Conversations Overview

Striking the perfect balance of manual vs. automated customer engagement can be difficult. With Vitally's Conversations feature, you can create Playbooks to auto-schedule conversations at the right times and make manual edits when further personalization is needed. Let's dig in!

Setting up a Vitally Account to use Conversations

Before sending out conversations, you'll need to sync your Gmail/Outlook, set up your sending window, signature, and sending limit, and enable unsubscribes.

Allowing unsubscribes helps your Gmail reputation
Sending Limits also protect your Gmail reputation to avoid being marked as spam
Sending windows requires the conversation's send date to fall within the window. This is especially helpful when you don't want to send an email outside of business hours or weekends
Setting up your signature is an easy way to make an email more efficient

Unsubscribes, Sending Windows, Sending Limits, Signature

Unsubscribes

If you'd like to manage unsubscribes from your customer emails in Vitally, we provide a robust, configurable way to do so. You can enable this for all conversations created in your account (this is not a global setting) or change it to an individual conversation.

Even if you enable unsubscribes for all emails, you can still change this in an individual conversation.

*Note: the Unsubscribe link is not included when the sending strategy is a Group conversation. If you require your recipients to be able to unsubscribe, please use the 'Start one conversation per user' sending strategy.

Enabling Unsubscribes

How-To

How-To Visual

When using Vitally's unsubscribe functionality, you first need to enable it for your account.

Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left, and under Vitally Object,s select Conversations
Then select Unsubscribes (or via Quick Jump Mac: ⌘ + j Windows: Alt + j)
There, you can edit the copy Users see when including unsubscribe links in emails
There are 2 configuration options - an "Unsubscribe prefix" and an "Unsubscribe link text"
- The former displays in front of the actual unsubscribe link (e.g. "Rather not hear from me again?")
- The latter is the actual link text (e.g. "Click here")

Enabling unsubscribes for specific conversations

There are often 2 types of customer emails, so every conversation you start from Vitally can be configured to include the above unsubscribe link. The 2 types are usually:

'Helpful' ones you'd like the customer to read (e.g. new feature releases)
'Urgent' ones that are critical for them to read (e.g. deprecation warnings, credit card issues).

If the email is of an 'urgent' type, you can opt to exclude the unsubscribe link/logic when sending that email. If you allow unsubscribes, 2 things happen when creating the conversation:

Any past unsubscribed users will not be sent the conversation
Conversations will include your above unsubscribe copy/link

If you uncheck the above "Allow Unsubscribes" option, all users will receive your conversation (including those who previously unsubscribed), and an unsubscribe link will not be included in the email. Uncheck wisely—allowing unsubscribes is a general best practice.

Viewing & managing unsubscribed users

How-To	How-To Visual
When viewing a User Table View, you'll see an Unsubscribed column that tracks whether the user has unsubscribed from conversations. Like all columns, you can sort and filter users by this column.
You can also manually change whether users are subscribed or unsubscribed by selecting users and selecting the envelope icons.

Sending Limits

Gmail has a Daily Sending Limit option, which defaults to 250. You can change this in your settings. If the sender exceeds this limit for a given 24-hour period, Vitally will wait until the sender is within the limit prior to sending any more conversations from their account. This option helps ensure your Gmail email has a high reputation and isn't flagged as spam.

The highest sending limit is 1000. This is managed by each email provided, it is not a limit Vitally has control over.

How-To	How-To Visual
How to set up Sending Limits: Selecting your Account Logo on the top left and select My Profile Then select Email & Calendar settings (or via Quick Jump Mac: `⌘ + j` Windows: `Alt + j`) Select Gmail or Outlook There, you can edit the sending limit and add a BCC if you wish

Why add a BCC? If you'd like us to include a BCC address for each email we send (e.g. to auto-forward to a CRM), input that address here.

For example, Salesforce integration does not directly support emails, so if you want Vitally emails to log to Salesforce, you could add your Salesforce to the BCC.

Sending Windows

Every user in Vitally can define a Sending Window for their conversations, which requires the conversation's send date to fall within the window. If the conversation is scheduled to be sent but the send date falls outside the sender's window, we'll delay the conversation until the start of the next window.

For example, if the conversation has a scheduled send date of 8 PM Eastern but the sender's window is only open from 9 AM - 5 PM Eastern, the conversation won't actually go out until 9 AM Eastern (at the earliest) the following day.

Sending Windows come with many benefits:

They help you seem 'human' - If an automated conversation goes out at 3 AM Eastern and you are in Brooklyn, that's a dead giveaway that 1) you are either a robot or 2) you have insomnia. Sending Windows help you seem human :)
They give you time to intervene - Let's say your day starts at around 8 AM. If you'd like to review all outgoing messages sent from your account each day, you need a bit of cushion to do so. Setting a sending window that starts at, say, 10 AM gives you at least 2 hours to review pending conversations before they get sent.
They help you increase the likelihood of a response - If most of your customers are near your timezone and only work weekdays, sending windows can help increase the chance the message ends up in the user's inbox at a time they are already working within their inbox.

How-To	How-To Visual
How to set up Sending Windows: Selecting your Account Logo on the top left and select My Profile Then select Sending Windows (or via Quick Jump Mac: `⌘ + j` Windows: `Alt + j`) There, you can define windows like this ->

Starting a conversation manually will override the sending window if the conversation is not scheduled to be sent.

Signature

You can configure your Gmail integration in Vitally to use Gmail's signature for any emails sent from your Gmail. This will replace any signature defined in Vitally. Your signature defined in Vitally will still be used if the email is sent from other tools! Or check below on how to set up your signature in Vitally.

Every user can add their own signature. The recommendation is to copy and paste from your email!

How-To

How-To Visual

How to set up Signature

Selecting your Account Logo on the top left and select My Profile
Then select Profile (or via Quick Jump Mac: ⌘ + j Windows: Alt + j)
Scroll down to Message Signature
Paste your signature or create from scratch
- You can use commands '/'
- And highlight text to bold, italicize, underline, code, strikethrough, and hyperlink.
If you want to add an image, copy and paste that separately

You can choose to use your Gmail signature when sending emails from Vitally. Just go to Email and Calendar settings to check off the box under Signatures.

Starting a Conversation

There are two ways to start conversations with users:

Automation - Using Playbook automation, you can automatically start a conversation with specific users at accounts matching a set of rules. Examples include auto-engage churn risks, welcome emails to new customers, etc.
Manually - When navigating account and user lists, you can select specific orgs/accounts/users to start conversations with.

How-To	How-To Visual
Automated via a Playbook: Once you've created your playbook, you can add an action to start a Conversation: Add the action to Start a Conversation Select the From. You have two options: You can choose to send from a Key Role (Sender Key Role) Or from a specific person + channel (Gmail, Outlook, Zendesk, Intercom) If available, you can send from an alias (Gmail and Outlook only). You'll see an option for "@ Send as" to select an alias email. Select the To. You can choose from: Account Owners: This will target the assigned Account Owner All Users: This will send to ALL users with a valid email address Specific Users: You can add in filters to target only a subset of Users Or Account Trait: You can use a trait to send a message to If you select All Users or Specific Users, you can also choose a Strategy Start one conversation per user Start a group conversation with users at the same account Add in a delay, if any Choose whether you want to allow and respect user unsubscribes or not Select your Undo Strategy. This is what should happen to unsent messages when an account stops matching the playbook's rules Create your message! You can make one from scratch or use a template on the right hand side. More on conversation formatting below
Manually: You can use the global create button () on the bottom left or, once in an Org/Account/User start a conversation using the arrow button () on the top left: Whether using the Global Create button or the Arrow button in an account, continue below: If using the Global Create button select the Account you're targeting Select the user(s) To send Select the From. You'll select the Sender + Channel (Gmail, Outlook, Zendesk, Intercom, or Sendgrid) Select the Reply To, CC, BCC, and Attachments if any Reply to is useful if you'd like to auto-route and manage replies in tools like Front, Zendesk, etc. Select a Send Date if you want to send it later All 'pending' conversations (i.e. those with a scheduled send date in the future) can be viewed, edited, and deleted in the new Conversations->Pending view in our navigation. Select your format, you can do Standard Rich Text Email or HTML! Create your message! Don't forget the Subject which is at the very top. You can make one from scratch or use a template on the right-hand side. Choose whether you want to allow and respect user unsubscribes or not at the very bottom More on conversation formatting below under Support Functionality.	Global Create Button: In an Org/Account/User:

In order for conversations to be tracked in Vitally, the User must live in Vitally. We can not pull in conversations with a User who does not live in Vitally. Additionally, Vitally can not filter out certain conversations—it's all or nothing.

HTML Emails

You can create conversations using HTML! This includes:

Composing and sending HTML emails
Composing and applying HTML email templates
Styling with style tags and inline styles
Variables in HTML emails
Previewing HTML emails
Sorting and filtering outbound messages by message format (html or rich text)

Just because we support HTML does not mean that your recipient does. This is dependent on their email client!

How to Create a Conversation Template

Creating a template allows you to efficiently send conversations to your customers. You can add personalization, such as variables, to ensure that these feel personalized.

How-To

How-To Visual

How to create a Conversation Template:

Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left, and under Vitally Objects, select Conversations
Then select Templates (or via Quick Jump Mac: ⌘ + j Windows: Alt + j)
Select New Template
There, you can choose whether the template is Private or public (Team)
You can choose either Rich Text or HTML
Add a description
Add any attachments
Add a category to easily filter by (only 1 category can be added)
You can create a one-to-one and a group conversation message. These may be different if you are sending an individual vs a group email to users on the same account
- You must have something in the one-to-one tab, even if only using the group
Add your subject and message!
Once complete, select Create Template on the bottom right

Conversation Supported Functionality

Now that you've created your conversation, you can start building out its content. There's a variety of supported functionality, like commands (headings, bullet lists, variables, etc.), team traits, conversation traits, and conversation delays. Let's dig in!

Alias, Team Trait, Conversation Traits, Commands, Playbook Delays

Alias

You can configure a custom sender alias to send emails from (e.g., success@ or support@) for any emails configured to be sent via Gmail or Outlook.

If the configured Gmail/Outlook account can actually send from the configured alias email, then the email will be sent from that address (Google instructions & Outlook instructions on how to set that up) However, if your account isn't actually configured to allow sending from that alias, the email will still be sent by the primary Gmail/Outlook email.

When you've selected the from email, you'll see a "@ Send as" where you can select an alias email. If the email has dynamic senders (like it is sending from a key role), then the alias select is replaced by text boxes to enter an alias email.

Team Traits

Team Traits in Conversations

Team traits can help make it seem like every message sent from Vitally was handcrafted by the sender for the recipient.

As you start conversations in Vitally, you can optionally auto-send each conversation from the account's CSM. But what if you wanted to inject a unique calendar link (e.g., a Calendly link) into each message that is unique to each CSM? This way, your customers have direct access to a meeting with their CSM in every message. That's where Team Traits can help!

When starting a conversation using an alias, team traits, and sender variables will reflect values for the actual sender, not the alias.

Creating Team Traits

How-To

How-To Visual

How to create Team Traits:

Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left, and under Vitally Object,s select Team Members
Then select Traits (or via Quick Jump Mac: ⌘ + j Windows: Alt + j)
Select Create custom trait
Once you've created the custom trait, your teammates will now need to set a unique value for the trait in their own Vitally account:
1. Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Name on the top left
2. Select My Profile
3. At the bottom of the page, you'll see a list of custom traits you can define values for

Using Team Traits in Conversations

Finally, with your traits defined and values set by your Vitally team members, it's time to use those traits in conversations.

How-To	How-To Visual
How to use Team Traits in Conversations: When in a conversation/template subject or body, type a bracket { Scroll to the bottom where you'll see Sender Variables to choose your team trait Select the Sender Variable Team Trait to populate it in the conversation/template
Using custom traits within hyperlinks You can use a Team Trait that contains a URL to create a dynamic hyperlink. Once you're done with your message, highlight where you want to hyperlink the Team Trait Select the hyperlink icon In the pop-up, type a bracket { Select your Team Trait Press enter to finish

Conversation Traits

You can create custom traits for Conversations. These traits can be used to help organize your conversations by filtering with conversation traits as well as creating widgets in your Custom Dashboards.

How-To	How-To Visual
Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left, and under Vitally Object,s select Conversations Then select Traits (or via Quick Jump Mac: `⌘ + j` Windows: `Alt + j`) Click Create Custom Trait on the top right A pop up will appear where you'll enter the information for your Custom Trait
When viewing a conversation, scroll to the very top Select Add trait There will be a drop-down of all Conversation Traits. Select one or more that you wish to apply Add a value for the Conversation Trait

Use Case for Conversation Traits

Once you've created your conversation traits, you can now begin using them to create views and organize them. Here are some use cases:

You can organize your conversations by the type of team handling the conversation (i.e., Support, Custom Success, Sales).
Create a conversation status trait so you can mark conversations as "open/closed".
If it’s a ticket, you can track time to resolution
or tag conversations per query type "Product Feedback", "Educational", "Bug", etc...

Commands

Once in the body of your email, you can use the backslash for commands such as text, bulleted list, numbered list, image, or button.

You can use the bracket in the subject or body of the conversation to view Org, Account, User, and Sender variables.

Playbook Delays

How delays work with Playbook-initiated conversations:

When auto-creating a conversation using our Playbooks feature, there are two types of delays to consider that affect (1) if your pending conversation gets created and (2) how much of a delay should occur between the point of conversation creation and when the conversation is actually delivered to the customer.

The delay on the Playbook 'action'

When defining your Playbook and adding a 'Start a conversation' action, you'll see this option: Once the playbook is active, apply the below action on day X. X is configurable and defaults to 0 (i.e. start a conversation as soon as the playbook is applied).

This delay defines the amount of time required for the account to match your Playbook's rules before creating the (pending) conversation.

The conversation delay

Once you add an action to your Playbook to start a conversation with the account, you'll also see this option when defining your conversation: Give my team X [hours/days] to review conversations before sending. The default here is "1 day".

This delay acts as a review period for your team. Once the account matches your Playbook's rules for the specified delay above, the conversation gets created at that point and the scheduled date to send the conversation is set to current_time + conversation delay.

Active Conversations

In Active Conversations, you will find a comprehensive list of all the conversations that have been sent to your customers, as well as any conversations sent by your users. This includes both ongoing and completed conversations, providing you with a complete overview of all communication. Whether you need to follow up on a specific conversation or simply want to stay up-to-date with all communication, this section is your go-to resource.

Pending Conversations

Tools that fully automate emails/customer engagement can be a bit unforgiving. Typos and bad or missing data can lead to users receiving emails that have very little chance of a response. For those reasons, we have a "Pending" stage for conversations prior to them being sent to users. Here's how that works! Pending Conversations can be created for a few reasons:

When creating conversations, you always have the option to start them later or on a delay. If the conversation has this delay, we'll create it as 'pending' with a scheduled date in the future for it to be sent to the user.
Every user in Vitally can define a Sending Window for their conversations, which requires the conversation's send date to fall within the window. If the conversation is scheduled to be sent but the send date falls outside the sender's window, we'll delay the conversation until the start of the next window.
Gmail has a Daily Sending Limit option, which defaults to 250. If the sender exceeds this limit for a given 24 hour period, we will wait until the sender is within the limit prior to sending any more conversations from their account. This option helps ensure your Gmail email has a high reputation and isn't flagged as spam.

There is an hourly limit of 60 emails per hour. This is strictly to help your reputation with gmail and avoid your reputation from deteriorating.

Create Conversations View

To view your pending conversations, you can create a Table View! You can also create other types of Views, you can learn more about those HERE.

How-To	How-To Visual
Once you've created your Hub, select the + plus sign to Add a View inside You'll now see a pop-up with all your options where you will: Select Tables Select your Data Source as Pending Conversations or Active Conversations Name your Table View You can further customize by adding a Name and an Emoji Once your Table View has been created, you can start to add any filters to narrow down your results (CSM, trait filters, Segments, etc) Once you've added all your filters, don't forget to Save Changes on the top right All Hub members can view this table, but only you and those with edit access can edit it. You can grant additional view or edit access to any team member by selecting the Share button on the top right
Pending Conversations Once in your Table View, we'll preview the message. If you'd like to make changes prior to the conversation being sent: Open the Conversation you want to edit You can edit the subject or body by clicking into the area You can edit the send date Or any other details of the conversations (To, CC, Bcc, etc) You can send the conversation immediately by selecting the arrow icon on the top right You can delete the pending conversation (i.e. prevent it from sending) by selecting the trash can icon on the top right

Open and Reply Analytics

As emails are sent from Vitally, we inject a tracking pixel into the email to determine when your users view the email. We define an email as ‘open’ the moment the recipient’s email client loads the tracking pixel, indicating that the email has been viewed. This usually happens when they click to open the email. You can view whether your users then open emails in 2 ways:

Viewing if a specific message was opened
Viewing open rates for a specific template

How to	How to Visual
Viewing if a specific message was opened When viewing a conversation thread in Vitally, we'll show an indicator to the top right of the message indicating whether it has been seen yet.
Viewing email analytics for a specific template If you use Playbooks to auto-send a specific template, or if you manually send a template from Vitally, we'll track all-time analytics of each of your templates. To view email analytics, follow the steps below: navigate to Conversation Settings -> Templates in your account settings (or get there via Quick Jump). There, we'll display analytics for all your templates, such as: Sent Opened Replied Bounced Unsubscribed

Conversation FAQ

Q: Why is there an active conversation under an Account that's not involved?

A: If any participant of that email is a tracked User in Vitally and tied to multiple accounts, all conversations that the User is included in will appear in all Accounts they're tied to.

Q: What is the difference between ‘Assigned to’ vs ‘Started by’

A: Assigned To is set by Intercom or Zendesk. The field is set to the ticket's assignee in the integration. Started By is set as the first message sender that is a Vitally User. This field is set by any of the messaging integrations, i.e. Gmail or Outlook.

Q: Why am I unable to start a conversation with certain users?

A: There could be several reasons you're unable to start conversations with specific users: (1) no users match the criteria, (2) the users are all unsubscribed, (3) the Account is ignored, (4) the user does not match the send criteria.

Q: Why do I see "An error occurred when trying to send this message: Message was not sent because it was scheduled to send more than 7 days ago"

A: This could be for a few reasons like (1) no email address exists, (2) the email address is invalid, (3) there is an abundance of emails, and due to sending limits, it has passed the timeline of how many days we try to send emails. We will try to send for 3 days for “immediate send” and 7 days for scheduled send

Q: Where can I set up my email signature?

A: Every user in Vitally can configure their own message signature within Settings > Profile.

Q: When creating an HTML Conversation Template, can I embed commands like the native NPS survey?

A: No, HTML Conversation Templates only support HTML and can not embed the native NPS survey. You'll want to use a Rich Text Template instead!

Q: Does Vitally support Right-to-Left text?

A: This is currently supported only with HTML conversations. You can specify the tag dir=”rtl” to control the alignment.

Q: I started a group conversation with an account; how does the Playbook select who receives the email? A: We'll start a group conversation with the account owner, then the 9 next most recently seen users. We currently only allow for 10 recipients in each group conversation started.

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