Two marketing channels, one attribution model. Which gets credit for conversions and revenue?

We recently shared a blog post talking about the two perspectives when it comes to analyzing email marketing metrics: how the machines view your emails and how your human subscribers engage with your emails. 

On the human side of marketing metrics, we looked at open rate, unique click rate, conversions, and revenue per recipient. In this post, we want to double-click into conversions and revenue and how they’re attributed. 

If there’s one topic marketers can debate about all day, it’s attribution. We all want to know that our efforts are working and credit is given where it’s due. But to get a full understanding of “what’s working” it’s‌ important to look at your channels together.

So let’s talk about one of our favorite topics: attribution. How we think about attribution at Attentive, our attribution model, and the story it tells about your SMS and email programs.

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Email and SMS attribution models and windows explained

When asked what attribution models our enterprise customers use, they cited these top three methods:

• Last click
• Data-driven
• First click

Marketing teams across industries measure attribution differently. Some give more credit to the last marketing touch, some put emphasis on the first marketing touch, and some split credit equally among all channels that assisted in the conversion.

Currently, within Attentive, we give attribution to whatever event happened last within the standard attribution window—which can be customized. With a smaller window, your attribution will be more accurate by honing in on which specific message was last clicked before the conversion occurred.

Attentive relies on last-known touch attribution, which is based on known touch events within a time window before a purchase. A touch event occurs when a subscriber views or clicks a text message or email. 

Standard attribution windows within Attentive:

• Default window for SMS is 5-day click, 1-day view
• Default window for email is 5-day click, 5-day view

These windows are flexible and can be adjusted to fit any brand’s attribution model. If preferred, you can dismiss View attribution to only see clicks. It’s important to note if narrowing the view to 1-day revenue, that revenue is from the 24-hour period following the campaign send time. 

A narrow attribution window proves which channel finally got that conversion. But that channel most likely didn’t do all the work to get there. By combining your email and SMS into one platform, you have one single source of truth. You can tell what that last click was, but you can also see all the other SMS and email clicks along the way. This insight is invaluable because a solid strategy isn't just built on what happened last before a conversion.

Marketing is a journey. We know it’s not linear. Customers and prospects engage with marketing touchpoints across a variety of channels. Ultimately, those channels are funneling customers toward the same end point. Each channel had some influence on that conversion.

That doesn’t mean we stop tracking each channel individually to see how it contributes to our program’s overall success. But just because SMS or email got credit for the conversion doesn’t mean the other channel didn’t assist. 

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 with remarkable speed.

- Kyra Stickford, Marketing Retention Coordinator, Blenders Eyewear

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A playbook for SMS and email marketing success

When used together, email and SMS can increase the likelihood of engagement (and conversion) with your brand. 

We’ve found that when subscribers are engaged on both SMS and email, they’re 2x more likely to purchase than if they’re only engaged on one channel. Multi-channel subscribers engaging on both SMS and email are also the most valuable, driving 50% higher purchase rates and LTV versus single-channel subscribers. Another bonus? Multi-channel subscribers make purchases quicker. 

Jewelry brand JAXXON consolidated email and SMS into Attentive and had a remarkable 688x ROI on their email program. They also had a more comprehensive view of the subscriber lifecycle to improve segmentation strategies between the channels. Apparel and footwear brand Jack Rogers also combined email and SMS into Attentive to better understand how both channels impact customer lifetime value. These insights and adjustments to their strategy grew their email program ROI by 35%. 

If you want to replicate their success when combining SMS and email marketing on one platform, continue reading to create your playbook for success.

Here are our top tips for driving success across both channels—no matter which channel gets “credit.”

Cross-promote your marketing channels to enroll subscribers in both texts and emails

• Encourage SMS sign-up via an email campaign segmented for non-SMS subscribers, and likewise, encourage email sign-up via an SMS. This tactic is especially effective in your welcome journeys.
• Include a banner image in email campaigns that promote your Text-to-Join (TTJ) keyword and short code.
• Link out to your SMS sign-up landing page from your email campaigns.
• Host a giveaway that asks for the customer data you’re missing. 

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‍Leverage channel affinity to reach subscribers where they have the highest likelihood of converting

• Set up a branch on channel-specific click behavior in your welcome journey to determine where to send follow-ups.
• Customize abandonment journeys for multi-channel touchpoints. 
• Use an email touchpoint for all reminders after the first SMS message in an abandonment journey to stay in compliance with carrier guidelines.
• Test SMS first for cart abandonment. We’ve found that sending a text message in the first 60 minutes increases CVR. 

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‍Personalize touchpoints to enhance a subscriber’s experience and boost revenue potential

• Use product details, dynamic variables (name, images, discounts), and custom attributes (product categories of interest, preference details) in your messages on both email and SMS. We’ve found a 30% increase in CTR and a 37% increase in CVR by adding product recommendations to emails.
• Use Two-Way Journeys to better understand each individual subscriber and what they want, how often they want messages, and on what channel they want to get messages.
• Trial AI Pro to reach high-intent subscribers with personalized messages.

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‍Identify low-value subscribers to minimize investments in subscribers that are unlikely to convert

• Create a sunset policy to best determine when and how often you’ll engage with your audience.
• Target unengaged subscribers sparingly.
• Use Audiences AI to audit upcoming campaigns and messages that may be a good fit for audience exclusions based on past behavior.

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Our secret sauce for maximizing multi-channel return

• Optimize for engagement: Knowing when and where a subscriber is engaged tells you where and how to message them.
• Optimize for savings: Recognizing when an unengaged subscriber isn’t likely to re-engage tells you when to stop sending (and spending).

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Want to see what Attentive can do for your email and SMS program? Schedule a demo.