• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

B2C marketers have many channels to work in, from email to text. But one that has eluded numerous teams is social. How does a brand turn comments, messages, creator partnerships and user-generated content into lasting customer relationships?

Klaviyo, the B2C CRM platform, claims to have an answer. It has launched a tool called Klaivyo Social Marketing. The goal is to connect social engagement to the rest of the customer journey.

“For years, social has been one of the richest sources of customer insight, yet it has largely existed outside the systems brands use to build customer relationships,” says Jamie Domenici, CMO of Klaviyo. “The future of marketing isn’t about treating social as a separate channel. It’s about making it part of a unified, omnichannel marketing strategy."

Klaviyo Social Marketing can convert followers into subscribers via social auto-replies that gather up email, text and WhatsApp content and zero-party customer data, Klaviyo says.

The new solution also helps marketers capture social interactions and engagement signals and enrich customer profiles.

In addition, marketers can gather their best content, whether owned or user-generated, in one centralized library, and activate it across every channel, the firm continues.  

One user of Klaviyo Social Marketing is Kulani Kinis, an Australian swimwear brand. The company uses Klaviyo Social Marketing to connect social engagement data with its broader customer experience strategy. Since implementing the solution, the brand has grown its global ambassador program to more than 130,000 members, quintupling its size; and has collected more than 4,800 user-generated social posts tagging the brand in the past year.

“For a long time, organic social was on an island, while the rest of our marketing stack worked together,” says Jemma Sears, marketing manager at Kulani Kinis. “Klaviyo Social Marketing changed that by helping us connect social and ecommerce data, giving us a more complete view of our customers and making it easier to deliver more relevant experiences across channels.”

Sears concludes, “As we've scaled our brand ambassador program, that visibility has helped us better understand what content resonates and where our community is most engaged.”