When you’re looking to experience the benefits email marketing provides, it’s important to follow the right email strategy, and drip email marketing campaigns are a great place to start. 

If you don’t know what drip email marketing is, you've come to the right place. 

Together, we'll go through some great drip marketing examples for email strategy that may fit the specific marketing scenarios you’re dealing with today.

What is drip email marketing?

Drip email marketing is a process that sends email content to users that have performed (or even more specifically–have not performed) a particular action. 

This type of strategy allows you to send the proper email to subscribers based on how and when they interact with your business. Rather than sending a blanket email to your entire audience, you can send content that correlates with their past experience. 

The automated settings you apply to your drip campaign can be formatted in a number of ways to target your audience differently. 

For example, you could set up a welcome email to be sent when a user subscribes to your email list. The action of subscribing will trigger your drip campaign to send out the scheduled introduction content.

A drip email marketing campaign can also be set up on a timeline basis. 

Rather than waiting for a specific action to be performed, specific emails can be forwarded to your audience with others that will follow suit hours or even days after.

Why are email drip campaigns important?

While the automation aspect of a drip campaign is convenient, the benefits it provides make it a vital strategy to include in your email marketing plans. They allow you to stay engaged with your current customers and nurture the prospects considering the product or service you have to offer. 

You can seamlessly personalize your drip campaign and choose the actions that are taken (or not taken) to stimulate an email. We’ve all become familiar with the emails we receive when we purchase a product online. You know, the “Thank you for your purchase!” or “Your purchase is on the way!” emails to confirm payment and track your order. 

But, for those who don’t always make it to checkout, or who don’t read your most recent blog post, individualized emails that respond to their latest exchange with your business can help them travel further down the sales funnel.

Now let’s be clear, your customers don’t always have to interact with your site to have a drip campaign send out an email. You can also set it up so that a customer receives an email after a certain amount of inactivity time goes by.

10 drip marketing examples for email strategy

Let’s take a look at a couple drip marketing examples for email strategy that may fit the specific marketing scenario you’re currently trying to handle.

Welcome emails to introduce who you are

1. Beek's welcome email 

The leather sandal company Beek has a welcome email set up to arrive in their user’s inbox once they have subscribed to their email list. 

Source: Really Good Emails 

This email includes a lot of necessary talking point including a review from a credible resource (Vanity Fair), a link to explore their products, and some causes that are supported by the company. 

But the most important thing they’ve decided to include is the background copy on the founders of the company. Readers want to know about what companies stand for, and including this little bite of information in their welcome email really introduces who they are and what they have to offer elegantly.

2. Introduction to AMC stubs

The rewards account that AMC Theaters offers, Stubs, sends out a welcome email via a drip campaign as well. 

Their introduction email includes discounts and other offers that you can redeem the next time you go to the movies. 

They also inform you on how to download their app and include the benefits of having their rewards at your fingertips. 

Additionally, they even include the opportunity to submit your birthday so that you can receive special gifts and offers when your birthday rolls around. Nothing like receiving a bunch of gifts at first exposure. Well done, AMC.

Source: Really Good Emails 

3. Trade: Drip campaigns or drip coffee?

Trade is an online resource for all things coffee. In their welcome email drip campaign, they start out with a great design and organized layout that encourages the reader to scroll down. With engaging coffee images and a blank slate, Trade is able to show what they’re all about through the design alone.

They include links to the coffee they have available, as well as the roasters they work with that provide the inventory. But the most interesting part of their introduction email is that they provide the opportunity for you to introduce yourself as the coffee drinker you are.

They recommend some middle-of-the-road blends, but also provide a link for you to describe your preferences and tastes for the coffee world. It’s one thing for a company to introduce itself, but this one wants to know who you are and what you’re all about so that they can serve you better.

Source: Really Good Emails 

Abandoned cart emails

4. 23andMe DNA kit reminder

23andMe has a drip campaign set up to remind you that you haven’t completed your purchase of their DNA kit. Whether you were too busy to make it to checkout, or you weren’t sure if you were ready to purchase, this reminder email allows you to follow through.

In terms of your business, this will allow more purchases to be made when you give your users the opportunity to reconsider or continue the process.

Source: Really Good Emails

5. Adidas’ witty checkout reminder

Adidas takes a different approach and blames an abandoned cart on a lacking wifi connection. 

As marketers, you don’t ever want to place blame on a customer. Adidas’ humorous take on this drip campaign makes them more relatable to their customers. 

If you were to open this email, you’d find it funny knowing that your connection is fine and that you just foolishly left you cart to collect dust in the World Wide Web. Building a relationship with your users, just as Adidas does here, encourages them to proceed to checkout.

Source: Really Good Emails

6. Virgin Atlantic uses urgency

Virgin Atlantic is able to use the nature of the airline business to urge users to buy their tickets now. This drip email campaign is sent to those who have booked a flight but neglected to complete the purchase.

This also means it is quite possible that the current rates will increase before the user gets a chance to complete the purchase.

In this email, Virgin Atlantic states that “you’re so close to completing your order, but you should act now before the rates increase the closer the date approaches." This will provide scarcity, urging users to buy as soon as possible. It’s a great way to get those abandoned purchases revisited and completed.

Source: Really Good Emails 

Onboarding emails for those who are unsure

7. Asana gives real-life examples

Asana uses a drip email marketing campaign to benefit the users in the onboarding stage.

When you have customers/prospects in this area, you have already introduced yourself to them, but they may need some more clarification as to what you do and how to do it. When this is timed correctly through a drip campaign, this can avoid any users from dropping off from lack of information.

Asana uses a drip model to send out emails that explain what it is they can do for your business. They take this opportunity to answer the general question that most of their customers have. They provide the solutions Asana has to offer, along with pictures of what to expect from their site. This gives their users the security they want because they’ll know what to expect from Asana overall. 

Source: Really Good Emails

8. StubHub brings the concert to you.

When a user is new to a platform like StubHub, they may need to add some additional information to get them going through the site and onto checkout.

StubHub includes this onboarding email in their drip campaign to answer the questions users have when their concerns begin. It includes a link to the shop to start searching for events nearby and they also include a list of upcoming events that week in your area. 

But the most important thing of all is that they provide a section where you can ask questions or click on FAQs to learn more about the process. 

Source: Really Good Emails 

Encourage website re-engagement

9. Uber provides a great deal.

Drip campaigns can be used to help users re-engage with your website. 

Uber uses a drip campaign as a solution and offers a great deal to riders to stimulate that interaction.

Although there may be riders that don’t use Uber as frequently, the deal the company offers is one you can’t refuse.

Getting the deal to lock in a flat rate for 28 days will encourage those who haven’t interacted with Uber to log onto the app to snatch this offer. 

Timing this drip campaign to communicate with those who have gone inactive (it’s like a curse word) can stimulate those who have left you hanging and bring you back to the forefront of their inbox.

Source: Really Good Emails

10. Typeform takes the blame.

Typeform makes a bold move by asking a customer why they haven't been interacting, and if there's something theyh can to do change it. They format their drip email to question if it was something they said that deterred their user away from them. How cute, but how sad–sympathy, you see that?

They then offer a CTA to browse new templates that they offer to inspire some new ideas. As simple as this email is, they offer a friendly message to re-engage with those that have gone without activity. And when this is sent in a timely manner, it can draw those users back in for additional service.

Source: Really Good Emails

Wrap up

Many businesses use a drip marketing model for their email strategy, but they all differ when it comes to their goals. 

It’s important to take the time to analyze what it is you want your users to achieve. Whether it’s to click a CTA that takes them to your product page, read a new blog, or purchase what was left in their cart from last week, a drip email marketing campaign can help achieve those goals.