Building magical onboarding with the Perplexity & OpenAI APIs + NoCode UK update
Building magical onboarding with the Perplexity & OpenAI APIs + NoCode UK update
Automatically write personal welcome emails to new users of your SaaS app by combining these two powerful AI APIs. I've put together a quick video tutorial showing how.
Hey there, it's James from the NoCode SaaS newsletter, where we talk about how to build a profitable business without code on Bubble.
This is the first edition of the newsletter since the amazing NoCode UK conference - what an incredible day!
From an initial idea with NoCode SaaS podcast co-host and Bubble genius Kieran on the train back from NoCode Summit in Paris last year, to a huge day full of amazing speakers and attendees, it was easily one of the best things I’ve ever been involved with.
Thanks again to co-organisers Kieran, Ash and Matt. And a special shout out to Ash who went above and beyond with helping us organise the event and make it a reality - there is no way it would have been possible without his hard work.
We’re working through all the videos, photos and other content generated on the day and we’ll be sharing it all soon - keep your eyes on the official NoCodeUK X account for updates. There were some really incredible talks on the day so you won’t want to miss them. You can also expect an episode of the podcast talking about the event and what happened very soon.
We’re currently working on future plans for the event, we’ll keep you posted.
Thank you again to everyone who put their faith in us and came along, presented and sponsored - it wouldn’t have happened without you.
But - back to this week’s topic - magical onboarding with Perplexity & OpenAI!
This week, I want to share some new ways to enhance your app's onboarding process by combining Perplexity and OpenAI APIs. We'll explore how you can create personalised messages for your customers when they sign up for your app, leveraging the power of these APIs.
You can use this method to go beyond just writing personalised welcome emails - you could even use it to automatically setup and pre-populate key features of your app.
We know how important it is to get new users from initial signup to their first wow moment - this can really help with that, and boost how many customers then go on to paid plans.
Here’s the full free tutorial showing a demo and how to set it up…
Or you can watch the video on Tella here.
Read on for a writeup of this technique and an example of the Perplexity API setup for Bubble.
Personalized Onboarding Messages
Imagine being able to greet each new user with a message tailored specifically to their company and needs. With Perplexity, you can automatically gather detailed information about a customer's company just from their domain name.
Perplexity is an API which is able to search the web and return structured results using Meta’s Llama AI models - this essentially makes it like the OpenAI Chat API except it can search the web.
It’s also super cheap - you can sign up and try it out with just a $5 credit which will get you a huge amount of queries to try it out!
I’m sure at some point in the future this will be possible natively within OpenAI - but until then pairing up Perplexity with OpenAI can give some amazing results.
Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how to implement this:
Gather Information with Perplexity:
When a new user signs up, ask for their company's domain name.
Use Perplexity API to search the web for comprehensive information about the company (check out my tutorial video for how to set this up) This includes a brand overview, products, services, and tone of voice.
Generate Personalized Messages with OpenAI:
Take the data from Perplexity and input it into OpenAI.
Craft a personalized onboarding message that welcomes the user and provides tailored suggestions based on their company's specifics.
Setting Up Perplexity in Bubble
In the API connector, configure the Perplexity API. It's straightforward, and all necessary information is available in their documentation, you can find more in the Perplexity API docs or by watching my setup tutorial.
Here’s an example of the JSON body you need to setup in the Bubble API connector.
{
"model": "llama-3-sonar-small-32k-online",
"messages": [
{
"role": "system",
"content": "You are a bot designed to do research on customers who sign up to my app when given a domain name. Describe the brand, list the top products they sell and their tone of voice."
},
{
"role": "user",
"content": <prompt>
}
]
}
Define the system and user prompts to request detailed information about the company, again there are examples in my video.
Crafting the Email with OpenAI
Pass Perplexity Output to OpenAI:
After receiving the detailed company information from Perplexity, pass this data to OpenAI.
Set the role in OpenAI as a bot designed to write personalized onboarding emails. Provide it with the necessary context about your app and the specific task.
Define the User Prompt:
The user prompt should include the customer's name and the detailed company information retrieved from Perplexity.
Instruct OpenAI to write a friendly and helpful onboarding email.
Output the Email:
Once OpenAI generates the email, you can send it directly to the customer. In your backend workflow, ensure the email is formatted and delivered seamlessly.
Real-World Application
In my own app, UserLoop, I’ve used this technique to pre-populate personalized questions tailored to each brand during the onboarding process.
Check out the video tutorial in this email for a real-world demo of the kinds of results you can achieve with this technique.
Explore the Possibilities
The combination of Perplexity and OpenAI opens up numerous possibilities beyond just emails.
You could set up user accounts with customized settings, provide personalized content, or even create tailored product recommendations. The key is to use the rich data about the customer to make their initial experience with your product as smooth and impressive as possible.
Get Started
This is such an exciting time to be building with AI + NoCode, you an build some truly amazing stuff.
Also - next week I’m going to have an update on my 1k MRR challenge which had to get paused because of all the work on NoCode UK… it’s happening at last!
If you have any questions or need help setting this up, feel free to drop me a reply, I always love to hear your feedback.
Thanks for reading, and see you soon!
Don’t forget - if you need help building a NoCode SaaS which uses API, check out my page on freelancing - I work with a few startups every year to help them bring their products to life. Get in touch - I’d love to hear from you!
Stay tuned for more tips and tricks on how to leverage no-code tools to build and grow your SaaS product!