Welcome to the tools of the trade series. This is part of the 90 Day Challenge, where we talk about the tools we use in running our business. Read full post here –

This week we are going to talk about Drip email marketing.

We’ve just made the switch to Drip as our email marketing provider. And I think it’s been pretty great for us. So I want to go inside Drip and show you exactly why we like this tool, what we enjoy about it, why we switched over from ActiveCampaign.

This will give you some insights into the thought process behind our decision.

I’ve tried many email marketing software suites – they all have flaws
Some of the tools are just too basic.

Others are too advanced.

And then there’s Drip, which feels just right. It’s like Goldilocks.

So we decided to switch over to drip in mid-2017 and we’re finally done with that switch. It only took us six months to get there.

But really, it wasn’t Drip’s fault. Next week I’ll show you what our old system looked like, and you can see why it took so long.

Here are 7 things we like about Drip, and 3 things that we find annoying about it.

The things we like about Drip Email Marketing
1. Clean, inviting and well organized interface

Drip has a well organized and inviting interface. Most email marketing tools are ugly and uninviting. But Drip has made it pretty cool with how things are organized. It actually makes me want to spend time doing email marketing on it.

Drip has the right amount of information available in the right places. Right next to each broadcast or campaign, there are a few key metrics that show how they performed. These metrics are usually the ones we care about the most.

There’s no need to show the user what they don’t need, which is what many systems do. By overloading us with too much information, we tend to lose sight of the ones that actually matters.

Case in point – ActiveCampaign. The display on this system is clunky and had just too many things.

2. Loading speed

The loading speed of Drip is great. The system handles commands and tasks swiftly, with practically no wait time.

We’ve outgrown ActiveCampaign after using it for the past 2 years. We’ve sent too many email campaigns that we can’t find anything. We’re at the point where searching for emails campaigns has become a pain. And it doesn’t help that ActiveCampaign has always been sluggish.

3. Google Analytics integration

Drip has Google Analytics integrated right inside the email editor. Each time we add a link, we can choose to turn on Google Analytics campaign variables for that link. The campaign variables are populated automatically, but you can also edit them right in line.

This is awesome because most people don’t want to learn how to use UTM variables or they’re not too sure about it. This feature just does it for you, automatically.

You can also set UTM defaults are the account level. This time saving feature also saved us from many tracking errors.

4. Conversion tracking

Conversion tracking tells you how people have converted on one of your campaigns. How they got to that offer, the conversion rate, and the conversion value that you’re bringing in.

Drip has one of the best looking conversion metrics I’ve seen in any email marketing suite.

You’ll need to set up conversion tracking on your website and feed that information into Drip. In Drip, you can use the data collected to create some really cool reports.

5. Email editor and preview

Drip doesn’t have any pre-built templates to choose from, so you need to upload them into the system.

We like having control over how the templates look. But importing and setting up templates do take time. Once they’re set up, it’s very simple to use.

There’s a preview tab in the email editor that shows exactly what the email will look like to the users. With this function, you don’t need to send yourself too many test emails to see exactly what the email looks like.

6. Workflow for automation

The workflow for automations visualizes the entire journey you’re sending people onto. The interface is clean and even has a nifty function to show the analytics of every step of the journey.

7. Source code

Drip allows you to edit the email source code right in the email editor. You can work with HTML to create well designed and perfectly coded emails right within the system.

The ability to edit source code should be a given, in every system nowadays. But our previous system did not have this function. It was frustrating because we often end up with emails with weird formatting.

Drip is not without its flaws
Drip email marketing solved some of our biggest frustrations with our previous system, ActiveCampaign, but it is not without flaws.

Here are 3 things that are annoying about Drip. We hope they would eventually improve on these things.

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