You already know now what drip marketing is and how it can help engage your prospects better, retain mindshare, automate tasks etc. But, to create marketing campaigns that really work, you have to take the time to set up proper segmentation, and rules for your drip marketing campaigns. Here are a few drip campaign examples that you can look to for assistance.
What makes a good drip campaign?
The mark of a good drip email campaign is the prospect not even realizing that it’s a pre-written, automated email. It should delight your recipients and make them think that it was written only for them. We have had instances of customers responding to our post-webinar drips, because they thought it was a personal email.
The more personal you make it, the more chances of them reacting positively to it. Here are a few drip campaign examples:
1. Customer engagement and delight – Zombies Run
Zombies Run is a running aide app that gamifies your daily running routine. It has a great backstory, running missions, great narration, life hacks on survival for people left in the aftermath of a Zombie Apocalypse, and much more. It aims at making running an immersive experience for people. Here’s an email I received from them when I clocked in my first 25 Kms on the app:
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- Welcomes the recipient to their community: It makes me (the recipient) feel included in their community, and would motivate me to engage further with their app (run more, even). Their great emails is one of the reasons I actually bought their paid subscription, even though running is an on-and-off (mostly off) thing for me.
- Personalization: So, yes, it doesn’t have the traditional [FirstName] type of personalization, but the players recognize themselves as “Runner 5” in the game, so it collectively, yet individually speaks to everyone who has played the game.
- Emotional trigger: The drawing on the crumpled paper gives the email a very human, almost childish feel (Molly – a child drew it as it says on the email), which again works at making the recipient happy for having received it. According to the story, Runner 5 (the recipient) had helped save Molly (who has done the drawing) from a zombie attack, which makes the appeal emotional for the recipient.
- Intelligent use of image + text combination: So, there’s this adorable note on top, but the team at Zombies realizes that many people might not be able to see the image if it doesn’t auto-download (I think that’s the reason). So, they have placed the same content as text as well. “She told me to write under it” – this would compel the recipients to download the image even if it doesn’t render on its own, thereby making them engage with the email.
2. Upsell offer – Amazon
I have quoted this drip campaign example before while discussing the basics. I am going to elaborate what exactly is so amazing about it here.
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- Relevance: I received this email only after I stole my brother’s Kindle and downloaded all the free stuff I could. Sensing my interest, I get an option to try Kindle Unlimited for a month.
- Goal orientation: The plan here is to get the recipients hooked, and then make them sign up for an annual subscription to Amazon Kindle Unlimited.
- No use of images (because they’re not needed): So, e-commerce businesses are known for their image-heavy emails, because that’s how they entice the prospective buyers. But, in this particular case, they don’t need to entice me with pretty pictures. They know I have a Kindle, they know I am enjoying downloading all the free stuff I can get, and they just want me to enjoy the complete Kindle experience for free for a month. So, that’s what they send – a simple offer, with a button to claim the offer.
- Urgency: They have given me a deadline for the offer as well. It expires on 30th April, 2017. That’s reason enough for me to sign up for the offer quick if I really want to check it out.
- Cleanly laid-out steps to claim the offer: They have spelled out the complete process to claim the offer, making it very easy for people to sign up, which would encourage more people to claim the offer.
- Important points are highlighted in bold: So, a) the steps are numbered b) even in numbered steps, the most important things are highlighted. So even skimming through would give me an idea of what the email is about.
3. Action completion drips
a) Amazon
Once again, Amazon aces the cart abandonment or retargeting emails. I looked up “Demons by Dostoevsky,” didn’t buy it, and received an email to finish my purchase.
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- Relevance: I was interested in the book, but got distracted by something. So, there are good chances that I would finish the purchase.
- Directness: The point of this email is to just remind me that I forgot to complete my purchase, and that’s what it talks about. No fluff!
- Additional “Today’s deals” CTA: So, even if I don’t immediately wish to buy the book I had added to the cart, I might want to check out the deals that are there today. Sending me to the site is a good way to encourage me to spend more time on Amazon, and make a sale.
b) Airbnb
Airbnb is a hospitality marketplace for people to list or rent accommodations all over the world. I was looking at accommodations in Goa on Airbnb, and left the app without deciding on a potential rental. After a few minutes, I had the following email in my inbox to go back and finish booking.
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- Relevance: I was interested, but didn’t book. So, they tried to bring me back to the app. It worked.
- Additional options: Because I left without booking, there are chances that the place did not work for me. They have a provision in the email for that. There are 2 similarly priced listings, available on the same days towards the end of the email, to recapture my interest, and give me other options. This raises the possibility of the recipient going back and finishing the booking.
4. Customer retention drips
If a once active customer or subscriber becomes disengaged, then it’s a clear red flag for any business – they might leave you for good. In this case, customer retention or reactivation drips would help you find out what’s going on and keep the customer engaged.
Remember all those “we miss you” emails that land in your inbox. These drips aim at re-engaging the customer. The trigger here, unlike all the previous ones, is inactivity. Look at this another great email from Zombies, Run team.
a) Zombies Run
You already know Zombies, Run from the first customer engagement drip marketing example I quoted. Here’s another email from them which got me to take an action. This time, it was to get me back on the app, after a long absence.
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- Emotional Trigger: They already know I was emotionally involved in the game, which is why I bought the paid plan. Now, they are trying to get me back by using a very personal “Abel Township Needs You” message. Again, I know that this isn’t an email that was specifically written for me, but that’s how effective it is, right! It still catches my attention. Anyone who has played virtual games would know that they are gripping, and the players are invested in the game.
- Well timed: The email is very well timed as my paid subscription is about to expire. They are trying to get me back by showing me the other awesome additions they have done to the game, hoping I’d come back to check them out and stay as a result.
b) Grammarly
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- To-the-point: They didn’t waste any time in banal generalities. They noticed that I didn’t log in for a week, and they nudged me to log in. Simple and to-the-point.
- Educational content: Just in the second fold of the email is the difference between the usage of ‘affect vs effect’ – a classic mistake made by many people. It is certainly a handy tip to have.
- Tells the exact action to be taken: In the 3rd fold of the email, I am told exactly where I am missing my Grammarly protection, so that I know exactly what action I need to take to make full use of it. So, if I really want to enable the app for all these workplaces, I can just click on the given links and download the extensions accordingly.
5. Cross-selling/Upselling drips
Traditionally, a marketer’s job was done with lead generation or with a customer conversion (at least in single sale businesses). That has long since changed. Now, nurturing the lead to conversion or keeping the customer engaged with new offers is part of a marketer’s daily job.
I had recently purchased a protective case for my phone from Amazon and they gave me suggestions for similar products. They know I own the phone and I’m looking to protect it from damage, therefore a protective screen would make sense!
(Tip: Send suggestions that are relevant to their recent purchase, to increase the chances of getting clicked)
7. Onboarding drips
Everything from our product on-boarding emails, to when you get a welcome email from any service you subscribed to falls under this category. While welcoming may be just a single mail, on-boarding might involve sending out a series of mails depending on what the user is trying to do with the product.
Here’s an example of how Spotify does it:
What makes this an awesome drip campaign example?
- Simplicity: It’s a simple to use app, and so is their email – simple.
For example, when you sign up for a free trial with LeadSquared, you get a welcome mail thanking you for signing up.
After you have welcomed the customer, the next logical step would be to help the customer get on-board. This would involve finding out how the user is going to be using your product, or helping him navigate any difficulty he might face while using your product.
Notice how the drip warns the user of the number of emails they’d be getting and also how it offers them the option to do it on their own? These drips allow the user to know that he can reach out for help anytime, should the need arise.
8. Upgradation drips
When you sign up for a free trial of a product, and near the end of your trial period, then automated messages are sent to you asking you to upgrade your trial to the premium version. Though this would be part of an onboarding drip more often than not, but they require a special mention, because of how effective they are. At LeadSquared, we get a lot of personal responses to this particular message of the drip campaign.
Zapier did that once my free trial with them got over. An email reminding me that my trial was up. They also offered to extend my trial if I wanted. This will help close a sale with a customer who is on the fence about the purchase.
Hopefully, now you are more aware of the different kinds of drip marketing campaigns around us, and these drip campaign examples have given you some inspiration to start creating your own marketing workflows.
9. Reactivation Drip
So far, you have seen different drip campaign examples you can implement in your marketing and sales strategy. While most of these circled around interacting with active prospects, you can also create a drip campaign for inactive leads.
Inactive leads are the ones who have not interacted with you or have lost their interest in your offering. One way to detect inactive leads is by checking their activity or engagement score. Or else, you can refer to your email marketing KPIs, more specifically, open rates.
You can also use LeadSquared CRM and Marketing Automation suite to track all your marketing campaign performances.
After identifying such leads (for example, contacts who have not interacted with your emails during the last three months), you can create reactivation drips.
For instance, at LeadSquared, our inside sales team tried a reactivation campaign on cold leads. They were able to book several new demos, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
Here’s an example of a reactivation drip campaign from Amazon.
