Email marketing is still an effective strategy to drive leads, maintain customer loyalty and increase sales, which can be valuable for growth. An effective email marketing strategy is especially beneficial for your eCommerce marketing plan, especially if you’re searching for a cost-effective strategy with a significant return on investment.
However, not every email marketing campaign follows the same strategy. While you can send blast emails to your business’ entire contact list for your eCommerce marketing strategies, this isn’t as effective as personalized email marketing strategies that target a specific segment or portion of the buyer’s journey.
When it comes to targeted email campaigns based on your audience’s actions, we can generally classify email marketing into two types: an email nurture campaign and a drip campaign. In this article, we’ll take a look at:
• What Is a Nurture Campaign?
• What Is a Drip Campaign?
• Email Nurture Campaign vs. Drip Campaign: Which One Is Better?
• Tips for Effective Email Marketing Campaigns
So, let’s talk about the difference between these two approaches, which email marketing strategy you should use and the best way to use either to achieve your marketing goals.
What Is a Nurture Campaign?
An email nurture campaign relies on a person’s behavior, their status in the buying process and how you can “nurture” a lead to a conversion. During a nurture campaign, you only send emails based on what they’re doing with your business and how you can nudge them to take the next step.
In other words, your email marketing campaign only moves forward if a user makes a move that shows their interest. Once they show interest, your emails should keep them happy. Some nurture campaign examples include:
• Emails to New Customers: These are emails you send to users who have signed up for your newsletter or created an account on your online store. They have yet to make a purchase, but you can start creating engagement with them.
• Post-purchase Emails: These emails provide customer support or generate reviews and feedback for your product. Encourage your customers to leave a review or offer more information if they have concerns about their order.
• Re-engagement Emails: These customers have either put items in their cart but didn’t checkout or made a purchase but did not engage after. You’re at risk of losing potential sales, so reach out with an email. The contents of your email can depend on which part of their buying journey they’ve left.
• Repeat Customer Emails: These customers have made a second purchase and will likely refer your business to their network. Thank them for their trust and business and ask for their feedback or if they will probably recommend your company.
What Is a Drip Campaign?
A drip campaign is an automated email campaign that is personalized and scheduled to chosen contacts. While a drip campaign is also based on user behavior, your email marketing campaign isn’t dependent on when a user performs a specific action. Instead, you look for users who meet a particular category and send automated emails as needed.
In other words, a drip campaign slowly “drips” information over time. Whichever user does certain actions within a specific timeframe will receive these emails to move them closer to conversion. Some drip campaign examples include:
• Top-Of-Funnel Drip: This is an initial email usually sent to those in the early stages of striking up a conversation with prospective customers.
• Top-of-Mind Drip: These less salesy emails often keep your brand at the top of users’ minds. You’re not looking to make a sale with these emails but want your users to keep your brand in mind with regular emails.
• Educational Drip: This part of your email marketing campaign focuses on providing users with more information about your brand offerings. Emails here could raise pain points and how your products tackle addressing them.
• Re-Engagement Drip: These emails bring disengaged customers back to your website. This can be done by sending them information about sales, special deals or offers they can find in your store.
Email Nurture Campaign vs. Drip Campaign: Which One Is Better?
Knowing what is a drip campaign and what is a nurture campaign, you might wonder which one is best for your business or eCommerce marketing plan. According to Chad Bittle, Thrive’s Email Marketing Manager, choosing between a lead nurture campaign and a drip campaign depends on several factors.
“The decision between using nurture campaigns or drip campaigns depends on your specific business goals, target audience and the nature of your products or services,” he said.
“Both types of campaigns can be effective in different scenarios.”
Lead nurture campaigns, according to Bittle, focus on building a relationship with prospects and guiding them through the buyer’s journey.
“They’re especially useful for businesses with longer sales cycles or high-value products or services that require substantial research and consideration before purchase.”
Drip campaigns, on the other hand, involve delivering a series of pre-written, automated messages at scheduled intervals to prospects or customers. “They work well for businesses with shorter sales cycles, eCommerce companies and those promoting time-limited offers or upselling to existing customers.”
Tips for Effective Email Marketing Campaigns
Whether you’re leaning towards drip campaign examples or the nurture campaign examples above, this is only one part of your email marketing campaign to consider.
• Create Quality Content: If users find little value in their emails, they may continue to disengage or decide to unsubscribe. Ensure that the content you send has valuable information relevant to the reader. You can even hire professional copywriting services to produce concise and compelling content that still engages and resonates with your target audience.
• Segment Your Mailing List: Personalized email content performs better than content that’s generalized enough to target everyone. Before seeking copywriting services or email writing services, segment your email list so that everyone receives emails tailored to their own demographic or preferences.
• Have Remarketing Strategies: Not all of your original leads go on to convert, so online businesses may see instances of abandoned carts or users not making it toward a successful sale. If your email marketing is part of your eCommerce marketing plan, consider reaching out to these users through integrated email marketing strategies.
• Have One Visible Call to Action: Want to maximize your eCommerce marketing strategies for your emails? You only have three seconds to get users to notice your CTA. Your email should have one visible CTA rather than many in one email.
• Avoid “Batch and Blast” Email Campaigns: Unless providing information about your business operations relevant to all users, avoid sending newsletters or emails that are too generalized. Effective eCommerce marketing strategies through emails engage users and convince them to stay subscribed. Emails with irrelevant content can dissuade users from opening your emails or even unsubscribe. Ensure your email writing services are targeted toward a specific audience, not just generalized content.
Let Thrive Help You Drive Leads With Email Marketing Campaign Strategies
At Thrive, we understand that business marketing needs vary, and the same applies to the email marketing strategies we deliver to our clients. This translates to the type of email campaigns we provide.
“Thrive’s approach to email marketing is highly personalized, and we tailor our services to each customer’s specific goals and needs,” says Bittle.
“We don’t offer a “one size fits all” package for email marketing. Instead, we carefully and thoroughly evaluate and audit our clients’ past performance, industry and competitors to formulate a strategy to help them meet (and exceed) their goals.”
Maximize your email marketing efforts with solutions delivered by professionals. From scheduling your lead nurture campaign or drip campaign, to providing email writing services and copywriting services for compelling content, we can offer you the whole package.
With Thrive, you can expect plans tailored to your objectives to get you the traffic, leads or conversions to boost your overall digital marketing strategies. Get in touch with Thrive for a free proposal on our services.
