Driving Growth While Reducing Human Interactions: How Sinch Digitally Boosted Upgrades by 13.5%
NOTE: The first 17 minutes of this recording are unavailable due to a file corruption. Join us to discover how Sinch transformed its customer engagement and drove impressive growth using Gainsight. In this session, you’ll learn how we overcame the challenge of converting free users, resulting in approximately 13.5% of Mailjet’s free-to-paid upgrades each month. We’ll share actionable strategies like in-app banners and segmented engagements that boosted conversions and customer satisfaction. If you’re looking to enhance engagement and unlock new revenue streams, don’t miss this opportunity to see how Sinch turned customer pain points into success stories!NOTE
Yeah, this is one of the examples where even the best performing campaign we've
ran.
In the last three years, which is very much the Validation Campaign, so that's
really
much how we started when I go back to the adoption feature.
Validation is the feature.
People want to see among free plan customers.
Yeah.
Then I just relied on the pre-built templates, made sure this actually matches
whatever is
given in our actual UI, to make this consistent, insert the value prop, and
this is just very
simple, very short copy.
And now, since I've launched the engagement to that specific set of customers
with a very
short and crisp copy, I want to make sure that I am actually able to track all
my success.
As to why I'm calling it the query builder, you do not have to learn SQL.
It's just very easy to understand, and I can also compare segments, which
brings me to
this example right here.
I have the query builder, I'm just opting in my campaign that I launched.
I want to look at, and this also depends on how you were actually tracking
conversions
within your company.
In this case, I am looking on conversions made on a weekly basis.
I want to group it by plan, because Validation is actually accessible on
essential plans as
well for me to better allocate all the impact and the actual revenue that is
associated
with that conversion.
And yeah, ultimately, we've started this campaign three years ago, and it's
still running great.
I mean, the numbers speak for it, right?
We have generated over 1.4 million ARR, and the past three years just with this
campaign,
which is, yeah, very, very nice.
Coming to the results, and I hinted this a couple of minutes ago already, as we
do have
a lot of features given in our product offering, we have launched a lot of
great campaigns in
the last years, and GainSight PX, or the strategy behind it, is working so well
that we're actually
replicating that knowledge and strategy onto other brands under Cinch, which is
very nice.
And yeah, when it comes to the 13.5% conversion rate that I'm highlighting in
this case study,
you can imagine that when it comes to upgrades being made on a monthly basis,
they come through
various channels, right?
We have organic upgrades, that's where PLG comes to play.
We do not have to do that much in terms of really reaching out to the customer.
Then we have email marketing, we can rely on Tibuz conversions.
We also have ad spend, and when I speak of 13.5%, it's our impact when it comes
to total upgrades
being made on a monthly basis.
So you can see 13.5%, I feel like that is a very great number, just looking at
the GainSight
PX impact.
And yeah, just to showcase how we started, so three years ago, as you can
imagine, still
had to figure out how does GainSight even work, and what are the campaigns that
we need to
launch.
So we're looking at a 4% impact compared to total upgrades being made.
But last year, as well as this year, are going very strong, and we have Vetsu
Survive, Black
Friday, Cyber Monday, as well as the holidays.
So I'm thinking down the line that could actually be a 14% impact.
So what are the key factors?
Go through all the data you have.
That is very much it.
Really understand your customer, dive into all the things you currently have to
understand
your customer, which allows you to very much create personalized campaigns.
If you're targeting a customer that is not even relying on email marketing at
the moment
or has not sent within a specific timeframe, that is definitely your wrong
cohort, right?
So you want to make sure that you're really much allowing those personalized
communications
or interactions with your customers.
And then also you want to make sure that what helped us is really making sure
that we're
sinking with all the departments, right?
Product, or I am informing very much the product team as to how they can change
the
roadmap, but also my findings also support what is happening on the sales team,
right?
Because they have to sell the product or even other marketing departments when
it comes
to top of funnel, right?
How can they leverage that data to really make sure that we're doing other
right things?
And lastly, I always look into improving, getting better, so what are their
lessons?
Really make sure that you're tracking all the learnings throughout the
campaigns that
you're launching, collecting feedback, what did work, what did not work.
But I do have another couple of takeaways that I wanted to share with you guys,
which
is really making sure that you're setting clear goals.
I did share our goals right in the beginning.
You want to make sure that if you're starting with customer expansion or
relying heavily
on GainSight PX, you just got to make sure that everyone is working towards the
same
goal.
And if not, things can just result in chaos.
And then also very important is the data accuracy.
For example, if product has a new feature in place, but we're not feeding that
into
GainSight PX, I don't even know what's happening.
Like how is that performing?
So we just got to make sure that the teams are collaborating and for us to
really track
all of that information within gathering.
And yeah, another point is really making sure that you're establishing a
customer-centric
approach.
If for instance, we have an onboarding series in place via email, this has to
translate
into whatever is happening in the actual product and GainSight PX engagement
that actually
also support the onboarding.
So you got to make sure that across every touch point that you're reaching out
to the
customer, that entire journey makes sense.
We do not want to have conflicts within the journey.
The customer, for example, signs up, but then is prompted to upgrade because,
yeah, we just
made a mistake in just not really feeding the customer onboarding experience
that could
lead into mishaps.
And yeah, then lastly, I mentioned this already as well.
You got to continuously review and adapt because what works today might not
work tomorrow.
I mean, in case of the validation campaign, thankfully, yes.
So yeah, then a couple of things you might definitely want to avoid is ignoring
feedback.
So a customer has the biggest voice, right?
It's very much able to not pay you for your business.
And what we've ran into recently was actually on another product was the call
out, hey,
you guys should definitely stop asking us so much stuff in terms of service.
I'm like, well, I want to understand you.
And then I want to understand what your roll bugs are, but the other tool does
just stop.
So that's what we did.
And another thing is over-complicating processes because if you do have a very
technical product,
that might lead to all the engagements or the communications you're setting up
are also
very much technical.
And if the customer is not technical, then the customer doesn't know how to use
us.
And that also comes with whatever you're creating in terms of campaigns like
the structure.
Yeah, just got to-- you want to make sure that whatever you're communicating is
just
simple and intuitive and the customer just knows what to do.
And then I mentioned you want to make sure that whatever's happening, happening
new
in the UI is making its way to Gainsite PX for you to use and rely on.
But another important factor here is the actual integration, right?
You want to make sure that all of the systems are working.
And that's where the active user, which, for example, could really help to
understand,
okay, in one specific week, there's a decrease of active users by 50%.
Is that actually the customer that is not interested in using us or is that due
to poor
integration situation?
So always make sure that your systems are working.
You have an audit in place to fully understand what is happening.
And then lastly is you definitely want to avoid to fail to scale.
That is what customer expansion is all about.
And if you're looking to really grow your business, your actual infrastructure
has to
really support that entire situation.
So you're not running into the situation where you have all the great things in
place to
attract new customers.
And you're trying to onboard the customers, but down the line, your product can
actually
not support that entire situation.
So you want to make sure that whatever you're doing in terms of strategy makes
sense down
the line.
So you're not running into hiccups.
But yeah, I think I've come to an end.
So if you want to reach out, you can do that under [email protected] or just
reach out
on LinkedIn.
And now come here to the Q&A.
Thank you so much, Lara.
It's seriously cool to see what you've been doing with all that data in terms
of customer
expansion and improving the customer experience and also benefiting so many
other functions.
So we've got plenty of time for questions, so please submit on the post app
when you're
ready.
But yeah, let's kick off.
So how come expansions landed in the hands of marketing?
What drove that decision?
Oh, that is a very good question.
I'm going to have to boop in a manager or two.
I don't know.
When it comes to customer expansion and just looking at the pricing page, I
mean, obviously,
whatever we are building in terms of a product that resides on product to fully
shape that
roadmap, making sure that we're creating all the good things for our customers.
But with respect to our product offering and that self-serve tier we have, it
just made
sense for us that marketing really understands the customer onboarding
experience.
And yeah, that just involves customer expansion.
So really making sure that we're getting the most out of our customer base.
I mean, I do understand when you look at our pricing page, we have that
contract side
of the business and that is where another team comes to play.
For example, the CSM team, but our self-serve is, yeah, it's just how it is.
Brilliant.
So yeah, so is your team securing upgrades without any human interaction or do
you still
have a sales rep that will go in closely expansion?
Also, very good question.
I'd say to 90% everything is going through what I am creating in terms of
really upselling
the customers, but we do have, or plans are structured in a way that it's
leveraging according
to email volume you're using on a monthly basis.
And our definition of an active user, I would say, is the ones that are really
hitting the
target when it comes to that monthly email volume could potentially be a
contract customer.
So yeah, to 90%, I would say that is definitely owned by life cycle.
So whatever I'm doing and 10% is definitely leveraged with an SDR, for example.
Brilliant.
So do you feel you have more impact on the product roadmap after implementing
this?
Yes, 100%.
And I can give you a very good example.
I mean, does that rely on or does that focus on the product roadmap?
But I just had this project come to mind when I look at the new users.
And we identified that we have on a weekly basis this set of new users that are
actually
signing up to our product, but ultimately only a fraction of those actually
landed in
our product.
So we changed our entire sign up process.
That means the customer, once they sign up, does not necessarily need to wait
on an email
confirmation.
They're directly sent into the product.
And that's right where all the great and amazing stuff comes in when it comes
to all
things, gain set PX engagements, supporting the onboarding experience.
Yeah, but also when it comes to the product roadmap, I would say 100% yes.
For example, if we're seeing a feature that is rarely used, that did spark the
conversation
among products, okay, do we even need this?
Like does this have a real impact on revenue for us as a business?
So yeah, I definitely see an impact when it comes to shaping the product
roadmap.
And can you share how do you recognize the customers, what metrics you monitor
to send
up some opportunities by digital communication?
If I understand this correctly, so I very much rely on the adoption feature and
just
trying to understand what is the most used feature.
And you have the top three, but at the same time, we're informing or we are
trying as
a company to really strengthen our roadmap.
That means I feel like right now we're in such a good place that on a quarterly
basis,
we have so many great new features that I can actually upsell.
So it's a mixture of promoting what is coming new to the product, but also what
do we currently
have?
And so in the B2B market, it's sensitive to push sales actions on user profiles
that
are not suitable or authorized.
How do you manage these precautions?
I have to think.
I mean, when we do have terms of service, I will just go the simple way we
state we can
send your marketing communications.
That is?
I feel like it.
Yeah, no problem.
So how do you go about getting product data into Gainsite?
Are the triggers for upselling changing over time or do they stay relatively
stable?
Yes.
So when it comes to getting product data into Gainsite and this comes back to
my recommendation,
you want to make sure that you're always collaborating with the product team
because whatever they
are doing in terms of products, I need to know, I need to have inside Gainsite
PX just
to make sure that we're really much tracking that or having that information to
understand
if that even has a potential impact down the line to be an upsell worthy
feature.
And when it comes to changing over time, I would say we are revisiting a lot of
our
strategies.
I would think even on a quarterly basis to understand the differences, what
didn't work
to just fully optimize all of our processes and making sure that because we are
looking
to scale, right, we have so many new features we can promote that that just
really makes
sense.
And if we then have the top five performing upgrade campaigns, but we are
seeing a stagnant
growth for one of the other upgrade campaigns, that tells me, okay, we can just
pause this,
we might not even need this because down the line, we already have another
feature coming
up that could be performing way better than the old one.
Nice.
So what was the rollout process like?
Did customers initially engage or did it take a lot of promotion, effort and
explanation
from your internal teams?
Yes.
So if you're launching a campaign in Gainsite PX and you have this very
specific set of
customers and you launch it, you're already pretty much targeting all of your
customers.
I would say they're very much active in your product.
That means over time, we logically see a decrease in conversions being made or
even the views,
right, because with that launch, we already hit the majority of our customer
base as to
why you can play a little bit with the triggers.
And this is very helpful for us when it comes to adoption campaigns, right,
making sure
that our customers are really using our features because if we have an inter-
volume place hitting
the customer that is not using a specific feature from time to time, but we
remind them
like, hey, you have access to this, then we can increase adoption and in the
best case
scenario, that feeds into an upgrade campaign.
So there's this continuous lifecycle of adoption campaigns that we're running
but also upgrade
campaigns, just making sure adoption is always happening, which is then feeding
the upgrade
for now.
Great.
So how did you figure out who was the best person on the account to reach off
to after
this engagement?
Yes.
So when it comes to the validations, campaigns specifically, that requires a
couple more
triggers, right, if you're using or want to use validations on our end, then
you have
to be an active customer.
And in that case, we want to make sure or whatever you're feeding into GainS
ight PX.
In this case, last message is sent within the last 30 days because that tells
me, okay,
they're using us on a monthly basis as to why validations in that case just
makes sense.
And if I had not defined or explained what validations are, that is just a
feature that
helps you to really understand your contact list so email deliverability is on
point.
Perfect.
And do you only approach healthy customers to upgrade, to continue to grow
healthy customers?
Yes.
When it comes to the inactive customer base, we want to make sure that we can
somehow trigger
these with email again because if they're inactive, that means they're not
using our
product.
So can we get them really much back into our product so they become active?
So yes, we definitely want to make sure that healthy customers are the only
target group
that we're very much targeting.
For example, if you look at NPS and that is something we're also heavily
looking into
right now when it comes to, for instance, making sure that our review sites are
updated
or they have a new set of customers reaching out like, hey, your product is
amazing.
That means we definitely need to only contact NPS scores that are 9 and 10s.
And that applies to other campaigns as well.
Perfect.
So a bit of a question on team structure here.
So what is the structure of the LISA team?
How do you interact with all of your press points?
That is also a very good question.
And I'm going to be quite honest here.
You know, or I told you that we've been acquired with Cinch.
That means we're still figuring things out.
As of today, we have a lifecycle team that covers email marketing and all
things in-app.
And that is very much it.
But we're also, that means, and this comes back to collaboration, we need to
have the
conversation with other departments just to understand what does the entire lif
ecycle
look like for the customer.
So yes, it's very much when I pin down lifecycle, it's everything that is
happening with Gainside
PX and email marketing.
Yes.
Perfect.
Maybe we'll go for one that's linked to how you interact with your product team
So once you identify any issues with the product that the data has highlighted,
how do you
get the roadmap change?
So how do you get that buy and that influence from product?
Yes, for that, and again, I have to refer to the collaboration.
We are meeting on a weekly basis to understand the impact of all of our
campaigns, showcasing
what is working, what is not working, really getting together and collectively
deciding,
okay, does strategy in terms of roadmap therefore need to change?
So very much feeding the product team with all the information that we leverage
and we
get into, whether it's outliers, whether it's non-usage, and that is pretty
much it.
Thanks, so a question from Sam.
So great presentation.
If users don't go into the app and see the in-app messaging, do you have any
other techniques
to upgrade customers?
Yes.
So as you know, Gainside PX also allows for email comms, but we are on email
marketing
software, so why we're not using it.
We're relying on us for that that comes back to life cycle is very much
engaging with everything
that is happening in terms of email marketing, which is not Gainside.
So really making sure that if, for example, we see there is a very big drop off
that has
been ongoing for a couple of weeks now in terms of new users in the app or even
the entirety
of active users that you currently have, this feeds the email marketing team
and then we
get together and brainstorm, okay, how do we want to tackle this?
Do we need to send out another campaign, maybe give out a discount?
And that's how we then try to get the customer back into the app.
Do you group your features into solutions based on price plan as well as the
actual features,
options, steps in the product, et cetera.
If I understand correctly, then yes.
So you can imagine AI has been a very big topic, as to why we're definitely
also going
to interact with AI and seeing how we can improve our roadmap with AI.
And that means on the premium plan, I believe, we have a couple of features
specifically focused
on AI and we're trying to really optimize our entire editor for all things AI.
And that means if the first launch of an AI feature, that is going to be very
simple,
but you know down the road, you're going to expand that product offering, but
that comes
back to, okay, we need to really plan out the situation and how can we then use
that
new feature or that second feature on AI within our currently given email in
app campaign.
So which comes back to you, always have to review and adapt to really match
what is happening
in the product roadmap for that to then land to the customer.
So how do you define expansion growth targets for the next years to come?
That's a good question.
You're looking at your boss.
Good question.
Very good question.
I do not have an answer for that.
As simple as that.
No problem.
So yeah, probably just time for one more question.
So how did you get to 14.5 mil in ARR looking at the average price from the
pricing page?
If you did not focus on the custom deals.
Yes, so I think there's a typo because it was over 1.4 million.
So that's a little bit less than what I stated here.
And that campaign has been running for years.
So I'm looking at the entirety of revenue we've generated with that campaign
since launch.
And as you can imagine, maybe a pricing change happened.
It would be possible as to why that is automatically increasing that revenue we
're generating.
Yeah.
And if the top of funnel team were overall, right, we're also doing all the
things to
acquire new customers, meaning our current customer base on the free plan is
very big.
That means I have all the options to contact that customer base and making sure
that they're
upgrading.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
Laura Edna, debut post presentation.
I'm sure it would be the last.
But yeah, give a round of applause for Laura.
That would be a really great session.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. (applause)
