Twilio launches new automation platform
The new offering drives value from Segment, the CDP Twilio acquired in October 2020.
Twilio, the customer communications service company, has announced the launch of a new component of its Customer Engagement Platform, Twilio Engage. The latest offering adds a marketing engine to Twilio’s existing Twilio Frontline for sales and Twilio Flex for customer service.
Twilio Engage leverages the capabilities of Segment, the customer data infrastructure solution which Twilio picked up for $3.2 billion last October. In addition to aggregating real-time insights into customer behavior, Twilio Engage will allow marketers to build micro-audiences and deliver personalized experiences to a wide range of channels through Twilio’s communications APIs. The new offering is described by Twilio as a “growth automation platform.”
Why we care. Two reasons. First, it’s interesting to watch Twilio building out its capabilities as a customer experience suite which is authentically omnichannel-first rather than email/website first with other channels added.
Secondly, the structure here echoes Real Story Group’s distinction between process-oriented and engagement-oriented CDPs with Segment acting as the customer data infrastructure part of the puzzle here, rather than being used for orchestration.
Marketing automation: A snapshot
Why we care.. For today’s marketers, automation platforms are often the center of the marketing stack. They aren’t shiny new technologies, but rather dependable stalwarts that marketers can rely upon to help them stand out in a crowded inbox and on the web amidst a deluge of content.
How they’ve changed. To help marketers win the attention battle, marketing automation vendors have expanded from dependence on static email campaigns to offering dynamic content deployment for email, landing pages, mobile and social. They’ve also incorporated features that rely on machine learning and artificial intelligence for functions such as lead scoring, in addition to investing in the user interface and scalability.
Dig deeper: What is marketing automation?
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About the author
Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.