I think you’ll agree with me when I say:

You can’t do email marketing without automation in 2018.

That means you need to have all of your basic drip campaigns in place, running on autopilot.

A quick reference: a drip campaign a.k.a. an email sequence a.k.a. an autoresponder is simply a set of marketing emails that will be sent out automatically on a schedule.

How many do you have running right now?

In this post, I’ll share 3 drip campaign examples that every business needs to have and give you a sample structure to create your own.

Drip campaigns can seriously simplify your life, automate your email marketing, AND achieve your email marketing goals much more effectively than you doing it with manual one-off emails (called “newsletters” or “broadcasts” by various automation tools).

3 Must-Have Email Drip Campaigns For Your Business

Below are 3 drip marketing campaign “recipes” for every B2B business, no matter how big or small your email list is at the moment.

Email Drip Campaign #1: Welcome New Subscribers

Every time a new person subscribes to your list, you need to make sure they see you in the best light, right? So don’t leave that first impression up to chance (your regular newsletters).

Instead, take your new subscribers through a welcome email sequence (3-5 emails) with your best content and important steps they need to take to get the most out of what you offer.

Related: 4 Welcome Email Mistakes to Avoid

Extra points:

Create different versions of the welcome sequence for the different types of lead magnets you have.

If you offer a few different products or services, AND you have various lead magnets that correspond to those offers, customize your welcome drip campaigns to match the subscriber’s interest (based on the type of lead magnet they subscribed through).

When you do that, you’ll see higher engagement and retention rates. You can take it a step further, and turn your welcome sequence into a “lead magnet to sales offer” drip campaign, and watch your sales numbers soar as you offer your new subscribers exactly what they need.

Here’s a template for a “welcome” email drip campaign:

Welcome Email Drip Campaign – Structure

Email #1: Thanks for subscribing!
Thanks for subscribing, here’s what to expect from this list (focus on the benefits you will provide for them, not just what you’ll write about); links to the best content.

Email #2: Your best content
Ways they can use free content / tools on your website for their business OR one piece of the best content in the email format.

Email #3: Nurture & engage
More nurturing content OR invitation to a webinar OR ask them a question so you can understand your audience and segment it better.

You can also structure the welcome drip campaign to be a mini-course that teaches a topic that is highly relevant to what you sell.

Want to have this email structure handy so you can reference it as you write your email drip campaigns? Download a compact PDF here (it’s free).

Email Drip Campaign #2: Sell Your Stuff

Once your subscribers are welcomed and nurtured, you can offer them your paid product or service.

However, it’s not enough to just be like, “Hey, I have this – do you want it?” If you’d tried this approach, you probably felt like your conversion rate could be much better.

Here’s a more effective approach: take your subscribers on a journey called “problem – agitate – solve” (PAS).

The PAS framework works because it increases your readers’ desire for your product. It takes them from something they would “kind of like to have one day” to something they “must have right now.”

Here’s how you do it in an email drip campaign:

Sales Email Drip Campaign – Structure

Email #1: Problem

Introduce the problem your offer solves and tell a before/after story about it.

Email #2: Agitate

Okay, your subscribers have this problem, but it’s probably #10 or #15 on their list of priorities. Use this email to make it go to the Top 5.

Talk about common mistakes people make to make the problem even worse, or what not doing anything about the problem can lead to.

Email #3: Solve

Tell a story about how someone solved the problem and what that felt like.

Email #4: Action

Give your subscribers an easy win: provide one easy-to-accomplish first action step to solving the problem. They need to feel confident that they can solve this problem, that it’s achievable.

Email #5: Sell

Now that you’ve have educated your subscriber, increased urgency and their confidence at solving the problem, tell them how your offer can help them solve the big problem.

Email #6: Q&A

Answer most frequently asked questions about your offer and use this opportunity to sell again.

These are the bare bones of a sales drip campaign, and you can always enhance it by adding case studies and increasing urgency with early bird discounts, bonuses, close carts, etc.

Email Drip Campaign #3: Re-Engage Dormant Subscribers

There is a big portion of your list that is not seeing ANY of your emails, all the while you’re continuing to pay for them to be on your list.

Use this email drip campaign to get subscribers who haven’t opened an email in the last 90 days to take action. It will send a series of CTAs to get them back in the fold.

Re-Engagement Email Drip Campaign – Structure

When done right, these 3 drip campaigns will put you ahead of the majority of your competition. They automate important phases of your customer lifecycle, so you can focus on enhancing your marketing efforts or adding new products and services.

If you don’t have these 3 email campaigns running, go add them right now! Open a Google Doc, and start writing (I recommend writing a whole drip campaign in one sitting).

Email Marketing Services & Marketing Automation Tools

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of email service providers and marketing automation tools that offer drip campaign features right now. I’m going to list some of the most prominent ones:

MailChimp

MailChimp drip campaigns are called “ongoing campaigns”. You are limited in the choice of your triggers and rules, so I only recommend using MailChimp for your drip campaigns if you don’t have complex rules for who should receive your emails and when.

Drip

Drip is one of my favorite tools for email automation. Unlike MailChimp, which started as a newsletter tool and then added automation features on top of their product, Drip started as a pure automation platform, which makes their features robust and comprehensive.

Autopilot

Autopilot does much more than email — it’s a comprehensive marketing automation and customer journey platform. They go beyond email by integration SMS and on-site events into their campaigns. I recommend checking it out if you are ready for that level of automation in your business.

If you’re looking for someone to help you with drip campaigns at your company, I can help. Drop me a line here.

If you want to get the drip campaign templates I described in an easy PDF format, download them here.

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