Exploring Klaviyo's impact on creating smarter digital relationships

Exploring Klaviyo's impact on creating smarter digital relationships

In the ever-changing world of customer engagement and marketing automation, the ability to create meaningful connections with customers is the cornerstone of success. Klaviyo, a leading marketing platform, is at the forefront of this mission, providing businesses with the tools they need to power smarter digital relationships across email, SMS, Over-the-Top (OTT) channels, push notifications, and more. Through the use of rich data and insights, Klaviyo enables brands to deliver highly relevant and personalized communications that resonate with their audience and drive efficient revenue growth.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Eddie O’Brien, SVP, Global Partnerships & Alliances, to dig into how Klaviyo’s partnership with Twilio has supercharged their capabilities, offering scalable and reliable email delivery and SMS solutions. We'll also dive into the transformative features that Klaviyo has introduced to innovate within the customer engagement space and share insights into the exciting future initiatives that are set to elevate digital relationships between consumers and brands. 

Q: Can you give us an overview of Klaviyo's mission and the company's role in the market?

A: Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform dedicated to empowering B2C businesses to leverage their data and allow them to create more valuable customer experiences across various touchpoints, including email, SMS, web, and reviews. With a customer base that includes brands like Mattel, Stanley 1913, and Liquid Death, our mission is to help businesses grow their revenue faster and more efficiently by transforming data into smarter digital relationships.

Q: Who are Klaviyo's customers, and how do they utilize your products?

A: We serve a diverse range of over 146,000 customers who utilize our platform for their marketing automation and their CDP, powering personalization on channels like email, SMS, mobile push, web, social, paid ads, reviews, and direct mail. While the majority of our customers are in the ecommerce space, we also support industries like wellness and restaurants through our 5,000 partners and over 350 integrations. Brands on our platform generated over $50 billion in revenue in 2023 alone by using our platform to engage their customers with highly relevant messages.

Q: What challenges do Klaviyo's customers face, and how does your platform address them?

A: Consumers have extremely high expectations when interacting with a brand over digital channels, making every interaction critical. Long gone are the days when generic emails or texts will build brand loyalty and drive ROI. Because of these expectations, a marketers tech stack is critical, it’s gotten bigger and more complex, and with so many platforms to manage, marketers struggle to have a complete picture of the customer. 

To drive more personalized experiences, our data-first platform integrates data storage, AI-powered insights and guidance, marketing automation, and communication channels into one easy-to-use solution, simplifying the marketer's job. This enables marketers to activate every data point for smarter interactions, connect with customers across all touchpoints, and guide marketing towards optimal results.

Q: With the rise of Customer Data Management and AI, how have you seen customer behavior evolve?

A: Customers are demanding more personalized experiences, and technology needs to keep pace. Complicated tech stacks can hinder the effective use of data. Klaviyo's platform helps customers store and activate their data efficiently, ensuring they're maximizing their tech capabilities to meet consumer expectations.

Q: What prompted Klaviyo to partner with Twilio, and what changes were you aiming to create?

A: Klaviyo's decision to partner with Twilio was driven by our long-standing use of SendGrid for email and the growing demand for personalized SMS communication from the brands we work with. We sought a platform that could offer targeted, personalized SMS capabilities beyond the basic batch and blast approach. Twilio's developer-friendly APIs and clear documentation made them the standout choice for us.

Q: Can you describe what Klaviyo has built with Twilio and how it aligns with your vision?

A: Our work together is a true partnership — Twilio has been a key technology partner as we’ve scaled our business. Our collaboration has led to innovative solutions like a better toll-free verification process and a unique subaccount setup that streamlines sender verification, streamlining our customer’s onboarding experience. Recently, we started utilizing Twilio’s Verify product to power our Smart Opt-in feature, a highly requested and impactful feature for SMS list growth. 

As we have grown our platform, we’ve also expanded into several regions across the globe with Twilio’s partnership, and we've worked closely with Twilio to get more out of the carrier network (e.g. more throughput, commercial use of MMS in Canada, etc.). Our overarching goals are directly aligned – enabling intelligent, personalized, and meaningful engagement between brands and their customers.

Q: Tell us what you’re excited about for the future of your company. Any big initiatives or product launches coming up this year?

A: At Klaviyo, innovation is at the heart of what we do, and we're thrilled about the future. Our commitment to product development has led to the release of over 500 features last year alone, and we're not slowing down. Each quarter brings new iterations and enhancements that support our customers' growth.

One of the most exciting recent additions is Klaviyo AI. This suite of tools harnesses the power of generative and predictive AI to not only identify growth opportunities but also to optimize marketing efforts on autopilot. It's like having a smart assistant that's constantly working to improve your marketing ROI.

Another significant release is Portfolio, which simplifies multi-account management. This is a game-changer for agencies and businesses that manage multiple brands, making it easier to oversee and scale their marketing efforts from a single platform.

Looking ahead, we're continuing to focus on AI and developing new features that empower our customers to forge deeper relationships with consumers and drive revenue. We're dedicated to providing tools that not only meet the current needs of our customers but also anticipate the future of ecommerce and digital marketing. 

By harnessing the power of advanced analytics, AI-driven insights, and robust communication tools, Klaviyo is empowering brands to not only meet but exceed customer expectations. The future of digital engagement between brands and consumers is undeniably bright, with platforms like Klaviyo leading the charge towards more meaningful and profitable customer relationships.