TechRadar Verdict
Drip makes it easy for online retailers to interact with their customers via email and generate sales.
Pros
- +
Market-leading features and customizations
- +
Easy-to-use interface
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Ambiguous data security policy
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Drip was founded in 2012 by an entrepreneur named Rob Walling. Right from its start, the company focused on developing email marketing software to help online retailers engage with customers and get more sales.
Drip was funded by venture capital from investors including Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and Expa, a well-known startup accelerator. In 2016, the company was acquired by Leadpages, a marketing platform for small businesses. In 2022, Drip (under Leadpages’ ownership) acquired Sleeknote, a popup form builder, to integrate with its email marketing platform.
The company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
Drip: Plans and pricing
Drip doesn’t have a free tier, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to the competition. Unlike most email marketing platforms, it doesn’t have tiered plans but instead a simple pricing structure based on the number of contacts you have. The pricing starts at $39 / £39 / AUD$74 per month for 2,500 contacts and increases from there. For instance, 20,000 contacts will cost $289 / £280 / AUD$435 per month, 50,000 contacts will cost $699 / £650 / AUD$1000 per month, and 100,000 contacts will cost $1,199 / £1000 / AUD$1800 per month, which is pretty expensive.
There's a 14-day free trial period available with no credit card details required.
Drip: Features
It can be difficult to create effective marketing emails. To make it easier, Drip offers a collection of pre-built templates that you can select and edit to fit your brand. It has a drag-and-drop builder that lets you edit the templates with ease. If you wish, you can use the builder to design your email layout from scratch instead of picking a pre-built template. You can also edit the underlying HTML code of the email, which allows for extensive customization.
Automation is important if you’re dealing with a lot of contacts. Drip lets you set up automated emails for your subscribers. For example, you can send a welcome message to every person who signs up for your newsletter or send abandoned cart emails to people who add items from your online store to their cart but don't purchase them. You can also schedule email sends ahead of time or send them to contacts according to their time zone.
You can create good-looking signup forms on Drip and embed them on your website. The platform offers a collection of pre-built form templates that you can customize to your tastes. You can also use the analytics dashboard to monitor critical metrics for your marketing campaigns such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, etc.
Drip: Interface and use
We found it pretty easy to set up and use Drip. You can start a free trial without giving up credit details. The platform has an interface that's visually appealing and easy to navigate.
Drip: Support
Drip offers direct support through email and telephone. All paying customers have access to the company's support team 24/7, which is commendable. However, there's no live chat support, unlike many rival email marketing tools.
Before seeking direct support, you can also check Drip’s official Help Center, which contains a plethora of resources to help users solve their challenges. For example, you can find articles on how to work around complex features like account policies, authentication, and analytics. You can also find webinars that'll help you learn to use Drip in an interactive way.
Drip: The competition
Drip is a superior product to freemium providers such as MailChimp and Sendinblue, but comes at a much higher cost.
It is best compared to other premium email marketing services such as ConvertKit or Constant Contact. These providers are more affordable than Drip, yet still offer many of the same advanced features and customizations, such as split testing and list segmentation.
Drip: Final verdict
Drip email marketing is a feature-rich platform and offers advanced marketing automation tools for businesses. The platform is easy to use and doesn’t require tech know-how, which is one of the things we like most about it. Although expensive, we think Drip’s email campaign tools will drive customer engagement with almost all businesses and are a worthy investment.
One thing we would like to see, however, is a transparent security policy that makes it clear how Drip uses customer and business data and what data security protocols are in place to protect customer and business privacy.
