Traditionally known as an email delivery platform, SendGrid is spicing things up a bit with the launch of Threads, a service that triggers emails based on specific user behaviors. It automates email messaging when certain actions are taken, such as a user abandoning a shopping cart or not spending enough time on a site.
SendGrid chief executive Sameer Dholakia told VentureBeat that since 2009, his company has been focused on developers, helping them incorporate email delivery technology into their applications to facilitate transactional communications. Now, that focus has shifted to the marketers and customers and the problems they want solved.
Threads by SendGrid collects data from different user events — including webpage views, feature usage, and mobile app activity. After extrapolating all this information, the system will trigger personalized communications that will cause the customer to take a specific action. Developers will need to embed some JavaScript code into their website in order to help ingest enough data into Thread.
Some potential use cases include the aforementioned abandonment situation, as well as “failed billing,” in which notifications are sent to a customer due to an expired credit card, and to assist with user verification.
This new product already has integrations with Optimizely and Mixpanel, among others, but additional support is planned.
Customers can expect to pay based on the user profile that’s being tracked in the system. Customers input specific characteristics of the type of person who will trigger the communications, and are charged based on the number of people who fit that mold.
Here’s what you can expect to pay: The first 500 profiles are free. After that, at the end of the month, your SendGrid account is charged “based on the peek number of profiles you had in Threads during that month.” So if you’re tracking 1,000 profiles, that’ll cost you $30 per month; $80 per month for 5,000 profiles; $465 per month for 50,000 profiles; and $715 per month for up to 100,000. Any higher and you’ll need to contact SendGrid for a quote.
All plans are pay-as-you-go and you’ll need a SendGrid account in order to use Threads.
Threads is build on top of SendGrid’s email platform, which currently delivers 20 billion emails per month.
