The basic idea of the “drip” email marketing campaign is deceptively simple – you simply set up an automated email that goes out to prospects at certain times of the quarter. After you set up the system, it basically runs itself. Wait a long enough period of time, and you will get a slow drip-drip-drip of new customers.
Here are just 3 of the best kinds of B2B drip campaigns that you can run:
#1: The Post-Event Drip
This type of drip campaign is perfect for following up after events, such as trade shows or conferences. In each email, you can simply summarize the content of the trade show or conference and then provide each recipient with extra content, such as links to transcripts or video clips.
For the prospect, this provides immediate value – especially if you are able to provide additional content from the event that’s not available anywhere else. And, for you as the marketer, this also provides amazing value as well. That’s because you have information about who opened what email, and when. This can go into a sophisticated scoring system for your leads, to determine who is “ripe” for a sales call.
#2: The New Customer Drip
After you’ve signed up a new customer, it’s great to create additional touch points moving forward. After a certain period of time has elapsed, it’s a good time to follow up and see if the customer has any additional questions or concerns.
This has two big advantages. One, it makes sure that your customers really like your products and understand how to use them. And, secondly, it gives you the opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell other products. Maybe they love your products so much that they’re willing to upgrade to a more expensive series or model.
#3: The Web Drip
Your prospects are constantly checking out your website, so what if there were a way to send out a targeted email blast to all prospects who take a specific action, such as downloading a whitepaper or clicking on the “About Us” tab? Assuming you have cookies on your website, you have a pretty good idea of the steps that the prospects took along each step of the way to get to that final “click.” That really helps you set up your Web drip in a way that maximizes open rates and engagement with your company.
#4: The Content Drip
Of the four, this is the hardest one to pull off. Essentially, you are pushing out themed content over an extended time period. This might be content related to current events, to emerging trends, or to an online training program. While the post-event drip or the new customer drip gets a higher open rate, the content drip is much more hit-and-miss. But if you happen to be in the middle of a new trend or industry development, this could become a homerun.
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The allure of the drip campaign is that it’s fully automated and infinitely customizable. Maybe you want to follow-up every month. Or maybe every 6 months – you just set the parameters you want. While you won’t get a huge flow of new prospects, you will get access to a slow, steady drip of new leads, all of them qualified and ready to buy.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.