As your email marketing becomes more sophisticated, you’ll likely want to send more advanced and personalized messages. But as you strategize and start to build campaigns, you may find the distinction between email automation and drip campaigns a little muddy...are they essentially the same thing? Does my ESP provide support for both? Which tactic would work best for me and my email program?
The short answer is that, although email drip and email automation campaigns share a lot of similarities, the two are NOT synonymous. And the reality is that the distinction between drips and automation is a bit confusing!
To help you master both, take our quiz to test your knowledge on the nuances and details. Then continue reading for a deeper dive into more use cases and tips for each type of email campaign so you’ll never stumble on the two types of campaigns again.
QUESTION:
The primary difference between email automation and email drip campaigns is that email drip campaigns are static campaigns that are pre-determined, while automated emails are dynamic and different for each recipient.
YOUR ANSWER WAS CORRECT
Nice work!
You’re off to a great start! Email drip campaigns don’t change based on a recipient’s behavior while automated email campaigns dynamically change and provide content based on a user’s action (did open and click, vs, no action).
YOUR ANSWER WAS INCORRECT
Oh no.
Close...but remember that email drip campaigns are pre-determined and don’t change once a recipient takes a certain action.
QUESTION:
A 4-part welcome series that sends one email each week during the first month that a recipient opts into an email list is most accurately classified as email automation.
YOUR ANSWER WAS CORRECT
Nice work!
You got it! A 4-part welcome series that fires once a week to new recipients is a great example of an email drip campaign.
YOUR ANSWER WAS INCORRECT
Oh no.
Not quite! Because this email doesn’t change once it’s set in motion, this is actually an email drip campaign.
QUESTION:
Setting up a reengagement email to recipients who haven’t opened any of your emails in a specified amount of time (say after one month, for example) on a continuing basis is an automation use case.
YOUR ANSWER WAS CORRECT
Nice work!
You bet! Because the email is sending at different times to recipients based on when they reach a certain amount of inactivity, this is automation in action.
YOUR ANSWER WAS INCORRECT
Oh no.
Because not all the recipients are receiving the reengagement email at the same time, this is a dynamically triggered email automation campaign. You could send a re-engagement drip campaign using manual methods and scheduling.
QUESTION:
If you have email automation set up, you don’t need to spend time segmenting your email list.
YOUR ANSWER WAS CORRECT
Nice work!
Yep! A finely-segmented list is critical for setting up your automated email campaigns as well as any other types of email campaigns for that matter. Email automation can help you save time adding recipients to your segments though.
YOUR ANSWER WAS INCORRECT
Oh no.
If you don’t have a segmented list, your personalized email automations are just glorified email blasts. Always maintain and continue to refine your segments so you provide the right content, at the right time.
QUESTION:
Whether or not you decide to build an email drip campaign or provide adynamic email automation, both forms of email marketing allow you to provide more personalized email content at a more likely time of higher engagement.
YOUR ANSWER WAS CORRECT
Nice work!
Ding ding ding! The good news is that no matter what your resources are, or if you don’t have access to sophisticated email automation, you can still provide personalized email content with either a drip or automation.
YOUR ANSWER WAS INCORRECT
Oh no.
Personalized and relevant email content is in reach with either an email drip campaign or email automation.
YOUR TOTAL:
You scored
Feeling pretty confident in your drip and automation knowledge and want to start trying them in your program? Head on over to our automation beta signup page. Or, if you didn’t quite knock it out of the park, read on for some more tips continue reading!
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Because there are a lot of similarities between drips and automation, it’s helpful to review use cases and take in some tips so you’re equipped no matter what type of email campaign you decide to go with.
Email drip campaigns can be thought of as static, predetermined, and scheduled content. While it requires work to create and schedule content upfront, once it’s executed or in motion, the drips take over and there is no further action required from the creator.
Example use cases of email drip campaigns include:
A welcome email series that provides a total of four emails with content that is the same regardless of a user’s action.
A promotional email campaign that sends users different sales and discounts throughout the Black Friday/Cyber Monday time period.
Email automation can also be referred to as email nurture, but these types of emails dynamically (in the moment) change based on user behavior:
Email automation use case examples include:
Highly-engaged recipients receive special VIP discounts and early access to services before the rest of your email list. (Note: you don’t need to use automation to achieve this, it is just much less manual).
Nurture campaigns with the end-goal of upselling.
Anniversary email – consider sending your recipients a special discount or promo after they’ve been on your email for one year.
Abandoned cart emails to prospective shoppers.
Check our SendGrid’s interactive Email Automation Best Practice Guide for a deeper dive on the topic, and hear from our in-house email and delivery experts about how to optimize your email program.
The answer will depend on factors such as how much data you collect from your recipients and the capabilities of your ESP. While email drip campaigns tend to be a bit more manual than automated emails, you won’t need as much information nor the extra cost associated with automated email tools.
If you’re wanting to take your email campaigns to the next level, and have the resources available to set up email automation, that very well may be the best route to take.
