Setting Up a Drip Campaign with AIM

Prerequisites

Before creating a drip campaign, make sure that all of the email messages and other elements you wish to use with the campaign have been created. You should also give some thought as to what you want to accomplish with your drip campaign, such as retaining new customers or getting subscribers to interact with a new campaign.

What Is a Drip Campaign

A drip campaign uses a series of email messages to keep in contact with a subscriber over an extended period of time and prompts them to participate in further actions or sales.

Why Use a Drip Campaign

You can use a regular series of email messages (the "drips" in the drip campaign) to start and continue your drip campaign. For example, you can start your campaign with a welcome email, then send a follow-up email in two weeks to inquire about your subscriber's feelings on your product or service, and follow that email with an offer a month later to offer possible upgrades or special offers. Each drip maintains contact with your subscriber and gives them a reason to consider or interact with your offer.

Scenario

Northern Trail Outfitters wants to collect the email addresses of people interested in a free 30-day trial membership at the new rock climbing wall at one of their stores and remind them that their membership expires soon. They decide to set up a Smart Capture form on their website that captures information submitted by subscribers and send them reminders based on the date the subscribers submitted their information.

First, Northern Trail Outfitters creates a subscriber list in which to store the information used to contact the drip campaign message recipients. They could also use data extensions to store this information if they wished to use them instead.

Next, they set up the data filters used to segment out the subscribers who signed up 15 days ago and 28 days ago based on today's date. Those subscribers will receive one of the email messages created later in this scenario.

They also create three email messages for the drip campaign. The first email immediately welcomes the subscriber after they submit their data on the Smart Capture form. The second email goes out to subscribers 15 days after that sign-up date, and the final reminder occurs 28 days after the sign-up date.

Programs determine who gets the email messages and when they are sent. Northern Trail Outfitters creates two programs to sort out subscribers from the subscriber lists and send them the appropriate email message 15 days and 28 days after their signup date.

They also set up a triggered send to make sure the subscribers receive their confirmation message immediately after they sign up.

Finally, Northern Trail Outfitters creates the Smart Capture form to actually collect the information. They point the form to the subscriber list to store the information collected, and they add the triggered email send to the form so that it can be sent with each submission.

On the new store's website, they post the Smart Capture form that takes in the information and puts it on the subscriber list. Based on the information in that subscriber list, Northern Trail Outfitters sends a triggered email upon each signup, a follow-up email 15 days later, and a final reminder 28 days after that person subscribed to the email.

How to Set Up This Drip Campaign with AIM

The following example sets up a drip campaign that gathers email addresses and contact information via a Smart Capture form. The drip campaign follows the following steps:

1. Choosing the Subscribers that Receive the Messages
2. Creating the Email Messages
3. Setting up the Programs
4. Setting Up the Triggered Email Send
5. Setting up the Smart Capture Landing Page