How Petra from 3 Across the Sea connected Expertise AI to Zapier for effortless lead flow
Introduction
When it comes to marketing automation, simplicity is often the hardest thing to achieve. Petra set out to show how effortless it can be to capture, enrich, and act on website conversations using Expertise AI. By connecting the Expertise AI agent to Zapier, Petra built a workflow that moves data from website chat all the way into a database system, and even generates sales outreach emails.
“The whole process is actually as simple as it sounds.” — Petra Diener, Implementation Partner
Step 1: Capturing and Enriching Conversations
The journey begins on a company’s website, where the Expertise AI agent collects information from visitors. The data can be gathered automatically, enriched with built-in intelligence, or manually entered when needed.
“You have Expertise AI collect information, either automatically and auto-enrich it with their help… or you have data collected manually, and then you can use this data routed through Zapier.” — Petra Diener
Step 2: Seamless Integration with Zapier and Airtable
Once captured, the data flows through Zapier into Airtable, creating a single source of truth for contact details, conversations, and suggested emails. Airtable’s own AI then works alongside the Expertise AI data to add context.
“Airtable actually collects all that information for us — the contact details, the conversation, and very often the email suggestion Expertise AI sends over to you.” — Petra Diener
From there, Airtable analyzes the conversation, identifies why it’s valuable to reach out, and drafts an outreach email.
Step 3: Human-in-the-Loop Outreach
Automation can go far, but Petra emphasized the importance of adding a safety check before sending emails. Airtable flags each draft for approval, giving sales managers confidence before hitting send.
“We could automatically send that email out, but we thought we better build in a safety net to make sure the sales manager is happy with the information we’re sending out there.” — Petra Diener
Once approved, the system automatically routes the email into a shared inbox, simultaneously notifying the account manager and reaching the prospective customer.
The Result: Simple, Scalable Lead Management
Petra highlighted just how little manual effort the workflow requires once set up:
“It really requires very, very little manual intervention. I would say the hardest work has to be done beforehand. Once you have Expertise AI installed on your website and start seeing it collect information, then it’s just a matter of knowing what you want to do with that information.”
By combining Expertise AI with Zapier and Airtable, Petra demonstrated a clear, repeatable process:
- Capture conversations directly from the website
- Enrich and centralize data
- Automate personalized outreach with minimal friction
“It’s really a 1, 2, 3 — and then just do the usual sales approach, put them in the funnel, feed them, and hopefully bring them across the line.” — Petra Diener