Andrus Purde, Outfunnel – InnovaBuzz 195

Andrus Purde, Outfunnel

In this episode, I’m really excited to have on the InnovaBuzz podcast as my guest, Andrus Purde, Co-founder and CEO of Outfunnel, which is a SaaS product that helps automate your email marketing based on data in your CRM system. Outfunnel are a small team that built a sales-centric marketing tool, because they were really frustrated with the kind of marketing that doesn’t use data that salespeople have, and with the kind of sales that doesn’t use the data that marketers have. Andrus has a long background in marketing, having worked for both Pipedrive and Skype.

In our discussion, Andrus talked to me about

• The importance of segmentation of your email list, to personalise your marketing effectively
• Key things to do to improve email deliverability
• Knowing your customer, what problem you solve and what you and your product stands for

Rytis Lauris on episode 180 suggested we interview Andrus.

Listen to the podcast to find out more.

Listen to the Podcast

Show Notes from this episode with Andrus Purde, CEO of Outfunnel

Key points and take-aways from this episode include:

• Outfunnel integrates sales and marketing tightly together by automating email marketing campaigns based on data in your CRM system.
• When people engage with your marketing, you want to make sure that the information you share will be useful for your sales team.
• The bigger a tool gets, the higher its cost and complexity increase.
• Personalisation is important but make sure that you are not overdoing it. You need to find a good balance of where you personalise and where you don’t.
• Behind every funnel is a human being. Treat them as people and not as funnels.
• Sending more messages to more people more frequently is not always the best way ahead.
• Make sure that your emails leave a favourable impression of you and that people have a way to opt out easily if they want to .
• A cold email is a cost-effective tool to get new leads but in order to complement that, you need to put some thought into why people would want to receive emails from you. 
• Have a give and get mentality. Provide value first.
• Know what your product stands for and what problem you solve. Know who your customers are, what is important for them, and what problems are they facing. If your mindset is to be useful and helpful, differentiation is not super hard.

The Buzz – Our Innovation Round

Here are Andrus’ answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.

1. #1 thing to be more innovative – Stay curious. Talk to people. Take breaks and let the information settle. Create new connections.
2. Best thing for new ideas – Talking to people in my target audience.
3. Favourite tool for innovation –  Evernote
4. Keep project / client on track – Communicate. Make sure that the people who are involved know what is happening and what should be happening. Be mindful of your decisions and learn from mistakes. 
5. Differentiate –Being curious, really honing your craft, and being exceptionally good at it.

To Be a Leader

Pick your battles. You can do anything but you can’t do everything. Be mindful of the battles you pick and why you pick them.

Reach Out

You can reach out and thank Andrus through his website and on Twitter.

Suggested Guest

Andrus suggested I interview Andrew Michael of Hotjar and Churn FM. So Andrew, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Andrus Purde.

Links

• Website – Andrus Purde
• Website – Outfunnel
• Twitter – @AndrusPurde
• LinkedIn

Cool things about Andrus

• He is an angel investor in multiple startups.
• He is a stand-up comedian.
• He organises stand-up comedy nights in Tallinn.