Automated email drip campaigns are so versatile, so powerful, and so awesomely effective at saving email marketers time. They can do pretty much anything: launch a new product, drum up Q4 sales, recover abandoned carts, and even help you maintain a healthy email list by de-activating disengaged subscribers.
Whether it's a simple drip campaign or a mind-bogglingly complex logical workflow, the possibilities are nearly endless. Which means, it can be hard to know where to begin.
Email marketers often ask us:
- What are the most important campaigns (for my business)?
- Which one should I build first?
- How can I get the best possible results (and avoid common mistakes)
In this article, we'll address those questions by reviewing seven of the most common automated use cases for drip campaigns and provide step-by-step workflow templates for each one.
So whether you're already making automated email magic, or are just setting up your very first workflow, this article's for you.
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What, exactly, is an automated drip campaign?
Automated drip campaigns are automated workflows that send emails to subscribers based on logical arguments and user actions. For example, everyone who signs up for a webinar might get the same introduction email, but someone who has also visited your pricing page would receive a different email than someone who hasn’t. The content within the emails can also be highly customized based on demographics, actions, or engagement levels.
Automated campaigns, on the other hand, often refer to any trigger-based one-off email. These send the same message to every subscriber regardless of their actions.
Drip campaigns can be super simple (send email 1, pause, send email 2, pause) or highly complex with multiple branches and logical arguments.
There are three main components of an automated drip campaign:
- Triggers: Sometimes referred to as entry points, these events pull subscribers into a workflow to initiate the drip campaign. They may be based on a subscriber's action, an update to a data field or tag, or a date-based calculation. Common triggers include subscribing to a newsletter, abandoning a cart, making a purchase, registering for an event, or an upcoming renewal date/birthday, etc.
- Evaluations: After the initial trigger, drip campaigns use evaluations to segment recipients, branch the workflow pathways, and personalize the campaign accordingly. Evaluations are logical clauses that might consider a subscriber’s tags, data fields, and events.
- Actions: Actions refer to steps taken by the automation itself. For example, sending an email after a purchase, sending an SMS to a conference attendee, or sending out a lead alert when a user reaches a specific action threshold.
Automated drip campaigns are dynamic, personal — and highly effective at moving subscribers through the funnel. While most drip campaigns send emails, you can also update contact data, send SMS, or connect different workflows. For example, a user who abandons their cart can be nurtured, then re-engaged, then sent to your pruning workflow if they don't respond.
7 types of automated email drip campaigns to drive conversions and build relationships
Because these automations are so versatile, it can be hard to know where to start and what to prioritize. We recommend thinking about your customer journey and identifying where you’re most likely to have the greatest impact on revenue—start there.
For an association or organization, it may be an automated campaign to drive early membership renewals. An ecommerce business might prioritize an abandoned cart campaign, while a SaaS company focuses in on that all-important free-trial onboarding sequence.
To help you make that assessment and save you some time, let's look at seven of the most-used types of drip campaigns and some pre-built workflow templates you can use in your business.
The nurturer
The goal: Build a relationship and move towards purchase decision
Common examples: New list subscribers, onboarding series
Most subscribers don't become customers right away. (It would make our jobs as marketers much easier if they did!) Instead, most prospects need at least 8 touches before they convert. They need time to get to know your brand and understand why they should care about your offer.
Triggers/entry points
The trigger for a nurturing campaign might be subscribing to your email list, signing up for a free trial, or registering for a webinar. Here's an example of a welcome series workflow:
Pro tips to make your nurturing campaign more successful:
- Set trigger rules that respond to specific actions, such as opening the email, purchasing, or viewing a demo. Be clear about the ‘next best action’ you’re driving to and exclude subscribers who have already completed that action. For example, you don't need to tell someone who has already purchased why they should buy!
- Don't overwhelm users with rapid-fire emails. The best cadence will depend on your product and audience, but usually a few days between emails is best.
- Provide valuable content before pushing for a sale, such as educational resources, tips, or videos that help the user decide to purchase, use your software, or take whatever action you're nurturing them towards.
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Abandoned journey
The goal: Encourage hesitant prospects to convert
Common examples: Abandoned cart email series, sign up for a webinar but don't attend
Marketers are constantly pushing prospects to convert. Buy this thing! Sign up for this trial! Subscribe to our shiny new email list! Along the way, a lot of folks drop off, representing a huge revenue loss. Bummer, right? That's where abandoned journey campaigns shine.
Triggers/entry point:
Generally, this email series triggers when a customer leaves the funnel, maybe they add items to their shopping cart but leave without completing a purchase or fill out a form but don't download the ebook offered.
Here's an example of how the flow might look in practice:
Pro tips to make the most of an abandoned journey drip campaign:
- Send the first email in the series shortly after the abandonment occurs. The exact time will vary by audience and industry, but think hours, not days.
- Tell them why they should complete the purchase. This might include product recommendations if the product wasn't quite what they were looking for or incentives like a discount (use these carefully!), or a free trial.
Use triggers to send dynamic emails based on actions. For example, if a subscriber opens your emails and clicks on the products you recommended, then pricing might be a pain point for them. Use this information to create a more personalized experience.
Sales/promo campaign
The goal: Drive sales
Common examples: Black Friday deals, cross-selling promotions, or new product launches
Sales/Promo campaigns are all about creating a sense of urgency and driving quick sales or boosting conversions by offering exclusive deals, discounts, or incentives.
Triggers/entry point
Sales campaigns are one of the more flexible types of automated drip campaigns and can be triggered by several events, like:
- Seasonal sales events (e.g., holiday promotions, Black Friday, Cyber Monday).
- Cross-sell or upsell after a purchase
- Purchase history, preferences, or engagement level
- New product launches or inventory clearance sales
This workflow template outlines the different triggers and branches your automated drip campaign might take:
Consumers are inundated with sales emails, so how do you make your message stand out?
Here are a few pro tips:
- Craft compelling email subject lines that encourage users to open the message (Just make sure to avoid words like Free or Limited time, which can impact email deliverability!)
- Create a sense of urgency by offering limited-time promotions and consider including a count-down timer to encourage immediate actions.
- Use segmentation to target subscribers based on their preferences and behavior, such as loyal customers, first-time purchasers, or those who show interest in a specific product or category of products.
When used strategically, sales and promo campaigns can create a win-win situation for both your business and your customers.
The important date
The goal: Remind subscribers about an upcoming event
Common examples: Subscription renewals, maintenance reminders, or celebratory dates
The primary goal of important date campaigns is to celebrate or acknowledge important milestones in your customers' lives or interactions with your brand. These campaigns drive customer loyalty and increase sales.
Triggers/entry point
- Anniversaries of their first purchase or subscription sign-up.
- Subscription renewal reminders for services or products with a subscription model.
- Refill reminders for consumable products.
- Milestone achievements, such as reaching a certain number of loyalty points.
- Maintenance reminders
For example, a renewal drip campaign might look like this:
Pro tips to improve drip campaign success:
- Send reminders a few weeks (or days, depending on the campaign) ahead of the date so subscribers have time to take action. A refill reminder, for example, should be sent a week or two before they'll run out.
- Make sure to abide by auto-renewal regulations. In the US, these can vary by state. Aim to remind customers 60 days before an annual renewal and 7 days before a monthly renewal.
- Consider offering exclusive discounts or incentives. Special offers help customers feel special and give them a reason to buy.
- Allow customers to specify their preferences for receiving some promo emails. For example, some customers may prefer to avoid receiving offers on Mother's and Father's Days. Allow users to opt out of specific promos, rather than automatically removing them from all marketing emails.
Event registration
The goal: Encourage event sign-ups and provide all the info they need to attend
Common examples: Webinar sign-up series, conference sign-up series
Whether it's a virtual webinar or an in-person workshop, automated drip campaigns generate interest, boost attendance, and get attendees excited about your event.
Triggers/entry point
The announcement of an upcoming event typically triggers event registration campaigns. The trigger can also be based on user behavior, such as clicking on an ad, visiting the event landing page, or registering to attend, like in this workflow:
Pro tips for your event registration drip campaign:
- Add an engaging event description to your emails, highlighting the benefits of attending, the agenda, and any special guests or speakers. Get recipients excited about what they'll learn or experience.
- Create a reminder email series after registration that provides important details like links to attend, parking details, and schedule updates. Consider including SMS in your sequence to ensure attendees see the most important details.
- After the event, don't forget to send follow-up emails to thank attendees, provide access to recordings or presentation slides, and gather feedback for future improvements.
The follow-up
The goal: Continue the relationship
Common examples: Post event check-in, request a referral
The email journey doesn't end after that first contact; it evolves. Follow-up email drip campaigns cover a range of scenarios, but the main goal is to continue the relationship. Here are a few ways to use automated drip campaigns during the follow-up:
- Post-purchase/post-renewal follow-up: Thank customers for their recent purchase or renewal, provide order details, and potentially upsell or cross-sell complementary products or services.
- Post-event follow-up: Gather feedback, share event recordings or materials, express gratitude to attendees, and promote future events.
- Request for review/referral: Encourage customers to leave reviews, testimonials, or refer friends and family to your products or services.
- Celebrate loyal customers: To celebrate customers who have been with your company for several years or have made 2+ purchases in a specific time frame.
Triggers/entry point
The entry point for a follow-up series varies, but it generally occurs after the completion of a conversion, such as a sale, event, or subscription renewal.
So, how does this work in practice? This template for an event follow-up outlines the different triggers and branches an event follow-up email might take:
Another great time to use follow up email is after a purchase to provide more product information:
Then, after two or more purchase, you might implement a campaign asking for reviews:
Pro tips for follow up campaigns:
- Use personalization carefully and often. Don't just include the recipient's name; reference a specific interaction, purchase, or topic they've expressed interest in to increase relevance.
- Send follow-ups at the right time. Send an order confirmation immediately for post-purchase or post-renewal campaigns and follow up with a thank-you email a day or two later. For post-event, send follow-ups within a day or two while the experience is fresh in attendees' minds.
- Respect unsubscribe requests and use the opportunity to gather feedback to improve your email marketing strategy. Make it easy for recipients to resubscribe if they change their minds.
By implementing these tips and tailoring your follow-up emails to the specific scenario, you can effectively nurture relationships, gather feedback, and maintain engagement with your audience throughout their customer journey.
The re-engagement
The goal: Rekindle interest from dormant subscribers
Common examples: Pruning campaigns, win-back series
Re-engagement campaigns, including pruning campaigns and win-back series, are essential strategies to rekindle the interest of dormant or inactive subscribers. Pruning campaigns aim to whittle your list down by removing unengaged subscribers and improving the health of your email list.
In contrast, the win-back series aims to encourage subscribers to interact with your emails and (hopefully) convert them back into active customers.
Triggers/entry point
Re-engagement drip campaigns are typically triggered by customized criteria based on your goals and audience behavior, such as subscribers who haven't opened or clicked on your emails for an extended period (e.g., six months or more.) Here's an example of a re-engagement campaign workflow:
A win-back campaign might include more actions, such as a special offer asking them to update their email preferences:
To improve the performance of your re-engagement campaign, follow these pro tips:
- Consider implementing a grace period before removing subscribers to give them one last chance to re-engage. Send a re-engagement email during this period to remind them of your brand and encourage interaction.
- In your pruning email, clearly state the reason for reaching out and inform subscribers that they will be unsubscribed if they don't take action to stay on your list.
- Provide an easy opt-out option for subscribers who no longer wish to receive your emails. Respect their choice and remove them from your list if they don't respond.
Drive real results with automated drip campaigns
Automated email drip campaigns are a versatile way to nurture, engage, and convert your audience effectively. While the examples and best practices here are useful, remember that your audience is unique. Success comes from testing different campaigns, emails, and actions to understand your subscribers' preferences better.
Keep in mind that successful email campaigns are not just about the emails themselves; they're about nurturing relationships and delivering value. By experimenting and continuously optimizing your campaigns, you'll boost metrics and gain a deeper understanding of your customers.
Sign up for your free:
Crash Course in Drip Campaigns
Free 7-email series + 10 workflow templates
Discover the automated campaigns every email marketer should have in their toolkit (and how to build them).
