Objective
Learn how to install and configure Outreach's integration with Drift to drive real-time conversations with your Outreach sequences. When a prospect clicks any link to your website in your Outreach sequence, they’ll be greeted with a personalized message from their sales rep. If that rep isn’t around, no problem – a bot can jump in and book a meeting for them.
Applies To
- Outreach Admins
Before You Begin
You need the same admin on both platforms (Drift and Outreach) to enable the integration.
The integration only works for users with licenses to both platforms.
Adding the Drift integration is an org-wide action rather than a personal one for a single rep’s account.
A Note on Permissions
When you click to install, you’ll see a box from Drift asking for access to your Outreach account. For the integration to work, Outreach needs to send some of the prospect and sender data. With this information, Drift can recognize Outreach prospects when they’re directed to Drift from an Outreach sequence link.
To ensure the same rep who sent the Outreach sequence is also the rep on the Drift chat, Drift needs to know who the Outreach user is so it can personalize the chat message for the prospect. Clicking Authorize App gives Outreach permission to send this info to Drift, and to receive the information from the conversation driven from your Outreach sequence.
Procedures
Installing the Drift Integration
- Log into your Outreach instance.
- In a new browser tab, open the Drift integration page on the Outreach Marketplace: https://marketplace.outreach.io/apps/drift?store=public
- Click Install app.
- Review and click through the permissions and installation confirmation dialog to complete the procedure. More detailed information follows below.
Configuring the the Drift Integration
Once the Outreach and Drift integration is installed, by default, all links within your sequences will now send certain information to Drift.
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- If Drift can find a match of the user (Sally Rep who sends the e-mail also has a Drift account she uses to chat with prospects), the Drift chatbot on your website will greet the prospect with Sally’s picture and greeting.
- If you choose to only have certain links on your website connect between Outreach and Drift, you can designate them in the blank box.
When a prospect is directed to Drift from your Outreach sequence link, what happens next depends on the action the prospect takes.
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- If they don’t engage with the chatbot, nothing happens to your sequence.
- If they send a message, a New Conversation will post in that prospect’s activity feed in Outreach. Each Drift chat message (whether from the prospect or the rep) will then be posted as a line in your activity feed.
- Too much Drift activity clogging up your activity feed? We’d suggest unchecking Inbound Messages and Outbound Messages so each individual message doesn’t post to Outreach. A URL for the full transcript of the chat can be found on the New Conversation event.
After a prospect engages with you on your Drift chat, they will by default remain in the sequence that drove them there.
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- To ensure that prospect’s next step is contextual, you can trigger custom actions within Outreach so they don’t continue in their current sequence unless desired.
- We recommend setting up a new trigger immediately to designate what should happen when one of the events stated in #2 occurs.
Be sure to also turn on your your Outbound Playbook in Drift. While the playbook is turned on, prospects will see it when they land on the webpage.
To connect Outreach to Drift, click the green Connect Outreach to Drift button. (Alternatively, in your Drift platform settings, click the green icon.)
This enables Drift to see all available Outreach sequences (your private sequences and sequences that have been shared with you) and enroll leads/prospects into them directly from Drift.
Finally, click Authorize App for Drift to be able to create prospects, import sequences, add to sequence, send emails from your inbox, and perform any other necessary operations within Outreach.
How the Integration Drives Real-Time Conversations With All Of Your Outreach Sequences
When a prospect clicks a link in your email, they’ll be redirected to the associated web page. With the Outreach + Drift integration enabled, a personalized chatbot will fire with the associated rep’s name and/or picture (assuming the Outreach rep who sent the email also uses Drift to engage with prospects).
If the prospect doesn’t engage with the chatbot, the sequence keeps moving forward unaffected.
If the prospect engages with the chatbot, their email is captured automatically, the chat activity will be posted in Outreach (based on the settings you enabled earlier), and you can determine how you want the sequence to respond (based on the triggers you set up earlier).
Drift events are posted in the Outreach activity feed.
Make sure you’ve set your filters to include events from external parties. If Drift events are clogging up your activity feed, you can always update your Drift settings to limit what types of Drift events you want posted in your feed.
Best Practices for Leveraging the Outreach and Drift Integration
What to Do After Enabling the Integration
Once you’ve enabled the integration on both ends, you can elect to leave things as they are. Your sequence links don’t need updating. We’ll automatically send prospect info to Drift when links are clicked and directed to your website where Drift is enabled and there is a match between the Outreach and Drift user. Drift will post chat events to the Outreach activity feed. Once the app is installed, an email notification will be sent to all Outreach admins on your account.
To make the most of your integration, you might also consider:
- Creating sequences specifically meant to follow up with unconverted website leads (which you can now put into Outreach sequences). For example, if a lead goes to your pricing page, has questions about pricing but doesn’t book a meeting right then, create a “Pricing Follow-Up Sequence.”
- Rethinking your sequence strategy to not only optimize for replies, but to drive people to your website so you can have a live chat with hot, high-quality prospects.
- Setting up your triggers (if you haven't already). When a prospect is driven from your sequence to a website chat, by default, that prospect will remain in sequence. Triggers allow you to customize what happens to that prospect in Outreach after the chat finishes so the next step is contextual.
Automatically Follow Up With Prospects You Chat With In Drift
Now when you’re chatting with a prospect in Drift, you can immediately enroll them in an Outreach sequence. That way, you’ll never forget to follow up. (See also: Drift's guide How to Connect Drift and Outreach)
To Add Contacts to an Outreach Sequence from Drift
- Within your Drift contact list, select a Drift contact.
- Click Enroll in Sequence.
- Review any sequences you have permission to view and use (respecting your governance settings), and enroll the prospect into a sequence directly from Drift.
Miscellaneous
If a prospect clicks a link when you're out of office, whatever out of office or routing rules you have in place in your Drift settings will function as always.
If you have some reps not using the Drift and Outreach integration, they will not be impacted by installing it. Your prospects will be directed to whatever link they click, and your Drift settings will function as they always have. The chat message simply won’t be personalized and you won’t be able to identify the prospect from the sequence link.
Once installed, you can navigate back to manage your Drift integration via Administration (cog icon) > Integrations > Apps. Then search for and click on the Drift integration icon.