If you are still debating whether drip marketing is something you want to use, here are a few benefits that might help you make a decision.
a) Higher engagement
It would sound obvious that emails triggered based on user actions would have a better chance of getting a response than email campaigns. But, let’s not go by what sounds obvious. Let’s look at some numbers.
Epsilon, a research agency, released a report for Q2, 2016, comparing the response rates for email campaigns (or as they like to call it – business as usual emails) and triggered emails. (This study was compiled from 8.5 billion emails sent in Q2 (April – June) 2016 across multiple industries and approximately 150 clients.)
Here are the results:
As you can see, the open rates for triggered emails (or drip campaigns) were 61.7% higher than BAU emails. Triggered email click rates were much better as well, reporting 141.6% higher than BAU. (They have a lot of other interesting data in the report – you can check out the complete email report here).
Now for some of our own data. The following report shows the difference in how different types of emails have performed for us since the beginning of 2017.
The difference is stark here as well.
So, it’s clear. Businesses using drip marketing, triggered emails or email marketing automation (whatever you wish to call it), are able to engage their prospects much better, and much more efficiently.
b) Automated funnel movement
In addition to being effective (you saw the numbers above), they push the leads towards conversion without manual intervention.
The only thing you should remember is, like any technology, your drip marketing flows would be as good as the thought put behind them. So sit down, draw out the complete journey you want your prospect to take.
Here’s a very simple example of an online cooking school sending an enrollment email for their Christmas baking class, and the subsequent steps.
Only after this is drawn out taking each option into consideration, will you be able to set it up in the system properly.
c) Saved time and effort
As a result of the automated funnel movement, manual intervention is taken away, and your team is left with more time to invest time in other things, like visualizing other funnels to close more deals, planning other marketing campaigns, and actually talking to the prospects.
Again, remember to put in the initial effort to set the drip marketing campaigns properly.
d) No irritated prospects
Because you are sending people exactly what they want at a particular time, they’d be more welcoming of what you send to them. You know Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. I think Sam-I-Am would have been better off running drip campaigns to get more conversions for his favorite food. With the direct sales effort he was:
- Irritating
- Less efficient
The closure took well over 8 minutes, and a lot of effort on Sam’s part. See for yourself:
See, Sam did good multi-channel marketing, but the fact is the grumpy Grinchy big guy wasn’t interested in Green Eggs and Ham. Anyway, there was a conversion. But, the conversion cycle could have been way pleasanter and with much less effort is all I am saying.
e) Post-closure engagement
f) Delighted customers
g) Up-selling / Cross-selling
The scope of email marketing automation extends well beyond converting prospects to customers, or getting the shoppers to finish their purchase. Even after a purchase is complete, or a sale is made, you’d want:
- The customer to come back for a second purchase
- Or, in case of single sale products – to recommend you to their friends
- Or, in case of subscription sales – renew their subscription.
This depends as much on how valued your customer feels, as on the quality of actual product or service. While customer success and support teams play an important role here, the relevance of your emails would have a huge impact as well. Let’s look at some Customer Retention Statistics and the impact of good customer experience on the revenue.
See the last point here – “Post purchase emails are responsible for 80% of all customer reviews.” Review emails are generally trigger based email (drip marketing email).
Now, read those stats in combination with the following stats:
“So, it’s more than clear that reviews impact buying behavior, and post-purchase emails are responsible for a majority of reviews.”
h) Increase brand recall
Even if the prospect doesn’t end up buying from you, a series of highly relevant emails would make sure that they remember you when they do need to buy what you sell.
Of course, you can combine great triggered emails with well-structured and targeted remarketing campaigns as well on multiple channels.
So, now that you know what is a drip campaign, what are its benefits, and the impact that it can create for your business, let’s move on to the examples of different kind of drip marketing campaigns you can run.
