IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire Silverpop, a privately held software company based in Atlanta, GA. Silverpop empowers marketers with cloud-based capabilities that deliver personalized customer engagements in highly scalable environments and will accelerate IBM’s leadership in marketing automation. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The breadth and depth of IBM’s enterprise marketing portfolio, combined with Silverpop’s award-winning marketing automation and real-time personalization technology, will create the most complete and advanced customer engagement solution for businesses of all sizes and all scenarios – from startups to multinational enterprises. For example, a mobile service provider can discover if a customer is an early technology adopter and serve up permission-based marketing offers via mobile messages for the hottest new smartphone just before the customer’s contract expires. Silverpop provides deep customer insights and an intuitive engagement engine that will help reduce the complexity of omnichannel marketing, making it easier to personalize the customer experience no matter where the customer sits on their brand journey.
Silverpop extends IBM’s client base to power the marketing capabilities of 8,000 organizations in more than 50 countries around the world. Leading companies — such as Mazda, Stonyfield Farm and Advanced Micro Devices — use Silverpop to engage customers in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) scenarios. These organizations can now realize the complementary benefits of IBM’s platform, already recognized as a world leader in marketing automation technology.
Adding to IBM’s portfolio of more than 100 Software-as-a-Service offerings, Silverpop empowers marketers with easy-to-use cloud-based capabilities that can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed, with little technical knowledge, to adapt to changing customer demands. This equips marketing, ecommerce and service professionals with tools that allow them to directly design, execute and measure personalized interactions to acquire new customers, drive sales and build brand loyalty. This also accelerates time to value and reduces total cost of ownership with a fully cloud-based solution.
“The acquisition of Silverpop turbocharges IBM’s ability to put the customer at the center of any organization,” said Craig Hayman, GM, Industry Cloud Solutions, IBM. “Now, nearly any marketing, commerce or customer service professional from any business will have the ability to deliver the kinds of personalized customer experiences that make a measurable impact on the brand experience and the bottom line.”
“By engineering a solution that uniquely delivers personalization through automation, our team has solved one of the most complex challenges facing marketers today,” said Bill Nussey, CEO, Silverpop. “Combined with the power of IBM’s portfolio and worldwide partner ecosystem, we can advance our mission to help organizations build customer relationships one at a time on an even grander scale.”
Silverpop scales these sophisticated automation capabilities – more commonly applied in lower volume B2B scenarios – to complex B2C environments, making it easier for any kind of business to advance customers along the brand journey. For example:
· An automotive parts supplier can determine when an auto manufacturer’s parts inventory is running low and send timely offers based on understanding the customer’s typical manufacturing cycle.
· A financial services company can send email offers for 529 college savings plans based on website activity such as the usage of a college savings calculator.
· A technology provider can prioritize high value prospects and send customized email offers based on activities such as browsing a web site, viewing a webinar or downloading a whitepaper.
While marketers understand the importance of personalization, most struggle to achieve it beyond basic segmentation and audience definition. Silverpop solves this by automating the creation of personalized experiences based on real-time customer profiles that draw from permission-based data streams inside and outside the organization — such as social, web, email and mobile activity. This approach makes it easier for brands to improve the customer experience, increase conversions and profitability, and strengthen customer loyalty.
IBM’s growing ecosystem of over 140 Ready for Smarter Commerce marketing partners will create an even more complete view of each customer by integrating data from these additional sources into Silverpop, enabling deeper customization. Armed with these insights, Silverpop provides a powerful engagement and lead management platform that creates a personalized experience that advances customers along the brand journey.
