Context Marketing with Slackbots: A Complete Guide

The context marketing mantra is: “Get the right content to the right person at the right time.”

You might use a marketing automation platform like Marketo, Pardot, HubSpot, or Eloqua to repeat this mantra at scale through the creation of automated workflows and personalized content campaigns. The downside to these “set and forget” campaigns is they’re contained to marketing systems with only passive involvement from the sales rep working the account.

A Slackbot can keep sales in the loop

At Workato, we want sales reps actively involved in campaigns, because that’s when they:

• Look for the context clues in their accounts
• See the value in content marketing
• Follow up on marketing messages in sales calls

So we use ContentBot, a Slackbot built in Workato that prompts sales reps to send content that makes sense for the context of the account. ContentBot makes it possible for reps to see and approve content touches inside Slack, without dedicating too much time to marketing. It also lets marketers sync up with sales, while still controlling who gets what at which point in the buyer lifecycle. It’s how Workato swirls content into the sales motion to integrate content marketing.

There are several benefits to taking an integrated approach:

• Sales facilitates personalized marketing experiences
• Leads and customers receive a consistent message
• A feedback loop opens between sales and marketing

How to build the Slackbot

ContentBot is a Workato build, so you can customize some of the applications, as well as the triggers and flow steps to suit your use case. At Workato, our build prompts the sales team to send copies of The New Automation Mindset book to contacts in progressing opportunities.

Here’s what the ContentBot “recipe” (Workato’s term for an automation workflow) looks like:

The workflow engine

• Workato
  • SQL connector
  • Lookup tables
  • Corporate API

Required applications

• A CRM, like Salesforce
• A messaging app, like Slack

Optional applications

• A sales engagement platform, like Outreach.io
• A gifting platform, like Printfection
• An digital content platform, like RedShelf

Trigger

An opportunity progresses to S1 in SFDC’s “Opportunity Field History”

Flow steps

1. SFDC finds contacts associated with the opportunity

2. Workato performs a SQL query if each contact already has a book
   • If “yes,” stop
   • If “no,” continue

3. Workato parses the contact data to extract:
   • Rep name
   • Contact name
   • Contact email address
   • Contact home address
   • Contact work address

4. Workato finds the rep’s Slack account using the corporate API

5. Slack sends the rep a message. The rep can choose to:
   • Send Copy to Home (command “book”)
   • Send an eBook (command “ebook”)

6. Workato parses the data to extract the rep’s command

7. If the command is “book”…
   1. Workato parses the contact’s home and work addresses
   2. If the home address is missing, Slack asks the rep to:
      1. Send an eBook (command “ebook”)
      2. Input Personal Address (command “home address”)
      3. Send Copy to HQ (command “work address”)
      4. Let them know via Email (command “email”)

3. Workato parses the data to extract the rep’s command
   • If the command is “ebook,” skip to the next step
   • If the command is “home address,” Slack asks the rep to input the address

3. If the command is “work address,” it replaces the address
4. If the command is “email,” Outreach.io drafts an email for the rep

4. Workato submits the address to Printfection

8. If the command is “ebook”…
   1. Workato sends a RedShelf code via Marketo

9. Slack sends the rep a confirmation message

When to add Slackbots to your context marketing flows

ContentBot loops sales reps into marketing motions, prompting them to participate in content plays, so incorporate it when it makes sense for them. Here are a couple of examples:

When marketing and sales both want it

You can get quick wins by leveraging ContentBot in situations where marketing and sales are already on the same page. At Workato, marketers want contacts in the later stages of the buyer’s journey to be familiar with the New Automation Mindset, as its ideas are key to later marketing motions like expansion plays. At the same time, sales reps want to give the book to contacts at their accounts, as it accelerates the deal cycle and leads to higher win rates. When the interests of both organizations overlap, like at Workato, sales reps adopt ContentBot quickly.

When you want to raise the profile of key marketing campaigns

You can use ContentBot to bring key marketing campaigns to the sales team’s attention or elevate experimental campaigns that require an adaptive strategy. If you take this approach, ContentBot is a means of prioritizing cornerstone content or opening up feedback loops.

By looping sales reps into these campaigns, your organization can quickly capitalize on opportunities. For instance, if a marketing campaign generates a surge of interest, sales can respond promptly to engage potential customers—as they already have all the context.