Xplenty’s event-based free trial journey

Brian Sun on 25th of Aug 2017

Xplenty’s Event-Based Free Trial Journey

_Xplenty_ is a data delivery platform that allows organizations to easily integrate, transform and process data from all of their major sources. Companies use Xplenty to connect to more than 100 data stores and SaaS applications so they can focus on what really matters: analytics, insights, and business value. Marketers, in particular, use the product to analyze marketing-related data from sources like Google AdWords, Mixpanel, Autopilot, and more. Xplenty recently created an event-based free trial journey. Before that, the sales team _manually_ followed up with trialists. We all know how much of a pain that is—leads fall through the cracks, users don’t see the product’s value, and conversion rates flop as a result. Eff that noise. The company’s new and _automated _free trial journey saves them from this pain. Let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how the team set up their journey including the process, structure, and emails.

Xplenty started by digging into the data

Etai Coles, marketing manager at the company, had three goals he wanted to accomplish with the new free trial journey:

  • Encourage trial users to reach the “Starter” plan goals
  • Send personalized, automated emails
  • Reflect a user’s trial status After nailing down goals, Etai dug into the raw trial data to find out which events most correlated with trialists converting into paying customers. Here were the key conversion milestones he discovered:
  • 4 packages deployed
  • 15 jobs ran
  • 3 connections made
  • 2 team members invited Here’s an actual report Etai pulled: Packages chart To land on four packages deployed, Etai chose the summary median reflected by the red line. He ran similar analyses on the number of jobs, connections, and invitations. As a result, the new free trial journey would help users reach these data-backed milestones proven to increase their “Starter” goal conversion rates.

Xplenty’s free trial journey

With data driving his direction, Etai designed an event-based free trial journey composed of smart segment triggers, emails, check field conditions, and internal notifications. Here’s the journey in full:

Xplenty free trial

Remember the events I mentioned? The journey is built to remind users to complete those events. Here’s how it works.

Email #1 - sent on trial signup

The “Trial - welcome” smart segment triggers when a user meets these criteria: trial welcome criteria In other words, the journey begins when a user is:

  • Added to the Free Trial list
  • On day 0 of the trial
  • Not in the trial journey…yet Users then receive this welcome email: Screen Shot 2017 08 24 at 1.07.14 PM Screen Shot 2017 08 25 at 11.36.22 AM Screen Shot 2017 08 24 at 1.08.23 PM There are important things happening in this email. First, the fact that this email is sent in the first place a huge win because users feel welcomed to the service. Second, notice the gamification badges that direct users towards key events. This gives them a roadmap to complete that’s useful, fun, and proven to convert. Lastly, users are encouraged to complete all badges to earn the company’s “I love data” t-shirt. This is _swag marketing_ at its finest. Quick tangent: How does Xplenty gets the user events data into Autopilot? By combining the power and accessibility of _Autopilot’s API_ and Xplenty’s data delivery platform. Here’s what the data delivery setup looks like in Xplenty: Xplenty package Using an Xplenty “package” that integrates, transforms, and processes the customer data from their own database and CRM, Xplenty sends user criteria into custom fields in Autopilot to kick off personalized journeys. Now, back to their free trial journey breakdown.

Email #2 - sent if user didn’t login

Did not confirm again On day two, Xplenty sends a friendly reminder to jump back into the product if a user hasn’t logged in yet. The rest of the users on a team account won’t get this email if they’ve already logged in—this makes the experience more custom and personalized. Screen Shot 2017 08 24 at 1.39.47 PM I didn’t include it in the screenshot but the email (and every subsequent email) includes the gamification badges, t-shirt, and Etai’s personal headshot.

Emails #3 and #4 - based on team member invites

Invite team members Based on number of team members invited, Xplenty says one of two emails. If the account has 3 or more team members, then this email is sent: more than three Notice the “Congrats!” messaging. Since the account has more than 3 team members, Xplenty doesn’t nudge them to add more. Instead, they send an encouraging message while still offering an online session with a solution architect. If the account has less than 3 team members, then this email is sent: less than three The account isn’t at the three-team-member threshold yet, so Xplenty still encourages them but links out to how to continue building the team. This email also offers an online session with a solution architect. Props to Xplenty on the behavior-based email send!

Email #5 - connect data sources

Number of connections Regardless of how many connections the user has made (three being ideal), Xplenty sends this email communicating when their number of connections remains the same for more than two days, as well as offering helpful information and a solution architect session. data sources The repetition of “start a session with one of our solution architects today” is helpful. Users experience peace of mind knowing they can reach out for help anytime.

Email #6 - did not confirm after three days

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