Salesforce.com Delivers Journey Builder for Apps, Defining the New Frontier for Customer Engagement in the Age of Mobile Apps

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CONNECTIONS 2014 -- Salesforce.com CRM, the world's #1 CRM platform, today delivered Journey Builder for Apps, defining the new frontier for customer engagement in the age of mobile apps. Journey Builder for Apps is the first solution that empowers any company to deliver personalized customer journeys directly from mobile apps, creating interactive experiences that drive brand engagement and loyalty. With Journey Builder for Apps, any company can now unleash the power of the world's #1 CRM platform to seamlessly connect the customer journey across sales, service, marketing and communities. Companies including Fitbit, Sony PlayStation, HSN, SkyMall and Luxury Retreats are transforming from campaign-focused marketing to personalized 1:1 customer journeys to connect with customers in entirely new ways.

Comments on the News

• "Mobile apps have changed everything," said Scott McCorkle, CEO, Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. "Apps are how we run our lives, they converge the physical and digital worlds and they open up an entirely new world of opportunities for marketers to connect with customers. With Journey Builder for Apps, now every app can take customers on a journey, not just take up space on a phone or tablet."
• "Fitbit® is dedicated to helping people lead healthier, more active lives," said Tim Rosa, VP Global Marketing, Fitbit. "To do that, we put the customer journey at the center of our business, delivering personalized communications when a user buys a Fitbit product, activates their device, downloads the mobile app and when they start tracking their activity, weight and sleep. Journey Builder for Apps allows Fitbit to connect customer journeys to our apps."
• "At Sony PlayStation, we are committed to creating and optimizing 1:1 customer journeys across all channels and devices," said Sabine Vanin, CRM manager, Sony PlayStation. "The Marketing Cloud enables us to analyze in-game data to deliver personalized content across digital channels and connect with gamers in entirely new ways."
• "As the leading interactive entertainment and lifestyle retailer, it is imperative that we listen to our customers in real-time to make sure we are providing a highly relevant and personalized experience," said Annemarie Frank, VP Consumer Marketing for HSN. "Working with ExactTarget Marketing Cloud supports our boundaryless retail strategy to deliver customized customer experiences across all our platforms."
• "Since apps are now core to every customer's life, they also need to be core to every company's customer engagement strategy," said Gerry Murray, Research Manager, IDC. "Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud is raising the stakes with Journey Builder for Apps by allowing every company to deliver personalized customer experiences that drive app adoption, usage, and in turn more loyal customers."

Journey Builder for Apps—Defining the New Frontier for Customer Engagement
We are in the midst of a mobile revolution. There are currently a combined 2.2 million apps available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. And in 2013, people downloaded 80 billion apps, a number that will grow to 160 billion by 2017, according to eMarketer. Apps and devices are essential to every customer's life, and every company's strategy.

To succeed in the age of mobile apps, companies know they need to do more than just launch an app. They need to deliver engaging customer journeys, with compelling and relevant app experiences that build binding relationships with customers.

Now Any Company Can Connect Customer Journeys to Their Mobile Apps
Journey Builder for Apps is the first solution that empowers any company to deliver personalized customer journeys directly from mobile apps. Now every app can take customers on a journey, not just take up space on a phone or tablet. Journey Builder for Apps connects customer journeys to apps, products and locations like never before—from driving downloads with personalized emails, mobile messages or ads to building new customer relationships by communicating 1:1 in-app or through a connected device.

With Journey Builder for Apps, now any company can stand out in the age of mobile apps with solutions that:

• Create and plan customer app journeys—Companies can now map out customer journeys with simple, intuitive Journey Maps, and then activate those journeys inside mobile apps and across any digital channel with a single click. Journeys can be triggered by any interaction with the app and users will receive personalized communications based on choices they make and actions they take in apps, on websites, or through any other digital interaction with a brand. 
• Drive app downloads and engagement—Marketers can drive multi-channel marketing across channels like email and social advertising to drive app downloads, create mobile notifications to drive app adoption and publish targeted in-app content to drive deeper app engagement.
• Build journeys fast with Journey Templates—Pre-built journeys help companies boost app downloads, on-board new app users with a great first experience, increase app engagement with personalized content and optimize customer engagement with analytics.
• Connect apps to any customer interaction—Automated triggers can publish new content based upon the context of the customer, including updated loyalty program data or recent app usage. In addition, companies can set up wait times, decision splits and custom triggers that leverage real-time data across sales, marketing, service and communities.
• Connect locations and products to the journey—Customer journeys can also be triggered based on data from geo-fencing, beacons and wearable devices. The Journey Builder for Apps SDK and Salesforce1 Platform service Heroku offer powerful and easy ways for companies to integrate connected spaces and products into their apps.
• Build, scale and deploy engaging, transformational apps—Also announced today, Heroku DX provides companies and their developers with a single end-to-end platform for building engaging apps that utilize Journey Builder for Apps. Heroku DX's new Dashboard + Metrics, database analytics and Heroku Button allow developers to create the next wave of engaging mobile apps faster and easier.

Seamlessly Connect Customer Journeys Across Sales, Service, Marketing and Communities with the World's #1 CRM Platform
With Journey Builder for Apps, any company can unleash the power of the world's #1 CRM platform to seamlessly connect the customer journey across sales, service, marketing and communities. Powered by the Salesforce1 Platform, Journey Builder for Apps is connected to the essential business processes and data in Salesforce CRM.

• Sales promotions and offers can be shared with customers based on triggers such as an abandoned shopping cart, achieving a milestone or viewing specific content. If a customer views the same sweater on an app multiple times, a trigger can initiate a message with a targeted discount to encourage the purchase.
• Service agents can now engage with customers based on real-time triggers from an app to deliver personalized 1:1 customer service and guide the customer to the next step of their the journey. For example, when a customer support case is closed in the Service Cloud, it can trigger a request for the customer to rate the service experience. If the consumer rates the customer experience above a certain score, it can prompt them to leave a review on the company's website or on Yelp.
• Marketers can now personalize app experiences for users based on actions such as buying concert tickets, entering a location or pairing their app with a device. If a user checks a band's concert dates without purchasing tickets, a marketer could use Journey Builder to set up a trigger that proactively sends updates as new tour dates  - are scheduled.
• Communities can now easily become part of a customer journey. For example, when a runner achieves a goal, a trigger within Journey Builder can be initiated directly from a wearable device, inviting the customer to join new competitive running groups. Salesforce.com is also announcing new Community Templates for marketers today. With Community Templates, business users can quickly launch new community pages that personalize content for each user while delivering a trusted and mobile-optimized experience.

Global Leaders Deliver 1:1 Customer Journeys at Scale with Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud
ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, the platform for 1:1 customer journeys, accelerates the marketing of global leaders including Sony PlayStation, HSN, SkyMall and Luxury Retreats. The ExactTarget Marketing Cloud enables marketers to build a single view of the customer, plan and optimize the customer journey, deliver personalized content across channels and devices, and measure the impact on their business.

Pricing & Availability

• ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Journey Builder for Apps is generally available today for customers.
• Pricing for Journey Builder for Apps starts at $12,500 per year for a subscription license.

Additional resources:

• Watch the Journey Builder for Apps demo video
• Learn more about Journey Builder for Apps on our website
• Like Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud on Facebook
• Follow @salesforce, @exacttarget and @marketingcloud on Twitter

About ExactTarget Marketing Cloud
The ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from salesforce.com CRM is the platform for 1:1 customer journeys, connecting companies with customers in whole new ways. Learn more at www.exacttarget.com.

The ExactTarget and Salesforce names and logos are the exclusive property of salesforce.com.

About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the world's largest provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software. For more information about salesforce.com (CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

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SOURCE salesforce.com