Share this
5 Steps to Create a Drip Campaign for B2B Manufacturers
by Danielle Ellerhorst on Tue, Apr 19, 2016 @ 08:00
Even if you haven’t heard the term “drip campaign” you know what it is. Every morning when you check your email we all see it – another email from our favorite retailer (or the retailer we just signed up with to get that 10% discount). What that retailer is doing is repeatedly sending you (the prospect) marketing information in order to nurture you to make a purchase. As a manufacturer in the B2B space you may be wondering how you can use a drip campaign to nurture your own leads. Here is a step-by-step guide for how manufacturers can use drip campaigns in their B2B marketing.
Step 1 – Implement a Marketing Automation Platform
Choose the email or marketing automation platform that fits your business best. Once you do this, you can set up your drip campaign one time and it will automatically run (send out your emails for you). If you don’t have a marketing automation platform, you can still use the steps below to nurture your prospects but the work will need to be done manually rather than automatically.
Step 2 – Segment Your Prospects
If you haven’t defined who your buyer personas are, you’ll need to do this. Instructions on how to create your buyer personas can be found here. After you define the types of buyers you’re focusing your marketing efforts on, you need to segment your data. Create a list for each buyer persona. Prospects on your lists should be buyers that you consider “Marketing Qualified Leads.” It’s important to segment your prospects because the messaging you use to speak to each of your buyer personas will be different. You want to make sure your message resonates with them and speaks to their pain points, so it’s important to take the time to create individual campaigns for each buyer persona rather than trying to use one overarching message.
Step 3 – Define Your Goal
What are you hoping to achieve from your drip campaign? Do you want your prospects to set up a meeting with you, request a quote or some other type of event? Whatever your goal is, give your recipients the option to do this with every email you send. For example, include a call-to-action at the end of every email that the reader can click to request a quote. Once you define your goal, you can determine what content you should send your prospects.
Step 4 - Gather Your Content
What content would your prospects find valuable? This is the content you’ll want to include in your drip campaign emails. Think case studies, blog posts, infographics, industry articles and how-to guides. You don’t want every piece of content you send to be sales-focused on your company. Put yourself in your prospects shoes; would you want to receive emails that are constantly trying to sell you something? Keep the focus on resources that your prospects can use to make their purchasing decision. The more valuable and relevant the content, the more likely your prospects are to open and engage with it.
Step 5 – Analyze your Results
After you send an email, look at the following metrics:
- Deliverability (how many emails were successfully sent to your prospects)
- Open Rate (percentage who opened your email)
- Click Rate (percentage who clicked on a link in your email)
Note which pieces of content and topics are getting the most (and least) engagement and tweak the rest of your drip campaign as needed.
What other drip campaign tips have you found to be successful? Share them in the comments below.
Share this
- Inbound Marketing (126)
- Manufacturing (82)
- Lead Generation (70)
- Website Design & Development (58)
- Social Media (46)
- Online Brand Strategy (38)
- eCommerce (33)
- B2B Marketing (30)
- Digital Marketing (28)
- Expert Knowledge (28)
- Company Culture (22)
- Content Marketing (16)
- Customer Experience (15)
- Metrics & ROI (15)
- Search Engine Optimization (15)
- Marketing and Sales Alignment (12)
- Transportation and Logistics (10)
- Content Marketing Strategy (9)
- Email Marketing (9)
- SyncShow (9)
- Digital Sales (8)
- Lead Nurturing (8)
- Digital Content Marketing (7)
- General (7)
- Mobile (7)
- Brand Awareness (6)
- Digital Marketing Data (4)
- Video Marketing (4)
- LinkedIn (3)
- Professional Services (3)
- Transportation Insights (3)
- Demand Generation (2)
- High Performing Teams (2)
- News (2)
- PPC (2)
- SEO (2)
- SSI Delivers (2)
- Synchronized Inbound (2)
- Value Proposition (2)
- Account-Based Marketing (1)
- Facebook (1)
- In-House Vs. Outsourced Marketing (1)
- Instagram (1)
- KPI (1)
- Marketing Automation (1)
- Networking (1)
- Paid Media (1)
- Retargeting (1)
- StoryBrand (1)
- Storytelling (1)
- November 2024 (4)
- October 2024 (4)
- September 2024 (4)
- August 2024 (4)
- July 2024 (1)
- June 2024 (1)
- May 2024 (4)
- April 2024 (1)
- March 2024 (3)
- January 2024 (2)
- December 2023 (4)
- November 2023 (3)
- October 2023 (1)
- September 2023 (4)
- August 2023 (3)
- July 2023 (2)
- June 2023 (2)
- August 2022 (2)
- July 2022 (2)
- June 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (2)
- February 2022 (1)
- January 2022 (2)
- October 2021 (1)
- June 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (1)
- March 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- October 2020 (2)
- September 2020 (1)
- August 2020 (3)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (4)
- May 2020 (2)
- April 2020 (3)
- March 2020 (9)
- February 2020 (5)
- January 2020 (6)
- December 2019 (5)
- November 2019 (7)
- October 2019 (6)
- September 2019 (8)
- August 2019 (5)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (3)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (1)
- March 2019 (2)
- February 2019 (1)
- January 2019 (2)
- November 2018 (1)
- October 2018 (1)
- September 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (2)
- March 2018 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (1)
- September 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (2)
- July 2017 (2)
- May 2017 (1)
- April 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (1)
- January 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (8)
- October 2016 (7)
- September 2016 (2)
- August 2016 (2)
- July 2016 (6)
- June 2016 (3)
- May 2016 (4)
- April 2016 (6)
- March 2016 (6)
- February 2016 (7)
- January 2016 (7)
- December 2015 (6)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (4)
- July 2015 (9)
- June 2015 (9)
- May 2015 (8)
- April 2015 (8)
- March 2015 (9)
- February 2015 (7)
- January 2015 (8)
- December 2014 (7)
- November 2014 (7)
- October 2014 (5)
- September 2014 (4)
- August 2014 (4)
- July 2014 (5)
- June 2014 (4)
- May 2014 (5)
- April 2014 (4)
- March 2014 (7)
- February 2014 (9)
- January 2014 (7)
- August 2013 (2)
- July 2013 (4)
- June 2013 (6)
- May 2013 (7)
- April 2013 (7)
- March 2013 (8)
- February 2013 (5)
- January 2013 (7)
- December 2012 (4)
- November 2012 (4)
- October 2012 (2)
- September 2012 (1)
- July 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (4)
- March 2012 (5)
- February 2012 (2)
- January 2012 (3)
- November 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (3)
- April 2011 (1)
- March 2011 (1)
- February 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (2)
- November 2010 (3)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (2)
- April 2010 (1)
- January 2010 (1)