Drip… Drip… Drip Marketing

Looking to build a flow of business for your pipeline? Drip marketing may be the best solution for your company. The term “drip marketing” refers to a deliberate, planned and sequenced system of deploying marketing messages over a period of time. Drip marketing is the opposite of a “marketing blitz,” where marketing efforts are compressed within a short time frame. As with drip irrigation (from which the term originates), the theory behind drip marketing is that the value of repetition — and a slow build — can be as powerful as a highly concentrated rush. 

Advocates of drip marketing cite statistics that show that between three and 30 repetitions are required for any message to “take hold” in the human consciousness. As you drip messages to various target audiences, your brand and messages settle in. You should vary your offers and messages, building as you go.       

Planning for drip marketing needs to be thoughtful, comprehensive and (if the target market is big or diverse enough) carefully segmented by customer category. See the sample drip marketing campaign in the table on page 26 for ideas on how to plan a campaign.        

Drip marketing can be an ideal approach for small business owners because it involves an outlay of expense and other resources over time. You learn as you go, refining your tactics and repositioning your marketing efforts to respond to results.        

Additionally, drip marketing is a powerful tactic for products and services that require a “right time” to buy. For example, realtors and financial services companies are good candidates for drip marketing. A prospect might not be considering renting new office space or starting his daughter’s college fund on a day when a full-page ad runs. But if the latest mailing in a sequence happens to hit before an office lease is up, the drip marketer has scored. Drip marketing works because awareness and recognition is built over time. Your target sees your brand repeatedly and, consciously or not, registers your messages.        

Some business owners and savvy marketers have been drip marketing for years. Jennifer Shaheen, founder of the Technology Therapy Group, started her company’s drip marketing program with sequenced e-marketing messages and then added direct mail and telemarketing. As she read results, she adjusted the frequency and content of her messages. Daily broadcast radio tips will soon be added to the mix. “We get an average of two to three leads per week,” says Shaheen.