How Saatva Scaled SMS Performance and Protected List Health with Attentive AI™

Scale SMS acquisition and engagement without sacrificing list health

Saatva’s lifecycle retention goals extended beyond revenue alone. The team prioritized improving subscriber engagement, driving steady channel acquisition, and strengthening long-term retention — with SMS playing a key role as a more timely, “in-the-moment” way to stay relevant and connected to customers.

At the same time, list quality mattered. The team cared about building a subscriber base that actually wanted to hear from the brand — and reducing wasted sends to keep the program efficient.

“Beyond revenue, my biggest focus is improving subscriber engagement and acquisition while strengthening long-term retention. SMS is more timely, so it helps us stay relevant in the moments that matter — but we want to grow it in a healthy way that protects list health over time.”
- Anna Boettcher, Marketing Manager, Email & Retention, Saatva

Build the foundation, then optimize with AI-driven efficiency

1) Strengthen the onsite signup experience and keep it fresh

Saatva has been steadily building and evolving its onsite SMS acquisition strategy. In the early days, the onsite experience promoted sales but wasn’t optimized for SMS capture. The team prioritized launching and iterating on a dedicated signup experience to drive healthier growth.

Their approach evolved from no incentive to testing multiple discount thresholds, alongside ongoing rotation of images to keep the experience feeling fresh.

2) Align SMS to tentpole moments and high-intent behaviors

As a multichannel mattress retailer, Saatva sees demand spike around key “tentpole” holidays (like Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day) — with peaks occurring throughout the year rather than being concentrated only in Q4. The SMS program supports these major sale periods while also promoting new product launches, limited-time offers, and early access moments.

During BFCM, the team leverages targeted retargeting to re-engage high-intent shoppers:

• Cyber Monday retargeting messages: up to 20% CTR
• Black Friday retargeting messages: up to 4.9% CVR and 2,619x ROI

3) Use AI Pro to scale smarter (not just bigger)

Saatva adopted Attentive AI Pro as part of a broader goal to embrace AI and operate more efficiently. The team leaned into tools that “free up time,” reduce manual effort, and optimize performance over time — especially within campaigns, where AI can optimize in the background without requiring constant hands-on management.

As a result, Saatva is able to maintain strong efficiency at scale across one-off sends, with a total campaign messages ROI of 53x.

“Our goal as a marketing team is to embrace AI in a way that helps the brand. The biggest impact has been efficiency. A lot of it is set-it-and-forget-it, which makes it easier to scale, stay consistent, and get smarter over time.”
- Anna Boettcher, Marketing Manager, Email & Retention, Saatva

Their AI Pro product usage includes:

• Identity AI to help reach and recognize more shoppers and increase deliverable opportunities without ongoing manual work
  
  • Monthly Identity-driven lift ranged roughly +12% to +19% (with weekly peaks higher)
  • In abandonment messaging, Identity AI contributed to an overall +22% lift in sends (more eligible, recognized shoppers reached in high-intent moments)
  • By trigger type, Identity-driven send lift reached up to +25% in product-view abandonment, supporting more coverage when shoppers are actively considering purchase
    

• Send Time AI to deliver messages more intelligently (without manually deciding send times)
  
  • ‍Send Time AI used on 56% of campaign messages 

• Audiences AI to reduce sends to lower-engaged subscribers while prioritizing audiences more likely to convert, helping maximize efficiency and control costs
  
  • ~13% of potential sends suppressed through exclusions
  • Audiences AI exclusions used on 47% of campaigns

4) Invest in automated journeys and two-way customer experience

Automated journeys have become a major performance engine for Saatva, delivering a 3,492x ROI by reaching customers when they’re already engaged and looking for timely reassurance or helpful information.

Always-on lifecycle performance highlights:

• Welcome journey: 20% CTR, 19% CVR, 5,040x ROI
• Add to Cart journey: 21% CTR, 18% CVR, 8,294x ROI

Testing the Welcome experience with AI Grow

To push onsite performance further, Saatva also tested the Welcome experience using AI Grow creatives, validating that small UX and creative optimizations at the point of signup can meaningfully improve conversion and subscriber growth — while staying aligned with list quality goals.

In a stat-sig AI Grow Welcome test, Saatva saw:

• +25% incremental SMS signups
• +17% incremental email signups (onsite capture)
• +69% Welcome conversion lift
• +72% Welcome revenue lift

Attentive is a true extension of a lean team

Saatva values partners who move quickly, support execution, and help the team stay ahead of changes in the space. The brand leaned on Attentive’s Customer Success partnership and White Glove support to execute projects, QA flows, and get a second set of eyes — especially important given internal bandwidth constraints.

The team also emphasized how helpful it is to have a partner who proactively communicates industry shifts (like iOS updates) and brings actionable guidance into regular working sessions.

“I’ve worked with a lot of vendors, and Attentive has been a step above. Their support is huge for us — it helps us get bigger and more detailed projects done, plus it gives us a second set of eyes. And when things change in SMS, Attentive is on top of it with guidance and options so we’re never guessing.”
- Anna Boettcher, Marketing Manager, Email & Retention, Saatva