Looking to learn about marketing automation and automated drip marketing campaigns? One of the great benefits of customer flow communication is that you don't bombard your audience with messages when they are not really wanting them. You need to be subtle.
You want to create campaign messages that are less intrusive and go a long way to personalizing the experience for those on the receiving end.
These are sometimes referred to as drip marketing campaigns. These are pre-written, automated emails sent over timed intervals in a series, triggered by a certain customer behavior. These types of campaigns are pretty common for salespeople who use them for lead nurturing.
But automated drip marketing campaigns can be used in almost every industry for engaging, nurturing and building loyalty.
The idea is simple. By continuously interacting via a touchpoint, the recipient will warm towards whatever the eventual end goal is. That could be a sale, a sign-up or even simply engagement on a social media page. These are all great examples of what drip marketing campaigns can do.
But they are also a powerful tool, particularly when it comes to email marketing.
By using an automated drip marketing campaigns to provide useful, relevant information to your audience, those same subscribers actually start to anticipate and welcome your content.
The best part? Once you have created these campaigns, they basically run themselves giving you precious time to run other parts of your business.
Here are 10 ways to use automated drip marketing campaigns when it comes to sending emails.
1. Educational Tool
Offer a seminar or workshop that delivers one lesson each week and is directly related to your brand. Creating content that customers can use outside of purchasing your product helps to build brand loyalty and all-around good feelings. This can be a series of tips, videos, whitepapers or other educational content. Keep the campaign full of valuable content and those readers will never leave you.
Great for: Local governments, consultants, home improvement stores, libraries, and healthcare providers.
2. Thanking Donors
Set up an automatic email "thank you," triggered when a patron makes a donation to your cause. You may not be around to send this email manually, so have one at the ready to engage and thank the donor right away. Then you can follow up with organizational updates, and a scheduled task on the anniversary of the donation. By mixing marketing automation into the day-to-day of your foundation, you can reach more people and keep the loyal following you have worked so hard to build.
Great for: Arts organizations, non-profit groups, political campaigns, local charities, and universities.
3. Renewal Reminders
Automate contract and subscription renewal processes with messages timed to be sent as the contract period draws to a close. This can also be done for season tickets, domain registrations and credit card fees. These emails are the perfect messages to automate because they hardly ever change in structure. You can also use them to add in a little subtle marketing to show off upgrades or new additions.
Great for: Publications, fitness clubs, property management companies, sports teams, credit card companies and web hosts.
4. Daily Tips
No matter the topic, people love tips. Offer 365 daily reminders of whatever is your expertise, and make them useful to the subscriber. Don't pollute the Internet with boring and obvious content. Provide something that people will look forward to each and every day. Make them creative and entertaining because daily tips have a high forward potential. Just think about what clients ask you all the time and automate the entire process with emails.
Great for: Food bloggers, healthcare providers, grocery stores, home repair stores, banks and real estate agents.
5. Support For Your Support Team
Do you have a customer care team in place to help clients? Well by creating a series of timed emails, you are actually supporting your support team. Take a look at your FAQ list and turn that into a sequence of emails that help answer the most common questions with your product. This series of emails could also be a follow up to a question someone asked one of your frontline staff. That way, you have another chance to talk to that person and ensure they are happy with your product.
Great for: Software companies, telecoms, banks, airlines, Internet service providers, financial advisor automated drip marketing campaigns, and sports teams.
6. How to Use A Product
Create an email orientation experience by offering a series of timed messages that show a new user how to get the most out of your product. This can start out with the basics and expand into more detailed and advanced features. Not everyone will want to move all the way through, so make it a gradual process from start to end. This is also a great place to show off new features and product lines. Once you have someone hooked and checking often, they will be open to checking out anything new.
Great for: Software companies, online services, auto manufacturers, financial institutions and educational organizations.
7. Training and Fitness
Create an online training course to get your subscribers into physical and mental shape. This mostly caters to those in the health club world, but it can also go for yoga teachers, health care professional or anyone looking to provide value to their readers. You can even include links to videos that demonstrate what you are trying to showcase.
Great for: Charities holding races, health clubs, fitness product manufacturers, sports marketing campaigns, yoga teachers and personal trainers.
8. Event Preparation
Trigger one or several instructional emails providing those heading to your next event with the information they need to know. Inform them on how to register, where to buy gear, how to ask questions, or whatever additional information needs to be communicated to coordinate event logistics. This can easily tie into sports teams as well since a game is an event. Automated drip marketing campaigns can remind fans to buy tickets after the latest game or emails that include surveys on their satisfaction with the venue.
Great for: Trade shows, volunteer groups, events planners, sporting events, political fundraisers and local food drives.
9. Transactional Emails
A transactional email is a message that is automatically sent after a purchase is made. It may seem like a standard message that has no value other than proof of purchase, but it is also the perfect beginning to launch automated drip marketing campaigns. You know have the user info of a happy customer who just made a purchase. Set up automated emails that keep in touch with the same person over a period of time. Offers for more purchases of the same kind, showcase new products or even add a personal touch by sending email birthday cards. Whatever information you have, see how you can use it in automated drip marketing campaigns to engage the person and build a great loyalty.
Great for: Retail stores, sports teams, movie chains, ticket providers, grocery stores and universities.
10. Coupons and Promotions
Create a series of coupon offers for new signups to introduce them to additional products or features and drive sales. This is one of the most used forms of automated drip marketing campaigns as it is based on a person's action of buying or signing up for something. Be careful not to send too much in this case as it will have the opposite outcome and you will only annoy your audience. The goal should be to touch base just enough that your deals stay top of mind for that next purchase.
Great for: Retail stores, hospitality providers, restaurants, software providers, health clubs, grocery stores, and web hosts.
When it comes to marketing automation, it's all about being subtle by sending a series of emails that a person's action controls. If someone is asking for content, odds are much higher they are going to read it and engage. This is much different than just sending email blasts on your own schedule.
SimplyCast's 360 customer flow communication platform has ideal automated drip marketing tools. The advantage of SimplyCast over other products however is, they can do the same via SMS, voice, Twitter, fax, Facebook and several other channels of communication.
Ready to start your own automated drip marketing campaigns? Sign up for a free 14-day trial to use SimplyCast 360 to engage and nurture your audience today.
And, if you have any questions about automated drip marketing campaigns or any other aspect of the SimplyCast platform, don't hesitate to contact us today!
