Website content explains subjects not likely to change, like your products or services, while social media keeps your audience engaged long enough to click a link.
Don’t you want a deeper, more meaningful connection with your clients, prospects, and fans?
An efficient way to forge this connection without tying up all of your resources is drip marketing.
Because you can create drip campaigns for different customer personas at different stages of the purchase process, targeting customers with relevant messaging directly in their inbox boosts your content’s priority.
Craft Your Message for People
Forget search engines and SEO for a minute — it’s all about reaching people. Are you vying for the attention of C-suite execs or reaching out to single moms?
Depending on your audience, brand messaging in a drip campaign can vary greatly while retaining the following qualities:
- Purpose. While a drip campaign may only consist of 3 well-timed emails, it must have a well-defined purpose. What should your reader do after opening the email?
- Connection. Words mean more than you might think. A simple greeting, short purposeful statement, and invitation to act may be all it takes for a reader to learn more.
- Call to action. Should your viewer head to your blog, sign up for an offer, or write you back? Whatever your call to action, make sure it’s easy to complete. Anything more than a step or two might decrease your overall response rate.
From including interactive elements to tweaking landing page design, developing a cohesive campaign ensures you take advantage of each and every opportunity to “wow” your reader.
Content: The Heart of Your Drip Campaign
Despite rumors of marketing automation taking over, there remains a very real, human element to marketing communication and it rests in your content.
Unlike creating website content, drip campaign messages need to be short, on-brand, and speak directly to their pain points.
Answer the following questions and share with your team before launching a drip campaign:
- Which emotions or thoughts will this message evoke when read?
- What barriers and challenges is the reader facing?
- What solutions are offered by my brand?
Communicating the answers to your content creation team is crucial to building an effective email drip campaign.
Have you had success with drip campaigns?
Georgia Potts says:
Reaching people will truly help you so much more than SEO. It’s important to understand what kind of reaction what you email out will have on those who read it. Great job on this article!
Rob Toccs says:
Developing personas is so important when creating an email campaign because, as you point out Claire, you aren’t dealing with search engines — it’s personal. That’s why, as a writer, I appreciate customers who include personas that I can tailor the content to. It really helps my writing process.
Annabelle Dunlap says:
Great advice! I constantly see marketers creating their campaigns based on what the search engines want to see instead of what the actually people reading it will want to see. Knowing what demographic you are targeting and writing your message around can be very effective.
Earl Dotson says:
It’s a wonderful feeling when you know who your audience is. You can simply lock in at that point and write something you know they’ll respond to.
Corbin Bartoli says:
Claire, firstly I just wanted to say you made a wonderful post. I agree that you really need to reach out to your clients, and that sometimes search engines are not the best way to do that. As much as I stress good SEO practices, I also think having a strong internet personality for readers to connect with is just as important. Truthfully the two go hand in hand. You truly can’t have one, without the other.
Earl Dotson says:
The importance of words can’t be overstated. Many of us know the power a seemingly simple verbal greeting can have, so why would it be any different with email? Thank you, Claire, for such helpful advice on a very important challenge.
Georgia Potts says:
It’s true, the pen is mightier than the sword, as they say. The words you choose are important.
Tay H says:
Reaching people is so important when people are increasingly bombarded with content and having a purpose you would assume goes without saying but sadly sometimes this is the biggest missed opportunity.