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We send a lot of emails. Whether it’s our own Big Bad Marketing monthly newsletter or any of the hundreds of emails we send on behalf of our clients every month, it’s one of the marketing levers we love.

And one of the reasons we love it (beyond its fab ROI) is that it’s flexible. You can welcome someone to your email list or website, you can thank them for a purchase, or you can hit them with multi-step campaigns that lead them down a new path and expose them to more of what you do.

And that last bit is exactly what we’re covering today. Drip and nurture campaigns.

What’s a drip campaign?

Drip campaigns are time-based, pre-written emails that are sent at a scheduled interval. When someone’s email is put into a drip campaign, they’re going to receive the content based on a predetermined schedule until it’s complete.

A great example is a welcome sequence. You sign up and we’ll send a series of 5 emails over 2 weeks to welcome you to our business and show you how to make the most of it. Bam, you got dripped.

What’s a nurture campaign?

Nurture campaigns are triggered by a particular user action or behavior. For example, you can trigger an email when someone completes a lead form, attends a webinar, or visits a particular page of your website.

Nurture campaigns are triggered by behavior, because you see what someone does (like abandoning a cart) and you want to nurture them to encourage them to do a certain thing (get back to your cart and buy!). Your nurture campaigns are designed to hit someone at the right time when they’re clearly already motivated to do something, but might just need a lil nudge to get it done.

Email provider limitations and options

So now you know the difference between drip and nurture campaigns, and you’re ready to set them up, but what if your current email provider is a bit more limited in its capabilities?

We love Squarespace, but one of the major limitations of using Squarespace for email is that it only has a few pre-built automations that you can use to send emails, like when someone makes a purchase on your site or signs up for your email list. And when you get to a certain stage of your business, you might need a bit more flexibility and power to create some custom sending patterns.

You’ll know it's time to move to a little something more powerful if you want tagging, segmenting, or behavior-based triggers, like you’d need for a multi-series drip campaign. That something is an upgraded email tool, like:

We’ve used all of these and believe ActiveCampaign to be the most flexible, especially if you have big plans to grow your audience. But know that depending on your setup, you may need to bring in another third-party tool like Zapier to connect the user behavior on your website to ActiveCampaign.

Setting all of this up is relatively straightforward, but you can also holler at a marketing agency like BBM to get going if that’s too far in the technical weeds for your liking.

Creating drip and nurture campaigns step by step

Once you’ve got your email provider situation settled, it’s time to plan your campaigns. Use these steps.

Define the goal: If you’re dripping, what’s the end game? Do you want to welcome someone to your site and let them know about what you do? Do you want to eventually ask them to follow your podcast or social media accounts? Do you simply want to show up and provide educational content? Understanding the goal upfront can help you determine the right number of campaigns and what each one will convey (because each email, aside from a newsletter, should have a single purpose).
Figure out who it’s going to and when: Which action is going to trigger your drip or nurture campaign? Is this a welcome sequence going only to new email subscribers? Is this a drip you’re sending to people who make a purchase to notify them about other ways they can benefit from your business?
Decide on the timing: For multi-sequence campaigns, figure out how many emails you want to send and at what intervals. Consider that you don’t want to overwhelm your audience, but you do want to keep them engaged. Waiting 2 to 3 days between emails is optimal; a week or more might be too long.
Create the copy with a clear CTA: Now it’s time to get down to business with creating your email copy. Ensure the copy is concise, but long enough to get the message across as you outlined in your goal. Be sure it’s crystal clear to the reader what you’d like them to do next. Give them a call to action that pushes them along to exactly what you want them to do next.
Automate it with appropriate workflows: Set up your automations using your email provider’s tools. Ensure each automation has a trigger (like when someone joins a particular email list or abandons an item in their cart).

Automations You Should Have Set Up Yesterday

Here are some of our fave automations and use cases for drip and nurture campaigns.

Welcome sequence (Drip): A 3-5 email series over 1 to 2 weeks to welcome new subscribers to your brand and share more about who you are and what you do.
Abandoned cart (Nurture): At least one email to encourage them to come back and finish the purchase. This can include a discount code or freebie to push the sale.
Post-purchase upsell or review request (Nurture): One email to ask how it’s going with the product or service and if they’re ready to buy something else or review it. Be careful with the timing of review requests and make sure they have enough time to use the thing first. Check out our post and podcast about Managing Your Digital Reputation for our hot takes on asking for reviews.
Re-engagement campaigns (Drip): You can trigger this series of 1-3 emails for a group of inactive leads to try to get them to activate.

Like we say soooo many times on our podcast, you can’t do everything right now. In fact, you don’t even need to set up an automation until you have a reason to do so! (Not selling anything online? Don’t waste precious time on an abandoned cart nurture sequence!!)

But if you’re gonna do one thing, we believe everyone can benefit from a welcome email or welcome sequence that delivers your lead magnet and shares more about what you do.

Start there. Tiny steps. Build over time. You got this!

Why Most Businesses Get Email Wrong (and What to Do Instead)

And of course, no blog post about email would be complete without a few words of wisdom about what not to do in your drip and nurture campaigns. Be sure to avoid:

Over-emailing🗓️: Schedule sufficient time between campaigns. Not everyone wants to hear from you or your business every day! Smart timing can help you avoid a flurry of unsubscribes.
Ghosting your list👻: Commit to emailing, set up the automations, and keep showing up for your list! People showed up for a reason. Don’t give them Tinder date vibes by making them feel all warm and fuzzy for a week, then leaving them out to dry when you never contact them again.
Only asking them to buy vs. adding value🎁: Email is a great way to notify engaged prospects about your promotions, sales, new products, etc. But can you show up in 3 out of every 4 emails with a straight-up value add? Be sure that you’re giving, giving, giving good stuff to your people, otherwise they might be smashing unsubscribe when they see you show up yet again, asking them to buy your thing.
Mishaps that could’ve been caught with an A/B test🔍: Most email tools have great testing functionality. You can change subject lines, send from addresses, or the full body copy. If you’re not sure about a headline, A/B test it first instead of blasting it out to your whole list. Doing so could help you avoid sending a questionable email to everyone instead of just 10% of your list.

Need a lil help crafting the perfect email or outlining your next drip campaign? We do that! Check out our full list of Done for You services to see how we can help you reach your big bad marketing goals.

Drip vs. Nurture Campaigns: What’s the Difference?