Twilio’s CMO on Mastering Cross-Channel Orchestration

In this episode of “Tame the Mobile Beast,” Tom Butta speaks with Chris Koehler, Chief Marketing Officer of Twilio, about the intricacies of cross-channel orchestration. Chris shares how a focus on internal alignment, strategic data collection and personalization at scale can help bring this vision to life and accelerate growth.

Short on time? Here are five key takeaways from the conversation:

Customer Journey Orchestration is the Backbone of Cross-Channel Success 

Very few brands today can successfully deliver a unified, cross-channel experience. Marketers today need to reach customers in a way that matches how they consume content — carrying their context and preferences across channels and destinations, from email, SMS and mobile wallets to websites, apps and beyond. This starts first and foremost with thoughtful and targeted customer journey orchestration designed to reach customers when and where it matters most to them.

Technology and Organizational Silos Hamper the Cross-Channel Experiences

The sheer volume of technology used by teams charged with customer experience execution and optimization can be overwhelming, but the challenge isn’t limited to technology. Internal organizational structures — with different teams managing individual channels — adds a new layer of complexity. When no single person or team is clearly responsible for the entire customer journey, it’s impossible to deliver seamless cross-channel experiences.

Customer Data Collection is Crucial, but Context is Key

Brands are investing more heavily into customer data collection, but the insights gathered often lack context. Identifying customers on owned channels and unifying data from all touchpoints is essential for building reliable customer profiles and delivering truly personalized experiences. This involves not just collecting the data, but also leveraging it to enrich cross-channel orchestration.

AI is Enabling Marketing Personalization at Scale

Among other benefits, AI is helping brands incorporate marketing personalization into their cross-channel strategy to optimize experiences by generating content and variants tailored to individual customer profiles. However, the quality of AI-driven personalization depends heavily on the quality of the data it’s fed. A deliberate zero- and first-party data collection strategy is crucial to delivering experiences that hit the mark and stay current as consumer preferences evolve.  

Brands Must Embrace a Culture of Experimentation & Change Management to Stay Ahead

To effectively execute cross-channel customer experiences, brands need the right internal processes in place. This includes using AI to enhance internal team workflows, embracing change management and tapping into a culture of experimentation. Leadership should look to empower teams to do more high-quality work with new technologies and ways of optimizing impact.