Creating a Steady Revenue Stream...One Drip at a Time

Jul. 26, 2010

This is a guest post written by Randa Codron, a Marketing and Communications Specialist for WaterTrax, one of Marqui's SaaS partner companies.

Lead generation and filling the sales pipeline is always a hot button issue for marketers. There is a constant battle between generating leads and producing “sales ready leads.” Drip marketing or what some may call lead nurturing takes website visitors from leads to “sales ready leads.” Statistics that show that between 3 and 30 repetitions are required for any message to “take hold” in the human consciousness.

So how do you develop an effective drip marketing campaign? The 4 P’s:

Planning
Persistence / Patience
Pizzazz
Powerful tracking systems

Planning: As with all good marketing, planning a drip campaign requires a thorough understanding of your target market and how to best reach it. Make sure your campaign is focused and niche enough to engage your audience.

Persistence: Drip marketing works because it is made up of consistent, well timed messages. If you develop a full-year plan, stick to it. Put systems in place up front that are simple to execute, so you don’t have to stop running your business to focus on that next step in the campaign. Drip marketing should be an automated process occurring in the background of your business, which is why planning is imperative to success.

Pizzazz: No one wants to see the same approach from the same company at the same time each month again and again. Deliver real value in your communications and make sure your message is useful, unique and not merely promotional. Include news and best practices in your messages to keep them interesting. Your brand, however, should be consistent from drip to drip. Your audience should recognize immediately that a communication comes from your company.

Powerful tracking systems: Tracking campaigns and providing measurable results is critical and relatively simple, with a variety of email campaign and lead nurturing tools, like Marqui. As your campaign grows and becomes more complex, you will be thankful you invested in a solution to manage and track your drip marketing efforts.

Posted by Amberlie Denny at July 26, 2010 8:00 AM