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Drip campaign vs nurture campaign is a topic that, at some point, confuses every marketer. According to research, 87% of B2B companies use email marketing as a distribution channel. It further emphasises the need to understand the difference between drip vs nurture campaigns and how to utilise them.
B2B marketing automation has made it easier to generate long email sequences that keep a brand and its prospects in constant touch. But as consumers are becoming more tech-savvy, the question arises, when and what type of email to share?
Drip and nurture campaigns answer such questions and make it easier for marketers to navigate their email marketing strategies efficiently. In this blog, I will explain drip campaigns vs nurture campaigns and how businesses can include both of them in their sales funnel.
Let’s start by understanding drip and nurture campaigns by definition.
What is a Drip Campaign?
Drip campaigns refer to a series of prescheduled emails that aim to generate brand awareness, communicate with prospects on special events, and pitch products and services.
Such email drip campaigns target a broad range of audiences and help stay at the top of consumers’ minds. It is a passive form of lead nurturing that does not rely on personalisation but effectively delivers the brand’s message. The contents of the drip emails only depend on the marketer and do not rely much on the prospects’ behaviour.
Drip campaigns have specific engagement points in the buyers’ journey as launch triggers that include:
- specific dates
- prospects’ actions like form-filling
- holidays and events
Why should businesses use drip campaigns?
A drip campaign does not require personalisation, so a business can execute it with a simple marketing automation tool. Companies can use the free Hubspot CRM tool to implement simple drip email sequences. You can check out my Hubspot review blog to get an overview of the software and how you can use it.
Let’s check out some benefits of using dip campaigns:
- Saves time
Businesses should employ drip campaigns while planning and preparing personalised lead nurturing workflows. It will help in warming up the prospects and shortening the sales cycle. - Easier to set up
A drip email sequence is free of complex lead scoring models, progressive segmentation, and other methods used for personalising email marketing, making it easier to set up. - Strengthens Prospect database
Drip emails can help collect valuable data about new prospects like email open rate, optimal emailing timeframe, CTR, etc. By observing how prospects react to drip email campaigns, marketers can plan better lead nurturing programs.
An Example of Drip Email
February is a month famous for valentine’s week. Grammarly joined in the celebrations with a drip campaign inspired by different valentine’s days and communicated to its prospects about the discount offer.
The main aim of this drip campaign is to make prospective customers aware of the ongoing discount offer, and it does not require any personalisation. The start trigger for this campaign was the date 9th Feb. As the prospects might have been busy on 14th Feb, the drip campaign ended on 13th Feb.
What is a Nurture Campaign?
Nurture campaigns refer to hyper-personalised email sequences that share educational content with prospects. Its main goal is to establish a company as a trustable brand among the target audience and help consumers complete their buyers’ journey.
By implementing lead segmentation, businesses build nurture campaigns for specific groups of prospects. Nurture email sequences are an active form of lead nurturing as they regularly change according to leads’ behaviour. The content shared via such campaigns depends on various factors like:
Email nurturing workflows get triggered primarily through potential customers’ actions like downloading an ebook, signing up for a webinar, or booking a discovery call.
Why should businesses use nurture campaigns?
A nurture campaign is all about providing the best user experience to every prospect. To efficiently implement a lead nurturing email campaign, marketers must employ robust automation tools that allow lead segmentation, lead scoring, setting up multiple sequences, etc.
Businesses can use a robust automation tool like ActiveCampaign, which offers excellent services at a reasonable price.
Let’s check out some benefits of using nurture campaigns:
- Identifies prospect interest
Nurture campaigns track a long list of analytics like CTR, open rate, web page visits, lead magnets downloaded, etc., to understand consumer interests. It helps in producing better marketing efforts that generate higher conversions. - Works to increase engagement
As the lead moves towards the end of the sales funnel, the nurture email sequences become more and more personalised. It motivates the potential prospects to engage more with the brand and presents alternatives in which the services offered will be helpful. - By using a series of emails, the brand can provide relevant information and value to the prospect over a period of time, building trust and increasing the chances of conversion.
- Strengthens sales cycle
The data collected with nurture campaigns help marketers curate buying journeys accustomed to their buyers’ personas. It leads to better customer interactions and a sturdy sales cycle.
An Example of Nurture Email
My CRO agency Apexure uses a simple nurturing campaign that starts when a user fills a query form on our main site. On this form, we ask the prospect about their area of interest, which helps personalise their experience with our brand.
If the user does not book a discovery call, then they start receiving educational content related to their area of interest. For example, if the lead picked a landing page as their area of interest, they receive nurture emails like the below.
Suggested Read: A Simple Guide For Email Nurturing Campaigns With Examples
When to Use a Drip Campaign Vs Nurture Campaign
Drip and nurture campaigns are vital in establishing relationships with prospective customers through timely communications. Companies that don’t understand the difference between drip and nurture campaigns waste their time and money on email marketing efforts that result in lower engagement and conversions.
The first step toward building a powerful email marketing funnel is acknowledging the difference between a drip campaign vs nurture campaign. Both have different functionalities in a marketing funnel that help businesses accurately deploy their resources.
When choosing between drip or nurture campaigns, companies should first consider their goals and available assets.
For example, if a startup or a small company wants to start email marketing, its main goal will be to generate brand awareness. For such cases, drip campaigns are the best option as they take less time and effort to deploy and effectively spread a brand’s message.
When it comes to customer retention, cross-selling and up-selling, and converting MQLs into SQLs, companies should consider different types of nurture campaigns. These can include onboarding campaigns, re-engagement campaigns, loyalty campaigns, and educational campaigns, each tailored to specific customer needs and behaviours.
Can I use Drip and Nurture Campaigns Together?
Yes, you can.
Drip campaign vs nurture campaign is no longer a debate in the multifaceted marketing world. Companies should use drip campaigns to achieve their short-term marketing goals and deploy nurture series for long-term goals.
Together, drip and nurture campaigns fill out all the gaping holes in email marketing and increase consumer brand interaction. Drip series helps businesses stay at the top of consumers’ minds, and nurturing emails push them further down the sales funnel. With rightly coordinated drip and nurturing email sequences, marketers can beneficially deploy their resources and time.
If you are interested in knowing more about lead nurturing, then check out:
Related Articles:
Lead Nurturing Email Examples From My Personal Account
5 Steps To Win Back Lost Leads With Lead Nurturing
What is Automated Lead Nurturing & How Can Marketers Use It?
B2B SaaS Lead Generation Strategies That Actually Work
