Drip Email Program

When it comes to email marketing in the B2B space, one of the hottest new trends is drip-nurturing campaigns created with marketing automation. With the adoption of marketing automation reaching as high as 76% in the most progressive industries, it is easy to see why nurturing is the new “black”. So let's look at one of the biggest mistakes people make when creating lead nurturing emails.

First, let's talk about what a nurturing program actually is. Whatever term you use--drip-nurturing, lead nurturing, email nurturing, etc.--a nurturing campaign is an email program that executes automatically...

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If you’ve mastered marketing automation 101, and even tackled our 9 steps to go beyond the marketing automation basics, then you’re ready for a few of our expert tips. At this point, you should be delivering highly relevant and dynamic email content, sending out drip emails to nurture prospects over time, and managing your social profiles using real-time and scheduled posts.

Sound about right? If so, then read on to find out how you can continue to improve your marketing automation efforts with these 8 steps, inspired by the Mastering the Art of Marketing Automation eBook:

1. Don’t get lazy. At...

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Marketing automation is the intersection of many useful features and functions. It's a proven fact that marketing automation software gives marketers full visibility into aspects of the sales cycle that were previously a mystery. But the sheer number of buttons and tools can seem daunting if they're not old-hat to you just yet.

As you begin to build an effective marketing automation program, you can begin to gain a holistic view of your marketing activities. From there, you can streamline traditionally manual processes (like customer segmentation, email marketing, and campaign management).

Start ...

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As a kid my favorite question was "Why?" I'd ask my mother and father a hundred times a day, "Why this", and "Why that"?

They were good parents and would indulge my mindless questions. I never stopped asking questions, and as a marketer you should never stop asking that most important question: "Why?"

Marketing automation is a recent phenomenon and has made huge waves. Clicz.com reported 76% of the worlds largest SaaS companies are using marketing automation, and among these are some of the biggest brands in the world. The question you should ask yourself, is "Why?" Why are so many comapnies...

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Let’s face it: gaining and retaining customers can often feel like a delicate negotiation process. What is the right mix between what you’ll give in the way of offers and discounts to what your customers gain through their interactions with you?

However, retailers will have more than just price in their bargaining arsenals. In this post, we explore the benefits of using an abandoned cart program to recapture lost revenue.

#1 Way Retail Marketers are Leaving Money On the Table: Not Having an Abandoned Cart Strategy

Our Retail Touchpoints Exposed data found that only 22 percent of retailers on the...

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I was doing some consulting recently for a company and they asked a great question, so I wanted to share it (and the solution, of course).

We were discussing sales enablement drip programs, and how to help sales keep up with more prospects over a long sales cycle. We discussed putting in place some very specific drip programs which would come from the sales reps. They loved the concept, but wondered what would happen if a prospect got an automated email and a "real" email from the sales rep in the same day?

This is a great question, and one that not enough marketers ask themselves. If you don't...

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If a company is serious about video marketing, they might need the services of Wistia, a fast-growing online video hosting company.

Wistia hosts videos for companies so that prospects don't have to leave the site to view it or watch ads. By using Wistia, marketers get analytics on user behavior and interactivity with the video. If the video was a hit, and most people watched it straight through, perhaps the company will produce another one like it. If it wasn't successful, it's time to come up with a new concept.

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At ExactTarget, we are fortunate to have some of the most sophisticated interactive marketers from around the world as our clients. The programs they create and execute to drive results within their organizations are nothing short of inspiring. Whether it is Feeding Your Kids Foundation improving eating behaviors of 9,000 families from 85 countries with a new email and SMS campaign, or Flagstar Bank tripling their wholesale customer service survey responses since January with a 7-part email drip campaign, our clients make a measurable impact around the world with their interactive marketing...

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It is important to understand the value of automation within your email marketing strategy. Take Oovie for example, we wrote about their automation strategy this summer. Oovie experienced a 30% increase in sales using integrated and automated email marketing. Automation is extremely important to the health of any marketing strategy and it can be used to drive significant increases in revenue. 

Why is automation important? Routine and time-intensive tasks like data movement, segmentation, and messaging programs become easy with “set it and forget it” functionality. The right marketing automation...

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Welcome emails are the best opportunity to solidify your relationship with a new subscriber. This type of email marketing tends to record higher open and click-through rates than any other emails, and are sent to your most captive audience. Remember that at the time the welcome email sends, you’ve just been invited into the subscriber’s world, and they want to hear from you—as long as your content is relevant. The stakes are high! So... how do we build an effective onboarding strategy for our subscribers, fans, and followers?

It is pretty simple. Align your onboarding program goals with your...

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If you’re like most retailers, you struggle with cart abandonment. And whether you’ve had a cart abandonment program running for years, or are just considering the idea, almost everyone can be doing it better.

In analyzing research gathered for Retail Touchpoints Exposed, we found that most retailers (over 70%) don’t have cart abandonment programs running at all. This is a huge missed opportunity! But, even among those retailers that have active campaigns, many are missing the mark in a number of ways, including:

• Timing—Waiting too long or not long enough to send a communication. Timing should...

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You might think that statement is sacrilegious for someone whose very career depends on email marketing. Don't worry...just give me a chance to explain.   What I mean is that you can not think of your email marketing program the same as those "As Seen on TV" products.  You can't just set it and forget it.  Email has to be a part of an overall marketing strategy and communication plan with customers.  Whether B2B or B2C, you have to have a plan and many times that plan may include other mediums: social, sites, mobile, print, etc.

Some businesses have got it into their heads that once the...Read More »

This has been the best consumer email marketing program I've received in 2010. Early in the winter I bought some x-country ski bindings from Backcountry.com. Smart marketers like backcountry know that content drives search engine optimization and conversion. This is nothing new of course, Zig Ziglar preached way back in the 50's that the greatest selling tactic in the world is the similar situation story. In the world of 1 to 1 Direct Marketing, the challange is for companies to go and get these stories, and lots of them. You basically need stories for each individual you are targeting. This...Read More »

ExactTarget is excited to offer 3sixty Live user group program. In the past week, ExactTarget customers from California, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Ontario and the United Kingdom have signed up to become members  or leaders in their local cities. The user group program offers a local collaboration forum for 1 to 1 marketing strategies. Go to exacttarget.com/3sixtylive to learn more about the program and register to join the user groups. We're looking for members and leaders!

As a product marketing manager at ExactTarget, I collaborate with my team all time right in our office to brainstorm...Read More »

According to the Mashableblog, by 5:30pm EST Jan 14, only two days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Red Cross has raised an impressive $5 million dollars from their Text campaign. If you were on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites this week, you may have seen the outcries to donate $10 by texting "Haiti" to the shortcode 90999. If you do the quick math, that's 500,000 mobile subscribers that have used text messaging to donate to the Haitian relief efforts led by the Red Cross. The blog post also shows an SMS message flow explaining how easy it is for a mobile...Read More »

Phrases like “drip campaign”, “automated email drip”, “drip email program”, and “drip email” are thrown around ExactTarget a lot. This is because ExactTarget is in the business of sending email, especially automated email drips.  However, everyone may not understand what a drip campaign is.  Let me tell you a little bit about the basics of drip marketing.

Drip marketing comes from the phrase drip irrigation, which is where crops are watered in small amounts over a long period of time. This same concept is applied to marketing and is called drip model marketing. Customers or potential customers...Read More »

Today at Connections 2009, I spoke on an industry panel about how SMS Text Messaging fits into the one-to-one marketing campaigns. We had four customers on the panel share their mature SMS marketing strategies. Hearing from the US Navy, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Pier 1 Imports, and Hyperdrive Interactive, the attendees heard one common element throughout each story. In every case, text messages were used to improve subscriber engagement, marked with explicit permission.

The reason why SMS mobile marketing is so successful is because people always have their mobile phones with them, but...Read More »