Drip Marketing engages a prospect whereas Lead Nurturing involves understanding the prospect, their associated needs, & develops a better, more qualified sales opportunity.

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Drip Marketing vs. Lead Nurturing

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Old marketing aphorism
He who confuses drip marketing for lead nurturing will see no results from either.
Use drip marketing to nurture leads. But use lead nurturing to push those leads all the
way through the buyer’s journey to its successful (for you) conclusion.
While both campaigns benefit by automating and maintaining sustained engagement
with prospects with direct email and social media — Facebook, Google+, Twitter,
LinkedIn, etc. drip marketing engages a prospect and lead nurturing takes it from
there by understanding the behavior of the prospect, their associated needs and other
interests, all in service of developing a better, more qualified sales opportunity.
By understanding the basic difference between these two you will improve your
marketing programs, and your bottom line will swell. Organizations drive prospects
and renewals by nurturing prospects in all stages of the lead life cycle. What’s
important is a continuous process of education and engagement at every stage of a
buyer’s journey, be it event communications, free trials, employee communication
programs, etc.

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Drip Marketing
Drip campaigns begin when people engage in common activities like signing up for an
account or simply visiting your site. The people become a self-defined group and the
drip campaign enables you to stay in touch. These campaigns typically consist of
batches or triggers that change the nature of communication depending on the
engagement or lead response. Every email originates from an archive of pre-written
emails that are blasted using an automated process that allows for personalization of
the name of the lead, the name of the organization, and much more.

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Drip marketing is an effective way to push leads in a sales-ready direction. You educate
the prospects about the product, build interest, and once ready, automatically move them
to sales. Drip marketing is simpler and less customizable than a lead nurturing program
but with continuous engagement it helps to keep your organization visible.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is about consistent communication with buyers throughout the lead life
cycle, addressing key issues right from when interaction with the lead begins to when the
lead is ready to purchase. Customers won’t appear overnight. It requires strategic
marketing over time for potential customers to educate themselves and begin to build
trust with the company. Lead nurturing successfully delivers valuable enough content
that your leads remain engaged. Done right, lead nurturing develops strong brand and
solution preferences in your prospects long before they’re actively engaged in the buying
process.
The successful lead nurturing program must be:
• Able to maintain contact with the prospect
• Use appropriate content
• Target and Segment
• Survey progress throughout the buying cycle

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To reduce the unsubscribe rate, keep all your communications simple and engaging. All
of the content marketing rules for designing and sending effective emails apply to drip
marketing and lead nurture. Begin with basic lead nurturing, going through the content
on your website and blog to break it down into pieces that leads can easily and quickly
consume. You need to map the content according to where your prospects land in the
lead life cycle. A lead in the early-stages will have content requirements totally different
than a lead in the late-stages. Your content has to be informative. It has to educate.
And, to generate meaningful customer engagement, it has to be targeted.
Lead nurturing is a powerful way to automatically stay engaged with future buyers. Use
targeting and segmentation to leverage prospects and ensure that communications
remain relevant. By successfully implementing the nurturing process you gain valuable
insights into buyer preferences and gain knowledge of the buyer’s timing and path.
None of this is possible, of course, if your lead nurturing program delivers content of
insufficient value or interest to your prospects.