What’s a Drip Campaign?
You meet someone, talk to them over the phone, complete a demonstration and follow up with a great personalized email. Things usually stop there. You don’t hear back and you don’t earn their business. Fix this with email campaigns. Drip campaigns allow you to slowly drop kernels of knowledge while staying in touch with your prospects (in a helpful, non-pushy non-salesy way). Drip campaigns allow us to educate prospects over a period of time with the hopes of converting them to customers when they are finished.
Let’s say someone has visited your website and filled out a form to receive your e-book, Low Cost Ways to Get in Shape. They’ve also called you to discuss gym rates and ask if you offer group classes at your gym and opened your email follow-up containing your class schedule.
What have you learned?
Your client wants to work out affordably, and probably wants the motivation of others to help them reach their goals. To email blast them offering costly one on one personal training sessions is a waste of time.
So what can we do to simplify the process and create our first campaign?
1) Segment your list
Your email messages are not one size fits all. You need to clearly define your audience by their interests so that you can develop detailed content. Ask smarter questions and allow your prospects to segment themselves. How does someone segment themselves? They might fill out a form and check their interests, they might tell you in person, or they might continually read your blog or articles about a particular topic or service. Tag your link clicks so that you can gauge interest and sort your list very specifically. Keep a personal tone so that it seems that you are speaking uniquely to each person on the other side of that email (even if you happen to be sending out 200).
2) Organize your content
Keep it short and sweet. You can provide great content, but if your prospects have to scroll through a 3 page newsletter, forget it! If you include links to additional information in your emails, you put the ball in the reader’s court to click and learn more. Don’t put it all out there on the first email. Break up your emails into easy-to-read, easy-to-follow content.
If I’m considering a gym membership I don’t need a 5 page newsletter on going gluten free. Nor do I need to read about fitness physique competitors that have placed in our state. It’s all too much and the timing is off. Start by sending a nutrition tip a week or maybe add a testimonial speaking on great results from group kickboxing class. If your prospects are single, include an email highlighting singles only night at the gym. If they are married with kids, include an email with info on kids care.
3) Use what you have
Don’t start from scratch, use what you have! Have a blog? Cut it down and use it for your email. Add a testimonial and let someone else sell your service for you. Find a great article online? Share that with your prospects. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. Some people try to create a year-long campaign with over 20 emails. Why? By the time our prospects are reading this in 6 months, this content isn’t relevant. Scale it down. Start with a 2-3 month campaign and see how it goes. Once you have created the first couple of emails, you can add content to the campaign later on.
4) Schedule and sit back
Once you have your content created, sit back and let it all happen. You might have decided to email your prospects on day 1, day 14, day 35, day 60 and day 90. You’ve created enough awesome content to keep them engaged for 3 months! Cheers! If they haven’t purchased yet, have a sales person call them to check-in, maybe start a more sales-heavy campaign with discounts or coupons for the services they previously expressed interest in. Ask for feedback, give your VIP’s special offers and early access to new products. Your prospects will appreciate it, and will help you get even better for your next drip campaign.
Most prospects aren’t quite ready to buy when you first connect with them. With a good email campaign, when they are ready to buy they will remember the company that did the best job of educating them.