A conversation with Growth Shop on omnichannel retention, intentional marketing, and building customer connection

Consumers today are overwhelmed.

Their inboxes are crowded, their phones are buzzing, and every brand is competing for attention across email, SMS, paid social, push notifications, and more.

Yet despite having more ways to reach customers than ever before, many brands are still struggling to create experiences that actually feel connected.

According to Kat Trenouth, Head of Brand and Comms at Growth Shop, one of the biggest reasons is that brands still think internally in channels while customers experience everything as one continuous relationship.

“One of the biggest missed opportunities we see is brands not having channels work together in flows,” she says. “They still think of them as two completely different channels and two completely different people.”

That disconnect has become one of the defining challenges in modern retention marketing.

Internally, brands often organize teams around platforms—email, SMS, paid media, loyalty, CRM—but customers don’t experience those touchpoints separately. To them, it’s all one brand relationship unfolding across different moments and devices throughout the day.

As retention marketing evolves, the brands standing out are the ones creating connected experiences across every touchpoint instead of optimizing channels independently.

‍

Customers don’t experience marketing in silos

For years, retention strategies were built channel by channel.

Brands created email programs, SMS programs, and automation flows separately, often measuring success independently across each platform.

But customer behavior no longer works that way.

People move fluidly between devices, channels, and moments throughout the day, but they still experience the relationship itself as continuous. That means modern lifecycle marketing requires a more coordinated approach.

Instead of asking what should be sent through a particular channel, brands increasingly need to ask what type of interaction makes the most sense for the customer in that moment.

“Is it better for this person to get SMS first versus email first?” Kat asks. “Which one is more important to that customer? It needs testing. It needs real understanding.”

The focus is shifting from maximizing individual channel performance to creating continuity across the customer journey.

That often means:

• Understanding channel preference dynamically
• Sequencing messages more intentionally
• Coordinating touchpoints across platforms
• Reducing repetitive messaging

Because customers ultimately evaluate brands based on the overall experience—not the performance of individual channels.

And when messaging starts feeling repetitive, disconnected, or overly aggressive, trust erodes quickly.

‍

More messages don’t automatically create more value

In a crowded digital environment, many brands respond to slowing engagement by increasing volume.

More campaigns. More sends. More promotions.

But according to Kat, that approach is becoming less effective.

“2025 has been a pretty insane year,” she says. “A lot of brands are trying to push harder and harder.”

The problem is that consumers are becoming increasingly selective about what they engage with. Brands relying too heavily on constant promotional messaging often end up blending into the background alongside every other company competing for attention.

That’s been the real shift in our strategy this year, shifting to brand first. Make sure people care what we’re sending. Don’t just be sending complete rubbish out to people to try and drive revenue.

That shift reflects a broader evolution happening across retention marketing. More brands are moving away from purely volume-driven strategies and toward communication that feels more thoughtful, coordinated, and relevant.

“Making sure that what we’re doing and saying is intentional,” Kat says, “instead of maybe chasing topline.”

The strongest lifecycle programs today are not necessarily sending more messages.

They’re sending messages customers actually want to receive.

Every touchpoint should contribute to the larger relationship—not just the next transaction.

Customers can tell the difference almost immediately between messaging designed to help them and messaging designed only to sell to them. Increasingly, that distinction shapes long-term brand perception and loyalty.

‍

The best retention strategies feel human

One of the strongest themes emerging across lifecycle marketing right now is the importance of emotional connection.

Consumers want brands that feel thoughtful, relevant, and human—not purely transactional.

“I’ll go with the brand that’s always talking to me versus selling to me,” Kat says.

That philosophy sits at the center of Growth Shop’s approach to retention. The strongest lifecycle programs are not built entirely around promotions and urgency. They create reasons for customers to stay engaged with the brand even when they are not actively shopping.

That might include educational content, founder storytelling, sourcing transparency, community moments, product education, or behind-the-scenes updates—anything that creates value beyond the next campaign.

Everything can have value-added content. Talk about where you’ve sourced from. Talk about the founder story. Anything that keeps people engaged with your brand.

This kind of messaging creates something many brands underestimate: memory.

When customers feel emotionally connected to a brand, that brand stays top of mind much longer than one driven solely by discounts or promotions. The relationship becomes deeper than the transaction itself.

“That is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about intentional,” Kat says. “How can we build this connection?”

The brands answering that question successfully are building long-term loyalty—not just short-term revenue spikes.

‍

AI should support the experience—not become the experience

As AI becomes more embedded into marketing workflows, many brands are racing to automate as much as possible.

But according to Kat, automation without strategy creates its own problems.

As long as AI isn’t the end product for anything that you’re doing, it’s great. It’s great to help you along the way. It’s great to shorten processes. But it hopefully isn’t anybody’s endpoint.

That’s an important distinction.

AI is incredibly useful for testing, orchestration, optimization, and accelerating experimentation. But the customer experience itself still requires human judgment.

Consumers do not want to feel like they are interacting with automation. They want experiences that feel thoughtful, relevant, and aligned with what they actually care about.

That’s why the strongest brands are using AI to support intentionality rather than replace it.

At Growth Shop, Kat points to the importance of tools that simplify testing and optimization without forcing marketers to stitch together disconnected systems.

We’re talking about AI a lot. What’s really helpful is having those tools built directly into platform instead of needing another layer of tooling to make it work.

As lifecycle marketing becomes increasingly sophisticated, operational simplicity matters more than ever.

The goal is not adding more complexity for marketers or customers.

It’s reducing friction across the entire experience.

‍

Great retention teams are data-led—not opinion-led

One of the biggest balancing acts in lifecycle marketing is blending creativity with performance.

Strong brands need emotional storytelling and a clear brand identity. But they also need disciplined testing and data-backed decision-making.

“I probably spend a few hours a week saying, ‘Let’s look at data. Let’s make data decisions. Let’s not have opinions,’” Kat says.

That doesn’t mean creative instinct is unimportant. Some of the strongest lifecycle strategies begin with bold creative ideas and a strong understanding of brand voice.

But the best retention teams validate those ideas through testing and customer behavior.

“I totally want your opinion,” Kat explains. “I want to know what you think we should be sending. But let’s be really data-led when we’re saying let’s change this.”

That mindset is becoming increasingly important as customer expectations evolve faster than ever.

The strongest lifecycle teams are constantly testing journeys, evaluating engagement patterns, and refining experiences based on real behavioral signals instead of assumptions alone.

Because assumptions no longer scale.

Customer behavior has to guide strategy.

‍

The future of retention is more connected, more intentional, and more human

The brands that stand out in the next era of ecommerce will not necessarily be the loudest.

They’ll be the ones creating experiences that feel connected, relevant, and genuinely useful across every interaction.

They’ll coordinate channels thoughtfully. Use data intelligently. Build emotional connection consistently. And apply AI in ways that improve the experience instead of overwhelming it.

Because customers rarely remember every campaign they receive.

They remember how the relationship felt.