This time of year, the word “campaign” conjures up mixed emotions for a lot of people.
Luckily, we’re here to talk about email campaigns, which are among the most fun types, right next to Call of Duty and Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Marketers and their clients should love email campaigns. According to Litmus, email marketing has a generous ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. This average rate of return on investment is higher than any other form of marketing.
Roger West has been helping clients with marketing automation (MA) and email campaigns for years, and we want to help you launch your MA strategy by providing a better understanding of drip and nurture email campaigns.
Automation & Strategy – A Match Made in Marketing Heaven
Marketing automation has a lot of different definitions depending on who you ask, but we like to think of it as a happy marriage between automation software and strategy.
Marketing automation software allows marketers to automate repetitive tasks like social media posts, ad campaigns, email campaigns, and more for maximum efficiency – but automation still requires a human touch to be truly successful. Many MA tools can support data aggregation and behavior-based responses to help generate leads, often in the form of drip or nurture campaigns.
Leads, like any relationship, need to be both generated and nurtured before they can blossom into something beautiful.
Drip Drop, Show ’Em What You Got
80% of professionals believe that email marketing boosts customer acquisition and retention, which means your drip campaign needs to slowly and strategically show prospects what you’re all about.
Drip email campaigns leverage emails to deliver targeted groups, prospects, and customers periodic messages that help spread awareness of your organization, services, and products to audiences.
Drip email campaigns are slightly less complex than their nurture counterpart and can be easily set up with engaging, pre-written content to generate new leads and pull older leads back into the sales funnel.
Kickstart your drip email campaign by establishing qualitative and quantitative goals, like these:
Qualitative
- Move leads through the buyer’s journey faster
- Re-establish contact with dormant leads
- Build trust with prospects
Quantitative
- Boost conversion rates by X%
- Reduce rejected leads by X%
- Accelerate sales cycle by X%
These goals will not only help you determine the parameters of a successful campaign, but they’ll help you focus your email messaging.
Nurture It!
Lead nurturing emails yield 4-10 more responses than email blasts alone. Nurture email campaigns are a step above drip campaigns and require a more in-depth strategy for a successful execution.
Rather than generating leads or spreading brand awareness, nurture campaigns build those relationships out even further to stimulate sales efficiency and revenue growth. Nurture campaigns are built on advanced attributes, such as lead or contact type, and enable tracking of user behaviors like clicks and downloads.
The biggest differentiator between drip and nurture email campaigns is that nurtures automate the relationship-building process by giving prospects curated messages based on their decisions and demographics – allowing them to continue receiving messages until a definitive action – or conversion – is made.
Similar to a drip campaign, you will want to create qualitative and quantitative goals for your nurture emails, keeping in mind the three stages of the buyer’s journey:
Here's an example of an email we used for our Better Than Your Current Agency campaign. It could be nurture or drip, depending on requirements.
- Awareness: Prospect may have a business challenge that your organization can solve.
- Consideration: Prospect clearly defines their problem or opportunity and is seeking assistance.
- Decision: Prospect has identified their solution or strategy and is seeking the right vendor.
Nurture email campaigns focus more on targeted, curated messages and content. For a successful campaign, make sure you have assets or resources that address each stage of the buyer’s journey.
Drip and Nurture Go Together Like PB&J
Drip email campaigns and nurture campaigns are a lot like peanut butter and jelly. They’re better together, especially when they’re used to create a timeless sandwich – uh – strategy.
Drip email campaigns are time-based, while nurture emails are behavior-based, and they’re both equally important in generating and keeping qualified leads.
Leverage both of these email campaigns in your marketing automation and lead generation strategy for better ROI, more conversions, and maximum brand awareness.
If you want to talk about building a strong marketing automation strategy, or if you want to maximize the potential of your next email campaign, Roger West can help.
Roger West Creative & Code is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps companies build brands, generate leads, and keep customers inspired and engaged. The agency provides a dynamic environment for marketing pros to innovate and team up with clients to drive traffic to vibrant places and send messages that pack a punch.