Sigstr recently announced the launch of its new relationship marketing platform and Sigstr Pulse application.  The new cloud offering analyzes email and calendar patterns to determine the strength of relationships between employees and prospects.  Instead of determining engagement as clickthroughs and web visits, Sigstr Pulse determines relationship strength based upon employee interactions with prospects.  Data is collected passively with sales reps not required to take any action.

According to Sigstr, “Revenue lags relationships. When you understand the quality of relationships, marketers can provide better air coverage and sales can forecast better.”

Sigstr calls out relationships between employees, accounts, contacts, and location; scores the strength of those relationships; assesses relationship strength over time; and helps identify warm introductions.  As a relationship marketing platform, Sigstr visualizes the relationships with key accounts and determines “which contacts you know best and which you need to know better.”

Sigstr argues that corporate inboxes and calendars are the best source for measuring relationships.  Relationships “live and grow in the inbox,” said Sigstr CEO Bryan Wade.

“Relationships are the lifeblood of every business, and no other system tracks who has relationships with whom better than a corporate email system. Sigstr Pulse allows marketers to effortlessly solve a problem everyone knows they have, making it easy to understand your organization’s complex web of relationships and take action on them. One practical example is in event marketing, as brands can send invitations to potential attendees based on the hierarchy of relationships within an organization,” said Wade. “Our platform is already in the email flow of hundreds of thousands of employees at some of the world’s largest brands, which means they can flip a switch to turn on relationship marketing via Sigstr Pulse. As we’re marketing in the era of GDPR, tapping into coworkers’ existing business relationships means less cold calling and more productive marketing.”

Sigstr provides location-based intelligence to help identify where contacts are located.  This intelligence assists with on-site meeting planning, territory assignment, and assessing relationship strength at the location level.  Location-based intelligence can also be employed for event planning and marketing.

Sigstr evaluates relationship strength based upon the frequency, recency, and directionality of communications along with the acceptance of calendar invites. Users are able to build targeted lists, identify strong relationships with the company for referrals, and evaluate how relationships are strengthening or atrophying at ABM accounts.

“Sigstr has expanded the opportunity for marketing and sales teams by allowing them to make the person-to-person connections they need through existing relationships within the organization.  Email is at the center of nearly every professional’s daily workflow, and now they can use those interactions to build their business beyond just the conversations they’re having.”

• Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing

Sigstr does not yet have the functionality to exclude specific individuals or departments from your relationship data, but there are controls that manage which inboxes are integrated with Sigstr Pulse. Users cannot yet block access to relationships for teams involved in confidential communications such as litigation, M&A, and partnerships. Likewise, individuals cannot opt out if they wish to retain control over their relationships. As this is a V1 release, it is likely that their customers will demand such controls to be added.

Sigstr does have GDPR controls in place to modify or delete specific users, if users wish to remove their personal information.

Sigstr Pulse supports a Chrome Connector which provides on demand company and contact relationship insights while browsing the web.

Sigstr Pulse pricing is based on number of users (logging into the application and downloading the Chrome extension) and email volume.

Sigstr also offers an email signature marketing application which provides custom messaging and banners within employee email signature blocks.