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Home › Start here › Automate follow-ups and nurture campaigns
Start here · Marketing

How to set up automated follow-up emails and drip campaigns

To automate follow-ups, decide what should happen after each action a lead takes, such as signing up, downloading a guide or going quiet, and build those rules as email sequences in a marketing automation tool. The tool sends each message on the schedule you set, and exit rules stop the sequence when the lead replies, buys or books. Connecting it to your CRM lets sales see each lead's activity and step in when someone is ready to talk.

By Bill Belcamino · Page updated September 23, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team
How to set up automated follow-up emails and drip campaigns
Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: How much does it cost to automate follow-up emails for leads?

Less than the big suites suggest: ActiveCampaign starts at $15/mo for 1,000 contacts and 1 login (billed annually) and Mailchimp at $13/mo for up to 500 contacts, while Keap starts at $299/mo.

Keap also charges $39/month for each extra user, so only pay for an all-in-one if you'll build what it includes.

Don't start with a long nurture series. Start with the one sequence that earns its keep right away, following up on quotes and inquiries that got no reply, because those people have already shown intent and one manual chase is easy to forget. Write those emails short and plain, from a real person, asking one question, since replies are the point and they also tell mailbox providers your mail is wanted. Set the exit rules before launch so anyone who replies, buys or books drops out instead of getting another reminder.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 23, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

How to automate follow-ups and nurture campaigns, step by step

The software this job takes

What to look for

Common mistakes to avoid

What to settle before you buy

Frequently asked questions

What is an email drip campaign?

A drip campaign is a series of emails sent automatically on a schedule or in response to what someone does, such as signing up or downloading a guide. Each email moves the reader a step closer to buying or booking. It stops when they reply, convert or unsubscribe.

How do I set up automated follow-up emails?

Choose the trigger, such as a form submission or a quote sent with no reply, then write a short sequence with delays between emails. Add exit rules so it stops on a reply or purchase, test it on yourself and switch it on. Review the results once enough leads have gone through it.

Do I need a CRM with marketing automation?

If people on your team follow up with leads personally, the CRM should share data with your automation tool: the CRM holds deals and conversations, the automation sends the emails. Some platforms combine both and others connect separately. Compare the total cost of each route for your team size and contact count.

How do I find a cheaper alternative to my marketing automation platform?

List the automations, contact count and CRM features you actually use, then compare plans that cover just those. Watch for prices that jump with contacts or seats and for features locked to higher tiers. The table above shows each tool's verified entry price and billing unit.

How we built this page

We start from the job, not the product. The phrasings people search for this job (for example “best marketing automation software for small business”) come from our research into how small and mid-size teams describe it. Which software categories the job takes is our editorial judgment. Every tool, entry price, billing unit and date comes from HelpCompare’s open dataset, recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page; nothing is estimated, and where a vendor publishes no price we say so. We take no affiliate commissions and publish no scores of our own. See our methodology or download the data from Open Data.

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Cite this page: HelpCompare, “How to set up automated follow-up emails and drip campaigns”, helpcompare.com/start/nurture-leads-automatically/ (updated ).

Source links on this site are checked every month; last check . How sources are checked.

From shortlist to switched

Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.

01 · CompareWhich tool fits your team, side by side.133 comparisons 02 · Price & approveSourced, dated pricing and a one-page brief for sign-off.Decision brief 03 · SwitchWhat moves, what you rebuild, what it costs.264 guides 04 · ShareDownload and cite the data. CC BY 4.0.Open data
Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
About the author

Bill Belcamino

Founder and author, HelpCompare

Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.

Read Bill’s story How we verify pricingSpot an error? Tell Bill