Drip emails are a series of emails that are sent to follow up with subscribers. They are linearly set up with different send times. Once the defined time arrives, based on the action of recipients, they’re automatically sent to the subscribers by your email marketing platform. To learn more about drip campaigns from a very general point of view, read our article that explains the 7 ways to maximize your drip marketing efforts.
Considered one of the most effective ways to engage subscribers, drip emails are a natural fit for the ecommerce industry given the time visitors often take to make a purchase. Today we’re going to take a look at some highly personalized types of drip emails you can create if you have some data about your visitors and subscribers. These emails will be a great way to boost sales during the post-holiday season.
Clearance sale
This is a type of email customers expect to see after the holidays, so it’s good to fulfill those expectations. You can sell your remaining products to the right customers simply by setting up drip campaigns that show them items they’ll be interested in that are on sale. One way to do this is to segment customers who were active during the holiday season and show them items based on their previous purchase patterns. Your email should also indicate that there are only limited quantities left. This will give the email a sense of urgency, hopefully inspiring some of your recipients to go ahead and purchase a few items.
In the above example, you don’t see much filler content to bore readers. Instead, Zylker gets directly to the point of the email. And they’ve included a CTA button that takes people to their website. However, some people won’t click on it without seeing the type of products on sale, which is why Zylker has included multiple images of product names along with the price. These product images have been personalized for the recipient based on their previous searches and purchases.
Year in review
Many customers might like a recap of the purchases they made during the year, especially if you’re able to supply information about how much they used those items. Many brands are doing a great job of this. For example, gaming companies show gamers which games they played the most, what days/times they played the most, how many points they earned, and more. Food delivery brands show the most purchased food item, how many times it was purchased, the time of most purchases, etc. Likewise, other brands do year-in-review emails based on their industry. That said, be careful supplying this information as these details could also backfire if a person has used an item more than they feel they should have. Whether or not to include those sorts of details will depend on your product or service. While showing them their favorite purchases, you could also show them similar items that other customers purchased so that you’re giving them an option to try something similar but new this time.
Here’s an example of a year-in-review email where Zylker, a smart watch company, sends an email—and sets up other emails—that includes a list of all the activities a customer did during 2020 and how they compare with other users. When people click on the CTAs, not only will they be shown the details of their activities, they’ll also see activities that other Zylker customers did, which will make them think about new options to try for the upcoming year.
Cart abandonment
During their holiday shopping spree, numerous customers will have left many items in their carts upon checkout. You can use cart abandonment emails to remind them of these left-behind items—which might currently be on sale—and offer them more chances to buy now that they’re past the shopping splurge. While setting up abandoned cart drip emails to follow up, just make sure to get the timing and context right.
Here, Zylker doesn’t need a whole lot of content to explain why they’re sending this type of email to their recipients. A simple email with details of the products that customers left behind will do. Moreover, you could also add a discount to the items in your customer’s abandoned cart. By doing this, you make sure that you’re not leaving a single chance for them to reject the product even now.
Re-evaluation emails
Once you’re done sending out your holiday email campaigns, you’ll learn you have inactive contacts in your email list. Create a separate list of these contacts and send them a single email that gives them a direct opportunity to unsubscribe from your emails. They will either unsubscribe or show interest to receive further emails. For the former, you could push them to the “do-not-mail” list, and for the latter, you can add a score or tag them as interested customers and send them future emails.
The example here shows an email that’s sent to people who stayed inactive in the mailing list. The email gives them another chance to think about whether they’re interested in receiving your further updates. By doing this, you’re showing them that you value their choices, which improves their trust in you as a brand. You’re also doing good to your email list by avoiding a future increase in bounce rates.
Product/Brand update emails
When entering a new year, your customers might not be aware of the latest trends. So send a series of emails to customers informing them about what’s new to look out for. Industries like technology, medicine, and fashion can make the most of this method. It could be articles on what you expect this year to turn out to be or it could also be introducing new items to your customers.
This again is an email that doesn’t have any images or gimmicks used in order to attract the customers. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use them, but the whole point of this email is to convey to your customers what they could expect in this year and what your new items will be (maybe with a discount/offer). This again makes them understand that you value them as a customer.
Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of how you can use drip email marketing to promote your brand and its updates! Let us know your experiences with drip emails in the comments below. We’re all ears
P.S. All templates used in this blog are created using Zoho Campaigns. If you’d like to take a look at our template collections, here it is.
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