How To Write Effective Drip Emails, What You Need To Know.

If you're new to drip email marketing, you might want to first check out our Blog post "Drip Email Marketing: Why Successful Businesses Love It" to get a feel for why it's so powerful. But if you're ready to go, and start your next (perhaps even first) drip email marketing campaign, you'll need to know how to write effective text. Because your drip email campaigns are only as good as the emails you write!

What's The Best Drip Email Marketing Strategy? 

It's interesting that, no matter what industry, product or service you offer, the strategies used in the best drip email marketing campaigns are remarkably similar, and we've no doubt that these tips will work for you too. The first step is understanding how your drip email campaigns fit into your marketing strategy. Like your Landing Page strategy (a great article here), you need to have clear goals.

Drip emails can seem complex at first, but your goals for each email shouldn't be. Every drip email should move your reader towards your goal, and naturally, your goals can change depending on where you are in your drip campaign - but more on that soon. 

What Do You Write In Your Drip Emails?

The best approach is to write all of your emails in one session, not write one email, send it, then write another and send that. Simply write all of your emails at once, so you can read them all together and see how they flow. Your drip campaign should have a seamless feel to it. 

Because even though your readers will get the drip emails over a series of days, or weeks, they need to all 'feel' the same. This will help your branding tremendously!

Pay Close Attention To The Quality Of Your Writing. 

Sending low quality, or spammy feeling emails can have a negative impact, and potentially leave a bad taste in your prospects (or established clients) mouth. They will feel marketed to, and that's what you need to avoid. 

Here are a few writing tips:

1. Tell a story, but not a waffling story. For example, it helps to set up your emails with the problems or desires your readers have before pitching to them.
2. Use the most simple language possible, short, sharp words always work best. Saying that, if you're sending your emails to a scientific research group (for example), use the language they use.  
3. Consider your reader's attention spans, are they the type of people to read all of your emails, or will they be skimming the headlines? As a rule of thumb, new readers (potential customers) often want shorter emails. Long-time customers who know your products or services well really appreciate longer emails with more educational content. 
4. If you send longer emails, include a summary at the end. This will jot your reader's minds if they can’t remember everything in the email, or are just skimming the email text. Remember the last thing you read, is usually the thing that sticks.

Now if you forget all of these tips, here's the most important one to remember: Always provide value, and don't be afraid to have a little fun!

Here's an example from www.mycontentkit.com which helps small business owners write their own website text. In this email, the reader gets 2 very easy tips, helping them best use the product (or service):

Keep Your Drip Emails Personal.

Even if you're selling something that's un-sexy, like selling blank paper to businesses, you should still keep your emails personal. "Hi Steve, we think you'll love this new high-grade paper, you could print your family photos on it, it's that good". Even if it's tempting to go all corporate, corporate emails can seem like a sales machine, and most people will simply switch off when you try to hard sell to them. 

Your readers have emotions, and a personal email will help you tap into them. Emotions are much more powerful than facts after all! Naturally, the exact tone all comes down to your audience, but do keep it personal.

Excite Your Readers, So They're Hanging For Your Next Email! 

Sometimes withholding information and hinting at what's to come, can seriously improve your email open rates and engagement. When writing your drip emails, try hinting at the next email. For example "Hi Steve, we think you'll love this new high-grade paper, you could print your family photos on it, it's that good. We also have this amazing new ink coming in (more on that soon), but let me say, you may never need to print elsewhere again!"

Almost Always Add A Call To Action.

Even if you write the most amazing drip email series, without a call to action in some of your emails, they may be pointless. The most common calls to action are asking the reader to send an email reply or click a link, like the next example below which does both. Please note, this is an "offer email" where the email is going to a customer who's already bought the product and may need some extra help:





Writing Great Drip Email Content, The Summary.

As every business and marketing strategy is different, there's no silver bullet for writing drip email campaigns. The most important rule (like all copywriting) is to put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about how they would feel when receiving your drip email campaigns. Context is everything.

But once you’ve got the right drip email campaign in place, you should quickly see the rewards of putting your lead magnet or follow-up marketing strategy on autopilot.

Drip Email Marketing Made Easy.

If you'd like to setup and start sending drip emails right now, simply head to our website www.inboundio.com and sign-up. You’ll then be able to create and send your very first drip email campaign, along with having the best small business digital marketing tools at your fingertips!