With auto responders, the emails are sent as a result of a recipient triggering a CTA. But not everyone will click links or visit your website, and that's where drip campaigns really shine.

Drip Campaign Targets

There are two reasons why someone won't engage with you beyond an initial meeting: They don't need your services, or they don't know, like or trust you— the three-legged stool imperative to successful sales.

Drip campaigns address those issues by regularly keeping your name in front of your prospect without the sales or marketing pitch. Through a series of emails that provide valuable information and education on what interests your prospect, deployed over several months, you demonstrate knowledge, expertise and value. This process helps the prospect get to know, like and trust you because you're doing this without any strings attached.

As every successful entrepreneur and marketing professor knows, the fortune is in the follow up. Pull out every business card you've accumulated from past networking events. These are the perfect seeds in which to plant your drip campaign.

System Features

You've probably received drip campaigns from businesses that use services like Constant Contact, MailChimp or iContact. I use a product called officePRO. Your needs may vary, but there are three things to look for in a drip campaign system.

First, find a system that conveys content in a compelling manner, including lots of imagery and multimedia messaging. Second, the system must be able to archive and cluster these emails to structure the drip campaign. Finally, schedule each of these emails to automatically deploy at regular intervals and respond to an activated CTA to stop the campaign.

Some of the differences can be seen in the pricing (a la carte, flat fee, subscription). Some systems limit the campaigns you can build before charging extra. Others incorporate lead capture forms and landing pages to support the campaign and the effective creation of a CTA.

The system you choose should trigger a follow-up campaign for prospects who haven't activated any of your CTAs. This second campaign could be similar to the original, except the intervals should be further apart—quarterly instead of monthly.

Your system must be compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act laws. It must:

• Be permission-based

• Include a link in every message to report abuse or unsubscribe

• Have a physical address in the message so someone can contact you.

Drip campaigns, like water torture, work their magic by being consistent and almost neverending. With marketing campaigns, the idea is to position you and your company as a valuable resource and get the target of the campaign to want to do business.

You could say a successful business relationship is one where the prospect becomes a client when he or she is willing to open up to you with his or her secrets…from a business needs perspective.