Drip Series is the process of automatically sending emails to contacts or customers on a scheduled basis. Email templates are created and sent out in a series at user defined intervals. This is a great tool for prospecting/campaigning to an existing customer base. It can also be used to stay in touch with your customers at regular intervals.

Setting up Drip Series Emails in AmeriCommerce is a 4 step process:

1. Create Email Templates
2. Create and Define Drip Series Settings
3. Choose customers to send Drip Series Emails to
4. Test and make your Drip Series campaign Active

Step 1: Create Email Templates

Create the series of emails you want to send out at scheduled intervals using merges to display customer specific information. You can do this under Customers > Email Templates Editor

You can read more about email templates Here

Step 2: Create and Define Drip Series Settings

Create the Drip Series

Browse to Customers > Drip Series Emailing

Click the New Tab to create a new Drip Series.

Drip Series Name: Name the Drip Series and mark as Active when you are ready to make this series Active. The name is shown in dropdowns and settings screen throughout the application. Active flag turns this drip on and off. If inactive, this drip series will not process automatically.

Click the Save Tab after naming the Drip Series.

Define the Drip Series steps and settings (General Tab):

1. Select the Drip Series you want to setup steps for and click 'Go'
2. Click the new button to add a new step (see snapshot below). This generates a new step in the list with a default name of [hrs]
3. Define the settings for this Step:
   

   Step Name: The name of the action for quick reference, no real logic associated to this, it is here for understanding at a glance.

   Do This: Tells the scheduler what action to do:

   Send Automatic Email (the system will just send it with no user interaction)

   When to do this: Tell the scheduler when to perform the action and at what time interval(s). A minimum time interval of 15 minutes is required between two steps.

   Examples:

   30 Minutes AfterSeriesStart will send 30 minutes after the customer is inserted into this drip series
   3 Days RecurringUntilNextStep will send every three days until the next step fires

   Note: If you have a RecurringUntilNextStep setup as your last option, this will send that email template at the timed interval without stopping. It is recommended you have a last step setup with an AfterSeriesStart as your last email to avoid sending emails repeatedly without an end date.

   Email Template: The selected email template to send in case of an AutoSentEmail.  This template and it's settings will be used for the selected step.

   Sort Order: Sort order of this action.

   IMPORTANT: Please keep these in the proper sort order that your actions should fall under. Keep them in order of when they will logically be happening.

   Example:

   30 minutes AfterSeriesStart should be sorted BEFORE 24 hours AfterSeriesStart, etc.  This cannot be automatically done because RecurringSteps have no logical placement without the user defining it.

4. Click the Save tab to save this step
5. Repeat the above steps to create more Drip Series Steps. You can create as many steps as you need.

Creating the Drip Series Steps completes the step of defining the steps to be used for the Drip Series Campaign. Below is a snapshot of an example of 3 Drip Series steps created. You can add as many steps as you need.

Step 3: Choose customers to send Drip Series Emails to (List Tab)