Steps we'll cover:

1. Custom fields for reply data.
2. Program channel tag for conversational email.
3. Routing for human replies.
4. Tracking for human replies.
5. Smart Campaign within program to set "Replied" status.
6. Smart List to exclude people from subsequent emails.

You'll bounce between Marketo and Drift Email to complete these steps.

 

In Marketo: Custom Fields and Channel Tag

1. Custom Fields for Reply Metadata

You will create two custom fields for reply data:

• Drift Email Subject (field type: string) This is the subject line captured from the reply. This field should be mapped to Drift Email's "Email subject" field. You could also call this field "Last Email Reply Subject."
   
• Last Drift Email Reply (field type: datetime) This is for tracking the date that the contact replied. This field should be mapped to Drift Email's "Date of the Reply" field. You could also call this field "Last Reply Date."

2. Program Channel Tag - Progression Status for Replied.

This is for something like "Conversational Email" or "AutoXDR" which is a program that has human emails going out to prospects trying to drive replies.

In your channel, you'll need the following progression statuses:

• Member
• Delivered
• Clicked
• Replied

In Drift Email: Route & Track Skill

In Drift Email, you'll need to set up routing for your human replies. For this use case, the human reply type is most important. 

3. Routing Replies to Your Sales Reps

Most likely you'll want to route positive human replies to someone on your sales team. You can do this by specifying a certain email address, or by looking up the correct lead owner in Marketo.

For more information on these options, check out our help guide on route and track here. In our example, we're sending the human replies directly to lead owners.

 

4. Tracking Reply Data to Marketo

Here, you can map fields that will trigger updates in Marketo to give context on the contacts who replied.

• Under the Drift Email Fields section, find the "Email Subject" field. Map this  to the custom "Drift Email Subject" field you created earlier.
• Do the same for the "Date of the reply" Drift Email field, and map this to the other custom field you created.
• Save your skill and enable it in the upper right.

 

In Marketo: Taking Action on "Replied" Status & Data

Once you've set up routing and tracking in Drift Email, you can set up a smart campaign to set contacts' status once they've replied.

 

5. Smart Campaign - Define Logic for Replied Status

Smart List. In your smart list, set a trigger for when the "Drift Email Subject" attribute changes and set the value to contain the literal subject line of your email. In our example, we include the entire subject line to be sure that we only capture contacts who reply to this specific email.

 

Flow. In your flow, set the status to Conversational Email > Replied. As an optional step, you can also add these contacts to a specific static list for additional tracking.

 

6.) Smart List - Exclude from Subsequent Emails

In order to create a seamless experience, you'll need to remove people who replied from additional automated communication. Doing this ensures that you don't keep sending your email series to contacts who have already responded and started a conversation.

To remove those people, set up a smart list in your next program to exclude contacts who have a program status of "Replied."

• Filter one contains the target audience for ongoing emails via this campaign
• Filter two excludes replied program members from receiving subsequent sends. It's also possible to use a static exclusion list, containing members who have previously replied.

 

Other Technical Considerations in Marketo

• You'll have to manually update the subject line in your program. Unfortunately there isn't a good way to scale that with tokens, but hopefully it shouldn't be too much work overall.
• This approach doesn't work well if you use tokens or other variable text in your subject line.
• Not only should you have progression statuses on these programs for "Replied," but these statuses should sync with your SFDC Campaigns. That way, you can get some useful out-of-the-box reporting on campaign influence in SFDC and prove that your conversational email campaigns are bringing value. This will also be critical if you use Bizible for full-funnel attribution.

Still stuck? Reach out to Marketo support if you still have any questions regarding Marketo.