You hear all sorts of jargon in B2B marketing.

But when you hear “drip marketing,” don’t think Chinese water torture -- although you may have been subjected to it if you’ve ever opted to receive email from Land’s End or Amazon.

Drip marketing is an online communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of email messages to customers or prospects over time.

As soon as your name is added to the list, an automatic "welcome" email is sent out, introducing you to various relationship-building opportunities, such as:

• Immediate downloads of newsletters
• A white paper
• Special discount
• New offer
  

These interactions are meant to build rapport and trust by getting you more involved with the product or service.

That’s why a “drip” campaign is an important cultivation tool.

Drip marketing is different from other email database marketing schemes in three ways:

1. The timing of drip email messages follow a pre-determined schedule.
2. Drip email messages are sequenced in a series applicable to a specific behavior or status of the recipient.
3. Emails are delivered consistently until the recipient unsubscribes.

Drip marketing is often used with addresses collected from an automated form. When an individual completes the form, an autoresponder kicks off the drip marketing program with return message appropriate to the form's content. But it is often combined with other techniques:

Combining with database emailing:
A drip approach is often combined with a traditional email database approach -- which relies on sending email messages to a pre-established list of email addresses. Subscribers who click on a specific link in a drip message may get one email, others who click on a different link get another and those who do nothing get logged into a database. Non-responders can get aged out of the drip program to reduce costs.

Combining with direct postal mail:
Software is sometimes used to integrate drip marketing with standard postal mail. Digital on-demand printing technology is used to print variable data and personalized offers onto a  letter or postcard.

Combining with social media:
Drip marketing can also be applied with social media marketing tools to schedule a series of updates. One popular tool, HootSuite, allows users to send multiple messages and updates to friends via twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and several other social media sites simultaneously.

But with drip marketing, customization is critical.

The disadvantage of drip marketing is that if it is not customized with personalized content, the depersonalized aspects of automated messaging dominate the relationship resulting in a lower response rate.

It’s all about getting to know what’s behind the numbers. Email attrition can be overcome by getting to know your list. For example, a segmenting technique can be used to create an email sublist based on the click path users follow within the site to get to your registration form.

Multiple tools can also be used for segmentation. For example, by combining a search engine marketing (SEM) program with Google AdWords, it’s possible to geographically target regions with the highest concentration of prospective customers with the highest site traffic. Follow-up emails can then be precisely targeted with the kind of content that cultivates the relationship.

Cultivation is a process, not a destination. Marketers must remain focused on acquiring and cultivating qualified subscribers year round to compensate for the 20-30% annual attrition rate typical of in-house email lists.

Keeping focused on maintaining the value of the relationship is the secret to a successful drip email program.

Here’s why a "drip" email program can help you avoid getting dropped by recipients:

• It automatically triggers a follow-up process to ensure addresses are valid and the recipient is interested.
• It increases brand awareness by immediately providing valuable information or offers.
• It easily manages trade show and event follow-ups.
• It provides a defined conversion path: from information, to offers, to sampling, to paid customers.
• It gets customers and prospects involved in your user community.