Iterable is an AI-powered customer communication platform that activates customers across channels in real-time. With intelligent personalization, dynamic content, and a cross-channel suite, Iterable helps brands create seamless, data-driven experiences across email, SMS, push, and in-app notifications.
At OneVision, I was brought on to migrate from ActiveCampaign and it was a huge improvement to go to Iterable. Much of the improvement lay in the back end connectivity to databases, which although not directly in my purview, made it easier to work as a team (product & marketing) inside our company.
Landing pages. Say, a webinar optin page. Or a lead magnet optin page. People can be persuaded to believe that others like the lead magnet and don't want to be left behind and also they can trust others opinions. So, having a widget on these pages that shows, "XYZ just signed up" can help with getting more sign ups. A widget that shows the amount of people that are looking at a certain page is also beneficial. The best thing to do, is to test at all times. See if the conversion rate is increased or if it drops. And test variations of the widget one at a time. Sometimes, it helps, but in some cases, one can see little difference. So the key is to test. We used it on a front page and we optimized it for speed. We saw that we had several things that slowed our site down. So we decided to take away some of the items. This included our widget from Provely. It does not take a lot of resources, but we were super savvy and wanted the optimal speed. We might revert back into adding it again, but for now, we stripped the page for all extra baggage so we were certain that we had the correct overview on the speed that was needed. The widgets can be less appropriate also, if one wants full attention to the copy on a page. This is also a savvy choice. So the key is to TEST, again... To determine if it helps or halts conversions. This example we are seeing on direct response sales pages in the make money online nice. They rarely use this. Some do. So again, testing will determine the effect. (A savvy user tests, but even those, skip it some times, so it is best to use your own due diligence)
Customer Journey creation - the platform easily creates a visual path for the marketing team to curate messaging based around timing, channel, behavior as well as add split testing logic and exit criteria so we target only the audiences we want.
Customer Success - one of the best teams I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I'm able to move so much quicker because they really create a helpful partnership.
Audience segmentation, the platform is easy to work with even if you're a first time user, they do a great job of visually showing the logic and the and/or/none type rules.
Insights. I think this is the biggest downfall of Iterable, the insights and analytics area is really not good at all. We have almost stopped using it all together in favour of just using Mixpanel (but now we're paying for 2 platforms). Things we can do in Mixpanel that we can't do in Iterable:
- custom conversion windows
- more scalable reports
- comparing multiple events
- setting up alerts that trigger to slack
Segmentation - building segments and organizing lists that are already built.
- relative dates can be confusing but are a critical piece of building lists
- unable to compare multiple events
- we have a pretty good naming structure for our lists but with so many daily users, no good way to organize them (with labels or folders) and searching for a list requires you to find the exact word we end up re creating dynamic lists each time
- static lists don't show you what rules were used to create the list
- no way to see changes over time
Improved ways of collaborating. There's no way of knowing if other people are editing a list, template, campaign or journey. easy to overwrite each other's work
I've been an Iterable user for about 4 years, at 2 different companies. SinceI started using Iterable I think the number of bugs has increased.
I wish Iterable did a better job testing releases so we're not the ones discovering issues so frequently.
In app message. We've had issues with this tool/channel starting at implementation. It feels like it never made it's way out of beta, despite us paying for it now.
The app team offered to do working sessions with us to understand how we use it day to day and never followed up on that. There have been no improvements to the tool and any time we run into another issue with it (although Jena in support is great) it takes forever to diagnose or we are told the issue cannot be replicated. It just feels like we have constant issues with this tool.
We've actually onboarded to another tool (not ideal for omni channel) for some in app messages because this one has so many downfalls and is so buggy.
Self serve documentation is great when you have an idea of what you're doing but not entirely sure. It is not easy to understand for people who are newer or less well versed in the platform.
We see the professional look it gives, and the live proof it provides. It helps with conversions, so we want to be sure we have the optimized numbers for our business. It is worth keeping so we earn more leads, and sales by piggybacking on the psychological effect of FOMO and more. We believe it is a must have in our arsenal, at least on selected pages.
Iterable is there like 99.9% of the time. However, when it goes down, it grinds us to a halt. Most of the time, outages are an hour or less, but if that's at a peak time, it can be a nightmare. That said, when the worst does happen, there are frequent updates and an easy situation tracker that give you an estimate of how much longer you'll have to wait for the issue to be resolved.
The API is super quick. The UI can be a little sluggish depending on what you're loading, but overall Iterable performs great. Iterable appears to do a good job of making processes async so that one action isn't blocking another.
I've never experienced any issues with Iterable. As I and my colleagues have learnt the system and it's features, response to questions and advice from our account manager is always quick. Kevin knows the product well, and with the few tricky questions has hasn't been able to answer he's been quick to get back to us.
We had a question... We asked about a certain feature... One that was not present. So, what happened is that they responded quickly, but also, they developed the feature FOR US, which is unprecedented in many ways. It is not the norm, so we were taken great care of. The support was more than helpful and we would recommend them any day of the week.
The only thing to note, if you're afraid of tech, get the developer to install the code. You can do the design, but maybe get someone to install the code, again, it is done in minutes. Maybe 5. The other thing to note, keep an eye on your stats and analytics. You install this for a reason, to help with conversions. The only way to know for sure if it is right for your page(s) is to track it. If it does not aid your % it is of no use. Not EVERY page will be a candidate at all times. BUT, most are. So my advice is to go for it, get it set up. Track your before and after. If you an uplift in your % then keep it. If there is no visible change, maybe you're not tracking the right metrics over the right amount of time, so check if you can track deeper. If you have tracked really well, and not seeing an uplift, maybe change the wording, the widget, or the placement of it. And keep tracking. If there is no change short-term or long-term, then I would reflect on the usage. It is made to uplift conversions and it does so. But it is your job to place it where it matters, like on a lead magnet page, where others can see that they are not alone in both wanting and/or taking action and physically signing up to a lead magnet. So, again, my advice, get it set up. You will most likely do the job right on the first go, and from there, enjoy, and keep tracking
I admittedly don't remember much of Klaviyo, as I have become so familiar with Iterable. I definitely prefer Iterable, however. There are so many more features in Iterable and it just feels like a more dynamic and comprehensive experience with more granular data than Klaviyo presented us
We have tested 3 other products in the past, all failed to have the complete solution we were looking for. Provely is here to stay and has added lots of features. 1 of the other tools we tested are low on features. 1 of the tools we tested had a short run and updates stopped and the project was abandoned. 1 of them never worked properly.
We've definitely tested scalability, and it's no line - it works. The process is pretty easy. Most of the times it goes off without a hitch. Any time we do encounter issues, our support team is quick to get on the job and very communicative as they work us through a successful launch.
