What is Segment?
Segment is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) designed to simplify the collection, transformation, and utilization of first-party customer data from various digital properties, including websites, mobile apps, servers, and SaaS applications.
Key Features and Functionality
Data Collection and Integration
Segment allows you to collect event data from multiple sources such as mobile apps, websites, servers, and SaaS applications, and integrate this data into a unified platform. This is achieved through its core product, Connections, which enables the collection of event data and its federation to downstream operational tools.
Data Unification and Identity Resolution
The Unify feature uses identity resolution to combine data from different touchpoints into a single, coherent customer profile. This involves stitching together web, mobile, server, and third-party interactions to create a comprehensive view of each customer. Segment automatically creates, merges, or adds to existing user profiles using identifiers like userID, anonymousID, or email.
Real-Time Capabilities
Segment offers real-time capabilities, particularly through its Connections feature, which allows for real-time event collection and delivery to downstream destinations. While real-time audience syncing is not supported, Segment does enable real-time audience building, where users auto-populate into audiences based on predefined criteria. The Profile API allows for querying entire user or account objects programmatically to power in-app personalization and complex marketing campaigns.
Audience Management and Engagement
Twilio Engage, another key product, facilitates audience-building and customer engagement. It enables the creation of customizable audiences based on specific events, attributes, or computed traits, which can be automatically synced to downstream tools to power personalization across marketing channels. This feature also supports sending emails and SMS messages directly.
Data Transformation and Forwarding
Segment simplifies the process of sending data to various tools and destinations without requiring changes to the tracking code. It translates the content of messages into different formats for use by other tools (called ‘Destinations’) and transmits these messages accordingly. This includes forwarding data to marketing, product, and analytics tools, as well as to data warehouses.
Schema Management and API Calls
Segment uses a defined schema (Segment Spec) to structure and format the data collection process. This schema supports six distinct API calls: Identify, Track, Page, Screen, Group, and Alias, which help in recording user traits, actions, and other relevant information.
Security and Compliance
Segment ensures user privacy and compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. It provides features like suppression and deletion to facilitate data protection and compliance, allowing for the cleaning and filtering of data to ensure only relevant information is sent to the desired destinations.
Product Development and Team Collaboration
Segment aids in product development by enabling the collection and analysis of data from apps, which can be presented across marketing, management, and engineering teams. This data-driven approach helps teams move faster, experiment more, and improve their KPIs while ensuring customers receive personalized experiences.
In summary, Segment is a powerful tool that unifies customer data, provides real-time insights, and enables personalized marketing and customer engagement. Its robust features and capabilities make it an essential platform for organizations aiming to deliver holistic and relevant customer experiences.