Drip Marketing Follow-Up Success Story

How Drip Marketing Leads to Leads

Drip marketing is not something I just talk about, it’s the primary marketing strategy I’ve integrated into my business for the past 25 years. Cost is no longer a barrier to entry for active sales organizations. For under a few hundred dollars a month, any size company can compete digitally for more business with drip marketing automation.) I’d like to share one of my personal drip marketing success stories with you. It’s a great example of why it’s so important to implement a drip marketing strategy sooner than later. 

About a year ago, The Database Divas received a referral for a new prospect who wanted to set up a customer database. Our marketing manager talked with the company owner, and then sent him a proposal for our services.

Then we added him to our Proposal Follow-Up Drip Marketing Campaign.

Even though our marketing manager continued her personal sales follow-up at intervals the prospect requested, the drip campaign ran in the background, too, educating him about all of our other services. Additionally, now that he was a high-priority prospect, he also received email messages inviting him to our live events.

Finally we got the order! Our marketing manager then scheduled the installation date for our Senior Consultant and a different day for drip marketing training with me. The set up was completed over several months, and now it was time for training. Several months had passed since our client first became a referral and then entered our sales pipeline, and throughout his journey with The Divas,  I never once had a conversation with him.

On the day of training, I showed up at our new customer’s office and waited for him while he finished a phone call. Then he appeared, and exclaimed…

(The Big Reveal)

“Lori, are you THE Database Diva? I’ve been reading your stuff, and I was really looking forward to meeting you!”

Frankly, he caught me completely off guard! I was looking forward to meeting him, too, of course. But he was really looking forward to meeting me! In fact, he already felt like we knew each other, even though we’d never said even as much as a “hello” to each other!

That’s because for months, he had been absorbing everything we sent him about our sales process, our implementation team, our quick-start tips, and our case studies. He was now an informed customer who was eager to taste his own success. So we got down to business and had a great training day.

Proposal Follow-Up Drip Marketing Campaign

The proposal follow-up drip marketing campaign is one of 7 Must-Have Drip Marketing Campaigns I believe every sales organization needs to differentiate itself from the competition. More importantly, these drip campaigns reduce the risk factor all prospects inherently feel while going through their buying process. The customer knows he must make a decision to buy or not to buy. But that doesn’t mean he enjoys the decision-making process. If anything, he’s looking for reasons to eliminate you from his short list to make his selection easier.

As I reflected on it later that evening, I realized…

Wouldn’t it be great if every new business relationship started out just like this one--with a customer who was thrilled and delighted to do business with us?

Drip Marketing, The Secret Sauce

Having a well-thought-out proposal follow-up campaign was a critical factor in closing this sale and giving our customer an overwhelming number of reasons to validate his wise decision to select us as his vendor.

Yes, it took several hours to think through the sequence of messages I wanted to include in my drip marketing campaign when I first set it up. And, yes, then I had to write all the messages (although AI makes it infinitely easier today than a decade ago!)

I wasn’t satisfied that my campaign was perfect. I wanted to include more information than I had room for. But “done is better than perfect.” And my one-time investment of thought and copywriting continues to reap goodwill and smarter clients and prospects every time I add them to this now-evergreen drip campaign.

Biggest Drip Marketing Mistakes

Surprisingly, a successful drip marketing campaign is 85% strategy and only 15% technology. That’s why they’re so hard to execute. One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is investing in software before having any discussion of expected outcomes. Technology is not a magic button.

Another mistake I see companies make is believing their marketing automation software gives them a license to blast email promotions and burn out their list. So ineffective, as well as putting your domain reputation at risk. Marketers know intuitively this approach won’t work. Yet they don’t know what to do instead. They end up missing out on the opportunity to help prospects fall in love with them via education to make better buying decisions and then kicking off good, solid business releationships with more engaged customers.

Need Help Mapping Your Drip Marketing Sales Process?

The Database Divas’ Blueprint Strategy Session helps companies visually see their buyer's journey, identifying sales gaps where leads may get lost. This process begins with a deep-dive discovery meeting that analyzes how your leads get into your sales pipeline, and follows them through to the closing of a sale and what follow up occurs after the sale. The process’ deliverable is a comprehensive visual Blueprint and content map that provides a detailed overview of an optimized buyers journey where “100% of your contacts are on a drip marketing campaign 100% of the time.” Our clients gain clarity, actionable insights, and recommendations to enhance their sales follow-up strategies, with the option to implement the plan independently or in partnership with The Database Divas.

Book your free 30-minute brainstorm session here to discuss more!

#email marketing agency, #drip marketing, #email marketing, #email marketing firm, #e-mail marketing agencies, #e-mail marketing firm, #email marketing, #marketing automation