Ask any marketer: what’s the most important part of marketing? The answer, of course, is customers. The marketing dream for any brand is to understand exactly who its customers are, what they like and want (and don’t), what drives their behaviour, and what their next move is likely to be.
If you know this information, everything else in marketing — including positioning and targeting — becomes much easier.
But as consumer expectations become increasingly nuanced, businesses today are struggling to get under the skin of customers and understand what’s going on.
As Robin Marchant, senior director of marketing for the APAC region at Klaviyo, puts it: “In an era of cluttered messaging and new content every day, brands are finding it challenging to connect with their consumers on a more personal level”.
So, what’s the solution? Marchant believes brands need to harness unified data, embrace personalised communication, and adopt AI-driven strategies to build stronger relationships with their audiences.
Customer data, from the basics like emails and phone numbers to more sophisticated observations of purchase history and behaviour, usually resides in disconnected platforms, which ends up creating blind spots for marketers. Combining this data onto one platform can help marketers better understand what they’re working with, and ultimately deliver the seamless experiences that customers expect.
“Unifying data is the single most important thing a brand can do to positively impact customer relationships and engagement,” Marchant says.
“Klaviyo enables brands to unify all their customer data and automate communications with the right message, in the right channel, at the right time. Crucially, it enables brands to do all that without damaging the customer experience.”
For MESHKI, a global fashion retailer, unifying SMS and email marketing within Klaviyo was a game-changer. Consolidating its customer data under one platform meant the brand could tailor campaigns to regional trends and preferences, which resulted in a 240% year-on-year growth in Klaviyo-attributed value in Q4 2023.
“By bringing SMS into Klaviyo, we’ve been able to consolidate our tech stack, make our workflows more efficient and access customer data all in one place,” says Tiarne Warren, head of trade marketing at MESHKI.
Next up: personalised communication. This is no longer a luxury – it’s an expectation. Customers respond well to brands that demonstrate a clear understanding of their needs and preferences.
“Customers are a brand’s greatest asset, and customer data is the priceless foundation of your relationships with them,” says Marchant.
“The gold standard is to get ahead of these expectations and wow them with exceptional personalised experiences.”
As a leader in the oral care space, Hismile employed Klaviyo’s tools to personalise communications across its 8.2 million active global profiles. Integrating Shopify Plus with Klaviyo meant Hismile could automate behaviour-based recommendations, which greatly reduced unsubscribe rates (-19%) while also boosting retention. The result? A 43% year-on-year revenue growth from flows on the flagship Australian account.
Scaling internationally while preserving your brand identity can be tough. Marchant stresses the importance of localising customer experiences: “Centralise your data and identify cultural nuances and consumer preferences for different segments of customers in each region. Customer profiles enriched with data like purchase history, location and behaviour will help ensure your messaging resonates across different markets”.
This approach worked wonders for Culture Kings, the Australian streetwear brand with a global footprint. The brand unified its marketing channels and used Klaviyo AI to deliver hyper-localised campaigns customised to regional preferences.
After switching to Klaviyo, the team was able to see dynamic product feeds that matched recommendations to customer behaviours in different markets, which ultimately drove a 388% year-on-year increase in global SMS campaign click rates.
Retention is something that’s easy to overlook in favour of acquisition, but it’s a major driver of sustainable growth for any business type, according to Marchant.
“Retail businesses can use data to map out every customer’s lifetime journey and interactions with the brand – identifying touchpoints where customers engage most and where drop-offs occur,” he says.
“Along with automated predictions and feedback loops, marketers can use the full picture that the data builds to help create a stronger approach on the best ways to connect and resonate with customers for longer-term relationships.”
For esmi Skin Minerals, retention is the cornerstone of its overarching strategy, with 80–85% of its revenue coming from repeat customers. So it made sense that the brand should unify its email and SMS marketing on Klaviyo. By doing so, esmi built advanced replenishment flows that evolved alongside each customer’s journey and resulted in an incredible 45% customer retention rate.
As leading brands continue to demonstrate, smarter digital relationships start with data: unified, actionable and connected. Whether it’s creating personalised experiences or localising marketing for international audiences, Klaviyo is equipping businesses with the tools they need to thrive.
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