If you've tuned into my recent webinars, you've heard my analogy of drip marketing being the best employee a company could have. Yes, it is a tongue-in-cheek statement. However, when I explain the analogy to new drip marketing clients, they begin to view the initial drip marketing efforts involved in a whole new light. Let me explain... A drip marketing campaign is a highly-effective tool for automating your marketing messages - and for freeing up your time to pursue other business activities (attending baseball season-openers, for example). To create a successful drip campaign, there is some initial pre-planning and email template creation involved, and it does take considerable time to set-up. So people often ask me, "Well then, how does this actually save me time and money?"

And here is where my analogy comes into play. I simply ask you to consider Drip Marketing (DM) a new employee for just a moment and let's look at how it can successfully contribute to your business.

As you know, with any new hire, you need to invest some initial time training and over-seeing that person. He/she needs to become familiar with the basics, such as how to clock-in, where the office supplies are located, how to use the phone/computer/other systems; then, you move into the meatier elements that help them perform their core job responsibilities. When you think about it, a lot of initial effort goes into training that person to work independently. Then what happens? They quit a year later - and the process starts again. (Insert very large sigh.) With DM, you never have to worry about that! Hence, why I call it the best employee you'll ever have. Look at the other benefits:

• It's cost-effective: With a subscription rate as little as $30/month or at most $150/month, it will likely be the cheapest "salary" you pay. DM has no benefit requirements, it won't call in sick or take vacations - in fact, it works 24/7 and 365 days/year. It won't lie or steal your trademarked secrets or coveted office supplies. DM saves you money, while it makes you money! 
• It's efficient: You spend some initial time developing a thorough, well thought-out campaign, and once it's launched, it will automatically send what you want, to who you want and when you want it sent. You can rest easy while on that much-needed tropical vacation knowing your customers are still receiving your important messages. In fact, unless you tell them, they'll never know you were gone. Can someone say, "Pass me my 9 iron, and another fruity umbrella drink, please?!" 
• It will save you time long-term: It eliminates the time spent scrambling to send out another thrown-together marketing piece; the time spent before each email questioning who to send it to and when; the time on the tropical golf course talking your assistant through how to send that email blast you forgot needed to go out. Also, Swiftpage allows you to easily duplicate your campaigns and simply tweak the templates with new or updated info, eliminating future upfront time. 
• You can easily view and analyze your campaign results: The Swiftpage reporting tools track the results of your email blasts and allow you to export the results into excel or, for ACT! users, you can upload that data directly into each contact's record. Then, upon your tanned and well-rested return from said tropical get-away, you can follow-up with them without missing a beat.
• It helps you to build better business relationships: By continually and consistently reaching out to your leads and clients, you are nurturing that relationship and building their trust and loyalty. People buy from people they know, like and trust. You want that to be you!

An automated marketing system, like DM, can not only help you save time and money, but best of all, it can lead to increased sales and referrals. And an "employee" doesn't get much better than that.

By the way, anyone seen my sand wedge??

Do you have a "when I remember to do it" marketing approach?

Do you market to "only some of your clients" and "only some of the time"?

Does your marketing tend to be a messy, thrown-together, if-I-have-time, last-minute effort?

Are you discouraged with your marketing results?

If so, you aren't alone; but I implore you to re-think your marketing initiatives. The truth is, messy marketing produces little to no results, which is discouraging... causing you to avoid it until the next marketing requirement rears its ugly head... at which time, you quickly produce a messy, thrown-together, last-minute piece... that yields little to no results... leading to increased discouragement and avoidance... Do you see where this is going?

It doesn't have to be this way! You can quickly send out professional marketing campaigns that yield successful results. And it can be done easily if you incorporate 5 key elements into your marketing. It's what I call Intelligent Marketing.

Intelligent Marketing is a well thought-out, multi-channel lead and client nurturing process. It is a process that relies on both traditional media and e-mail marketing to send messages that foster our credibility and trust. Intelligent Marketing is:

• Personalized - It's more nurturing and enticing when we receive a marketing piece that feels like it was written just for us. I LOVE my name - I love to see it, hear it, say it. And studies show (or at least I'm under the impression that they do) I'm not alone (because that would make me narcissistic). Most people love their names - so make sure to include a ‘Dear Tina' opening line. Also, sprinkle other known personal info into the body of the message - just remember to keep it professional, not creepy.

• Relevant - Our marketing pieces should contain information that relates to our customers' needs, wants and behaviors. The last thing we want to do is send discount offers on snow blowers to our Florida residents. Remember the target audience when sending marketing messages.

• Well-Timed - Be considerate of people's inbox. We don't want to lose business by over-loading our customers with emails, or by sending them too infrequently. Find the "just right" for your industry's customers. In regard to marketing follow-ups (or follow-throughs), research shows that our first contact attempt with new leads should come within 5 minutes of receiving their information, or they are likely to purchase elsewhere.

• Thorough - We always want to use a variety of media throughout our marketing campaigns to create a multi-channel approach. We want to include a mix of postcards, letters, emails and phone calls.

• Automated - Last, we want to deliver our intelligent marketing pieces consistently over a prolonged period of time. To do this efficiently, consider implementing an automated system, also known as a drip marketing system. Drip marketing is a system that automatically sends our marketing messages to our targeted contacts.

Implementing these 5 key elements into our marketing initiatives can, ultimately, save us time and money - and our precious sanity. With some initial efforts on our parts, we can transform our marketing efforts from messy to moneymaking!

Learn more about one of the industry's most powerful drip marketing and email marketing programs.