Prospects will forget you fast and that is why you must drip market to them. The same goes for your clients—they are constantly bombarded with tantalizing offers. If you do not maintain a constant share of mind with those in your pipeline, you lose business – a lot of it. Solve the problem with automated email marketing.
Automated Email Marketing Services or more simply, drip marketing, is an automated process that delivers content to prospects. The content is carefully crafted to move them through the sales cycle. Essentially, the strategy sends messages to prospects over some length of time and keeps you in their mind until they are ready to act. Drip marketing is achieved with automated emails, event invitations, newsletters, social media, and by direct mail. The most effective direct mail you can send to build credibility is via newsletters.
How Automated Email Marketing Hooks the Prospect When Ready to Buy
You meet a prospect and deliver your pitch. There are only three reasons they do not buy:
- They do not trust you or believe what you told them
- They do not want what you offer
- The timing is not right (maybe they are not liquid or have other priorities right now). When you make contact every thirty days, you will be “in their face” when the timing is right.
Benefits of Automated Email Marketing Done Monthly
Using software-driven drip marketing frees up your marketing resources such as employees, time and money. Most importantly, the automation works without taking attention away from your clients or other prospecting. You’ll be delivering the right information at the right time, triggered by how a user has interacted with you before.
Drip marketing is very effective at “nurturing” leads in the early stages of the sales cycle until they are ready to buy. Your business benefits from having a continuous pipeline of leads constantly being contacted to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. When you automate the most tedious, yet crucial aspects of your sales process with automated email marketing, you and your staff will spend less time with sales pitches and more time closing those sales.
The idea is to build a pipeline of say 1000 prospects and clients. You may do that with a combination of traditional marketing methods (seminars, telemarketing, direct mail, referrals, etc). Prospects get your marketing piece each month. If you deliver the right content, two percent (20 people) will take action. That action may be to
- Ask a question
- Inquire directly about a product or service
- Refer you
Can you do additional business if you have 20 people who take action each month?
Types of Automated Email Marketing Services
There are several types of drip marketing that are effective, easy to implement and cost-efficient. Some of the most widely-used types include competitive drips, promotional drips, training drips, educational drips and re-engagement drips.
- Competitive Drips: target the customers of your competitors while emphasizing the benefits of switching to your product or service
- Promotional Drips: encourage prospective customers with limited-time promotions, deals, and discounts
- Training Drips: used to move participants through a training program for your business
- Educational Drips: provide important information about your product or service to prospective customers to encourage them to move on to complete a purchase
- Re-engagement Drips: used with previous customers who have left in order to re-kindle their interest – also used with leads that have gone cold
Implementing drip marketing is easy, affordable and extremely effective. Our publisher has been using automated email marketing since 1996 and has never stopped because of its effectiveness. Take a look at the automated marketing method he has developed.