Mia Salas & Ted Morency

“Good timing”, “bad timing”— we hear those phrases all the time. You adopted a cat, then found a mouse in your home (eek!). Good timing. You started a new job, then the economy tanked. Bad timing.

These coincidental “good, bad” timing situations exist in the marketing world too. Except they’re not so coincidental. At least they shouldn’t be if you’re doing it right.

Welcome back to Macaroni & Marketing— where you’ll find delish recipes and marketing tips all in one place.

Today we’ll be sharing:

Marketing tip— how to use automated emails to launch a successful drip marketing strategy

Recipe— surf & turf fried rice

Let’s go!

Yes! Drip marketing solves a crucial sales and marketing challenge: timing. For example, when is the right time for a startup to send a welcome email, or information about a new product launch? Equally important, how do I avoid spamming my audience?

A drip marketing campaign, or automated emails, removes the guesswork because it helps you deliver the right sales copy, at the right time in each buyer’s journey.

The “drip” in drip marketing alludes to the idea of sending few, yet impactful emails, as opposed to flooding your customer’s inbox.

I recently joined Meetup to browse IRL and virtual events, but I haven’t signed up for any. I did browse a few events and clubs, so Meetup strategically sent an email mentioning one I viewed. I was more inclined to look again and potentially join because it was fresh in my mind.

After a customer already took the desired action (purchasing your product, attending your event etc.), what might they want to do next? Fandango sends an email after every movie you attend that you booked via them. It prompts you to rate the movie, which helps other consumers earlier on in their journey decide whether to purchase. Very smart, Fandango!

As you become a drip marketing pro, reward yourself with a flavorful bowl of yum, with our homemade surf & turf fried rice recipe below.

Establishing pivotal moments in the buyer’s journey will help you understand when it is important to reach out to a customer. Let’s suppose you’re running an online business and would like to re-engage previous customers. Key moments to re-engage users include a week and a month after their initial purchase. A “Thank You” email a week after their initial purchase, followed by an email showcasing items similar to what they’ve previously purchased are great ways to keep your customers engaged with your brand.

Direct response copy is intended to get your customer to take a specific action. Along the same vein of re-engaging a previous customer, direct response copy could be “we’re hoping you loved the jacket you purchased last month. Checkout these three t-shirts that’ll keep you just as stylish.” This is an example of direct response because you’re explicitly trying to get your customer to buy one of your new t-shirts. You’re going to want to have simple, action-oriented copy for each email.

Example of copy after a purchase

Chances are you’ve been a part of a drip campaign without even knowing it. Skim through your email to see how your favorite companies have targeted you, gain inspiration for email sequences, and see what successful copy looks like.

Platforms such as Mailchimp, MailerLite, ConvertKit are all free platforms that will get your campaigns up and running.

Image from Mailchimp

It’s impossible to know what works until you try it. Testing your copy in the form of A/B testing and targeting different segments of your overarching customer group are great ways to see what works. Remember that this is an iterative approach, so continue implementing different strategies until you see the growth you’re looking for.

We’re serving up surf & turf fried rice today, packed with spicy shrimp, beef, and veggies.

If you’re looking to get your protein in, this meal will do the trick. You can customize the protein however you want— sub in chicken or tofu! Here we used beef and shrimp, but feel free to get creative.

The key to good fried rice is seasoning. Take your time sautéing ingredients with garlic and onion so your rice really soaks up all that flavor. Then your oyster sauce will tie everything together.

Now, let’s get cooking.

1 cup of shrimp

4-6 oz of sliced beef

2 eggs

2 cups of white rice (I prefer basmati)

1 full spring onion chopped thinly

1 bell pepper sliced thinly

1 full onion (diced)

1 bag of mixed vegetables

1 tbsp garlic (minced)

Pepper and salt as needed

Oyster sauce

Cook rice (I prefer a rice cooker) before you begin prepping ingredients.

Place rice in fridge to cool off. While rice is cooling, we’re going to begin frying some of our ingredients.

Grab a large frying pan or wok, scramble eggs and put it to the side (we’ll use this when rice is done).

Rinse out the pan, heat vegetable oil on medium. Saute your bag of frozen vegetables first.

When vegetables gain color, add in garlic and diced onions. Lower heat, and add in scallions.

While the vegetables are still on the pan, saute shrimp with garlic, light salt, and pepper until it gains color (make sure not to overcook shrimp).

Throw shrimp into vegetables, cooking on low heat. Season and cook your strips of beef.

Remove rice from fridge. Add oyster sauce into giant wok or frying pan, and stir for about 30 seconds.

Mixing time: add in vegetables, rice, and protein and mix away!

Stir until rice has browned and continue seasoning as needed. Serve and enjoy :)

See u next time for more recipes & marketing tips 👋 ✨