What's a drip marketer?
A drip marketer is an email marketing specialist focused on strategizing and delivering drip campaigns to nurture and engage leads over time. A drip marketer creates campaigns that are sent out in stages, according to predetermined timelines, each containing relevant, personalized, and timely content. The goal of these emails is to bring prospective clients closer to the brand (and to making a purchase.).
Drip campaigns enable you to stay in touch with your leads, build relationships, and increase conversion rates through targeted content for each stage of the customer journey. These campaigns can be used to educate potential customers, nurture leads, and increase sales.
The benefits of hiring a drip marketing freelancer
Hiring a freelance drip email marketer can benefit your business in many ways. Some of the most notable ones include increased customer engagement, better lead nurturing, and improved personalized and customer retention.
Increased customer engagement
A drip marketing campaign can increase customer engagement by sending targeted and personalized content to potential and current customers based on their interests and behaviors. This can help build customer trust and loyalty, as each email will speak to them.
Better lead nurturing
Lead nurturing refers to the practice of contacting prospects and guiding them toward making a purchase. By tailoring emails to each stage of the customer journey, a drip marketer can help nurture leads and convert more of them into paying customers.
Time-saving automation
Email is one of the most profitable marketing channels but it does take time to automate. You have a lot of data, and different customer segments each with its own interests and behaviors.
Hiring a digital marketer that has experience with email sequences can save you time by creating and managing campaigns, so you can focus on other areas of your business.
Improved customer retention and loyalty
The digital marketing process doesn't end when someone makes a purchase, as loyalty and retention play a massive role in making each conversion increasingly more profitable.
By creating campaigns that focus on existing customer retention and loyalty, an email marketing agency or expert can help you build relationships with customers and keep them coming back for more.
Personalization at scale
Drip emails are always personalized to a high degree. An email marketing freelancer knows how to segment an email list and create content that targets each segment to increase the effectiveness of each campaign and increase revenue.
Data-driven insights
Your email flows can provide you with valuable insight into what works and what doesn't. Since all your traffic from each channel converts into a lead on your list, you can use these campaigns to improve the conversion rates of your Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and even influencer partnerships.
Combine your email data with your Google Analytics data to see what works and let it influence your future paid, organic, or social campaigns.
Increased brand awareness
Companies that use drip campaigns have an easier way to build a brand around their products. These emails feel like a conversation (rather than a leaflet you get on the street and throw into the next trash can). This way, customers develop an affinity towards your brand and start to recognize it.
Cost-effective marketing
Drip email marketing is one of the most cosf-effective types of marketing there is. Unlike paid campaigns, drip email campaigns allow you to keep in touch with your leads for little to nothing. These emails are a great way to save money and maximize ROI.
What does a drip marketer do?
A successful drip marketer knows how to create and curate content that resonates with your audience, as well as deliver it at the right time, according to your prospects' behavior or according to a pre-established timeline.
To achieve these goals, a drip marketer needs to know how to:
Configure platforms
There are many email automation tools you can use for your drip campaigns. Some of the most notable ones include Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, and Drip. An experienced email marketer should be able to configure your email marketing tool of choice in a way that optimizes the performance of your campaigns.
This includes:
- Creating custom templates
- Configuring email marketing automation rules
- Setting up tags and/or segments
Furthermore, a drip marketing freelancer will analyze data In order to understand how customers interact with your content. Based on this, they will make all the necessary adjustments to ensure your email marketing software is perfectly customized to your needs and target audience.
Create drip campaigns
Drip campaigns have to be thoroughly strategized before they go out. You're not spamming people here, you're sending them emails with content that's genuinely helpful and informative.
A good email marketer can craft considerate content that speaks to the customer's needs, keeping them interested in your product, and driving them a little closer to making a purchase with every iteration.
Segment your audience
Segmentation is essential for personalizing your content. A drip marketer will create segments based on demographic data and customer behavior in order to determine which type of content will be best for each segment, thus increasing customer engagement, retention, and loyalty.
The more accurately segmented your audience is, the more likely people will convert (and come back to buy from you again.)
Automate your eCommerce processes
If you're an eCommerce business owner, you absolutely need to consider hiring a drip marketing freelancer. They will help you automate a large portion of your eCommerce processes, which includes setting up:
- Abandoned cart notifications
- Welcome emails
- Order confirmation
- Shipping updates
- Cross-sells and upsells
- Follow-up emails
- Customer loyalty programs
- Promotional email campaign setup (such as Black Friday campaigns)
These automation processes will help you increase your sales and enhance the customer experience.
Creating different types of emails
A drip marketing specialist will know how to create different types of emails that deliver relevant content to potential customers, in a timely way. Some of the types of emails they can create include:
- Transactional emails
- Email newsletters
- Email content based on your content marketing strategy
Do keep in mind that drip email marketing is not about cold emails (although some may include them as part of their drip email strategy.) As such, a drip email marketer will usually lie on the organic or inbound content marketing side of marketing approaches, rather than on outbound or cold outreach one.
12 skills a drip marketer should have
If you've decided to hire an email expert, here are the skills they should have.
Marketing automation
Your drip marketing freelancer should be an automation virtuoso. They need to know how to set up sophisticated email flows, sequences, automation rules, and campaigns to ensure optimal performance.
Email marketing strategy
Your expert email marketer should also know how to build an email marketing strategy that fits your brand and business goals. This includes customer research, segmentation, and strategizing the types of content to include in each email.
Copywriting
Although a drip marketer's job is not necessarily to write copy, they may sometimes be required to (e.g., if they need to move fast and the copywriter isn't available.)
They should know how to craft compelling subject lines and email copy that drives engagement. And even when they don't write the copy themselves, having copywriting skills will help them better communicate with writers to achieve better results.
Data analytics
Analytics is essential for understanding how customers interact with your content and what changes to make in order to optimize performance. Therefore, a drip marketer will know how to collect and interpret email data (like your click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, deliverability, and bounce rates), to help your business drive more conversions and retention.
Segmentation
A good drip marketer will also be able to segment your audience based on data and customer behavior. This includes (but is not limited to) looking into the customers' age, gender, interests, and purchase history to create email lists and customer segments that fit your needs.
They should also know how to conduct contact list cleaning, and data hygiene, and ensure that every email address is collected in a way compliant with data privacy regulations. This will help you improve your email deliverability, as well as ensure you're on the legal side of email marketing.
A/B testing
A/B testing is essential when you need to try different approaches with your emails and see which one works best. An email marketing consultant should understand the basics of A/B testing and be able to run accurate A/B tests to optimize their email marketing campaigns.
Email design
Just like copywriting, email design is not necessarily a drip marketer's job. However, they should understand the basics of email design in order to effectively communicate with a designer and ensure that your emails look professional, engaging, eye-catching, and on-brand.
Lead nurturing
Lead nurturing is an essential part of the drip email marketing process and should be a priority for any marketer in this field. A good lead nurturing strategy will help you turn leads into customers and it can pave the way for retention, loyalty, and evangelism campaigns.
Content creation and/or curation
Drip email marketing is largely based on sending prospects the most relevant content, at the right time. As such, a drip marketer should know how to curate content from different sources in order to create a comprehensive email message. They should be a digital media expert that's adept at content curation, when needed, to ensure a cohesive and effective message.
Project management
A drip marketer is also a project manager. They need to be able to coordinate the different teams involved in creating and sending emails (designers, writers, analysts) and make sure that everything is running smoothly.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A drip marketer should also be familiar with CRM software and know how to use it. They need to understand customer data, how to store it, and how to use it effectively in their campaigns. This will help them provide you with email marketing services that are fully tailored to your specific situation.
Communication
Last, but not least, don't forget that email marketers are primarily communicators. As such, their communication skills should be on-point. They need to be able to communicate and collaborate with other teams in a clear, concise, and effective manner.
They also need to know how to communicate with your audience, using crystal-clear, engaging messages.
How to hire a drip marketer for your project
Already decided to hire a drip marketer for your business? Great! The good news is you have a lot of options to choose from, so follow this step-by-step process.
Define your needs
To hire the right freelance email marketing expert, you have to know what you're looking for. Consider:
- The level of experience you need
- Whether you need a freelance email marketer or a full-time one
- The specific skills required
- Your budget
Write a job description
Your drip marketer job description should be clear, concise, and honest. Make sure to include:
- Your project expectations
- The specific skills and experience you require
- The goals you set for your email marketing efforts
- Your budget (or at least a budget range)
Choose your platform
Once you know what kind of profile you're looking for, it's time to decide which platform(s) to use. Popular options include job boards (like Indeed, UpWork, etc.), social media networks (like LinkedIn and Facebook), or dedicated marketplaces (like Toptal).
However, keep in mind that this route is better suited for smaller projects, as it's not always easy to find experienced professionals on these platforms.
And if you want to avoid the hassle of going through a lengthy recruitment process, try Mayple. We only work with vetted freelance email marketers who can showcase a track record of success and we'll match you with excellent candidates in a matter of days.
This way, you can work with someone who's experienced and knowledgeable and you can start collaborating on your project right away.
10 Questions to ask your drip marketing freelancer before you hire them
Not sure what to ask your drip email marketing freelancer before you hire them? Here are some ideas:
- Can you describe your experience setting up and managing automated email campaigns using email marketing automation platforms? Which email platforms have you worked with (Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Klaviyo)?
- How do you approach developing an email marketing campaign strategy? Can you walk me through your process?
- What experience do you have with creating effective email copy? Can you provide examples of emails you’ve written in the past?
- How do you use data to optimize email campaigns? Can you describe a time when you used data to make changes to an email campaign, and what were the results?
- How do you segment an email subscriber list and what factors do you consider when doing so?
- How do you approach A/B testing email campaigns? Can you describe a time when you tested an email campaign and what the results were?
- What experience do you have with creating visually appealing email templates? Can you provide examples of email templates you’ve designed in the past?
- How do you create engaging and valuable content for drip email campaigns? Can you describe a time when you created content for a drip email campaign, and what was the result?
- How do you approach lead nurturing in email campaigns? Can you describe a time when you created a successful lead nurturing campaign?
- How do you manage multiple email campaigns simultaneously? Can you describe a time when you managed multiple campaigns and how you ensured the success of your email marketing efforts?
- Do you have experience with email deliverability? What do you do when your bounce rates are high? Do you have experience testing it for different email service providers?
- How many current clients are you working with? What percentage of your freelance business is dedicated to drip marketing?
- Do you have extensive experience working with brands in our niche or similar niches?
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