Drip Marketing is a marketing (surprising, right?) strategy used to nurture leads and help give them that little nudge to convert. This strategy typically employs the use of an automation system. That is to say, the process is carried out automatically once it’s been set up.
There are a plethora of benefits to using a Drip Marketing campaign. While we can list the advantages from timely information all the way to brand awareness, it’d be much simpler to state that the whole purpose of Drip Marketing is to drive revenue from your database of leads with minimal amounts of effort from the Sales and Marketing Team.
But for those who are truly curious, here’s a short list of a few of the benefits of a Drip Marketing Campaign:
- Timed Information Sending
- Nuturing Leads
- Maintain Presence in Prospects
- Increase Brand Awareness
Why Drip Marketing?
Drip Marketing Campaigns allow you to consistently touch prospects with relevant information in a timely manner. As mentioned earlier, you can maintain your presence in their minds and hopefully give them that little metaphoric jab to make their decision.
But it goes beyond just that. This marketing strategy is used to engage your leads with your company throughout the entire sales process.
By providing your prospects with relevant product information, you can prepare them for any potential purchases.
The information can be used to warm up to your colder leads and win back their interest. And because it’s mostly automated, you can begin relationships with large groups of consumers or prospects with little effort and expense.
Timing is Key
Missing a life changing opportunity is pretty aggravating. Missing it because your timing sucks? Even worse.
Timing plays a huge role in everyday life, not just business. See discount and decide not to hop on it? Well, it’ll probably be gone by the time you truly need it. As we have said, timing is key.
But it’s okay to not get every timed decision right. Nobody expects you to be clairvoyant.
Drip Marketing, while not the all-seeing eye you may need, is capable of reducing the error margins when it comes to content marketing.
Especially for current leads.
Through the data provided from campaigns, you can create an optimal content marketing schedule. This is valuable insight that can prevent you from sending content too early or too late.
And by finding that sweet spot in timing, your leads will convert at a much higher rate.
How to Do It
Of course, automating a Drip Marketing campaign largely depends on the system (we recommend checking this Automation software out), the premise behind it is pretty much the same.
Before you execute your campaign, you might want to do a bit of planning and research first. You know, so you don’t end up wasting everyone’s time.
Prior to setup, outline the goals of your drip marketing campaign and set forth success metrics.
You can do this by understanding your customers and prospects and filtering them into custom lists.
Use information such as:
- Search terms - what prospects enter into that search bar either on your website or via a search engine like Google
- Pages Visited – the pages prospects frequent is a huge indicator as to what they’re looking for; capitalize on that
- Downloads – if this isn’t a red glaring flag showing you what they’re interested in, I don’t know what else to tell you
Now that you’ve got some handy info, it’s time to get sorting.
Create custom lists to further specialize your campaigns and better increase your results.
Here are a few ideas to get your brain rolling with the sorting hat:
- Interests – this list can be based on searches, downloads, and pages visited; it’s pretty self-explanatory
- Geography – different locations in the world may have different requirements due to climates and cultures; it varies
- Responsibilities – those with certain positions in a company could be looking for a specific product or service than others within the same company
The purpose is to shell out good content and offers your leads will actually care about. So putting forth these preparations before beginning your strategy will make loads of differences than diving in head first.
Besides, if you’re constantly sending them content they don’t care for, chances are, they’ll find you annoying and lose interest.
It’s also important to note that you should not overdo the content. Send it out on a regular basis, but not excessively.
Other Channels for Lead Nurturing
While emailing is certainly the most popular form of ‘Dripping,’ there are other methods too that you shouldn’t gloss over. And that is Social Media.
Timed social media posts work incredibly well in connecting with both customers and potential leads. As today’s world is engrossed with FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram and so forth, you’ll find it highly beneficial to take advantage of that.
We recommend using Buffer for timed social media posts. In addition to the three social media platforms above, you can also create posts for LinkedIn and Google+.
Buffer comes with built in analytics to provide you with insight on how your posts are doing. Users can also find the most optimal times to schedule posts, allowing for that sweet spot we were talking about.
Final Thoughts
A Drip Marketing campaign lets you nurture your leads on a consistent basis. This marketing strategy helps give your prospects that much needed nudge to head towards the goal of converting.
While effective, it’s important to keep in mind that every business is different. Not all strategies are a perfect sized fit. Trial and error are keys to revealing just what your company needs.
