You know it well...

You have made a purchase online, signed up for a service or something similar - and relatively quickly afterwards, an e-mail ticks into your inbox: the people behind just want to say hi and thank you for showing an interest.

This is our most frequent experience with drip campaigns.

The drip campaign is an interesting feature, which is often overlooked but still does have a lot of potential. In this theme, the Ubivox team would like to share our favourite uses for drip campaigns with you.

At the Ubivox office, we have discussed our favourite ideas about how to use drip campaigns to create value for subscribers - and we would like to share them with you here.

They are

We hope that they will inspire you to find a way to use sequences for your specific readers.

There is a reason for the welcoming e-mail being the most frequently used type of drip campaign. When they are good, they create a lot of value for the subscriber. A blogger has analysed one kind of welcoming e-mail and here explains why she thinks it works. At the office, we broadly agree with her. 

Sending an automated welcoming e-mail has an added advantage: it makes it possible to elaborate what the contact can expect to receive in future newsletters and to send some important information their way immediately.
 

Do you sell equipment or gear that frequently needs checks and services? Then you might benefit from making a drip campaign where you remind your customer about it. We are thinking a minor note about it maybe being time for a check-up, depending on when it was bought - without pushing any sales.

This can be about nearly anything: that it might be time to change oil on the car, to have one's dental treatment checked, that diving equipment may need a check-up... There are countless possibilities.

If you mail merge the contact's purchasing information and use it in your reminder, you can add value to them by doing the remembering for, and being available to, them. 

Here at Ubivox, this is one of our favourites. Possibly because we miss this kind of service from our own bicycle shops and equipment retailers, respectively. 

Correspondence courses are becoming more and more popular: both as consumers and as professionals, we want to learn more - especially when knowledge drops directly into our inbox.

We see this as a win-win situation for both you and your subscriber. You gain important feedback, which you can use for improving the experience for future users. Simultaneously, you are engaging your contact with you and your business.

Whether you run a webshop, consultancy, bureau, organisation or something entirely different, one of the most valuable elements in a working day is knowledge about what works for you and what does not.

This is why we find it very relevant to have a sequence asking new contacts about what they think, what their experiences are and if they have specific wants.

Here, we are thinking e.g. an e-mail asking for input throughout their introductory period, a "thank you for being with us for a month: what do you think?" or something similar.
 

This way, you gain knowledge - and your contact, hopefully, feels included and valuable. In other words: when working properly, this type of sequence can be engaging for the person and help build loyalty.

Some major decisions require time before the decision is made. And more information. This does not only count for major purchases, but for partnerships and the likes.

It could, therefore, be an idea to set up a sequence of 4-5 stages, running over a short amount of time, where a potential client can gain more information about a product, service or agreement. Find the most frequently asked questions, some guides and good referrals of the product and send it over some time.

On the upside, by automating this process as a drip campaign, you eliminate the need for spending time on sending such information manually every time - instead, you can have a well laid-out sequence, which handles the most common issues and questions.

This way, you avoid slipping out of the person's mind during the decision making process - while avoiding having to 'push' your regular newsletter to them. This type of sequence is, therefore, considered by many to be a very important part of e-mail marketing campaigns; because you stay at the top of a potential customer's mind and can simultaneously build up a certain level of loyalty by being present and participating.

For some businesses, it is not necessary to write something entirely new at a regular basis. If you know that you have roughly the same content at all times, your newsletter can, therefore, be relatively standardised and sent as a sequence.

This way, you only have to set it up once - and you stay in the top of your contacts' minds, since they regularly receive what appears to be a normal newsletters. 

Thank you for now

Best wishes, 
all of us at Ubivox 

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