ZoomInfo · Email integration · 2025

Moved one CTA. 11× growth.

The win came from re-defining activation. The CTA move was the consequence, not the cause.

11×
new-user connection growth
0.3 → 3.3%
connection rate (Sep)
96%
of new connections from onboarding
+294%
more likely to visit pricing

01Context

Email integration was hidden behind two clicks. 0.3% of new users connected. The easy fix was a more discoverable CTA. We didn't take it.

Before: the in-product Connect your Email popup, reached from the go-to-market checklist

Before · email connect lived in-product: a popup two clicks deep, reached from the go-to-market checklist rail.

02My Role

Team lead. Owned the activation definition across the surface, the call to put a new step into onboarding, and the staged rollout that proved it was safe.

03The Bet

The bar for "activated" was too low. Move it to "email sent" instead of "email connected." Senders were +294% more likely to visit pricing.

04Decisions That Mattered

Re-defined activation around behavior with downstream signal.

"Email sent" became the milestone, not "connected." Optimizing for the action that earned revenue, not a vanity step.

Added email connect as a first-class onboarding step.

PLG default says keep onboarding short. We made it longer on purpose — because the right activation moment was downstream of connection.

Staged rollout: 50% → 100%.

Tested at 50% to prove no hit to completion rate. Then to 100%. Discipline over hope.

Tied to a 3-phase model: Reveal → Reach Out → See Results.

Email integration was the gate to phase 2. We restructured what onboarding was for.

After: the new onboarding step, Set up your email in a minute

After · the new onboarding step: "Set up your email in a minute." The value spelled out in five lines, one-click connect, and a skip for later. This step drove 96% of new connections.

05Outcome

Aug at 50%: 0.7% → 12.6%, no hit to onboarding completion. Sep at 100%: 11× growth (0.3% → 3.3%), 96% of new connections driven by onboarding.

New-user email connection rate · before vs. after

% OF NEW LITE USERS CONNECTING EMAIL BEFORE · email connect 2 clicks deep in-product 0.3% AFTER · 100% ROLLOUT · email connect is a first-class onboarding step 3.3% · 11× GROWTH 96% OF NEW CONNECTIONS NOW DRIVEN BY ONBOARDING. SENDERS +294% LIKELIER TO VISIT PRICING.
Contact profile with an empty activity feed, before engagement

The tie-in · contact profile before engagement: the activity feed sits empty.

Contact profile after engagement: scheduled, sent, opened and replied events in the activity feed

After engagement · the same profile with email metrics living in the product: scheduled, sent, opened, replied.

06What I'd Do Differently

Optimized for "email connected" for too long before realizing it was a vanity step. Before you set an activation milestone, make sure it actually correlates with the downstream metric you care about.