Drip Marketing and the Opt-In
Drip marketing is a function of the CRM you choose. A drip campaign measures your potential customer’s or client’s level of interest by their habits, as in how many times they open your emails and click on the links. It amazes me how many small businesses fail to have something as simple as an opt-in form for an email list. For example, the other night, I was looking at a financial advisor online. I thought, “I like this person; he looks good. But it’s 12 o’clock at night; I’m not going to reach out to him now.” So, I looked to see if I could opt into his list or request a call-back and but it wasn’t possible. So many companies don’t have this feature set up. They don’t give their interested parties an option to opt-in to hearing from them in the future.
Any kind of business has a specific opportunity, with an email list, to massage that customer and warm that customer–that lead–up. Most SMB’s in particular, are terrible at this. If they do have an opt-in, they’ll follow up with a lead once or twice, then give up. Of course, you have to consider how much business you can handle once a lead turns into a client, having an opt-in for prospects is a must.
Think of it this way: you did all the work to set up your webpage. You got some links and probably paid for some SEO and maybe some ads. You did three-quarters of the work. Now, somebody’s doing their homework in the middle of the night or on a plane or whatever, and they don’t want to call you right then. But they do want to learn more about you and your company or service. Give them an easy way to do it. Don’t stop your marketing efforts when you’re already 75% of the way there. Another financial advisor had a better system than the first one I researched. She let me opt-in in, and then she reached out and sent me an automated Calendly link invite to get a phone meeting scheduled. Almost all professional services organizations should be sending Calendly invites for the initial discovery meeting/call. It says, “Oh, you’re interested? Here, you get the first email. Here’s your option to set up a time to talk.” It’s the most efficient thing you could do to get a customer into your queue. No matter what size your business happens to be, remember: we are all in sales. ALWAYS BE SELLING!
Lesson Learned: The first thing we learned in digital marketing is not to buy cold email lists. Do not just grab people’s email addresses and put them on your list because you found their business cards or bought them from shady sources. You’ve got to make a lead opt in or purchase a warm list from a provider / affiliate. Potential customers of your business have to want to opt-in. Do not spam.
You have to protect your sender’s reputation. That’s a big thing: your ‘sender reputation‘. In fact, it is so important and if you email thousands of people several times a week, MX Toolbox is a great service. You can pay for the basic plan at about $100/month to make sure that your SPIF sender records are setup correctly and that you are not on any blacklists (servers that mark you as a potential spammer). You can pay for the $300 / month Premier service and they will manage it for you. Someone could spoof your email and cause problems, so you have to stay ahead of it. You don’t want to find out the hard way that your emails have gone to the spam box or out to the ether. If you’re starting to send email at any kind of volume, you want to monitor your sender’s reputation. Again, always make it easy to opt out of your list, so we that you do not get marked as spam. We protect this part of our business very strongly.
Top Ten Ways to Use Email Campaigns to Increase Sales
- Personalize the subject line and email content to increase open rates.
- Segment your email list to target specific groups with relevant content.
- Use a clear and compelling call-to-action to encourage conversions.
- Test and optimize subject lines, email content, and sending frequency for better performance.
- Use a combination of plain text and HTML formatting for a more engaging email.
- Include customer reviews or testimonials to build trust and credibility.
- Use a clear and consistent design to improve brand recognition.
- Incorporate special offers or discounts to incentivize conversions.
- Utilize A/B testing to determine which elements of your email perform best.
- Track and analyze key metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates, to continually improve your email campaigns.