The practice of drip marketing

Drip marketing is one of the most important marketing efforts that you can begin in today’s market.   The idea behind drip marketing as you acquire prospects, you add them to your prospect list and then begin to send them information automatically.   So many salespeople make contact with prospects once and if they don’t get a favorable response then they don’t call the prospect back.  Most often it takes between 5 and 12 contacts before you can make a sale, so most often salespeople quit too soon.  Knowing this statistic will actually give you a tremendous advantage with your competition.

There are several important elements about starting a drip marketing campaign.

1.  Ideally you should dip on your prospects at least once a month.

2. Keep in mind that depending on your prospect, you may have to go outside the email style drip marketing and in order to meet your prospects capability – you may have to actually do direct mail.  There are definitely generational differences in communication.

3. Make sure you plan out your drip marketing calendar and plan out your content.

4.  Here are several ideas for content to use in your drip marketing

• newsletters -monthly or quarterly
• create a series and then mail a tip at a time – such as the  “10 ways to save for college” and then each week you can send a tip
• workshop or seminar series where you can leverage your knowledge and separate yourself from the competition
• direct mail
• social media opportunities will help strengthen contacts
• web-casts are also a great way to show off your expertise
• in office client seminar series
• client appreciation event
• thank you cards
• holiday cards
• customer spotlight

The most important thing that you have to remember is that most salespeople will not be persistent past the first 2-3 contacts.  If you stick to your drip marketing calendar, you will be ahead of your competition and most likely you will walk away with the sale if your customer decides to pursue your product or service.  Persistence will pay off in the long run.

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