Drip campaigns have long been a reliable strategy for customer acquisition for every cannabis brand. The best thing about this form of marketing is that you can set it and forget about it; therefore, saving you time and money.
If you are new here, drip campaigns are sets of automated emails sent out to your customers, depending on specific timelines or user actions. This tactic is highly effective because it targets your customers with the message they need to hear just when they need to hear it.
Here are five crucial drip campaigns that your cannabis business should start using today.
1. Welcome Campaign
You should send a warm welcome to every lead that subscribes to your mailing list. Use this opportunity to introduce yourself. Talk about the cannabis products you offer, and show why you are superior to other cannabis businesses. Your welcome campaign is also the first step to onboarding your potential customers.
Welcome campaign emails are generally well-received. They have an average open rate of 58.7 percent, which is more than twice the average open rate for standard emails.
To be more effective, make sure that your first welcome email is sent out as soon as your lead subscribes. And don’t just send one email, send about three to five emails that let your lead know all about your cannabis brand and what they expect to hear from you.
For instance, your welcome campaign should include:
- An email with a list of your most shared blog posts
- An email offering a new trial discount or service to new subscribers
- Client testimonials and case studies about your services or products.
2. Retargeting Campaign
Email retargeting is one of your most valuable tools for turning your leads into customers. It makes use of browser cookies to allow you to reach out to potential customers based on their web browsing. As such, email retargeting campaigns are highly effective. Some research findings indicate that it can improve your conversion rate by 41 percent.
There are several situations that call for a retargeting email campaign. Apart from when your customer abandons their cannabis shopping cart, you can also send a retargeting email when a customer reads your cannabis blog and leaves a comment, or when they visit your website but fail to take any action.
The key here is to select the customer actions that you believe most deserve a follow-up email. Make a list of “if this, then this’ rules and then develop a retargeting campaign that follows them.
Here are some ideas you use when creating a drip campaign for your dispensary or other marijuana business:
- Follow up with an email when a lead downloads a free lead generation item
- Send a follow-up email to customers who visited your cannabis blog but did not take any action
- Ask your leads to give their email address to receive a gift and then send a follow-up message.
3. Abandoned Cart Campaign
Most customers will leave your website without making any purchases. In fact, some studies place cart abandonment as high as 80 percent. This is where a drip campaign comes in handy. You can use it to re-engage these potential customers and lure them back to the purchase button.
For a more effective abandoned cart campaign, you should send a message every time someone leaves an unpurchased item in their shopping cart. Your email could be anything from offering a discount to the customer if they decide to return, to sending some of the positive customer reviews from satisfied customers who have purchased from you before.
The logic here is that if a customer gets to the point of including your product on their shopping cart, it means that they are highly interested. It does not make any sense to let them go. The best thing is to try and draw their attention back to your brand.
An effective abandoned cart campaign should:
- Tell your customer why there are losing out by leaving
- Offer an incentive to help bring the customer back to your site
- Provide the customer with fresh information that enhances the product they almost purchased to finalize the sale.
4. Post-Purchase Campaign
Brand loyalty is crucial for the success of your business. It is much easier to turn your existing client into a repeat customer than it is to get a new customer. Research indicates that improving your customer retention rates can boost your sales by up to 95 percent.
When you send a follow-up email to a customer after they make a purchase, you communicate to them that you value brand loyalty and you are focused on creating it.
Your post-purchase email should provide your customer with value and should be based on what they purchased or showed interest in.
The following ideas will help you in crafting successful post-purchase emails:
- Invite your customers to join your brand loyalty program where they can receive discounts when they shop repeatedly.
- Send a list of related products that other customers have purchased which you believe the customer might find useful.
- Ask your customers for feedback on the marijuana products that they purchased.
- Guide your customers on how they can best use the products that they bought from you by sending links to blogs, videos or infographics that might be useful.
5. Unsubscribe Campaign
What if your prospects unsubscribe from your mailing list? Fret not. You still have room to follow up with a drip campaign. Send one last email to try and bring the customer back in the fold with a short message that says that you are sorry they had to leave and asks them to follow you on social media.
Many a time, people who unsubscribe from your mailing don’t hate your brand. They are probably just trying to clean up their inbox and would rather interact with your brand differently. Give them other options to follow your brand to avoid losing them.
Here are three types of unsubscribe emails you can use:
- A survey email that seeks to find out why your customer left and what you can do to make them happy
- An offer to have them interact with you differently
- Add some personality and a bit of humor to show that your brand is not just emails.
Final Word
Remember that a drip campaign is more than just one email. It is more of a multi-step approach to get the attention of your leads, make them customers, and retain them.
There are several email campaigns you can use to reach out to your prospects. Choose those that work best for your marijuana services and come up with new ideas that are effective in bringing your leads down to the sales funnel.
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What other drip campaigns have you been using in your cannabis business? Let us know in the comments section below.
