Using Conversational Email? What are your thoughts? Good/Bad/Ugly

Taylor Matysik

We're taking another look at conversational email for FY2025 and wanted to see who is using it and what the experience (as a marketing or sales enablement user) is like. If this is you, hoping to get your perspective on any of the following:

1. How the the implementation/onboarding experience? How long did it take you to get it operational for XDRs or marketing use cases?

2. What do you like about it?

3. What don't you like about it?

4. Any major flaws you see/have experienced in the product? Is there anything holding it back from being truly great?

5. Have you experienced any situations where it has created a negative experience for customers/prospects who have been engaged via CE?

5. How are you attributing value back to it?

We looked at the tool about a year ago and I remember my initial reaction to it was a mix of excitement about the possibilities for supplementing (maybe even replacing some) XDR work, especially for a global org like ours, and terror about it being able to put members of our XDR team out of work and/or creating negative experiences for customers if not implemented/set-up well. We're getting another Demo on Monday but wanted to see what current users' experiences are like.

Any input on any of the above is greatly appreciated!

Jojo Du

Hi Taylor,

We've been a happy customer of CE since the very beginning. LOVE this tool. Got a chance to meet with the CE product team at 2022 Breakthrough — smartest and nicest people.

The onboarding/implementation was fairly straightforward. We reached out to our CSM about it in April 2022, and was able to launch the first campaign in June 2022.

Both the Marketing side of the house and the Sales side of the house love this tool, which is a rare occurrence.

For us marketers, we love having visibility and control when it comes to reaching out to MQLs that we deem valuable. We only have one BDR for proactive outbound outreach. Our BDEs are reluctant to do this type of dirty work. CE is a helpful little assistant to our BDR who's swamped supporting all our BDEs. Maybe it's a unique problem that we have, though.

Our sellers also love this tool and have been requesting campaigns on it. They appreciate that they'll only be looped in if a prospect shows true interest to meet.

CE is also incredible for pre-event outreach. We were able to book 10 meetings before heading out to a data conference this week. Sellers were happy knowing that they have these on their calendar.

Every company is different. For us, it's that rare unicorn that makes both Marketing and Sales happy.

Brandon McBride

At my last company, CE accidentally exposed a flaw on our end that we didn't even know we had.

For some basic background, we ran one-time data migrations to cloud platforms with the goal of turning those migrations into recurring business for real-time data applications. We had a basic sequence running on dead leads.

We were running a pretty standard dead lead sequence when one of those leads brought up that they were having issues with their migration. I can't tell you why they didn't reach out to their CSM, but the SDR who shared the story with me had a frank 15-minute conversation with the lead and connected everyone necessary to get the situation taken care of. The SDR also told me that, based on her experience, she believes the connection saved the chance at new business.

This led to plans to develop a sequence to keep in contact with current migration customers. I left before it was in place, but we only had two SDRs so every little bit helped.

Brandon McBride

@Taylor Matysik

I just realized that I didn't answer some of your questions.

1. Implementation and onboarding is pretty straightforward. You create email addresses and link them to your AI personas, build out signatures, and provide some training content for the AI.
2. I like that there's a backup option to an overworked or under-involved sales team not contacting 6QAs, or being able to automate things like trial or webinar follow-up with some level of intelligence.
3. I don't like that it's kind of rigid. The sequence is set in stone and only terminates when the contact indicates interest in a meeting or lack thereof. There are some improvements being made to individual personalization and additional options for terminating sequences that were announced in today's quarterly review.
4. Major flaws - Nothing I'd call a flaw, per se. It's new. There's a lot of development to be done.
5. Meetings booked.

Jarrod Cohen

Good stuff guys. Looking to get this in our budget for FY25… appreciate this insight.

Taylor Matysik

Just wanted to share a quick shoutout to @Jarrod Cohen, @Brandon McBride, and @Jojo Du for sharing your thoughts on this post much appreciated for taking the time!

Any other responses are welcome! 😁