Here are seven easy to follow steps to create and launch a successful email marketing campaign:
What is Drip Marketing?
Drip marketing campaigns are a communication strategy that sends or “drips” a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time.
Online, marketers typically do email drip marketing to automate your sales cycle. The campaigns send content automatically to your prospects in emails at the ‘right’ time in the sales cycle. This gives your prospects drips of relevant and useful information when they will most likely appreciate it.
The rate at which your drip marketing campaign sends out content to your prospects is based on several factors, such as specific time intervals, actions they take, and other customizable factors.
Below illustrates an example of drip marketing.
Types of Drip Campaigns
You can customize your drip marketing campaigns to any of your needs. With tons of applications available today, marketing and sales teams are limited only by their imagination. Here are examples of drip marketing campaign types:
- Top-of-mind drips: This drip marketing campaign type engages your prospects throughout the entire sales cycle.
- Educational drips: In this campaign, lead nurturing emails (emails with relevant information about your offers) are sent out to build relationships and engagement with your prospects and prepare them to make a purchase.
- Re-engagement drips: These emails are sent out to “woo” your warm/cold leads that were not ready to buy initially and reintroduce them into the sales cycle.
- Competitive drips: These emails are targeted to those prospects currently doing business with your competition to convert them to your product or service.
- Promotional drips: Emails sent out in this campaign encourage your leads to take action, for example, emails with limited time promotions and special discounts.
- Training drips: This email campaign educates your new prospects about your business and offers by including “how-to” information.
Great example of an Email Marketing Drip Campaign with above 40% Open Rate
David Sneider, Head of Growth at sendbloom.co, an email dripping service, shares three of his best drips that have achieved between 40% and 60% open rates. We have also added some key observations by Ryan Buckley of Hubspot below each drip.
Email Marketing Key Takeaways
- 3 paragraphs max
- 2 sentences per graph
- End with yes / no CTA
Email Marketing Key Takeaways
- Refine the pitch
- Refine key feature
- Make a bolder ask
Email Marketing Key Takeaways
- Shortest email
- Refine key feature
- Make even bolder ask
7 Steps to launch an e-mail Marketing Campaign
Step #1: Choose the ‘right’ e-mail marketing software
There are many email marketing platforms in the market. We offer our own email marketing platform and provide local technical support and email marketing services
Other popular email platforms include mailchimp, aweber, and constant contact.
Our email marketing platform offers an integrated CRM and sales automation feature integrated in one software. Our basic email plan is also one of the most price competitive in the market.
Based on what capabilities and pricing suits you, you can sign up for an email account.
Step #2: Build Your Email Marketing List
Capture email addresses with every marketing campaign. Even if you have only 10 e-mail addresses, add them to your list and start an email campaign.
For best practice, sending 1-2 emails per month is highly recommended. There is no fixed rule to this. Think about the quality, not the quantity. Ask yourself if you would want to receive such an email if you were in their shoes. If you spam your customers with useless information, they are likely to unsubscribe from your list after 1-2 email blasts.
Step #3: Place a Web Form to Capture Contact Information
Integrate your other digital assets, like website, mobile app, and Facebook page, with an email lead capture form. This is a good practice and allows you to test what works and what doesn’t for your business.
Step #4: Set Clear Email Marketing Goals
Before launching your first campaign, sit down and decide what you want to achieve. Maybe you want to educate your prospects, take them through your sales cycle, and/or deepen the quality of relationships. Set clear goals and build your marketing messages and campaign around those goals.
Step #5: Set Up Your Email Marketing Drip Campaign
Create at least six emails that will automatically get sent to your email list on the dates and times you choose. Make your messages short, simple, and to the point. Use your auto respond emails to educate and build relationships, not to make a sales pitch.
Step #6: Consider using E-Mail Triggers
Here is an example of a trigger: Let’s say you send an email with links about your products and services to your customers or prospects. As soon as he clicks one of the links in the e-mail, your campaign automatically sends out (triggers) messages that contain information about similar products or services, based on that original link.
Triggers’ main purpose is to send clients into a new sales cycle based on the topic. Amazon does this with the ‘Today’s Recommendation for You’ campaign.
Step #7: Monitor & Measure Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Every month, look at the metrics (reports) to find which emails are more effective and have higher opening and click-through rates. Use this knowledge to build your next campaign. It is very important to know how your subscribers are responding to the emails you are sending to them.
Tip: Send the same message with different subject lines to see what your customers prefer. Offer your recipients incentives (discounts, limited time offers, and coupons) for their time.
Once you implement this concept with action-based emails, then you can build an intelligent marketing machine.
5 Email Marketing Templates That Really Work
These email templates will be focused around blog subscribers, but if you can make small changes, you can use the same templates for other types of drip campaigns (mentioned earlier).
In terms of timing:
- For simple sales cycles, set a time period of at least six days.
- For long and complex cycles, however, set the timing to a maximum of 45.
- Send about eight to ten emails per program.
This strikes a balance between communicating too frequently with your subscribers and not communicating enough.
Remember, every subscriber is different. To get the timing right, test your emails.
Now, let’s look at the templates.
Email template #1: send a warm & friendly greeting to your new subscribers
The first email must be super friendly, one that shows your personality, no matter which email drip campaign you are using. Send this email as if it is coming from an individual, not from a company. This is because you want to show your recipient you are a person, not a robot.
Consider this situation.
Two salespersons knock on your door an hour apart:
As you open the door, the first one smiles, greets, and tells you their name and asks a few questions before getting into the reason they are there. The second one greets you with, “I have an awesome offer for you!” as soon as you open the door. Now, between these two salespeople, who are you going to keep your door open a little bit longer?
So, keep your introductory email light and friendly. You can email, thanking your contacts for subscribing to your e-newsletter. Also, include your contact info (e-mail address or link to your contact us page), so they can contact you if they have questions.
Example of a warm and friendly e-mail:
Hi [name],
Thank you for subscribing to my e-newsletter.
Over the next few weeks, I will send you a series of emails around our best content, which will help you get started in [what you to help them with].
I understand you are super busy and already get tons of other emails. I promise I will only send you our best emails, hand-picked by our specialists, including me. Each one will contain valuable experiences, case studies, tips and tricks, and lessons that will help you [achieve their goal].
If you want to reach out, I am 24/7 at [youremail@domain.com]. If you’re on social network sites, why not connect with me on Facebook [Facebook fan page URL]and/or Twitter at [@twitterusername].
Once again, thank you for signing up for my e-newsletter. Just remember if you have questions, queries, or feedback, simply shoot me an email, and I will respond to you.
Cheers,
[Your name]
Email marketing template #2: send them an email that builds transparency & trust between your subscribers and your business.
In this email, you will share important things you did that make your business awesome (or things you did that aren’t so awesome). The purpose of this email is to be helpful, while building trust between your subscribers and your brand.
In addition, you will include links to useful resources your subscribers can use to become successful, with or without you.
Here is an example of an email marketing template that is meant to create transparency and trust between your subscribers and your company:
Hi there,
Let me give you a brief history of our company.
We started our business in [date of launch]. Over the years, we have had a lot of time learning the ins and out of the [business type you are in].
Today, I want to share some ideas you could implement in your business immediately.
In this email, I have compiled a list of helpful resources, including case studies, success stories, and tests we have run on our website, and blog posts about our business, which we hope will inspire you to get started on the ‘right’ track.
Find those resources here: [Link to resources]
Cheers,
[Your name/position]
Email marketing template #3: send them a personal message that displays your vulnerabilities
The previous two emails were all about educating and building trust and like factors with your prospects. In this email, you will share personal information about you or your business to your subscribers. You could mention how your business transformed or important milestones or achievements you achieved as an entrepreneur to let your subscribers know a little more about you, so they will trust you more.
Here is an example of this third email template:
Hi,
I just wanted to let you know about our recent posts about [mentioned what your blog is about]. In these posts, I share [what the post is about]. I learned so many things about {things you learned} and thought to share with you, so you could learn from my own experience (so you don’t have to).
Here is the link to our latest posts: [link to your blog posts]
I hope you find value in it, and I would like to know what you think of it. Please, either comment on the blog post or send me an email. Also, please share it with your social circles or anyone else who might find it useful.
Talk to you soon,
[Your name]
Email template #4: send an email with case studies
Now that you have built trust with your prospects, it is a good time to send them some case studies about your businesses (if you are SaaS/B2B) or people you have worked with in the past (if you are a B2C). This will help them draw their own assumptions about your business and display proof that your company can make good on its selling points.
Here is an example of this e-mail template:
Hi,
Over the past several years, we have worked with amazing people in our industry, ranging from start-ups to fortune 500 companies. We learned as much helping a stay-at-home mom as we did helping the company that thought they knew it all.
Today, I want to share with you some success stories our customers had since working with us from day one. Someone telling you something works fine is one thing, but seeing the results is a whole different matter.
Check it out here: [link]
Cheers,
[Your name]
Email marketing template #5: send an email with free-trial offer (soft-sell)
This is where all the previous emails were leading: your offer. Don’t have a free trial to offer? Replace it with a sales call, a free consultation, or a one-on-one demo.
Remember, you do not want to be aggressive in your selling and break trust at this moment (even after the preliminary round of trust emails). It will not lead to anything as significant as being chill about it. Just keep them feeling welcome and keep establishing trust.
Hello,
In the past couple of weeks, I sent a series of emails that I hope you found valuable. This is the final email in that series.
If you have been enjoying my previous emails, then I have something interesting I think you will find useful:
Our [product] has been helping [your target audience] deliver [the thing you sell].
So, if you don’t know how to [first thing your product will solve] or feel inundated by [second problem your product will solve], then I encourage you to give our product a try.
[Mention the length of your free-trial and what you require for them to sign up]. You can try our product for free here: [link to your free trial].
Enjoy using our product and welcome, once again, to your [your company] community.
[Your name]
Conclusion
Email drip campaigns can do amazing things for your company … IF you write them and send them at the ‘right’ moment. I hope this lesson has given you some inspiration to run your own drip campaigns for your business.
In the next chapter, we will take a look at the rising importance of content marketing. “Content is King,” they say. In fact, “Content is everything!”
