Drip Campaign

Email Marketing

Also: Automated Email Sequence · Email Drip · Nurture Sequence · Email Automation

What it isPre-written emails sent over time

Two typesTime-based or trigger-based

Best useNurturing leads who aren't ready yet

Watch forDrips that talk at people, not with them

Quick definition

A drip campaign is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically to a contact over a set period or in response to specific actions. The emails are written in advance and delivered on a schedule or triggered by behaviour, with the goal of moving someone from interest to action.

How it varies across Australia

Across the Australian businesses we review, drip campaigns are common in name but underbuilt in practice. Most have a welcome sequence of two or three emails and nothing else. The businesses generating meaningful return from email automation tend to have distinct sequences for distinct stages, not one generic nurture flow for every contact.

See email marketing performance across Australian industries →

The two types of drip

Time-based drip

Emails go out at fixed intervals after a contact joins: day one, day three, day seven. The schedule is the trigger.

Trigger-based drip

Emails fire in response to what a contact does: opened email, visited pricing page, downloaded a guide. Behaviour is the trigger.

What it actually means

Imagine a patient salesperson who remembers every person they've ever met, knows exactly where each one is in the decision process, and sends the right note at the right time without ever forgetting. A drip campaign is the closest thing to that in email marketing.

The name comes from the idea of water dripping slowly and consistently over time. Small, regular contact rather than one large send. The logic is that most people who express interest aren't ready to act immediately. The drip keeps the conversation going until they are.

Time-based drips are the simpler type. You write five emails, set the intervals, and every new contact moves through the same sequence on the same clock. Good for onboarding, welcome sequences and post-purchase education.

Trigger-based drips are more powerful and harder to build. The emails fire based on what a contact actually does. Someone who visits your pricing page three times gets a different email than someone who downloaded a guide and never came back. The sequence responds to signal rather than calendar.

The difference matters because time-based drips treat everyone identically. Trigger-based drips treat people according to what they've shown interest in. One assumes. The other observes.

A drip campaign that sends the same message to everyone eventually irritates everyone.

How it shows up

Drip campaign performance shows up across open rate, click-through rate and conversion rate at each step in the sequence, but the metric that matters most is sequence-level conversion: the share of people who enter the drip and complete the desired action before it ends or before they unsubscribe.

The other signal worth watching is drop-off rate by email. If email three of a seven-part sequence has a disproportionate unsubscribe or non-open rate, that email is telling you something. Either the timing is wrong, the message is wrong, or the sequence is losing relevance for the audience that gets that far.

The Australian context

Australian email marketing operates under the Spam Act 2003, administered by ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority). Every drip campaign must have clear consent at entry and an unsubscribe mechanism in every email. The consent requirements in Australia are stricter than US CAN-SPAM rules. Implied consent has limits and duration constraints that trip up businesses importing US-built automation templates without reviewing the compliance logic.

Australian audiences also tend to respond to more direct, less hype-heavy copy. US drip templates built around urgency stacks and deadline pressure often underperform against simpler, more honest sequences when sent to an Australian list.

Where people get this wrong

Running the same drip for every contact regardless of where they came from.A contact who downloaded a technical whitepaper is at a different point in the decision than someone who entered via a competition. The same sequence for both produces weak results for both.

Setting and forgetting without reviewing sequence performance.Drips are automated but they're not self-maintaining. Copy goes stale, offers expire, product details change. A drip running on two-year-old content is usually doing more damage than no drip at all.

Treating drip length as a quality signal.A longer sequence is not a better sequence. The right length is however many emails it takes to move someone to a decision without exhausting their patience. For many Australian B2B audiences, that number is shorter than marketers assume.

Common questions

What is the difference between a drip campaign and a newsletter?

A newsletter goes to your whole list on a regular schedule, usually with the same content for everyone. A drip campaign is a private sequence triggered by an individual contact's behaviour or sign-up moment. Newsletters are broadcast. Drip campaigns are personal and automated.

How many emails should a drip campaign have?

Enough to cover the questions your prospect has and no more. Welcome sequences typically run three to five emails. Sales nurture sequences for longer buying cycles can run eight to twelve. Start shorter, extend based on engagement data. More emails only help if each one is worth reading.

Do drip campaigns work for B2B?

Yes, and arguably better than for B2C. B2B buying cycles are longer, involve more stakeholders and have more information requirements. A well-built trigger-based drip that responds to prospect behaviour can do the sustained follow-up that most sales teams mean to do manually but rarely do consistently.

Are drip campaigns compliant with Australian spam laws?

They can be, but the compliance has to be built in at the start. You need express or compliant implied consent at entry, a clear unsubscribe in every email, and your sender identity visible. The Spam Act 2003 applies to each message in the sequence individually, not just to the trigger point.

Keep exploring

About New Rebellion

New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.

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