What is Drip Marketing? Interview with Lori Feldman
MarCom Strategist Newsletter - Interview with Lori Feldman on Drip Marketing
A database marketing consultant and founder of The Database Diva, Lori Feldman helps companies increase sales through “drip marketing” campaigns using their in-house database.
In the following interview, Lori explains why a database can help you increase sales. You’ll learn the top three mistakes many companies make – as well as how to implement Lori’s “secret sauce,” the Treasure Triangle.
Lori, what exactly is “drip marketing”?
Lori Feldman: Good question! Drip marketing goes by many names: marketing automation, lead nurturing, stay-in-touch marketing, or follow up marketing. These names all refer to the same process: interacting consistently with your customers and prospects -- with the goal of helping them move from the top of the sales funnel to the bottom where they become ready to buy.
The key word, of course, is “consistently.” What happens when you do drip marketing consistently is that over time, you begin to close on sales with prospects who were “warm” but “not ready to buy.” Because you’ve kept in touch with them, it’s you they call on when they are ready.
What top three mistakes do you see companies make with regard to their database? And, can you explain each one?
LF: One, people treat every name in their database the same; two, they don’t segment the names in their database; and three, people don’t react quickly enough to the triggers that move people from the top to the middle to the bottom of the funnel.
One, people treat every name in their database the same. By this, I mean that people will send the same email blast to every name in their database. But the people in your database aren’t they same – they all have their own issues and hot buttons. Lumping these target audiences together is a common mistake.
This is one reason why creating personas is such a good idea. Once you create personas, you understand have better insight into what each one’s challenges are and how to position your company’s services to solve them.who are your best customers and can then figure out how to find more of them.
Two, audience segments. People don’t segment their lists. You can and should segment by source (where people came from), the type of business, customer or prospect, how much the customer has spent over time, and “interest frequency.” Interest Frequency refers to those people who keep coming back and consuming your information – but haven’t yet become a customer.
And three, people don’t respond quickly enough when a lead has moved from the top of the funnel to the middle or from the middle to the bottom. For prospective customers, it’s all about sending the right message at the right time. This helps foster customer relationships and boost user engagement by providing educational content at the perfect time.
Ok, stop right there. I’ve heard that phrase so many times – what exactly does it mean and more importantly, how do you know which is the right message and the right time?
LF: That is a really great question and the heart of any drip marketing campaign.
Companies typically send three types of email: email blasts, e-newsletters, and drip emails. The problem is that these tactics, which often get lumped together under “drip marketing,” are really three different strategies.
To help people understand this, I’ve created a graphic I call the Treasure Triangle. The Treasure Triangle is the money map to your business.
To send the right message at the right time, you have to be aware when prospects change their status and move from the top of the funnel to the middle of the funnel or to the bottom of your sales funnel. For example, say you have a prospect who won’t return your phone calls, but suddenly he starts visiting the pricing page on your website. He’s a great candidate for a “how to do business with you” drip. Or you have a fresh prospect who suddenly starts downloading info off your website, watching all your videos and emailing you questions. This is a great prospect for a “case study” drip marketing campaign that shows other success stories of doing business with you. begin focusing on the bottom half of the Treasure Triangle. To create a drip marketing campaign, you have to know who your customers are and their challenges and pain points.
Using this information, you then create a drip sequence specific to the segments within your list.
Here’s another For example. Let’s say you do webinars. You look at the attendee list week after week and notice that you have the same people who attend but they’ve not taken any action to do business with you.
Using this information, you can quarantine these prospects and survey them to find out what’s keeping them up at night. Then, you can begin sending them messages targeted specifically to them.
Or, take your existing customers. You can segment them by how much they’ve spent with you and develop a “rewards” program for the people who spend monthly or have purchased a certain amount over time.
Yes! That’s what Staples did. I recently received a call from a Staples account rep. Based on my monthly spend, they had bumped me up to the next tier in their rewards program; I now get a discount every time I buy paper or toner or use their Copy and Print Center.
LF: Exactly. That’s a very smart example of a company using its database to one, identify its best customers and reward them, two, encourage you to stay loyal to Staples and three, purchase more. A win-win for you and for Staples.
Ok, this makes a lot of sense. What can people do to begin thinking in terms of “drip marketing?"
LF: First, differentiate between the information that’s nice to have and the information you must have. What’s that one piece of information all businesses need? An email address. This need is crucial, yet many companies lack email addresses for 75% of the contact names in their database.
Your goal should be to have an email address for each name in your database. One thing you can do is make the email address a required field – people doing data entry can’t exit out until the email address is entered.
Two, send out an e-newsletter and add links to content on your website or blog to determine what people click on. You can capture this information easily enough whether you use an email service provider (such as Constant Contact), or marketing automation (such as Infusionsoft).
As you gather this information and then analyze it, you can then begin creating campaigns based on your prospect or customer types.
Lori, thanks for sharing your expertise with us. This is excellent information – and quite helpful.
One key aspect of drip marketing is the ability to tailor your messages based on where prospects are in the sales funnel. By understanding their behavior and engagement with your content, you can create targeted campaigns that resonate with their needs and interests. This personalization helps build rapport and trust with both current customers and potential customers, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
In addition to segmenting your audience based on behavior, it's important to also segment based on demographics, interests, and pain points. This allows you to send highly relevant content that speaks directly to their needs and challenges. By continuously providing value through your drip campaigns, you can nurture leads over time and guide them towards making a purchase decision.
Overall, drip marketing is a powerful strategy for staying top of mind with your leads and customers, building relationships, customer retention, and ultimately driving sales. By implementing personalized and targeted drip campaigns based on customer behavior and interests, businesses can effectively nurture relationships and drive conversions over time.
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