Drip campaign
A drip campaign is a series of pre-written messages sent automatically on a schedule or in response to triggers — 'dripping' relevant content to contacts over time instead of one manual blast.
How a drip campaign works
You build the sequence once — a set of messages with timing and conditions between them — and it runs automatically for every contact who enters it. Each contact moves through at their own pace from the moment they trigger it, so the right message arrives at the right point in their journey without anyone sending it manually.
Common drip campaigns
- Welcome series — introduce your brand over the first days after signup
- Onboarding — guide new users to their first success step by step
- Lead nurture — warm prospects with useful content until they're ready to buy
- Abandoned cart — recover shoppers who left without checking out
- Re-engagement — win back contacts who've gone quiet
What makes a drip campaign work
- Trigger on a meaningful event — a signup, a purchase, an action or inaction
- Space messages with intent, not a fixed drumbeat that feels robotic
- Segment so the content matches who the contact is and what they did
- Add branching so behaviour (opened? clicked? bought?) changes the path
- Go multichannel — combine email with SMS or web push where it helps
Frequently asked questions
Drip campaign vs marketing automation — what's the difference?
A drip campaign is one scheduled sequence. Marketing automation is the broader discipline of triggered, behaviour-driven workflows across channels — drips are one tool inside it.
How many emails should a drip have?
Enough to accomplish the goal, no more — often three to seven. Let the objective set the length rather than padding the sequence.
Are drip campaigns still effective?
Very. Timely, relevant automated messages consistently outperform one-off broadcasts because they reach people at the moment of highest intent.
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