Today we're announcing that we've acquired Drip. Drip is a world-class marketing automation and email platform.
If you want the details (well, at least some of them), here's the full press release. (I was going to assert that we "Aqui-partnered with" Drip, but the last thing we all need is another made-up word from the startup world.)
And here are … The 9 things you need to know about the Drip acquisition.
1. Drip has a 21-day free trial
OK, so I'm admittedly marketing here, but if you're interested in taking your marketing automation and funnels to the next level, I'd encourage you to try Drip-free for 21 days. Here’s where you can sign up for a 21-day trial.
2. Drip is a world-class automation and email platform
In terms of feature set, integrations, lead scoring, etc., we think Drip can go head to head with anyone (including publicly traded companies in the marketing automation space). Especially when you consider its UI and simplicity.
Right now our marketing team is moving from HubSpot to Drip to take advantage of its visual workflows and funnels.
Here are some of our favorite aspects of Drip:
- Visual Workflows: Apply tags, send one-off emails or entire campaign sequences, wait for two days until the following Tuesday at 11 am, branch with if/then logic, and do about 30 other things … all defined visually and powered by Drip’s automation engine.
- A Comprehensive Customer Timeline: Drip makes it really, really easy to see everything your contacts have done from the moment they’re tagged by the system. Here’s an example:
- Lead Scoring (to Identify Your Best Leads):
Drip’s lead scoring algorithm tracks the number of events to determine which subscribers are most engaged with your content and likely to become customers. You can easily sort and filter contacts by the lead score to focus your efforts on your most engaged subscribers. - Rule-Based Tagging and Segments:
You can use Drip’s automation engine to apply tags to your subscribers when they perform particular actions, such as visiting a page on your website, clicking a link in an email, making a purchase, or any other custom event you define. Drip also supports unlimited custom fields, so you can collect and act on any kind of information you need to know.
- Lots of Triggers and Actions: Drip’s rule builder includes 11 kinds of triggers and 14 potential actions. Automation can be used to move subscribers in and out of campaigns, apply tags, record conversions, send them to another application (such as your CRM), and more.
- Triggers Events Based on Pageviews: Drip can track which pages of your site contacts have visited. Want to send an email to everyone who visits your pricing page? With a simple rule in Drip, you can do this automatically.
- Deep Analytics: Drip automatically tracks subscriber activity on your site (and in your app, if you have one), along with key performance metrics for opt-in forms and campaigns.
- Lots of Integrations: Drip natively integrates with dozens of applications and platforms: landing page providers (including Leadpages, of course), payment gateways, shopping carts, CRM platforms, and more.
- Subscriber Pruning:
You can easily tell Drip to regularly remove subscribers who are no longer engaging with your emails, which keeps your costs down and your list quality high. - A Strong API:
Drip’s technical underpinnings are impressive. They have full-featured JavaScript and server-side (RESTful) APIs, outbound webhooks, and an integration with Segment.com.
Here's an example of how an advanced user might use the product:
3. Drip has really cool customers and fans
Drip has a really cool list of customers and fans, including:
- WhenIWork
- Ambassador
- Segment
- Teamwork.com
- Help Scout
- My friend Nate at StickyAlbums.com
Seeing things like this made us really want to do this deal:
And articles like this from Dan Norris showed us the real value of this platform.
It’s also been great seeing Drip listed as the preferred automation provider of respected sites like GrowHack.com.
4. This deal has been in the making for over a year now
Here's my first email to Rob over a year ago.
Since sending that email, I’ve discovered that Rob and Derrick are not only great product people and visionaries, but they're also really kind, generous, and thoughtful people. The kind of people I would work for.
5. Leadpages will continue to enthusiastically add integrations with Drip competitors.
We believe that the days of "one marketing suite to rule them all" are over.
We believe that a customer's decision to buy one of our products shouldn't lock them into all of our products.
We believe that our customers should be able to use Leadpages with whatever email service provider, marketing automation platform, or CRM they choose.
We believe in aggressively adding and supporting new integrations with Leadpages, especially integrations that compete directly with Drip. (Again, we truly believe in the open marketing stack and want our customers to have choices.)
6. Drip will continue to enthusiastically integrate with Leadpages competitors.
Please see the above. If you have a landing page or forms solution and want Drip to integrate with you, please let me know on Twitter @claycollins, and we'll do our best to make it happen.
7. This Is Good for Drip Customers and Leadpages Customers
The entire Drip team has joined Leadpages while maintaining its current reporting structure. And I'm excited to announce that the cofounders will be moving to Minneapolis, along with several other members of the Drip team. We're in this for the long haul, and this won't be a win unless both Drip and Leadpages customers consider it one.
"My vision is to continue pushing forward on the path we've traveled for 3 years, but use the extensive resources of Leadpages to launch features faster, and make Drip a better product in a way we couldn't accomplish on our own."
Rob, CEO at Drip
Drip’s About page says: "Drip may just be the first email marketing tool to make marketing automation accessible to the masses. It's grass-fed, organic software lovingly handcrafted in California."
That’s why we love them. Drip has magic. And if we killed any of that magic, this acquisition would be a failure.
If you're a Drip customer, I believe you’ll see just one main difference post-acquisition: Rob and Derrick will have more resources to scale their vision.
If you're a Leadpages customer, please know that we remain as committed and focused as ever on providing you with value and that this acquisition will benefit you in ways that I can't disclose just yet.
8. I'm going to try and convince Rob to speak at Converted
Rob, if you're reading this, any chance you can speak on October 18–19 here in Minneapolis? P.S. You should totally come this year. It's going to be awesome.
9. We've got lots planned for Drip’s future roadmap.
Lots. I cannot believe what they've built with 7 employees. We're just getting started. To stay in the loop, be sure to go here and get on Drip's newsletter.
