A drip campaign is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically based on time intervals or user behavior. Done well, they nurture leads from awareness to purchase without manual effort.
Types of Drip Campaigns
- Onboarding: Guide new users through setup and first value moment
- Lead nurturing: Educate prospects over time until they're ready to buy
- Product adoption: Teach existing customers about features they haven't used
- Re-engagement: Bring back dormant users
- Trial-to-paid: Convert free trial users before expiry
Designing a High-Converting Sequence
Map the Journey First
Before writing a single email, map the customer's journey. What do they know? What do they need to believe? What objections do they have? Each email should move them one step forward.
The 3-Part Framework
- Education emails (40%): Teach something valuable. Build trust and authority.
- Social proof emails (30%): Case studies, testimonials, results.
- Offer emails (30%): Make the ask with a compelling reason to act now.
Timing
- Day 1: Welcome + first value
- Day 3: Education #1
- Day 5: Case study/proof
- Day 7: Education #2 + soft pitch
- Day 10: Hard offer + urgency
- Day 14: Final reminder
Conditional Branching
The most effective drips branch based on behavior: if the user opened email 3 but didn't click, send a different email 4 than someone who clicked. This requires behavioral tracking in your ESP.
Key Metrics to Track
- Open rate by email position (drop-off shows where you lose people)
- Click rate per email
- Conversion rate per sequence
- Revenue per subscriber
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