The Law of 29-Drip Marketing Myth or Reality?

Did you know? The chemical element Copper has an atomic number of 29. The Norwegian alphabet contains 29 cuneiform signs. The human skull is made up of 29 bones. Boy, I feel like that cute kid on Jerry Mcguire.

But for many years, marketers and advertisers alike have believed in the unwritten "Law of 29" when crafting their campaigns and communications. Meaning that for every message that a marketer crafts, the recipients must see, hear, or feel your message a total of 29 times before they will convert. Urban legend? Myth? Or could this be reality?

With this belief, came the advent of drip marketing campaigns. The concept was really quite simple. In converse to the "hare" mentality of getting as many messages out to the audience in short bursts, drip marketing entails taking a slower more intentional approach. In essence, using a "tortoise" mentality in trickling multiple messages over a period of time to reinforce the call-to-action and to spur conversion. This process is not for the impatient though as results build over time. Drip marketing is one form of lead nurturing that can take a relatively cold lead and turn it into a warm/hot lead simply by providing relevant information over a period of time to the recipients that initially raised their hand. With effective drip marketing, organizations can convert a much higher percentage of their recipients given that they follow some important tips:

Plan your message: It is best to map out your drip marketing campaign to ensure that you are timing the messages in the right way and that you have content and strong calls-to-action each step of the way.
Keep your content creative and relevant to your audience: Segmentation is key for this pointer. Not every message will be relevant to every audience. Tailor your messages to each audience and be sure to incorporate a call-to-action in every message. The purpose is to educate and promote those recipients to a higher rate of conversion.
Ensure Permission: Don't send to recipients without permission. Additionally, make it easy for them to understand the series of your communications. Tell them where they are in the process. Last, but not least, provide them with easy ways to unsubscribe or opt-out.
Be sure your data is clean and accurate: Segmentation can be extremely difficult without accurate date. However, once your data is clean, import it and tailor the drip campaigns to each audience. One size does not fit all.
Track, analyze, and adjust: Be sure to track and monitor your drip marketing campaigns to see where recipients are converting and what information is more compelling to them. Once you have the tracking data, adjust your plans and begin the process again.

Here at Delivra, we send messaging to various leads that come in using drip marketing campaigns. For one particular lead source, this process just began late last week and early results are showing open rates around 30% with high engagement in the various media that I have included such as video, social sharing, and external links. Stay tuned for how this drip campaign progresses week-by-week!

I'm convinced that slow and steady will win the race and with that I plan to make The Law of 29 work to my benefit in educating our leads about the benefits of Delivra's email marketing application. Want to understand drip marketing more? Stay tuned for future updates or contact us to learn how to setup your own drip marketing campaign.

Carissa Newton | Marketing