Drip marketing"Drip marketing" is a blanket term that covers several different marketing strategies, which all have the same goal of keeping users engaged with a product. It is a communication strategy that "drips" a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time, typically automated. In fact, drip marketing is distinct from other database marketing mainly due to the fact that the timing of the messages follow a pre-determined course and that the messages are dripped in a series applicable to a specific behavior or status of the recipient.


Drip marketing is popularly applied as a sales tool, particularly in long sales-cycles where persistent follow-up can become a deterrent to closing the sale. It can be used for lead generation and qualification processes as it often represents an automated follow-up method that can augment or replace personal lead follow-up. Hence, drip marketing is also known as autoresponders, automated email campaign, lifecycle emails and marketing automation, since the concept is always the same, namely sending out a set of marketing emails automatically on a schedule. Perhaps one email will go out as soon as someone signs up; another will go out three days later, with one more going out the next weekend. Alternatively, the emails can be varied based on triggers, or actions the person has performed like signing up for your service or making a purchase, which is why they are also sometimes called behavioral emails. Further, new leads are automatically enrolled into a drip marketing campaign with messaging relevant to the call-to-action from which the lead came. This is also known as lead nurturing. Put simply, drip marketing is all about giving people the right information at the right time.

Marketing automation company Pardot provides a great overview of a drip campaign. See the full infographic below.

Drip-Marketing-Infographic


Drip campaigns, as mentioned above, are automated sets of emails that go out based on specific timelines or user actions. They enable you to stay in touch with groups of people based on events, e.g. when a user signs up for an account, or how often that user visits your site. Each time a drip email is sent out, it comes from a queue of already-written emails—there's no need to manually write and send each one. They can even be personalized with your contacts' name, company info, and more. The beauty of drip emails is that this all happens automatically based on triggers and user segments that you define. But as usual, moderation is key, so don’t overdo it, as too many drip emails will most probably only annoy your customers. However, a thoughtful set of drip emails can be the perfect way to remind people to buy your product, teach them how to use your tool once they have purchased it, and get new subscribers up-to-speed on your email newsletter.

By MediaBUZZ