Drip campaign: Definition, examples, and how to set one up

Drip campaigns help ecommerce brands move beyond one-off email blasts by automatically delivering relevant messages at the right time, turning customer actions into ongoing revenue. 

That’s where the revenue impact comes from. Omnisend’s 2026 ecommerce marketing report found that automated messages were just 2% of email sends in 2025.

Yet they drove 30% of all email revenue — and earned 16 times more per send than one-off campaigns.

While one-off campaigns require constant effort, automated drip campaigns continue generating revenue long after they’re set up. This guide covers what a drip campaign is, why it works, the types, real brand examples, templates, and how to set one up.

What is a drip campaign

A drip campaign is a sequence of automated emails that are sent in a planned order, triggered by a subscriber’s action or a fixed schedule. That’s the simplest definition of a drip campaign.

Some marketers call it a drip marketing campaign or a drip email campaign, but the mechanics are the same. You set it up once, and it runs on its own for every person who qualifies.

Some people ask, ‘What is an email drip campaign. The answer is simple — it’s a drip campaign run over email, where each message is one step in an automated sequence.

Each drip campaign works off a trigger and a set of delays. The trigger fires the sequence — a new signup, an abandoned cart, a first purchase — and delays control of the gap between messages.

Every email in the sequence has one job: welcome, remind, educate, or earn the next order.

Here’s the drip campaign meaning in practice. A new subscriber gets Email 1 right away, Email 2 three days later, and Email 3 a week after that — automatically, built only once.

Below is a three-email welcome drip campaign mapped out in Omnisend’s automation builder.

Drip campaign vs. broadcast email

A broadcast email goes to your whole list at once — a newsletter or a sale announcement that everyone sees on the same day.

A drip campaign is the opposite. It reaches one subscriber at a time, triggered by where they are in their journey, so the message stays relevant long after you’ve built it.

Why use drip campaigns

Drip campaigns earn their place because they do the work once and keep paying you back. Four benefits make them worth setting up first:

• They run without you: once a drip campaign is live, it automatically sends the right email to every qualifying subscriber. A small team can run lifecycle marketing that would otherwise take hours each week.
• They punch above their weight: automations were just 2% of email sends in 2025 but drove 30% of all email revenue, per Omnisend’s 2026 ecommerce marketing report. Each automated email earned $2.87 per send, versus $0.18 per send for campaigns — about 16 times more.
• They match the customer’s moment: because each message is triggered by real behavior, drip campaign marketing reaches people when intent is highest — right after a signup, a cart abandonment, or a first order.
• They protect revenue you’ve already earned: winback and post-purchase drip campaigns keep existing customers buying. That costs far less than acquiring new ones and lifts lifetime value.

Add it up, and drip campaigns become one of the highest-return tools in ecommerce. Across email, SMS, and push, Omnisend merchants generate $79 for every $1 spent.

Types of drip campaigns

A drip campaign can be triggered by almost any subscriber action or lifecycle stage. Here are eight types of ecommerce brands that rely on most, and the job each one is built to do.

Welcome series

Triggered the moment someone signs up, a welcome series introduces your brand, sets expectations, and nudges the first purchase.

The first email thanks the subscriber and delivers any signup incentive. Later messages share your story, your bestsellers, and the reasons to buy from you.

Abandoned cart

Triggered when a shopper adds items but doesn’t check out, this drip recovers revenue that’s already halfway to the till.

The first email reminds them what they left behind, often within an hour. Follow-ups add reviews, shipping details, or a small incentive to close the gap.

Order confirmation

Triggered right after a purchase, an order confirmation drip reassures the buyer and sets up the next order — an ecommerce-specific type most guides skip.

The first email confirms the order details and tracking. Follow-ups can cross-sell related products or invite a review while the buyer is still excited.

Re-engagement

Triggered by inactivity, a re-engagement (or winback) drip reaches subscribers who’ve gone quiet before they’re gone for good.

The first email reminds them why they signed up. Later messages raise the stakes with a stronger offer before you clean the list.

Onboarding series

Triggered after a signup or first purchase, an onboarding drip helps people get real value from their purchase.

The first email points to a quick win or setup step. Later messages introduce core features and build the habit that creates a repeat customer.

Lead nurturing

Triggered when someone shows interest but hasn’t bought, a lead nurturing drip builds the relationship with helpful, low-pressure content.

The first email delivers something genuinely useful, like a guide or a tip. Later emails layer in social proof and clear reasons to take the next step.

Birthday and milestone emails

Triggered by a date on the subscriber’s profile, these drips celebrate a birthday, a signup anniversary, or a loyalty milestone.

The first email sends warm wishes plus a small reward. That tends to lift engagement and gives shoppers a timely reason to return.

Educational series

Triggered by a signup or a topic interest, an educational drip teaches subscribers how to get more from your products.

The first email shares a how-to or answers a common question. Later messages build the expertise and trust that lead to a purchase.

Drip campaign examples

These email drip campaign examples show what high-performing drip campaigns look like in practice. If you want drip email campaign examples with real numbers, these four Omnisend customers deliver.

Welcome series — Island Olive Oil

Island Olive Oil‘s welcome series creates a boutique, customer-centric first impression. Rather than leading with a hard sell, the brand weaves in educational content, product introductions, and storytelling that mirror the in-store experience.

Instead of pushing for an immediate purchase, the series gradually builds trust and familiarity, giving subscribers more reasons to engage before making a buying decision.

It earns a 998% greater click rate and 3,274% higher revenue per email than promotional campaigns, plus an 11% conversion rate.

Most striking, the welcome series generates 39% of the company’s total email revenue from just 1.22% of its email sends. That’s the disproportionate return a well-built drip can deliver.

Abandoned cart — To’ak Chocolate

To’ak Chocolate recognized that a single abandoned cart reminder wasn’t enough for its luxury audience. It built a multi-message series with shipping details, customer reviews, and chocolate pairing suggestions to rebuild desire.

That extra context turned a recovery email into a brand experience. The series delivered a 43.9% open rate, a 44% conversion rate, and an RPE of $3.64 — 2,195% higher than the brand’s promotional campaigns.

It recovered meaningful lost revenue while deepening customer relationships. For a premium brand, the follow-up is a chance to justify the price and reinforce the story.

Order confirmation — Amundsen Sports

An order confirmation drip is one of the most-opened workflows an ecommerce store has, and Amundsen Sports turned that attention into revenue. It used Omnisend’s customization tools to keep the email clean and brand-focused.

The payoff is remarkable. The order confirmation email is just 2.4% of Amundsen’s email sends but generates 16.7% of its Omnisend-attributed yearly revenue.

Nearly one in three customers who click the email make another purchase — a 32% conversion rate — and the RPE runs 9.5 times higher than its promotional emails.

Amundsen credits the simplicity: a clean, on-brand design that encourages customers to revisit the site rather than distracting them with extra offers.

Re-engagement — Kerrits

Equestrian apparel brand Kerrits uses re-engagement emails to win back customers who’ve gone quiet. The drip triggers after a set period of inactivity, so dormant subscribers get a timely nudge.

The financial impact is hard to ignore: these messages have delivered $2.86 RPE, a 676% increase over the brand’s promotional campaigns. Beyond revenue, the workflow rekindles relationships with valuable customers.

Most telling, the reactivation flow accounts for 23% of Kerrits’ total email sales, despite representing less than 4% of its email sends. Re-engaging existing customers is far cheaper than finding new ones.

Drip campaign templates

Use these three drip campaign templates as starting points. Each one lays out the emails to send, when to send them, and what each message should do.

Copy a structure, swap in your brand voice and offers, and switch it on.

The drip campaign template you start from matters less than getting the timing and goal of each email right, so adapt each one to your store.

How to set up a drip campaign

You can build a drip campaign in six steps. The walkthrough below uses Omnisend, but the approach applies to any capable email and SMS automation tool.

Work through them in order, and you’ll have a sequence ready to test.

1. Choose your trigger — decide what starts the sequence: a new signup, an abandoned cart, a first purchase, or a date like a birthday. The trigger defines who enters the drip and when, so pick the action that signals real intent for your goal.

2. Define your audience segment — narrow who qualifies beyond the trigger with conditions like location, purchase history, or engagement level. The same sequence shouldn’t go to people it doesn’t fit, and tighter segments almost always perform better.

3. Map your email sequence — outline each message before you build: how many emails, the job of each one, and the path from first touch to conversion. Write down the goal of every email so none exists just to fill the calendar.

4. Configure delays and timing — set the gap between messages using delay nodes. Time-sensitive drips like abandoned cart need short waits, often an hour, while nurture and onboarding sequences can space emails days apart.

5. Write and design your emails — craft copy and visuals for each message, keeping one clear goal and one main call to action per email. Use your brand voice, keep the key message above the fold, and make every email easy to skim.

6. Test, activate, and monitor — send test versions, check links and timing, then turn the drip on. Track open rates, click rates, and conversions, then adjust copy, timing, or segments based on performance. Ongoing optimization helps you increase revenue without rebuilding the entire workflow. 

Email drip campaign best practices

A few habits separate drip campaigns that convert from ones that get ignored. Keep these four in mind as you build and refine.

Segment before you send

Segmentation matters more for drip campaigns than almost anything else. The same sequence sent to the wrong audience will underperform no matter how good the copy is.

Group subscribers by behavior, purchase history, and lifecycle stage so each drip reaches people it fits. Watch for overlap, too, so a new subscriber isn’t hit with two drips at once.

Keep the main message above the fold

Our goal with each drip email is to convince subscribers to take action, so we need to make sure they won’t miss it. That’s why the main message belongs above the fold.

Like here, the headline from Baking Steel puts the value for the recipient — get $20 off — right at the top of the message.

Make emails easy to skim

Most recipients don’t read an entire email. They skim for something that catches their eye, so long, dense emails rarely get the attention you hoped for.

To help more subscribers take in your message quickly, make every drip email easy to skim using:

• Short paragraphs
• Headlines and subheadings
• Bullet point lists
• Images and gifs
• Plenty of white space

This drip email from Stitch Fix pairs a headline, a subheading, a short paragraph, and visuals so the message lands at a glance.

Evaluate and adjust

Drip campaigns save time, but don’t set them and forget them. Follow the results and refine your messages and targeting over time.

Use email marketing metrics such as open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates to measure engagement, and watch conversion and revenue for transactional drips.

In Omnisend, you can track orders and revenue for each automation separately, making it easy to compare workflows and double down on what works.

Replace the old analytics view with a screenshot of the current Omnisend reporting interface.

Best drip campaign software

Effective drip campaigns rely on automation software that can trigger, personalize, and measure messages across the customer lifecycle. 

For ecommerce brands, Omnisend is built for the job: native Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Wix integrations, pre-built workflows for welcome, cart, and post-purchase drips, and email, SMS, and push in one place.

It earns 4.6 out of 5 on G2 and 4.7 out of 5 on Capterra as of June 2026, and merchants generate $79 for every $1 spent across email, SMS, and push.

It also offers 24/7 support on every plan and one of the most generous free plans in email marketing, with most ecommerce features included.

The table below compares Omnisend with two other widely used platforms on the features that matter most for drip campaigns.

If you’re weighing your options, see our guides to Klaviyo alternatives, Mailchimp alternatives, and Klaviyo vs. Mailchimp for a deeper look at features, pricing, and ecommerce fit. 

Conclusion

Drip campaigns are one of the highest-ROI tools in ecommerce because they deliver the right message at the right moment without manual effort.

Set up once, they keep working for every new subscriber, abandoned cart, and recent buyer.

A few takeaways to carry forward:

• Automation pulls its weight: in 2025, automation accounted for just 2% of email sends but drove 30% of email revenue, earning 16 times more per send than one-off campaigns.
• Start with the drips that are easy to launch and highly effective: welcome, abandoned cart, and re-engagement.
• Small details matter — a clear offer or a free shipping note can seal the deal.
• Segment before you send, because the same sequence reaches the wrong people if your audience isn’t defined.
• Choose a platform with multiple channels so the move to omnichannel marketing is smooth when you’re ready.

Frequently asked questions

What is a drip campaign?

A drip campaign is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically based on a subscriber’s behavior or a set schedule.

An action triggers each message — like a signup or an abandoned cart — so the right email reaches the right person without manual sending.

How many emails should be in a drip campaign?

There’s no fixed limit, but most drip campaigns run between four and eleven emails, sent at least a few days apart. The best number depends on the campaign type, as shown in the table below.

What is the best email drip campaign software

For ecommerce brands, Omnisend is a strong choice because it combines email, SMS, and push with pre-built workflows and native store integrations.

Shopify-heavy stores often use Klaviyo, while Mailchimp suits general-purpose marketing. Omnisend is built specifically for ecommerce drip campaigns, with email, SMS, and automation in a single platform. 

What is the difference between a drip campaign and a nurture campaign

The two overlap but are defined differently. A drip campaign is defined by automation and timing.

A nurture campaign is defined by its goal of moving a lead through the funnel. Many nurture campaigns are delivered as drip sequences, meaning a single campaign can serve both a structural and a strategic purpose. 

Can drip campaigns include SMS

Yes. A drip campaign can combine email, SMS, and push notifications into a single automated sequence, reaching subscribers where they’re most likely to respond.

With Omnisend’s unified workflows, you can add a text reminder to a cart or winback drip.