It's the season finale of Conversation Starters (😱), and we're bringing it home by highlighting the power of social media in continuing the conversation.

Amy Jo Martin is an author, investor, founder/CEO, keynote speaker, and podcast host. She built out the Pheonix Suns' social media strategy, amassed her own Twitter following of over 900,000, and even met her husband through social media. Needless to say, Amy Jo is no stranger to the influence social media can have on a person's professional, and personal, life.

In this Season 2 finale, Amy Jo and Sammi discuss why it's so important for brands to invest in social media. They talk about how social media helps keep a prospect engaged with a brand, how Amy Jo thinks about measuring the success of social media, and why it's so important to stay human on social.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi and Amy Jo Martin on Twitter @sammireinstein, @AmyJoMartin, and @DriftPodcasts.

When Kris Borja talked about auditing playbooks on the podcast last week, he emphasized the importance of contextualizing a playbook to the journey a site visitor is on. To get that context, understanding where that site visitor came from can be very helpful. That's where paid ads come in.

Caitlin Seele is the Head of Digital Marketing at Drift. In this episode, Caitlin joins Sammi to talk about how Drift thinks about its paid ad strategy. She shares examples of the thousands of tests we run weekly, how her team works with the sales team to characterize site visitors who came from a paid ad, and how Drift eats its own dog food in the world of digital.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts and Caitlin on LinkedIn.

With a name like Conversation Starters, it's no wonder why we've been talking a lot about how to have the right conversations on this show. But the reality is that many conversations take place on a website before that human-human phone call, in-person meeting, or video chat takes place.

That's why a contextualized, personalized playbook strategy is so critical to your website experience.

Kris Borja is the Director of Conversational Marketing at Digital Reach Agency - a B2B internet marketing agency built for demand generation. He spends most of his day aligning his clients' goals to a Drift chat strategy.

In this episode, Kris explains why auditing your playbooks is critical to chat success, the playbook myths he's debunked through routine auditing, and he shares' the #1 deliverable that will help you make sure you're having the right conversations with your prospects at the right time.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts and Kris on LinkedIn.

Last week, Drift's Tate Knapp took us through his experiences working as a CDR, SDR, and an AE. He shared the key characteristics he thinks make up a strong SDR and AE relationship. This week, we said decided to take it a step further and have both an AE and an SDR on the show.

Amanda Chiang has been an account executive at Drift for about three years, but it's only been 6 months since she started working with sales development rep, Gabrielle Marrocco. Still, the two have managed to quickly build a relationship where everyone - the AE, SDR, and the customer - wins.

In the episode, Amanda and Gabby discuss what their first meetings looked like, how they maintain constant communication, and how they provide feedback to each other.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts and Amanda and Gabby on LinkedIn.

The typical B2B sales cycle has a lot of conversations. Think about it: you have that first inbound (or outbound) conversation, the conversation that takes place once the meeting is booked, and all the conversations that happen between various stakeholders before the contract is signed.

Tate Knapp, one of Drift's account executives, is no stranger to any of these conversations. Tate has been at Drift for over four years, and in this time he's been a chat development representative (CDR), a sales development representative (SDR), and now he's an account executive (AE).

In this episode of Conversation Starters, Tate explains how Conversational Sales has helped him succeed in each of these roles. He shares his favorite first messages to send as a CDR, his favorite outreach method as an SDR, and the topics he makes sure to always cover in his first meeting with a new prospect.

Whether you're just starting out in your sales career, or you're well-tenured, Tate provides examples of how Conversational Sales fits into every part of the sales cycle.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts and Tate on LinkedIn.

This week, we're taking a step away from artificial intelligence to focus on what we, as humans, can do to understand our buyers better. Because when we're informed about our buyers' likes and dislikes, we're better equipped to have impactful conversations.

In this episode of Conversation Starters, Adrienne Barnes, founder of Best Buyer Persona - a data-driven way to discover who your customers are, how they behave, and why they behave that way - explains the four-pronged approach she takes to understanding who her companies' buyers exactly are. She explains why companies should look beyond "Bob the marketer" and "Sally the sales girl" naming conventions and form a complete, unbiased knowledge of their buyer that unifies company messaging across teams.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi, Adrienne, and the Drift Podcast Network on Twitter @sammireinstein,@AdrienneNakohl, and @DriftPodcasts.

Last week, we focused on taking artificial intelligence (AI) out of its black box. This week, we're highlighting why artificial intelligence isn't a nice-to-have, but a must-have, in today's digital landscape.

On this episode, Sammi is joined by Paul Roetzer, the co-founder and CEO of Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute, an online institute that educates modern marketers on the potential of AI and connects them with AI-powered technologies. He and Sammi discuss how the past two years have forced marketers and sellers to adopt AI, what a good artificial intelligence experience looks like, and how all go-to-market teams can (and should) align around artificial intelligence.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi, Paul, and the Drift Podcast Network on Twitter @sammireinstein,@paulroetzer, and @DriftPodcasts.

We talk a lot about making conversations between marketing and salespeople feel more human on this podcast. But, artificial intelligence (AI) is inherently not human. So, why then, are we hearing all this talk about the importance of integrating artificial intelligence into marketing and sales strategies?

To kick off Season 2 of Conversation Starters, Lauren Creedon, Drift's Group AI Product Lead, joins Sammi to explain the dichotomy of leveraging artificial intelligence to be more human in marketing and sales conversations.

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi, Lauren, and the Drift Podcast Network on Twitter @sammireinstein,@laurencreedon, and @DriftPodcasts.

Season 1 of Conversation Starters focused on how to use content, personalized website experiences, and internal team alignment to start conversations with customers and prospects. But once those conversations are on the calendar, how do you make sure that they are productive and effective?

That's what Sammi Reinstein explores in season 2.

In season 2 of Conversation Starters, host Sammi Reinstein talks with experts across artificial intelligence, sales, and marketing to learn their secrets for how to make sure the first conversation with a customer or prospect is a memorable one.

Make sure to subscribe, so you don't miss when the first episode of season 2 drops Thursday, 6/23.

Drift's Conversation Cloud breaks down the silos across your team so you can deliver personalized experiences that turn into more quality pipeline, revenue, and happy customers.

On this special edition episode, Drift's Director of Product Marketing, Aurelia Solomon, joins Sammi to break down the three components of Drift's Conversation Cloud: Conversational Marketing, Conversational Sales and Conversational Service. 

Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.

You can connect with Sammi, Aurelia, and the Drift Podcast Network on Twitter @sammireinstein,@Aurelia90716528, and @DriftPodcasts.