In the world of marketing, there are many different ways of metering out the messages that you are giving out to people. You need to have at least a rudimentary understanding of these different metres, otherwise you are at best only half-aware of what your marketing is doing. Of these kinds of timing, there are two major ones that you need to be aware of: drip and burst marketing.

While there are other ways of structuring your marketing, these two are specifically very useful and ones which you are going to have to focus on greatly if you want to make sure that you are marketing as powerfully as possible. But which is right for you – and what are they, anyway?

Drip & Burst: Two Definitions

First off, let’s take a look at what they actually are. They are in essence a difference in pacing, rather than any major difference in the content of your marketing. So with drip marketing, you are gradually releasing small doses of information over time, in a kind of teasing fashion. With burst marketing, you smash your content out there suddenly, hoping to overwhelm the marketplace with your idea. Both of these have their place – and as we shall see, you can also hope to use them together for particularly powerful marketing campaigns. But what are the main advantages of both?

Drip Marketing: Advantages

If you look to drip marketing, you are likely going to be able to get your message out there in a way which really entices people in, and makes them very curious about what it is that you are offering. The philosophy behind drip marketing is ‘slow and steady wins the race’, and that is very often the case. You can use many methods with drip marketing: commonly email, or you could think about running an SMS drip campaign, which can be very powerful too. Good drip campaigns have to have a clear trajectory, leading up to the final sales push at just the right moment.

Burst Marketing: Advantages

When it comes to burst marketing, you can expect your customers to feel as if it came out of nowhere. This can be very effective, and we have each seen examples of when a phenomenon just came out of nowhere at all – Pokemon Go, anyone? Often, burst marketing makes use of television and billboards, but an all-round campaign might also incorporate email, post and text too – or even social media marketing. Burst campaigns are known to achieve huge impact instantly.

Combining The Two

The truth is that some of the best marketing campaigns in history combined the two types into one. You can drip your marketing campaign for a while, gradually gaining interest and intrigue, and then suddenly drop the final burst marketing at the very end for maximum impact. This is a common and extremely powerful way of communicating your new product or service, and it’s something you might want to think about next time around.