B2B Email Drip Campaigns — Are They Right for Your Organization?

Have you considered B2B email drip campaigns? The fundamental goal of an email marketing campaign is to draw the right potential customers. However, like social media posts, a single email is rarely ever enough.

 According to HubSpot, 35% of marketers send their customers at least three to five emails every week. Keeping your subscribers engaged is critical to sustain your email marketing strategy and grow sales. This is where B2B email drip campaigns come into the picture.

 Let’s dig into B2B email drip campaigns — how they are different from other marketing initiatives, and the benefits they can bring to businesses of all shapes, types, and sizes.

What Are Email Drip Campaigns?

An email drip campaign comprises a sequence of emails released over a predefined period of time. They are designed to keep subscribers engaged and, over time, entice them to reach out for more information or to make a purchase.

For instance, an email will be released immediately after a website visitor signs up for an email list; a follow-up message will be sent X number of days later; another message X number of days or weeks after the follow-up message; and so on.  The emails in a drip campaign may be based on consumer actions (making a purchase or signing up) or triggers (fixed periods or occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays).

Email drip campaigns are also known as automated email marketing campaigns, autoresponders, drip campaigns, drip marketing campaigns, and lifecycle emails. They are referred to as “drip” campaigns as they provide continuous value to your email subscribers by sharing notifications, updates, and useful information over time.

How Are Email Drip Campaigns Different from Other Campaigns?

Email drip campaigns are different from other email marketing campaigns as they: 

• Leverage behavioral triggers and timing to release/send automated emails
• Are set up to send only to potential buyers who have signed up for an email list
• Have a better open rate than other marketing email campaigns (open rates for drip campaigns are 80% more than single emails, and their average click-through rates (CTRs) are three times higher)

What Are the Benefits of B2B Email Drip Campaigns?

Let’s look at 5 significant benefits of email drip campaigns: 

1. Higher revenues: Effective email drip campaigns generate 18X more revenue than bulk emails.
2. Better engagement: Email drip campaigns result in 119% higher CTR than traditional email campaigns.
3. Lead nurturing: Engaging and good-quality content within email drip campaigns can help build trust with subscribers and convert them into customers. Businesses have witnessed a 20% increase in sales after using email drip campaigns to engage subscribers.
4. Accurate lead segmentation: Email drip campaigns allow you to segment subscribers into different funnels and send them targeted emails, leading to more conversions.
5. Conversation starters: Email drip campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with your clients and prospects over a long period of time, prompting opportunities to follow up by phone.  

When Should You Use an Email Drip Campaign?

The goal of email drip campaigns is to keep subscribers engaged and, ultimately, turn them into buyers or repeat buyers. Here are four use cases where email drip campaigns can prove to be useful: 

1. Lead nurturing: Email drip campaigns can generate 50% more sales-oriented leads through regular communication with subscribers. You can rely on email drip campaigns to welcome subscribers, onboard them and keep them engaged to turn them into paid customers.
2. Greetings: According to an Experian whitepaper, email drip campaigns that comprise greeting/welcome emails receive a 58.7% open rate on average.
3. Onboarding: You've signed up a new client and need to introduce them to your organization's practices and services over time. Giving your audience time to absorb information can make all the difference in your relationship. You can include a call-to-action in each email, such as downloading an ebook, signing up for a webinar, scheduling a call with their customer support representative, and so on.  
4. Relevant suggestions: You can leverage email drip campaigns to target subscribers based on their interests. Have you ever received emails that recommend products based on your recent browsing activity? You can use email drip campaigns to remind potential customers to buy products or services they expressed an interest in. 

Chances are you have opportunities for efficiently keeping in touch and sharing ideas with your target audiences using email drip campaigns and you may not even realize it. If you'd like to discuss your audiences and ways to use email drip campaigns, please contact us.