How many times have you visited a website, viewed some content, maybe clicked through a few pages, then clicked away to forget all about that website, even if you were interested in what they had to say? Maybe you liked their messaging but you just weren’t ready to buy yet. You probably told yourself you’d remember their name, but let’s be honest, how likely is that in today’s world of constant distractions?
If that website didn’t do something to make sure they could stay in touch with you, I’d be willing to bet you never thought of them again.
With that in mind, take another look at your website. Do you have a way to stay in touch with prospects who are interested, but not yet ready to buy? This is especially important if you work in a B2B or professional services industry because those spaces tend to have a long buyer journey, in which case just getting people to your website is not enough. You need to find a way to continue engaging with them so you can remain top of mind (and convince them you have what it takes) until they are ready to buy. That’s where your email drip campaign comes into play.
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What Is an Email Drip Campaign?
An email drip campaign is a series of emails (usually two or three emails) that automatically get sent to prospects after they take a specific action, such as downloading a lead magnet.
Email drip campaigns are great because they keep you top of mind with your prospects while convincing them you have the knowledge and experience to provide the services that will make their lives better. And they do so without the need for you to lift a finger. Once you set up the email drip campaign, all you have to do is promote the lead magnet and wait for the prospects to start converting into clients.
How to Create an Effective Email Drip Campaign
Now that we know why an email drip campaign is so important, let’s talk about how to create one that drives the results you need for your business.
Know the Target Audience for Your Email Drip Campaign
Everything starts with knowing your target audience. You need to understand what problems you’re solving for them, what prompts them to seek out your website in the first place, and what kind of content would compel them to give you their email address.
If you’re not sure how to identify your target audience, this article provides a good place to start.
Since you probably have more than one marketing persona, you can create multiple email drip campaigns – one for each section of your target audience.
You also need to make sure you’re very clear that they are signing up to receive automated marketing messages from you when they provide their email address to avoid violating the GDPR. Even if you operate in the US and serve clients in the US, you might be surprised how many people from other countries will find their way to your website and your lead magnet, which means you still need to abide by EU laws when it comes to your website. To be on the safe side, I recommend sending the lead magnet to everyone who requests it with an email asking them if they’d like to receive updates from you. Only if they actively opt in to your newsletter should you add them to your email list.
Create a Lead Magnet for Your Email Drip Campaign
Once you’ve identified who your target audience is and what drove them to your website, you should be able to come up with a piece of content that will provide value to that audience, but that you feel comfortable giving away for free.
Examples of lead magnets include:
- White papers
- Flow charts
- Checklists
- Short ebooks (3-5 pages)
- How-to articles or videos
- Webinars
- Templates
- Product samples or trials
- An evaluation
- Quizzes, Surveys, and Polls
The last one is especially useful because it asks your prospect to engage with you, and people love engaging with content. It also gives you an opportunity to collect data on your website visitors. If they’re not converting into customers, there could be a problem with the types of people you’re attracting to your website, in which case your website (and probably your SEO strategy) needs some work. If they are converting, the data you gather on them will give you a clearer picture of who your target audience is, which will better enable you to effectively target more people like them going forward.
Craft a Message for Each Email in Your Email Drip Campaign
Once people download your lead magnet and you get permission to send them marketing emails, it’s time to craft those marketing emails.
As with every other aspect of marketing, the emails you craft for your email drip campaign need to be relevant and provide value to the readers. If they downloaded a checklist of documents they need to fill out to incorporate their business as an LLC, don’t send them emails with information on how to set up an estate plan. Send them more information about incorporating their business.
Keep in mind the information your prospect has already requested and consider what more information you could provide on that topic that would provide value to the prospect while positioning you as a thought leader in your industry. It’s not enough to just stay top of mind with your prospects, you need to do so while convincing them you have what it takes to solve their problems.
Promote Your Lead Magnet
Your lead magnet should be there to get people to sign up for your email drip campaign, but it’s not enough to assume that people will download your lead magnet just because it exists. As with any other piece of marketing content, you need to promote it. Talk it up on social media. Write articles that whet readers’ appetite for more information, then provide that information in the form of your lead magnet. Get creative with the spaces where your target audience might be looking for the information contained in your lead magnet and find ways to get it in front of them.
Check the Data of Your Email Drip Campaign and Adjust Accordingly
I always say that marketing without data is like throwing a dart into darkness and hoping you hit the target. Data turns on the lights so you can see the target you’re trying to hit, and that’s what transforms random acts of marketing into a strategy that drives results for your business.
In order to do that, you need to know what your goals are for your email drip campaign. Are you trying to get prospects on the phone? Get people to sign up for one of your programs? Only by knowing what the end result is can you determine the best way to measure whether your email drip campaign was a success.
At the same time, it’s not enough to measure the end result of your email drip campaign. You should measure every step of the process, including
- How many people are encountering your lead magnet,
- What percentage of people who encounter your lead magnet are downloading it,
- The open rate of your emails,
- The click-through rate (CTR) of your emails,
- Percentage of people who click from your emails become customers.
Once you know what aspects of your email drip campaign are working and what’s not working, you can make the necessary adjustments so your campaign runs smoothly and continues to drive results for your business.
Rinse and Repeat
The beauty of an email drip campaign is that you can set it and forget it, but that’s only true to a certain extent. As mentioned in the previous section, you should monitor your campaign to make sure it’s getting the results you need for your business, and if something isn’t working, you’ll have to adjust accordingly.
Ideally, your lead magnets should be evergreen, but if something happens to make a lead magnet (or one of the follow-up emails) obsolete, you’ll need to either edit the document or create a new one.
Once you have one email drip campaign up and running and driving sales for your business, you can take what worked from that campaign and use it to create another campaign for a different section of your audience.
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