8 email drip campaign ideas to add to your email marketing mix
Email drip campaigns are beneficial for all brands but even more so when your marketing team is small but mighty.
Leveraging automated, trigger-based emails are a great tactic for getting back to your customers or potential customers immediately and helping them along their own buyer’s journey.
Email drip campaigns can be used to engage, convert, or even keep customers loyal to your brand long after the initial sale. But, that doesn’t mean you have to just stick to pre- and post-sale emails! There are many creative ways to use email drip campaigns for your marketing efforts.
Let’s take a closer look at eight ways you can leverage automated email campaigns for both current customers and prospects.
8 email drip campaigns you should be running
1. Lead nurturing
Beyond purchase confirmations, lead nurturing email campaigns are some of the most important emails your marketing team will send. It’s your opportunity to make a fantastic first or second impression and keep potential customers engaged with your brand while they learn more about your products, services, and your brand’s overall story.
Segment out your lead nurturing emails with Top of Funnel (TOFU), Middle of Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) streams to provide the right value with your emails with where your email subscribers are at in their journey. That means starting with high-level educational content around your brand, products, or industry, then moving into more product-specific streams and the benefits of your brand’s products, before helping them purchase the right product for them.
2. Abandoned cart
Shopify notes that up to 80% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and it’s not always because the customer has changed their mind. Sometimes they get distracted or the page times out, sometimes they want to talk over the purchase with someone else, or they’re at work and need to exit out of the page quickly.
By following up with an abandoned cart email it can prompt them to finish their transaction or even take a second look at your online shop or inventory and add on to their original purchase. It’s best to keep the tone light and fun and a gentle reminder they might have left something behind.
More often than not, most abandoned cart emails do include a discount code or special offer as an incentive to return to their cart. Most start around 10% or offer free shipping on products, or maybe a month-long free trial for SaaS businesses. Think about what offer you can give to encourage someone to become a customer and finish their transaction.
3. Re-engagement campaigns
Sometimes our lead nurture emails aren’t sent at the right time or the customer isn’t ready to pull the trigger and that’s okay. That doesn’t mean you’ve lost your chance at turning them into a customer! Enter, re-engagement email drip campaigns.
I bet you’ve even gotten a couple where the brand will say they miss you or they’ve changed things up and encourage you to check out their website or new lineup of products or services. This would also be a great opportunity to share the latest blogs, videos, or other educational (not salesy!) marketing materials you’ve made to reignite their interest.
4. Educational
Earn your potential customers’ and current customers’ trust by creating a few different educational series of emails on different topics. For example, you work for a makeup brand and you create a series of educational emails showing tips and tricks for expertly applying eyeliner, eyeshadow, and how to use eyebrow pencils. You could have another series dedicated to certain makeup looks, like everyday wear, special event, date night, and so on. Another series could be dedicated to makeup tool care, upkeep or the life of specific makeup products, etc.
While your products might be featured in these pieces of content, they are not the major focus. The focus is on educating your email subscribers on how to get the most out of what you offer, or even if they don’t use your brand’s products now, they might be persuaded to because of your educational materials.
5. Events
Generate excitement prior to an industry event or conference and send follow-up emails after the event to send people back to your own website or take advantage of a special offer tied to the event. Event marketing is great as you can capitalize on the opportunity to share educational and informational content with a soft CTA to contact your sales team before the event to secure dedicated time for a conversation.
6. Welcome
A welcome series is a great way to onboard your customers with important things for them to know, important contact information, like customer support, or how-tos to get the most out of their new product or service. You can also invite them to join an online community, like your social media pages, to get the most out of their experience with your brand.
7. Milestones
Celebrate your customers’ anniversaries, usage stats, like Fitbit’s weekly roundup, or company milestones and anniversaries with this email drip campaign. These are easy wins to share personalized content on a regular basis with your customers. When it’s relevant and appropriate, be sure to share upcoming product launches, new content, or any other thing you want to call special attention to.
8. Upsell or add-on services
Have complementary services or products? Use drip campaigns to prove why your customers should upgrade or add on these additional services. Share educational information, customer testimonials, and pricing information over a series of three to five emails.
Do you use email drip campaigns in another capacity? Share your tips and tricks in the comment section below or let me know your thoughts on Twitter!
