Drip Campaign
In one line
A drip campaign is a pre-scheduled sequence of emails or messages that drip out over time — the most common vehicle for nurturing leads and onboarding new users.
Going deeper
A drip campaign drips messages out on a fixed schedule — 'welcome email at signup → tips on day 3 → case study on day 7 → demo invite on day 14' is the canonical pattern.
The strength is consistency: every new signup gets the same well-crafted sequence. The weakness is the time-based trigger. Without behavioural branching, users keep getting messages that no longer match what they've already done.
Modern drips are almost always branched. Instead of 'send on day 7', you write 'send on day 7 only if the user hasn't activated yet'. That single shift from time-only to behaviour-aware triggers is now table stakes.
Related terms
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is the tooling and strategy that triggers email, CRM, ads and in-app messages automatically based on user behaviour and lifecycle stage.
MarketingLead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the practice of moving prospects who aren't ready to buy yet through a sequence of relevant content until they reach a buying decision.
MarketingLifecycle Marketing
Lifecycle marketing tailors messaging and channels to where each customer is in their relationship with the brand — signup, activation, purchase, repurchase, churn risk.
MarketingEmail Marketing
Email marketing is direct, owned-channel communication with prospects and existing customers — and remains one of the highest-ROI tools in the CRM and retention stack.
MarketingActivation Rate
Activation rate is the share of new signups who reach a defined 'first value' moment shortly after joining — the cleanest read on onboarding quality.
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