Update: Around the time I wrote this post Drift Email launched. This week Drift Signatures went live. I’ve looked at both of these products, and I’m thrilled with the direction. I still stand by my comments below – Conversational Marketing is a strategy and shouldn’t be conflated with a platform – but I’m so pleased to see Drift embracing the conversational ideology across all channels, and I still think they’re the most advanced conversational platform available.
If we’re going to have a conversation about conversational marketing, the discussion will inevitably drift to Drift – the highly-capable chatbot platform that most often advocates for a deliberate shift from traditional marketing communications to messaging and bots. In fact, Drift is often credited for coining the conversational marketing category.
I love what Drift is accomplishing by disrupting the way we think about marketing communications, but anytime a single platform (or category of platforms) appropriates an industry term I start getting nervous. SaaS companies best interests are in mass-adoption, which means appealing to the lowest common denominator. Don’t expect Drift to push “conversational marketing” in any direction that doesn’t win them subscribers.
[Read more…] about Conversational Marketing has to be bigger than Drift.