Today I got asked about the importance of setting up a drip campaign (email reminder sequence), because they're worried about annoying people. Great question.
My answer:
When a lead/prospect signs up for your service it is your duty to make sure that they getting to see what your company is all about. Whether they need more information, or are comparing you with other options - you have to show them why you are better or different than the others, by revealing more and more about your offerings.
Each email needs to give a little more information than the last, so they can learn everything there is to know, so by email #5 or #7, they can make an informed decision.
In a world where emails get buried amongst a lot of actual crap - someone signing up to you means they care. At least more than someone who didn't - so you better stay in touch with them!
The trick here is to work out the intervals of your emails. If someone wants to sign up to a college - emailing them 5 days in a row isn't going to be very effective. Yes that is in fact annoying. What could've possibly happened in 24 hours to change their mind?
So a one week break would be great and then maybe a reminder in two weeks then maybe a month. You could even time it to send one 4 months later, when a semester is likely to have finished.
On the other hand, if someone wants to buy a dress - then a reminder to follow up on completing that purchase the next day could work. You want to ensure they've got a solution for the weekend, so 24 hours later makes sense.
Honestly, don't worry about annoying people, because 100 people subscribed are better than 1000 people not interested. And if someone does unsubscribe, it truly means the product is not for them. So no loss there.
There's many ways to design drip campaigns, but here's one example of "giving more and more" in terms of contact details.
Email #1 - sent immediately upon sign up
Body text, CTA, then "reply whenever you need"
Email #2 - sent 24 hours later
Body text, CTA, then "here's my calendly link, if you want to book time to chat"
Email #3 - sent 4 days after sign up
Body text, CTA, then "let me know what time works for you - I'll call you"
Email #4 - sent 7 days after signup
Body text, CTA, then "here's my number, call me whenever you need"
So you see, each one became more and more personal. You can do this with information, discounts and even cross-selling. Do some multivariate testing, figure out works best then turn that drip campaign on!
Saba