How to Publish an Email Drip Campaign

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Quick Start
• Step 1: Create Your Drip Campaign
• Step 2: Build Your First Email
• Step 3: Add More Emails to the Drip
• Step 4: Add Inclusions (Optional)
• Step 5: Add Exclusions (Optional)
• Step 6: Choose a Goal (Optional)
• Step 7: Test Your Emails
• Step 8: Review Details and Publish
• Editing a Running Drip Campaign
• Reporting
• Common Questions

Overview

A Drip campaign lets you send a series of emails over time to a group of recipients. It starts automatically when someone performs an activity, has a person field change, reaches a date, or completes another Drip. Each email after the first can be targeted based on how the recipient interacted with the email before it.

Drips can have up to 20 emails (steps). They can also be added to Flights, so you can plan them alongside the rest of your campaigns.

Note: Drip Campaigns are available for Feathr's Essential, Advanced, and Enterprise service levels only.

Quick Start

1. Click + Create and select Drip. You can also add a Drip from a Flight.
2. Assign a Project and give the campaign a name.
3. For the first email, select a trigger type, define the trigger, choose a send schedule, and select a template.
4. Add more emails to the drip, up to 20 in total.
5. Add inclusions (optional).
6. Add exclusions (optional).
7. Choose or create a campaign goal (optional).
8. Send test emails for each step.
9. Review details and publish.

Step 1: Create Your Drip Campaign

Click + Create and select Drip. To build the Drip as part of a funnel, you can also create it from a Flight, or add it to a Flight later. For more on building Flights, see How to Build and Publish a Custom Flight.

Choose the Project for the campaign and give it a descriptive name. For example, "New Donor Welcome Series — 2026."

Step 2: Build Your First Email

The first step of a Drip campaign is to plan out its emails in Feathr's builder, starting with the first one.

Choose a Trigger Type

The trigger decides who enters (is enrolled in) the Drip. There are four trigger types:

• Activity happened triggers define an audience member by what they do on your web pages or with the emails you send them. Two common examples are visiting a specific URL and making a donation. To learn how to track donations accurately, see What is a Conversion?
• Field changed triggers define an audience member by a change to their Person Attribute data in Feathr. Field Changed triggers only fire on changes made after the campaign is published and active.
• Date Triggered events define an audience member using a Date field on their person record. For example, you could send an email 90 days after someone's "Last Donation Date."

Bulk Enroll People Who Already Qualify

Drips aren't only for future activity. When you set your first trigger, you can check the box labeled Enroll the X people who already meet this criteria to also email everyone who has already performed the trigger activity.

Note: Bulk-enrolled contacts get the first email as soon as you publish the campaign. Your send schedule delay only applies to people who meet the trigger after the campaign is published. You can bulk enroll up to 200,000 people.

Choose a Send Schedule

As with an Auto Send campaign, choose when the email goes out once someone triggers it: right away, or after a delay you set. You'll also choose a cadence: enroll people only the first time they meet the trigger, or every time they meet it.

Select a Template

Attach an email template to the step. This is the content of the email. Your subject line, preview text, and merge field defaults are saved with the template. Learn how to create a template here.

Tip: Get your content right before you publish. Once the campaign is live, you can't edit the template a step is sending. You can swap in a different template, though. See Editing a Running Drip Campaign.

Step 3: Add More Emails to the Drip

Every email after the first works just like the first one, except for how it's targeted. Instead of a trigger, you choose who gets the email based on how they interacted with the email before it:

• Everyone who received the previous email
• Only people who didn't open the previous email
• Only people who opened the previous email
• Only people who opened the previous email but didn't click a link

You can add up to 20 emails to a single Drip.

Reordering steps: Drag and drop steps to change their order. This works until the campaign has run. After that, the order is locked so the stats for each step stay accurate.

Step 4: Add Inclusions (Optional)

Add one or more inclusion Groups to limit the Drip to specific people. When you add inclusions, only people in those Groups who meet the trigger are enrolled. Leave this blank to enroll anyone who meets the trigger.

Step 5: Add Exclusions (Optional)

Define any Groups that shouldn't get the Drip, even if they meet the trigger. Any email address that has already bounced or unsubscribed from Feathr emails in this Project or account is excluded automatically. Learn more about unsubscribe options in Feathr here.

Exclude people who convert: Turn on this option to stop sending the rest of the Drip to anyone who completes your campaign goal. For example, once someone donates, they won't keep getting donation asks. This option requires a goal (see Step 6).

Step 6: Choose a Goal (Optional)

Assign one or more goals to measure how well the campaign is working. Read more about goals and conversion tracking here.

Step 7: Test Your Emails

Send a test for each step to make sure every email looks right, including any Merge Fields in your subject lines or email body. The Example Contact you pick won't get an email during this test. Their data is only used to fill in your Merge Fields. Test emails can take 5–10 minutes to arrive.

Step 8: Review Details and Publish

Set the dates and times the campaign will be active, and choose your sending options.

Send to additional email addresses: If people in your audience have more than one email address on their person record (the Additional Emails field), you can choose to send the Drip to those addresses too.

Review your details and Publish. Only email people who have agreed to hear from you.

After you publish, the campaign shows as Scheduled until its start time, and then as active while it's sending. When it reaches its end time, it shows Completing while it finishes its last sends, and then Complete.

Editing a Running Drip Campaign

You can change many Drip settings while the campaign is running, with no need to stop or duplicate it.

Changing a template: After a campaign is published, you change a step's template instead of editing it. That way, recipients who open the "view in browser" version of an email they already got still see what was originally sent. To make a small change:

1. Clone the template the step is using.
2. Make your changes to the clone.
3. Stop the campaign.
4. Swap the updated template into the step.
5. Republish the campaign.

Restarting: Drip campaigns can be restarted after they've been stopped or completed.

Reporting

Drip campaigns have the same reporting as every other Feathr email campaign, plus two extra views:

• All Steps: Combined reporting for every email in the Drip. It includes a campaign engagement table that shows how people engaged across the whole series.
• Individual steps: Separate reporting for each email in the Drip. Use the navigation at the top of the report to switch between steps.

You can also set a custom date range on your reports to focus on a specific period. For a full breakdown of each metric, see How to Read an Email Marketing Campaign Report.

Common Questions

Why is the Publish button grayed out or not able to be clicked?

If the Publish button is gray and you can't click it, part of your campaign draft is still unfinished. Hover over the Publish button to see a pop-up explaining what's left to set up before you can publish.

Can I edit my Drip campaign after it has been published?

Yes, for most settings. You can change trigger rules, inclusion and exclusion Groups, the goal, and the end time while the campaign is running. Content changes (template, subject line, preview text, and merge field defaults) still require stopping the campaign, swapping in a different template, and republishing. See Editing a Running Drip Campaign.

How many emails can a Drip have?

Up to 20. If you need more, create a second Drip with the Completed a previous drip trigger to pick up where the first one leaves off.

Why can't I reorder my steps anymore?

Once a Drip has run, its step order is locked so the stats for each step stay accurate. If you need a different order, clone the campaign and reorder the steps in the copy.

Can someone be enrolled in the same Drip more than once?

It depends on the cadence you choose in the send schedule. With Send the first time only, each person is enrolled once. With Send every time, people can be enrolled again each time they meet the trigger. We recently fixed an issue that sometimes enrolled people more than once when they shouldn't have been, so enrollment now follows your cadence setting.

Can I add a Drip to a Flight?

Yes. You can create a Drip from a Flight leg or add an existing Drip to one.