Email drip campaigns are the secret weapon of ecommerce businesses. They have the power to bring in new subscribers, convert visitors into buyers, and improve customer loyalty over time. You can set up a simple campaign or use it in conjunction with other marketing tactics like social media marketing or search engine optimization to keep your brand top-of-mind with your customers.
But email drip campaigns aren’t always easy to create or manage. You need a strategy for sending emails at just the right time and in just the right amount, plus you need a system that allows you to track everything so you can make adjustments along the way.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about email drip campaigns, from the basics of how they work to how to set up your first campaign.
What Is an Email Drip Campaign?
An email drip campaign is a planned out series of automated emails that are sent to a specific list of recipients over time. Each email builds upon the previous one to educate, nurture, and drive engagement with your brand that should eventually lead to a purchase or conversion.
Drip campaigns can be used for many different purposes, including lead generation, customer retention, product launches, and more. It’s important to note that this type of marketing is not limited to just newsletters or blogs. Drip campaigns can also be used for social media marketing and SMS messages. The main idea behind the strategy is to create a steady stream of relevant content that builds trust and creates engagement between you and your audience over time.
Table of Contents
Need help in setting up email drip campaign?
Different Types of Email Drip Campaigns
There are many different types of email drip campaigns, but the most common fall into three categories:
Onboarding Drip Campaign
An onboarding drip campaign is one that you send to new subscribers after they’ve signed up for your email list. These onboarding emails can be used to welcome new users, send a thank you for signing up, or even set expectations about what’s to come next in their journey with your brand.
This type of drip campaign can be used for any type of business, but it’s especially useful for businesses that have paid products or services because it allows you to get your customer excited about using your product and also explains how to use it properly.
Retargeting Drip Campaign
This type of drip campaign is used to re-engage people who have already visited your website but haven’t converted yet. For example, if someone visits your site but doesn’t sign up for your free trial, you might want to send them another email with a special offer or discount to convert them.
Post-Purchase Drip Campaign
Post-purchase drip campaigns are usually sent one week after someone purchases from you, but they can be customized based on the product they bought and how long they’ve been following you before making that purchase. This is an excellent way to encourage repeat purchases from satisfied customers — it’s also a great way to get feedback from customers to enhance their experience.
How Many Emails Should be in a Drip Campaign?
Emails should be sent at regular intervals to create a sense of urgency and increase the likelihood that someone will take action on your offer. The length of time between each email varies depending on the purpose of the campaign (i.e., whether you’re trying to generate sales leads or increase web traffic).
If you’re selling a product or service, then you probably want to send out as many emails as possible (within reason). However, if you’re trying to sell something more complex or expensive, then you need to be more cautious about how many emails you send out each month. In this case, it might make sense for you to send out around five emails each month that provide only the most valuable information.
Generally, drip campaigns are equipped with 11 well-crafted emails that are sent within a frame of four, seven, or fourteen days.
Receive marketing tips like these directly in your inbox
How to Set Up an Email Drip Campaign
Here are some tips for setting up an effective email drip campaign:
Pick an email marketing tool
Your first step is to pick an email marketing automation tool that will help you create, send, track and analyze your emails. There are different options out there, including Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Emma, SendinBlue, and more. While these tools offer many different features that can help you create an effective drip campaign, they all have one thing in common: they offer seamless integration with your CRM and make it easy to send out automated emails over time using a template that you created in advance. An ecommerce email marketing agency like Win At Ecommerce are experts at at least one of these tools.
Set your goals
Before you start creating an email drip campaign, think about what you want it to accomplish. Do you want to introduce new products or services? Do you want your customer to sign up for an upcoming event? Or do you want to get feedback and build a relationship with customers?
Finding these answers will help you decide what type of content should go into each stage of the process and how long each phase should last.
Define your audience
Next, you have to define your audience. You’ll want to know where they are and what they are doing online.
Are they they reading your emails from the workplace or at home? What part of the world are they in? What is their age range and gender?
This information will help you identify their pain points, desires, etc. Once you know their needs and wants, you can create an effective email drip campaign that will help you attract more customers.
Add welcome messages
Apart from knowing your audience, it is also important that you include a message at the top of each email that welcomes your recipient back to your email list or sends off a customer with a positive note.
Don’t make it sound like a checklist—instead, try adding more personal elements like “Thank you” and “We missed you” at the beginning of each message. Remember to mention your customer’s name. Personalization goes a long way towards creating a relationship with people via your email marketing campaigns.
Don't forget to add a CTA
One aspect that many people overlook while setting up an email drip campaign is not adding a CTA (call-to-action). Just sending emails without telling your readers what you want them to do makes it hard for them to take an action. Adding a CTA in each of your emails will take them one step closer to converting into paying customers — whether that’s signing up for a lead magnet or purchasing a product or service.
Best practices for a successful campaign
A successful email drip campaign starts with a strong strategy before you can find the right tools and tactics. Here are some best practices for creating a successful email drip campaign:
Keep it relevant
Whether you’re marketing a product or service, a good email drip campaign entices readers to take a specific action. This is important to remember when crafting your email drip campaign — don’t make people wade through a wall of info before they even get to your main point.
If your email content is longer than two paragraphs long, chances are high that people will scroll through quickly without reading anything at all. The key here is to provide valuable information without adding too many unnecessary details. Don’t forget to keep your content interesting, or your customer might not read your emails at all!
A/B testing send time
You should also experiment with different times and days to send your emails. Some people prefer to get them in the morning when they’re fresh at work, while others like to get them at night before bed.
Emails sent after 9 am are more likely to be read than those sent around noon, so if you can send them at different times throughout the day, you might find a sweet spot where response rates go up and opt-out rates go down. You can use the A/B testing feature of your email automation software to experiment with different times and days of the week.
Friday is your day!
According to research conducted by Getresponse on email marketing benchmarks, the best day to send emails is Friday as it has the highest open and click-through rates at 21.17% and 2.68%, respectively. So if you have something important to say — like announcing a new product or service — make sure you do it on Friday afternoon!
Implement a follow-up sequence
Most businesses don’t have unlimited resources or time when it comes to customer acquisition, so they need a way to ensure that qualified leads don’t slip through their fingers. A good follow-up email sequence can help keep those potential customers engaged and on track with the sales process until they become paying customers.
Know when to take someone out of the drip
If subscribers haven’t opened or clicked anything in the last 3-6 months, they may have abandoned the email subscription. If this happens, you may want to take them out of the drip to avoid sending irrelevant emails. You can do this by using a segmentation rule — such as “last interaction less than three months ago” — or manually exporting subscribers from your list and adding them back as needed.
Analyze and optimize your campaign
Email drip campaigns require careful planning and analysis to ensure they work as effectively as possible. You should do a test run of your campaign, A/B-test different subject lines and send times, and track your open and click-through rates to see what works best for your audience before optimizing accordingly.
Set up your email drip campaign today!
Setting up a drip campaign can be tricky, but with the right tools and advice, it’s more than doable. Win At Ecommerce is an email marketing agency that specializes in creating successful drip campaigns that increase sales and drive conversions.
We can help get your business on the path to success with a well-thought-out email drip campaign tailored specifically for your customers. If you’re ready to see a boost in your online sales, contact us today!
Need help in setting up your first email drip campaign?
The team at Win at Ecommerce would love the opportunity to talk with you. We can give you a free evaluation of your technology and help your business win.
Damon Didier
Data-driven performance digital marketer with 20 years’ experience expanding and scaling B2B and B2C businesses successfully. Develops and supports insightful customer-centric sales and marketing plans and processes with application of complementary technology.
