So you want to master Email Drip Campaigns in 2025 and finally start seeing consistent, meaningful results from your email list?
Smart move.
People are obsessed with viral Reels, AI chatbots, and algorithm-chasing on social media but the brands that truly get it are circling back to something way more strategic: the email drip.
While most brands scramble and chase a quick sale, these smart brands know that sending automated, behavior-based, value-first emails builds trust, gets your subscribers to take action, and leads to consistent results on autopilot.
If you’re reading this, then we know you’re not here to send random blasts and pray for clicks. You’re here to work smarter like the smart brands. You’re here to build systems that sell. You’re setting your business apart from most brands that still treat email like a one-off megaphone. “Here’s a flash sale. Here’s our new collection. Here’s a vague promo that sounds like everyone else.” Then they scratch their heads when open rates crash and conversions flatline.
That’s why we created this playbook for you – so let’s get into it – starting now.
What Is an Email Drip Campaign?
An email drip campaign is a sequence of automated emails sent to a person over time based on their actions or specific timelines. Think of it like a Netflix series – each episode (or email) builds on the last and is designed to pull the viewer (or reader) further into the story. So just like you don’t watch all episodes simultaneously, you don’t send everything at once. Instead, messages go out bit by bit, timed and set up to how people behave or what stage they’re at in their journey with your brand.
So what this means is if someone signs up for your free ebook, instead of just handing over the download and calling it a day, you could set up a drip campaign that follows up: one email to thank them, another in two days with a tip from the ebook, then another three days later offering a related product or service. If you notice, each email is connected and purposeful – that’s what makes it a “drip.”
This kind of campaign is different from newsletters or email blasts. A newsletter is typically sent to your entire list on a set schedule – like a weekly update. An email blast is a one-time announcement sent to many people at once, regardless of where they are in the customer journey. A drip campaign, on the other hand, is triggered by specific actions or milestones and is deeply personalized. It’s not about shouting into a crowd; it’s about holding a conversation.
Drip campaigns also lean heavily on automation – but before we get there, let’s break down a few terms you’ll see often:
- Trigger: This is the action or event that sets the drip campaign in motion. For example, if someone signs up for a webinar, or someone abandoning their cart, or clicking a link in a previous email this will “trigger” the drip campaign so they receive your emails.
- Condition: These are the rules that decide who gets sent the messages in your drip or what happens next (sometimes, what happens is that they don’t get a message, they get unsubscribed or put in a list). Maybe you only want people who opened the first email to get the second one. That’s also a condition.
- Timing (or Delay): This controls when emails go out. So you can set up a drip to messages out over hours, days, or weeks depending on your goal and customer behavior.
The Most Common Types of Drip Campaigns
There are many ways to use drip campaigns across the entire customer lifecycle, and while their structure may vary by business or industry, a few key types are used over and over again because they consistently deliver strong results across industries. Here’s a closer look at the most effective types:
- Welcome Drips: The welcome sequence is your first “hello” to everyone who joins your email list. When someone joins your list, whether by downloading a free resource, signing up for a trial, or making a purchase, you’re entering a very important trust-building phase. Smart marketers know that the best welcome drips do more than say “thanks.” It goes further to introduce the brand’s voice, sets expectations for future communication, and educates the subscriber about how the brand can help them.
For example, an e-commerce brand might send:
Email 1: “Welcome to the community!” (with a discount code)
Email 2: “How we make our products sustainably” (values-driven storytelling)
Email 3: “Our most-loved items this month” (social proof and discovery)
Welcome drips help you onboard subscribers smoothly and start the relationship with relevant content that provides value. In many cases, this is your highest open-rate window because it’s the time when most subscribers expect to see an email from you – so don’t waste it with generic messaging. - Nurture Drips: These campaigns target prospects who have shown interest but aren’t ready to buy. They’ve downloaded a whitepaper, clicked on a blog post, or watched a webinar but they’re still gathering information. Your goal here is to educate them about your brand, product and services and build trust. You’re gently guiding them through the buyer’s journey with relevant content that answers their questions, addresses objections, and frames your brand as the solution.
A B2B software company, for instance, might set up a drip like this:
Email 1: “5 signs it’s time to upgrade your project management tool”
Email 2: “Case study: How [Company] improved team collaboration by 40%”
Email 3: “Feature comparison: Us vs. the competition”
Email 4: “Ready to see it in action?” (Call To Action to book a demo)
So the idea here is not to rush or push the sale prematurely, it’s about sending messages that keep you top-of-mind for the lead while they learn about your value. - Abandoned Cart Drips: Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most costly friction points in e-commerce, with industry averages hovering around 70%. Abandoned cart drips are designed to recover lost revenue by reminding users of what they left behind – and more importantly, why they wanted it in the first place.
These drips work best when personalized with product images, dynamic pricing, or scarcity cues like low stock alerts. All of which can be set up in some of the best email marketing platforms (we’ll get to these shortly). Timing matters a lot here – if your drip goes out too slow,, the customer cools off and if you blast off too fast it feels pushy. When in doubt, use our sample timing above.
The best cart recovery sequences creates a sense of urgency in the recipient – it looks something like:
Email 1 (1 hour later): “Still thinking it over? Your items are waiting.”
Email 2 (24 hours later): “Here’s what others are saying about [Product]” (include reviews in email)
Email 3 (48–72 hours later): “Take 10% off before your cart expires” (create a deadline) - Re-engagement Drips: No email list stays warm forever. At some point, subscribers go cold – they stop opening emails, clicking links, or engaging with your content. Re-engagement drips are your last attempt to revive that relationship before deciding whether to suppress or remove the contact.
So these campaigns are set up to essentially:
Acknowledge the inactivity without guilt (“We’ve missed you!”)
Offer a new reason to engage (updated features, exclusive content, or a special promo)
Ask for feedback (“What can we do better?”)
Provide an easy opt-out or pause option
If subscribers ignore the entire re-engagement sequence, it may be time to clean your list. This improves deliverability metrics and ensures your emails are reaching people who actually want them.
In 2025, attention is currency. People are bombarded with content, and their time is more fragmented than ever. What used to work – generic emails sent at random – just doesn’t cut it anymore which is why drip campaigns are essential to help you cut through the noise. And they work because they’re personal and timely.
Now to run these drip campaigns, you need the right tools so here are a few popular platforms with strong automation features:
- Klaviyo: Great for e-commerce. It syncs with Shopify and tracks customer behavior for deeply personalized drips.
- Mailchimp: Easy for beginners. Offers pre-built automation journeys and drag-and-drop setup.
- ActiveCampaign: Powerful logic-based automation and CRM tools for advanced drip strategies.
- ConvertKit: Best choice for creators and bloggers. Clean automation flow and tag-based system.
- HubSpot: Ideal for B2B and SaaS. Combines email, CRM, and workflows in one platform.
- Drip: E-commerce focused with simple automation and visual workflows.
- MailerLite: Budget-friendly with strong automation tools for small businesses.
Planning Your First Drip Campaign: From Goal to Execution
For your first drip campaign to work, you need more than just a few scheduled emails going out to your audience. What you need is a strategy that starts with having a clear goal, understanding your audience, and delivering the right message at the right time. So before you even think about writing a subject line or dropping images into a template, take a step back and ask: What is the single, most important outcome I want from this drip campaign?
One Goal, Many Emails – But One Message
It might seem tempting to address multiple objectives at once – upselling, educating, getting referrals, and re-engaging lapsed users – all in one sequence. But the truth is, drip campaigns work best when they’re laser-focused. Every email in the series should build toward the same end goal. Let’s say your goal is to get demo bookings for your SaaS product. Your drip sequence might look like this:
Email 1: “See how [customer name] cut their project time by 30%” (case study-based trust builder)
Email 2: “5 hidden costs of not having a workflow tool” (pain-point amplifier)
Email 3: “Book a 15-min walkthrough for your team” (direct CTA)
There may be a few emails but there is only one goal and each email builds on the previous one, reinforcing the same idea from a different angle. Trying to do too much in one series dilutes the impact but having a singular goal helps you define success metrics and clarifies your messaging.
Now that you have a goal, the next step is figuring out who you’re talking to and where they are in their decision-making process.
Identify Your Audience and Their Buyer Journey Stage
Identifying your audience is not just about demographics – age, job title, or industry. In 2025, knowing your audience is knowing their intent, behavior, and the right timing for sending particular messaging. Most leads don’t arrive in your funnel ready to buy. They’re at varying levels of awareness, each requiring a different message and tone. Recognizing this lets you deliver content that feels relevant – because it is. Your leads are usually in one of these stages:
- Awareness Stage aka Problem Discovery: At this stage, your audience may not even fully understand their problem yet – they’re just starting to notice symptoms or inefficiencies. These are top-of-funnel prospects who are researching, not shopping.
They’re looking for clarity, education, and validation that what they’re experiencing is common and solvable. Some indicators that your lead is in this stage will be they download a “Beginner’s Guide” or “Checklist.” or they subscribed to your newsletter but haven’t taken any further action. - Consideration/Decision Stage: People here already know their problem, they’re now looking for possible solutions. They’re comparing tools, reading reviews, and analyzing pricing between your business and the competition. At this point they want more than information, what they’re looking for is direction and confidence. So they’re often requesting for your pricing or they start a free trial or watch a product demo.
A very clear indication that your lead is in the consideration stage is if they revisit your website multiple times, especially product or case study pages. So what you want to do here is send messages that show them results for people like them. Send emails breaking down the features of your product/service and competitor comparison where you outshine the competition. Recall the Nurture Drip Campaigns. - Loyalty Stage: Post-Purchase Engagement: People here have made a purchase or signed a contract but the journey doesn’t stop after the first conversion. In fact, your most profitable audience may be the customers you’ve already earned. Whether it’s getting them to make repeat purchases, upgrades, or simply keeping your brand top-of-mind, retention-focused drips like emails with personalized product recommendations, exclusive discounts, Invitations to webinars, referral programs, or loyalty events can help these customers feel supported, seen, and continually rewarded for choosing you.
Matching your drip content to the prospects mindset at every stage is how you meet people exactly where they are and guide them one step forward. This is what turns passive readers into active customers.
Write Subject Lines That Get Opened
You can have a perfectly written email, but if your subject line doesn’t get a click, no one will see it. Your goal here is to trigger an emotional or intellectual response strong enough to prompt a click. To do that, you need to understand not just what your audience wants – but how they read email in the first place.
Most people scan their inbox passively. They’re looking for reasons to delete, not engage. So your subject line has to break through that mental filter with one of two strategies: curiosity or clarity. So you can either use curiosity to create an information gap the brain with subject lines like “You’re not going to believe this…” or “Most businesses overlook this one metric.” which peaks the reader’s interest or you can send emails with clear subject lines that tell your readers exactly what they’ll get like “Free Guide: 5 Ways to Cut Hiring Costs” etc.
The most effective subject lines however, blend the two. You provide enough detail to create relevance but leave enough tension to get your reader interested. An example is “Before You Hire Again, Read This”.
One thing that can help your subject lines stand out in crowded inboxes and trigger emotions is Emojis – but they don’t work for every audience. The emojis you use should match the tone of your brand and the expectation of your audience. A B2B software company using the wrong emoji can feel off-brand or unprofessional, so we recommend using emojis to reinforce context, not replace words – and never use them in place of clarity. For example:
- Risky Emoji Use: “🔥🚨 Don’t Miss This!” (What is “this”?)
- Good Emoji USe: “Summer Sale ☀️ 40% Off Just for You”
The rule of thumb: if your audience wouldn’t expect to see emojis in a LinkedIn message or business pitch, don’t put them in your subject lines. That said, avoid placing your only CTA at the base of a lengthy email. Be sure to include at least one CTA above the fold, and if your email is long, repeat it once more toward the end.
Now once you’ve gotten them to open the email… the challenge is holding your reader’s attention long enough to get them to take action. Let’s talk about designing emails for maximum readability.
Designing Emails for Maximum Readability
With over 60% of emails being read on mobile devices, your layout needs to prioritize thumb-friendly navigation and allow for readers to quickly scan the entire design. What works on desktop may not work as well for users on smaller screens. So here are some tips we recommend you follow when designing your emails.
1. Stick to Single-Column Layouts
Multi-column formats may look sleek on a laptop, but they usually break on mobile. A single-column layout stacks content neatly, making it easier to scroll, read, and act without pinching or zooming.
2. Use Generous Spacing and Padding
White space guides the reader’s eye and gives each element room to breathe. So when designing, consider spacing out headers, paragraphs, and buttons with consistent padding (around 20–30px) to avoid a cluttered experience.
3. Prioritize the CTA’s Thumb Zone
Make sure CTA buttons have high contrast with the background. A bright CTA on a neutral background grabs attention (e.g., orange on white or blue on gray). For better conversion rates, be specific with button text: instead of “Click Here,” say “Download My Free Guide” or “Start My Trial.” When it comes to size and placement, CTA buttons should be:
- At least 44×44 pixels for easy tapping.
- Placed far enough from other clickable elements to prevent accidental clicks.
- Located near the bottom of sections where natural scrolling pauses.
4. Keep Key Info “Above the Fold”
On mobile, the “fold” is roughly the first 300–400 pixels. Use this space for your headline, a clear benefit, and your first CTA. Readers should instantly understand what the email is about and why they should care – without scrolling.
Preview your email on both mobile and desktop before sending. Tools like Litmus, Email on Acid, or even your ESP’s preview feature can show how your design performs across devices and inboxes. This final step can catch issues like broken buttons, overlapping text, or slow-loading visuals that could derail performance.
Launching Your Campaign the Right Way
Sending emails is easy. Launching a campaign that actually hits? Totally different beast
After you’ve spent time writing your copy, designing layouts, and setting up your automation, don’t just hit “send”. How you launch your campaign matters just as much as what you send. Without testing your email, you’ll never know if you have broken links which lead to low engagement, or worse – spam flags.
Pre-Send Checklist
So before launching, run through this pre-send checklist to ensure everything works as intended and looks professional:
- Check All Links: Every link and button should work, so click through each one to confirm it leads to the right destination. Check to be sure you don’t have any mistyped URLs or broken redirects because these are more common than we think – and they’re costly.
- Verify Sender Name and Email: No one wants an email from “no-reply@company.com.” If your sender name sounds cold or robotic, it’s a straight trip to the trash. Use a recognizable name and domain. Avoid generic “no-reply” addresses, which reduce trust and increase spam likelihood. Instead, go with “[Your Name] from [Brand]” or a branded team email.
- Send Test Emails: This is not optional. Send a preview to yourself, your intern, your cousin – whatever. Just see how it looks on real devices (Send test emails to various inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) and devices (mobile and desktop). Look for layout issues, spacing problems, or clipped messages. You can even BCC your colleagues. Don’t assume it looks good everywhere just because it looks good in Mailchimp preview.
- Preview Your Merge Fields: You think adding “Hi {{ first_name }}” is personalization? Not if it pulls blank or shows up broken Personalization only works if it’s accurate so always preview how [First Name] or other dynamic fields populate and use fallback tags. A “Hey [First Name]” email that doesn’t populate is a fast path to unsubscribes.
Once you’ve confirmed that you’re good on everything on the checklist above, it’s time to consider a soft launch. What this means is instead of sending your campaign to your entire list at once, you send the first batch to a small, representative segment of your list – maybe 5-10%. This way you can monitor your email performance and fix any issues before scaling up. Once the test segment performs well, then you can full blast to your entire list confidently.
Soft launches are especially useful if you’re trying a new subject line strategy, testing a new audience segment, or launching to a cold list. But even the most carefully planned launch can fall flat if your emails never make it to the inbox.
That’s why your next priority should be making sure your emails get delivered – and stay out of the spam folder.
Avoiding Spam Traps and Deliverability Issues
It doesn’t matter how beautifully written or strategically crafted your emails are—if they don’t reach the inbox, they’re invisible. Deliverability is a foundational part of email success, and it’s more than just avoiding the “spam” folder. It’s about building a reputation with mailbox providers (like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) that you’re a trusted sender.
Here’s a deep dive into how to stay out of trouble and get your emails where they belong: in front of your audience:
- Warm Up New Domains: If you’re sending from a brand-new domain or subdomain, you need to “warm it up.” Inbox providers have built-in filters to catch mass senders who haven’t earned trust. Sending to your full list from day one is a fast track to getting throttled—or blocked entirely. Start small (e.g., 50–100 emails per day), gradually increasing volume over 2–4 weeks. Send to your most engaged subscribers first – those who are likely to open, click, or reply. Use a dedicated sending domain or subdomain (like
mail.yourbrand.com) for email campaigns to isolate your marketing reputation from your root domain (especially helpful if you run e-commerce or other public-facing systems). - Clean Your List Regularly: Your list quality is directly tied to your inbox placement. That means sending only to people who have opted in – and keeping that list updated. Remove inactive addresses, role-based emails (like info@ or support@), and anyone who hasn’t engaged in the last 6–12 months. Remove hard bounces immediately (these are invalid or non-existent addresses) because fewer bounces mean better placement. Avoid scraping or buying email lists. They often contain spam traps – emails created solely to catch bad actors.
- Authenticate Your Email (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC): Think of email authentication as your passport to the inbox. Without it, mailbox providers may assume your messages are spoofed or malicious – even if your intentions are good. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) tells ISPs which IP addresses are allowed to send mail on behalf of your domain. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a digital signature to your messages so recipients know it hasn’t been altered in transit. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) gives instructions to mailbox providers on how to handle unauthenticated email. These settings are usually configured in your domain’s DNS and can be done through your email platform or hosting provider. Most major platforms (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, etc.) have step-by-step wizards or support for this.
- Avoid Spammy Language: Inbox algorithms aren’t just scanning your technical setup, they’re analyzing your language, formatting, and overall tone. Overuse of all-caps or exclamation points (“GET YOUR FREE TRIAL!!!”) and using misleading headers or preview text that doesn’t match the email content. Instead, aim for natural, honest copy that builds curiosity or delivers value upfront. Write the way you’d talk in a professional, helpful conversation.
Now, if you’ve followed this blog step by step – from prepping your list and designing mobile-first emails to warming up your domain and avoiding spam traps – you’re officially ready to hit send.
But launching your campaign isn’t the finish line. It’s the starting point for insights.
Because the real power of email marketing kicks in after the send – when you begin to track performance, spot patterns, and make smart tweaks. Let’s get into exactly what to monitor, what the numbers mean in 2025, and how to turn data into better results.
Post-Send: Track and Improve
Congratulations… your drip campaign is live.
Now what?
Now comes the most important phase: analysis and improvement. Because no matter how great your campaign looks on day one, sustained success in email marketing is dependent on what you do after the launch. How you interpret metrics like open rate, click rate, and conversion rate and understanding why they matter for your bottom line will determine how well your email drip campaign performs in 2025. Let’s start with Open Rates
Open Rate: In 2025, think of this as less like a perfectly accurate count of who opened your emails and more like a directional metric that helps you understand whether your subject line, preheader text, sender name, and send time are resonating. A great open rate puts you at 45%, a healthy rate is somewhere between 35-45% but at numbers like 20% then there’s work to be done. Obviously these benchmarks vary by industry, list size, segmentation, how warm your audience is, and how recently you cleaned your list.
Click Rate: Once someone opens your email, the next test begins: engagement. Are they just skimming or are they actually interested enough to click? Your click rate measures this, showing the percentage of people who took action on your content by clicking a link, button, or image. In 2025, healthy click-through rates typically fall between 3% and 6%. Anything below 2% may indicate your call-to-action (CTA) isn’t clear, compelling, or prominent enough.
Conversion Rate: If open rates show you’ve got your readers curios, and clicks show you’re holding their attention, then conversions reveal your real payoff: action. This is the metric that lets you know if your email marketing is yielding your desired results. A conversion could mean a product purchase, a booked consultation, a downloaded PDF – whatever outcome you designed your email for.
In 2025, average conversion rates range from 0.5% to 2.5%, depending heavily on your niche, how easy or complex your offer is to understand, and how well your email and landing pages are design. Lower-cost or no-cost offers (like free downloads) tend to convert higher. High-ticket sales or service sign-ups may naturally convert lower, but with bigger per-conversion value.
And that’s a wrap on building a drip campaign that actually does its job
So this year, we are not just sending emails for the sake of it, but setting up a system that moves people step by step toward becoming paying customers.
In 2025, sending one generic blast to your whole list isn’t just lazy, it’s a waste. The brands that are winning now are the ones sending the right message, at the right time, to the right people. That’s what drip campaigns are built for.
So if you’ve made it this far, don’t just sit on the info… use it. Set a real goal for your next campaign. Map out the buyer journey. Write emails that feel like conversations, not ads. Test your subject lines. Pay attention to what people click on, and where they drop off.
And if you’re ready to get some help putting it all together, we’ve got your back. Call Abervin Digital at +1 307-271-5184 or head over to www.abervindigital.com to check out our services. Whether you need help writing solid email flows, fixing deliverability issues, or building out a full funnel, we’ll help you build campaigns that don’t just look good in your dashboard, but actually deliver results.
