust your marketing strategy for future campaigns. A perfected drip email campaign formula will be sure to yield a high ROI.


About FSSI

FSSI is a technology-forward print and mail company with 35+ years of experience as document outsourcing specialists. FSSI offers customized marketing services along with providing secure data processing and storage. For more information about our statement mailing services or letter management or call 714.436.3300 for a free consultation.


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