Drip campaign vs Nurture Campaign: The differences

A drip campaign is one of the more regular types of marketing that businesses do.  Especially when you use a CRM or an Email marketing platform such as HubSpot or Mailchimp.  These often get high open rates.  

So what is a Drip Campaign? 

A Drip campaign is an email marketing campaign that sends out emails at a steady and regular pace. These emails are all cycled to be sent at a regular time. Drip campaigns are a great way to get more open rates. On average a dripcampaign has a 80% higher click-through-rate than blast campaigns. 

Because of the higher click-through-rate it is worthwhile to properly spend time creating a proper drip campaign. The time it takes to set up a drip campaign varies. But it is important to follow these steps: 

1. Segment your audience – this is pivotal. A properly segmented audience will increase the click-through-rate of your drip campaign even more 
2. Tailor your content – having content tailored for each market segment is as important as properly segmenting your audience 
3. Appeal to the emotions – use a technique such as Value Based Marketing  

Types of Drip Campaigns 

1. Competitive drips – differentiate yourself from your competitors with these email campaigns 
2. Onboarding drips – when a user signs up, provide them with regular onboarding tips and tricks 
3. Re-engagement drips – if a prospect dropped out of the funnel, re-engage them with a drip campaign 
4. Top of Mind drips – Keeping your brand in the mind of the consumer. A top-of-mind drip is a great campaign for keeping consumers engaged with your brand. Which means you stay on their mind. 

What is an email nurture campaign? 

An email nurture campaign is a campaign that focuses on the way that your client engages with your content. Rather than being a campaign that is based on segmentation. An email nurture campaign is still highly segmented, but it also keeps in mind where and when the client visits your website or social media. 

This information includes: 

• How many times does a lead visit a specific page 
• How many times does a lead visit your website 
• Which articles or guides have they read 
• What seminar did they register for. 

All of these different methods of behaviour require a different lead nurture campaign. This means that a lead nurture campaign can be even more personalised than a drip campaign. 

The same methods as described in the drip campaign are still relevant. For both you can also: 

1. A/B test 
2. Template emails 
3. Schedule the emails 

The difference is that a drip campaign focuses more on sending reminders to customers about what they are missing out on. A nurture campaign focuses more on sending relevant content. Things like eBooks, webinar links, an offer for a free consultation etc. 

So which one works best for my business? 

This all depends on your company’s mission, vision and overall strategy. A drip campaign focuses more on educating a customer and helping them down the sales funnel, whereas a lead nurturing campaign focuses more on getting the customer to stay interested in your brand and stay a loyal customer. 

In a way a drip campaign is a subsection of a lead nurturing campaign. Both are really good options and provide you with great value for money. 

A drip campaign in general is better for starting marketers because they require less analytics and are not as time-consuming. Nurture campaigns keep more long-term vision in mind and are great for long-term goals. They require more analytics and a heavier automation system but are worthwhile. 

Finally, a drip campaign and lead nurture campaign can work together wonderfully. A drip campaign is great for short-term vision and a lead nurture campaign is great for the longer term. This doesn’t mean that you can’t work them in conjunction. Start off a relatively undefined lead with a Drip campaign for content. When you find out more about their behaviour and view you can always move them into a lead nurture campaign. 

Keep in mind that the example we use, emails, is only one section of a lead nurture campaign. You can also run these on other platforms. Social Media, sales and phone. 

Are you looking to implement marketing automation into your business strategy? Here at DigiKat Marketing we are HubSpot experts, which is the most renowned Marketing Automation platform in the world. Book a meeting today!