Klaviyo Unveils New Marketing Automation Innovations with Personalized Benchmarks Tool and Conversational SMS
Native enhancements and guided software empower online retailers to own their customer data and strengthen relationships
Today at the company’s virtual product launch event, Klaviyo, the leading customer data and marketing automation platform, unveiled two new products to support the growth and success of its customers, Personalized Benchmarks and Conversational SMS. Personalized Benchmarks is a tool that offers merchants data-driven insights on marketing efforts, comparing performance to their peers, and offers tangible recommendations for improvement. A new version of Klaviyo’s conversational SMS marketing platform helps online brands to communicate with customers in fast, casual format.
“We continually use data to inform and evolve our technology, guiding retailers to better performance and results. Because our platform can bring in and analyze massive amounts of data from ecommerce platforms and about customer engagement, brands are able to create personalized experiences and improve the customer experience,” said Andrew Bialecki, co-founder and CEO of Klaviyo. “Benchmarking how you are doing against your peers gives relevant insight into where real possibilities lie. Being able to communicate with customers on the platform they prefer helps to deepen frequency and quality of engagement.”
Benchmarks for Growth
The Personalized Benchmarks tool is built natively into Klaviyo’s platform and evaluates the performance of online businesses in comparison to other similar brands. The function was born out of customer requests asking for performance feedback. Previously solved manually via customer service representatives, Klaviyo developed technology to automate and scale these data-driven insights.
Data is aggregated from Klaviyo’s more than 65,000 global customers, which span from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. A report is created keeping other brands' identities anonymous and is customized for merchants based on six key business attributes: industry, average price point, revenue, growth rate, channel, and frequency. The metrics are delivered via Klaviyo’s Benchmarks dashboard and offer visibility into where individual businesses are performing strongest, and where there are opportunities for improvement. The tool also offers suggested courses of action. Merchants can better understand how they competitively fare on average order values, open rates, click-throughs and abandoned carts, which can be used to inform and prioritize future marketing efforts.
“Comparing your brand to others within your cohort is essential,” continued Bialecki. “A small business with less than 50 SKUs looking at data and best practices from a Fortune 500 company with thousands of SKUs is irrelevant and useless. By providing a true benchmark, online merchants can make smart decisions and deliver positive results.”
Omni-Channel Customer Engagement
Klaviyo empowers entrepreneurs and online businesses to deliver customer experiences that produce measurable results — without relying on platforms like Facebook or Amazon. Klaviyo provides direct access to customer data in a single source and allows brands to communicate via multiple channels such as email and SMS from one intuitive platform. Klaviyo’s SMS marketing product was introduced in 2020 to allow e-commerce retailers a faster, more intimate way to reach customers and initiate conversations when they are most likely to engage with the brand. Today, the addition of Conversations improves the mobile-first experience and further personalizes brand and customer exchanges over SMS. The feature allows real-time text responses within the platform, so retailers don’t need to move between various software dashboards to collect information and respond. The functionality is built-in, with data and action residing together on the platform.
Additional Text Messaging updates include:
Privacy + Consent helps brands comply with data privacy regulations and only communicate with customers that have opted in to receive SMS.
Performance Measurement + Attribution alleviates the pain point of managing multiple systems across email and SMS and allows better tracking of how and where to attribute credit for the purchase to the last communication received.
Data Processing + Segmentation Logic mirrors what is used for email, offering fast, precise information to build lists informed by website visit and purchase history.
Text Message Editor includes images, emojis and a simple toggle to easily put together compelling messages. The one-click personalization can pull up all the data in a customer profile to inform relevant real-time responses.
Flexible Delivery includes both short and long code sending number types and automatically provisions a toll-free number for every business on the platform. Throughput is automatically adjusted to scale without delivery delays and Klaviyo works with every major and minor U.S. network.
Mobile- Optimized Forms are more intuitive to interact with on a phone, streamlining display functions and automating cut/paste functions for one-tap subscriptions. For example, an input box collecting a phone number will display a keypad, not a full keyboard.