FaucetEmail Drip Campaigns have proven their value over the years.  They are an effective way to educate your potential customer after contact and lead them down the sales funnel.

What Are Email Drip Campaigns?

Email Drip Campaigns are automated marketing emails that a contact receives after providing you with their address.  This is often after filling out a contact form in exchange for something they value.  Automated emails typically “drip” to a contact at regular intervals for a set time after the contact.

They are usually intended to give the contact more information about the topic they are interested in and tend to lead the contact to take a further step in the process.

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Email Drip Campaigns are often referred to as “Lead Nurturing Campaigns” or, in HubSpot’s new software, “Workflows”.  The idea is you are “nurturing” your lead with the information they need to move them towards making a purchase or becoming a customer or client.

Why Use Email Drip Campaigns?

Email Drip Campaigns are useful in many different ways.

  • Permission Marketing – When you get an email address via an online form, you get permission to market to that individual personally.  This is a huge advantage that has revolutionized marketing in the last 15 years.
  • Personal Contacts Automated – Once you get the contact email address, you can send emails which are much more targeted and personal than other marketing messages.  Access to the Inbox is a big deal.
  • Lead Qualifying – It is very useful to know how interested a contact is in your product or service.  With any automated email service, you can see who is opening your emails and who is clicking on links inside the email.  This helps qualify the lead for your sales team.  If they aren’t opening or clicking, your sales guys can save themselves the time.  They’re probably not a good prospect.
  • Brand Building – Each email continues to solidify your brand and image as the leader in the field.  Since you set these emails up once and leave them, you can take the time to edit for grammar and make it look sharp!

How Email Drip Campaigns Work

The first step in an Email Drip Campaign is to draft a series of emails with the beginning and end in mind.  Most of our campaigns start with someone downloading one of our eBooks or Whitepapers.  They have to provide some contact information (on a “landing page”) to get the download.

We draft the emails referencing the content that was originally downloaded and provide them with deeper information in a sequence with a specific goal in mind.

The number of emails in a campaign can range anywhere from two or three to hundreds.

Emails are usually programmed to go out on set days after the first contact.  Email 1 might go out 1 day after the contact.  Email 2 at 3 days after contact, etc.

Below is what one of our Email Drip Campaigns (Workflows) looks like within our HubSpot Inbound Marketing software.  The First Step is an email notification to us that the form has been submitted.  The Email Drip Campaign starts at #2.

What Is Inbound Marketing Workflow