Most email newsletters that you’ll receive have the same call to action for all subscribers (or even no call to action at all), regardless of their status and position in the funnel. But that will result in sub-optimal results. A subscriber cannot act on a call to action if they have already done so previously. For example, they will not sign up for an email course that they have already signed up for. Or buy a book that they have already bought.
Rather than showing the same call to action to all subscribers, you’ll get better results if you show call to actions that are relevant to each person.
A call to action is there to lead the reader towards the next action. That next action might be to sign up to a free course, enquire about your services or buy a product.
For example, say you have three stages in your funnel:
- Subscriber
- Subscriber who has taken a free course
- Subscriber who has purchased a book
Ideally, you want to try and guide people from normal subscriber to purchasing a book.
If a reader is a subscriber, you want the call to action to be the free course. If a reader has already taken the free course, you want the call to action to be the book.
You can present the next step in the following way:
- Normal subscriber: Offer free course
- Subscriber who has taken a free course: Offer book
- Subscriber who has purchased a book: Encourage them to share your newsletter
You can implement this in Drip using a template and liquid conditions.
Here is an example:
{% if subscriber.tags contains "purchased-conquer drupal 8" %} {{ snippets.newsletter_share }} {% elsif subscriber.tags contains "workflow start- sd8md email course" %} {{ snippets.conquer_d8 }} {% elsif subscriber.tags contains "clicked-get starting d8 module dev" %} {{ snippets.conquer_d8 }} {% else %} {{ snippets.starting_d8_mod_dev }} {% endif %}
In this example, I’m checking if a subscriber has specific tags.
If a subscriber has purchased the book, Conquer Drupal 8, they will have the tag "purchased-conquer drupal 8"
. They will be shown the call to action to share the newsletter sign up.
If a subscriber has not purchased the book, it will move to the next condition, which checks if they have the tag "workflow start- sd8md email course"
. If they do have this tag, then they have started the free email course. Because they have moved past the previous condition which checks if they have purchased the book, we know that they are not yet a book customer. So they are presented with a call to action for the book.
If a subscriber has not purchased a book or take then free email course, it will default to the call to action that asks them if they would like the free email course.
You can use the same condition in a template that is used for all emails. If a subscriber has not signed up for the free course in the first email, they will get the free course call to action. If they then sign up for the free course, they will automatically get the book call to action in the next email.
In all of these conditions, I’m using a drip content snippet for the call to action. For example, {{ snippets.conquer_d8 }}
is a snippet for the book call to action.
Steps
To add this to your email template in Drip, follow these steps:
- Go to settings and Templates
- Choose the template you use
- Add the liquid condition below
{{ email.html }}
- Adjust the example above to your needs using the relevant tags that you have in your system
Wrapping up
Showing the same call to actions to every subscriber in an email list is a wasted opportunity. A subscriber cannot act on a call to action if they have already done so previously. Fortunately, Drip provides powerful tools to personalise the call to action by checking for each subscribers tags and changing the call to action accordingly.