This post contains affiliate links, and we will be compensated if you buy after clicking on our links.
Read our review guidelines.
Drip
- 14-day free trial
- 100+ integrations
- Offers free migration
- Supports unlimited email sends
- No free forever plan
- No mobile apps
Looking for an easier way to automate your daily marketing tasks using one-off rules? Try email marketing software. Drip excels at it, focusing on e-commerce businesses.
However, Drip falls short in some areas. It has pricey plans without tiers and offers email support for accounts with 5K contacts and below.
However, what makes it the go-to choice for Shopify businesses? Let’s find out in this Drip review.
SMB Guide’s Verdict for Drip
Drip gets an 8.2 out of 10 rating, and here is why:
Drip’s strengths lie in its automation, segmentation, and tracking, making it ideal for e-commerce platforms.
Marketers will also find a powerful email builder with 54+ pre-made templates, making creating, sending, and managing email campaigns easier.
However, Drip falls short in some areas, like pricing and support. It lacks tiered pricing plans and offers pricey packages that eliminate most startups and SMBs.
It also only provides email support for accounts with less than 5K contacts.
| Factor | Rating (out of 10) |
|---|---|
| Pricing & Plans | 7 |
| Marketing Automation Capabilities | 9 |
| Email Builder | 8.5 |
| Campaign Performance Tracking | 9 |
| User Interface and User Experience | 8 |
| Integrations and Compatibility | 9 |
| Customer Support | 7 |
| SMB Guide Rating | 8.1 |
In this review of Drip, I’ve followed SMB Guide’s detailed criteria for evaluating the marketing automation software.
Pricing & Plans
Unlike most other email marketing software, Drip does not offer tiered plans. Instead, it provides a sliding-scale model where pricing depends on the number of contacts.
Drip’s pricing model also includes a two-week free trial period. The best part is that signing up for the free trial doesn’t require credit card information.
While Drip is feature-rich, it can scale with businesses with growing subscriber bases. The starting price is $39, supporting up to 2500 contacts.
Marketing Automation Capabilities
Drip provides marketers with the industry’s most advanced workflow and automation functionality. To simplify the creation process, Drip provides a visual builder and 30+ workflow templates filtered by an e-commerce platform.
These include WooCommerce, Shopify Magento, and BigCommerce.
The software supports branching logic, where users can design workflows that adjust depending on set conditions. The conditional actions are also customizable, enabling users to segment better within workflows.
Drip also supports a range of triggers for initiating automated actions. These include time-based, external events, and user behavior.
Marketers will also find that Drip supports automation across marketing channels like SMS and email. However, integration with social media isn’t as powerful as the two.
Personalization is another vital core feature of Drip. Marketers can insert dynamic content within the workflows. It is handy for personalizing email content to fit specific subscribers based on their behavior.
Email Builder
Drip makes it easy to create campaigns by providing 50+ professionally designed templates and a drag-and-drop editor. The templates are modern and categorized by industry or purpose, such as promo emails, cart abandonment, newsletters, and more.
However, the template library is smaller than other email marketing platforms.
Drip also has a responsive email builder that makes it easy for beginners to tweak the email templates. Marketers can add buttons, images, sections, and even links to their social networks.
It makes it highly flexible for customization needs. Drip also emphasizes mobile template optimization, where all its templates render seamlessly across different screens.
Marketers looking for granular control over template design will find Drip supports HTML editing. However, this feature is only suitable for people with tech skills.
After creating and customizing the email templates, Drips allows marketers to preview and test for deliverability. The function allows marketers to see how the emails render across clients and devices.
Not only that, but optimize the emails so they do not end up in the recipient’s spam folder.
Campaign Performance Tracking
Drip’s campaign performance tracking capability is decent. It provides metrics on clicks by link, conversions, subscriptions, and more. It allows marketers to assess their campaigns and find where they need tweaking.
Like most other email marketing software, Drip provides a real-time reporting dashboard. It helps marketers get up-to-date metrics and enables them to make adjustments where necessary.
Drip also supports marketers in creating campaign goals and tracking them. The goals get tracked within the platform, allowing marketers to gain insights into the campaign’s performance.
The feature is crucial for businesses looking to align their goals with broader company objectives. The best part is that Drip offers visualizations of the entire progress.
Drip also provides A/B testing tools for running split tests on several email elements. The platform provides an in-depth analysis of the a/b test results, making it easy to see what’s working.
Marketers looking for granular campaign analytics will find that Drip integrates with Google Analytics. The integration allows businesses to gain a deeper understanding of their marketing efforts.
User Interface and User Experience
Drip’s interface is minimalistic and modern, with a menu and features aligned to the left. Accessing the primary function is easy, making it simple for users to create, send, and manage email campaigns.
The platform also provides a library of 50+ modern pre-made templates for creating emails. Marketers will also find a responsive email builder with a drag-and-drop function that enables granular template customization.
The editor is also dynamic, providing HTML editing, preview, and spam testing capability. It allows marketers to view how emails render across devices and optimize for deliverability.
Integrations and Compatibility
Drip’s integration stack is decent. It connects with 54+ systems, including popular CRMs such as Salesforce and MailChimp. The CRM integrations allow syncing data between the platforms for enhanced targeting.
Drip also provides powerful API and webhooks for custom integrations and data scraping. The APIs come with in-depth documentation on installing and maintaining the systems.
Drip specializes in e-commerce integrations, connecting with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento. Syncing data between the e-commerce platform and Drip is seamless.
It allows marketers to gain insights into customer behavior for better targeting. Drip also integrates with third-party analytics platforms like Google Analytics.
The integration is handy in getting granular analysis on email campaigns. Unfortunately, Drip lacks a dedicated mobile app for creating, sending, and managing campaigns.
However, marketers can access the platform through a browser on any device, including a smartphone.
Customer Support
Drip offers email as the primary support channel for businesses with 5K contacts and below. However, those with 5K subscribers and above can reach out through the live chat option.
Now, the response rates via email are poor, taking up to 24 hours for a reply. On the other hand, the live chat option is quicker to reply within 10 minutes.
The support agents are helpful, providing feedback even on technical issues. Drip provides a help center, blog, podcast, and demo for users looking for self-help resources.
The content on the blog and podcast is in-depth, covering topics like marketing. Drip also has an online presence on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, X, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
Drip – Unique Features
Drip excels in setting up sophisticated emails and marketing automation. During our evaluation, we found two features that stood out. They include:
- Segmentation: Drip offers its users dynamic segmentation, allowing them to deliver spot-on messages to their subscribers. The segmentation combines several factors, including visitor, store, and marketing data.
- Onsite: Drip allows marketers to meet their customers beyond the inbox through Onsite. Users can drag and drop their onsite campaigns, where they can collect, guide, and connect with visitors in a way emails can’t.
What Experts Say About Drip
Drip has received many reviews online, both positive and lukewarm, on platforms like G2.com. Here is what some of the users said about their experience.
Drip’s support team is quite helpful, but the software itself doesn’t do the user many favours. It does save you time with email workflows, but the process of using Drip day in and day out involves a lot more clicking and re-filtering than necessary.
Thomas W., Product Marketing Manager – Verified Capterra review
Drip does what I need it to do. There are some integrations that I wish worked better, but I am not sure if it is on the Drip side or the other services. Overall though, it works well and requires very little input from me after the initial setup for a campaign.
Jim M., Owner – Verified Capterra review
Drip Alternatives
At SMB Guide, we understand that not every marketer or business will find Drip’s pricing and features suitable for their campaigns. So we decided to research three alternatives that offer what it lacks.
|
|
|
|
Primary Rating:
4.3
|
Primary Rating:
4.0
|
Primary Rating:
4.2
|
|
Free - $1,914/mo
|
Free - $1,600/mo
|
$19/mo - $1,099/mo
|
Omnisend
Omnisend excels in omni-channel marketing, supporting more channels than Drip. These include social media, SMS, push notifications, and email. However, Omnisend shares some similarities with Drip in advanced automation.
It supports advanced segmentation and workflows. It also focuses on e-commerce, offering features like product recommendation and cart abandonment recovery.
Get started with Omnisend for free
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a comprehensive marketing platform that enables you to manage and communicate with your customers, prospects, and other interested parties. It focuses on excellent contact management, visually appealing emails, unique automated workflows, and advanced data analysis.
Start your free trial of Mailchimp today
GetResponse
GetResponse offers a more all-rounded solution with powerful tools such as a landing page builder.
Unlike Drip, GetResponse also provides a webinar feature. It allows marketers to engage with customers live through online presentations. GetResponse shares similarities with Drip in providing advanced segmentation and powerful automation capabilities.
Other options: Best Drip Alternatives
Getting Started with Drip
Drip is best suited for e-commerce platforms. Its automation tools, integration with popular e-commerce platforms, and pre-built workflows make it a go-to choice.
It might not be the most affordable software, but its focus on e-commerce makes it easier to create effective campaigns.
FAQ’s
Do users beed an e-commerce store to use Drip?
Drip is suitable for e-commerce stores because of its functionality and features. However, users can use it for other functions without an online store.
Can users integrate other software during the free trial?
Yes, users can link their e-commerce apps during the trial period. Users can connect them, whether dynamic blocks, revenue dashboards, or automation.
Are there feature limitations during the free trial period?
Only unlimited email sends are unavailable during the trial period. The other features are accessible for the entire two-week free trial.
Related reading:
Omnisend is an email & SMS marketing platform with a suite of features made specifically to help ecommerce stores grow their online businesses faster.
Drip
Drip gathers and organizes customer data, then enables ecommerce retailers to use that data to make personalized omnichannel customer journeys at scale.
Product Brand: Drip
4.1
