By setting clear goals and using multi-channel orchestration, you can create a cohesive and effective marketing strategy.

Our conversations with customers have revealed a crucial insight: the most successful marketing strategies start with clear, well-defined goals, not specific channels.

Whether you’re aiming for list growth, customer retention, increased revenue, or improved ROI, the key is to build your strategy from the top down. This ensures that each channel you use—be it email, SMS, social media, or any other—plays a strategic role in achieving your overarching objectives.

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Key takeaways

Goal-oriented marketing ensures that your efforts are always working towards your business outcomes, rather than just channel-specific metrics. This allows you to be flexible in the channels you choose, such as SMS marketing or email marketing, based on what works best for your audience.

This post guides you through why setting clear goals should be your first step and how to effectively leverage different channels to reach those goals. By focusing on what you want to achieve before deciding how to achieve it, you can create a marketing plan that's more strategic and effective.

Read on to discover:

• Why you need to prioritize goals first
• How journeys help you meet your goals by using channels more effectively
• How AI can maximize the impact of your goal-oriented marketing efforts

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Starting with business goals

Marketers are increasingly focused on goals and metrics that are crucial for the long-term success and profitability of their brands. While revenue-based metrics are often talked about on our calls with customers, they’re also focused on audience-based metrics, like list growth and engagement.

Some of the most common goals we hear from our customers include:

• Improve conversions
• Increase incremental revenue
• Lower cost per acquisition
• Grow subscriber base
• Increase CTR
• Improve customer lifetime value 
• Increase repeat purchases
• Improve ROI

These goals aren’t specific to one marketing channel.

When you start with your goals, you make sure that every campaign, regardless of the channel, contributes to those goals, rather than just chasing channel-specific metrics that may not translate into meaningful outcomes.

This approach allows you to optimize your efforts for what works best, rather than being confined to certain channels because you think they’re the most suitable. It also changes the mindset from channels acting as siloed initiatives to ones that are working in a coordinated manner to drive the same result. It gives you a more holistic view of your marketing activities.

The same goes for budget allocation. When you have a clear set of objectives, you can more effectively decide where to invest your resources. Instead of spreading your budget thin across multiple channels, you can concentrate on the ones that have the greatest impact on your goals.

By prioritizing goals over channels, you can develop a marketing strategy that's both flexible and targeted. It allows you to adapt to changing market conditions and customer preferences while maintaining a clear focus on what truly matters to your brand.

Improving ROI for Blenders Eyewear

Blenders Eyewear wasn’t thinking about channel-specific metrics when they combined their email and SMS programs on Attentive. They wanted to increase revenue, conversion rates, and drive up ROI by having a comprehensive view of the subscriber lifecycle in one place. 

The results speak for themselves. Attentive’s combined reporting empowered our team to swiftly identify the right channel and lever to pull, enabling us to make a meaningful impact at remarkable speed. 

- Kyra Stickford, Marketing Retention Coordinator at Blenders Eyewear

They now have that comprehensive view and they achieved some remarkable results, too. They saw higher open rates, increased revenue, and a more unified brand voice across both channels. Blenders achieved an all-time 45x ROI—setting a new standard for successful cross-channel orchestration and amplifying the impact of every message sent. 

Since migrating to Attentive Email, Blenders has seen a significant surge in their email performance, including an impressive 136% increase in open rates, and a 60% rise in revenue from their browse abandonment journeys. Throughout this period of growth, Blenders also maintained a 99% email deliverability rate.

The ability to orchestrate a multi-channel messaging strategy on one platform also gave Blenders’ already high-performing SMS program a substantial boost, including a 52% increase in total revenue (65% more from Journeys and 43% more from Campaigns). 

Additionally, Blenders’ now boasts an average 9.2% CVR for all SMS Campaign messages, far surpassing Attentive’s sub-vertical benchmark of 2.1% CVR in E-commerce/Accessories. Their SMS Welcome Journey stands at a staggering 51.84% CVR, with a 625x ROI, significantly outperforming Attentive’s sub-vertical benchmark of 18.6% CVR in E-commerce/Accessories.

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Meeting customers on the right channel in their journey can help you meet your goals

Blenders has proven that focusing on the subscriber lifecycle and the customer journey can yield impressive results—and help you reach your marketing goals. 

By aligning your marketing efforts with the customer journey, you can improve conversion rates, increase incremental revenue, lower cost per acquisition, and grow your subscriber base more effectively. 

It starts with the journey, then identifying which channel will be the most effective at the right time in that journey. 

Let’s take a closer look at how to optimize your journeys and what metrics to measure to make sure you’re on track to hit your goals.

Welcome journey

By crafting a well-thought-out welcome journey, you can make a strong first impression, build trust, and lay the foundation for long-term engagement. 

A welcome journey typically includes a series of automated messages that guide your new customers through the initial stages of their relationship with your brand. It’s important to balance email and SMS sends so that new customers feel valued and informed without being overwhelmed. 

To balance email and SMS sends in a welcome flow, it's important to consider the strengths and appropriate use cases for each channel. Emails are great for delivering detailed information, such as welcome kits, product guides, and company overviews, while SMS is ideal for quick, personalized messages that can drive immediate action, like special offers or account activation links. 

Quick tip: Branch your sends based on message engagement in your journeys. With Attentive, you can branch on subscribers who’ve clicked a shortlink in a text message from you since starting the journey. That way, you can send a follow-up email message to subscribers who haven’t clicked a shortlink in an SMS message from you.

Best practices for your welcome journeys:

• Include a coupon reminder, encourage shoppers to save your brand’s number as a contact, or thank them for joining your community. 
• Welcome series should be 4-5 messages over the first 7-10 days.

‍A standard welcome journey yields the following results:

• 24.2% average CTR
• 19% average CVR
• 2.2% average OOR
• $10.85 average revenue per message

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Browse abandonment journey

Browse abandonment journeys are essential in recovering lost sales and re-engaging potential customers who have shown interest but didn't add an item to their cart or complete a purchase. By targeting these customers with personalized messages, you can remind them of the items they were browsing and encourage them to return to your site. 

To balance email and SMS sends in a browse abandonment journey, it's important to leverage the strengths of each channel. Emails can be used to send detailed and visually appealing reminders, including product images, descriptions, and special offers. SMS, on the other hand, is perfect for quick, direct messages that can prompt immediate action, such as a short reminder or a limited-time discount. 

A balanced approach might involve sending an initial email within a few hours of the browse abandonment, followed by a SMS message a day later if the customer hasn't returned. This dual-channel strategy ensures that the message is seen and acted upon, without overwhelming the customer with too many messages. By carefully timing and personalizing these messages, you can effectively re-engage potential customers and drive higher sales.

Best practices for your browse abandonment journeys:

• Send reminder messages to subscribers 15-60 minutes after they abandon a product page.
• Including the subscriber’s first name can increase CTR by at least 100%.
• Using the product name can increase revenue per send by 20%.

A standard browse abandonment journey yields the following results:

• 14.5% average CTR
• 3.7% average CVR
• 0.9% average OOR
• $2.60 average revenue per message

We saw a great response to the abandonment journeys we implemented over Memorial Day Weekend. Getting that reminder in front of customers with Attentive SMS to come back and complete a purchase helps us make the most of big sales.

- Khaki Jeffs, Digital Marketing Manager at Club Monaco

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Cart abandonment journey

Cart abandonment journeys address a common pain point where potential customers add items to their cart but leave without completing the purchase. By implementing these journeys, you can recover lost sales and improve customer engagement. 

To balance sends between SMS and email in a cart abandonment workflow, it's important to use each channel strategically. Emails can provide detailed reminders with product images, descriptions, and special offers, while SMS messages can deliver quick, direct prompts that encourage immediate action, such as a one-time discount code or a limited-time offer. 

Best practices for cart abandonment journeys:

• Send a reminder message to subscribers 15-30 minutes after they abandon their cart.
• Include an offer to increase conversions—typically by about 20%.
• Link the shopper directly back to the cart page vs. your homepage.

‍A standard cart abandonment journey yields the following results:

• 17.2% average CTR
• 12.1% average CVR
• 0.9% average OOR
• $12.35 average revenue per message

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Post-purchase journey

Post-purchase journeys help to solidify the customer relationship, build loyalty, encourage reviews, and drive repeat business. These journeys can include thank-you messages, order confirmations, shipping updates, product education, and follow-up offers. Many use these journeys focus on generating reviews, cross-selling or upselling, and promoting other channels where customers can connect with the brand.  

Using both emails and SMS sends in your post-purchase journeys? Emails are ideal for detailed communications, such as order summaries, product care instructions, and customer satisfaction surveys. SMS messages, on the other hand, are perfect for quick, timely updates like shipping notifications and short, personalized thank-you notes. 

Best practices for post-purchase journeys:

• Wait at least a week (using your average shipping times after the product arrives before sending a post-purchase message.
• Express gratitude for the customer completing their purchase.
• Incentivize repeat purchases by offering a discount to use on their next order.

A standard post-purchase journey yields the following results:

• 7.5% average CTR
• 2.8% average CVR
• 0.9% average OOR
• $2.50 average revenue per message

Attentive helps goPure generate revenue by allowing us to develop unique sending strategies for different audiences. By targeting our engaged audience with new content in-between promotional events, goPure has already generated more revenue in January than in previous years.

- Emela Husic, Senior Marketing Manager at goPure

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Winback journey

Winback journeys can help you prevent customer churn. These messages are triggered when subscribers haven't purchased anything from you for at least 45 days. Winback journeys only try to win back subscribers who have purchased at least one item from you in the past. If a subscriber has never purchased anything from you, they'll never enter a winback journey.

These journeys can be tailored to offer personalized incentives, such as exclusive discounts or special promotions, to entice customers back to the brand. To balance sends between SMS and email in a winback workflow, it's important to use each channel effectively. Emails can be used to send more detailed and visually rich messages, including product recommendations, customer testimonials, and compelling offers. SMS messages, on the other hand, are great for quick, direct calls to action, such as a time-sensitive discount or a simple reminder to check out new arrivals. 

A balanced approach might involve sending an initial email with a personalized offer and a compelling reason to return, followed by a SMS message a few days later to reinforce the offer and create a sense of urgency. This dual-channel strategy ensures that the message is both seen and acted upon, without overwhelming the customer. By carefully timing and personalizing these communications, marketers can effectively re-engage inactive customers and drive them back to making purchases.

Best practices for winback journeys:

• Include a discount to use on their next order to increase the likelihood for subscribers to make a purchase.
• Send a follow-up message after your first message on a delay of about 15 days. 

‍A standard welcome journey yields the following results:

• 3% average CTR
• 3.6% average CVR
• .4% average OOR

Journeys are one of the highest ROI touchpoints because they’re triggered after someone takes a high-value action (browses the site, views a product, adds to cart, makes a purchase, etc.). Those are the best times to send a message to nudge someone back into the conversion funnel, which is why the ROI of journeys tends to be 50-100x+.

At Attentive, journeys’ rules are hardcoded and complex and we have built-in fatigue logic you can use to ensure that subscribers aren't overmessaged. We also suggest that all post-purchase messages (marketing and transactional) be turned on. These are the most wanted messages from consumers.

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Power up your journeys with AI

With AI, nailing the perfect timing, personalization, and segmentation has never been more accessible or effective. By analyzing data such as user activity patterns, purchase history, and interaction with previous campaigns, AI can determine the best times to send SMS or email messages, ensuring they are received when the audience is most receptive. This level of precision not only improves the user experience but also maximizes the impact of your goal-oriented marketing efforts.

Attentive’s AI Journeys is the pinnacle of 1:1 messaging. We create unique messages in real time for each person based on what we know about them and what they’ve done on site. Brands typically see an increase in journey revenue of 100-200% with AI Journeys.

AI makes a splash for SwimOutlet’s journeys

SwimOutlet’s journeys drive most of their SMS marketing revenue, but sending the same copy to all subscribers was showing diminishing returns. They had to make a change to keep up with their revenue goals. 

They ran an A/B test to compare AI Journeys to their standard cart abandonment message. Pulling in customer data, behavioral insights, and engagement data, they let AI craft contextually relevant messages at scale.

SwimOutlet increased their revenue by 600% and CTR by 54% by turning on AI Journeys for their cart abandon messages.

It takes a level of creativity and expertise to figure out how to actually make use of AI. Attentive is leading the charge here, both for SMS and email. By making the most of our data, AI Journeys is changing the game for us—with a 600% increase in total revenue. 

- Ryan Moakley, Director of Marketing at SwimOutlet

To create AI-powered message, our model requires three data sources:

• Brand: Needs to sound like the brand and takes into account the brand’s identity, personality, and writing style.
• Product: Needs to talk about the product’s features, use cases, or materials accurately.
• Subscriber: Needs information about the subscriber like their behavioral patterns, purchasing history, and events (e.g., past purchases, when they became a customer, when they abandoned a cart, etc.)

These three data sources combine with the outputs of other Attentive models and are transformed into a sequence of hyper-targeted prompts used in LLMs that produce a final message.

Recommended reading: AI in Action: How Messages are Crafted in AI Journeys

Ready to automatically tailor every aspect of your triggered messages in real time? Schedule a demo to learn more about Attentive AI—and ask about your free trial.