How Wine Enthusiast Achieved 50% Subscriber Lift and Smarter Personalization With Attentive

Opening doors to the world of wine

Wine Enthusiast brings together publishing and commerce to help people explore and enjoy wine. Its offerings span wine ratings, long-form articles, educational classes, events, wine travel, and wine storage solutions and accessories. Beyond its online store, it welcomes shoppers to a retail store at 27 Greene Street in SoHo.

“We want to open doors to the world of wine for our subscribers because, well, we think it's fun!”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

For Claire, the goal is to use what she learns about subscribers to share the content and products they care about, without crowding their inboxes. With Attentive, she has more ways to turn those insights into audience growth and personalized experiences.

Bringing a lean team’s strategy to life

Claire wanted a platform that would make reliable email and SMS journeys, audience insights, and personalized content practical for her team. Wine Enthusiast previously used separate third-party tools for email and on-site sign-up units, with no customer data platform (CDP), dedicated analyst, or software engineer to connect signals and maintain integrations.

Bringing email, SMS, and AI together in Attentive gave Claire more ways to act on customer data within one platform. She could build journeys, test sign-up tactics, and refine audiences with the resources already on her team.

A shared foundation for email and SMS

Wine Enthusiast became an Attentive Email customer in October 2025, began IP warming in February 2026, and fully launched email in late March, alongside the addition of SMS. Today, email campaigns and triggered journeys work alongside AI Pro and AI Grow as part of Claire’s lifecycle marketing program.

The Attentive Implementation team helped Claire get that foundation in place, working with her to answer technical questions and navigate the migration.

“No one expects a software migration to be fun. And while I wouldn't say the experience was stress-free (that's not possible), the migration exceeded my expectations. The Attentive Implementation team was not only a delight to work with, but also helped me chase down answers and tackle complex technical blockers.”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

Putting personalization into practice

Once live, Claire gained a clearer view of her audiences and practical ways to respond. Back-in-stock and custom event journeys became easier to launch. Dynamic rows of email content and adjustable product recommendation blocks made it easier to help subscribers discover relevant products.

“The word "unlock" gets used a lot in marketing, but it did feel like I unlocked some marketing superpowers once Wine Enthusiast was live on Attentive.”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

Journeys also contribute to the broader SMS program. Across all available history through September 30, 2026, Wine Enthusiast recorded a 51.5% SMS journey conversion rate.

Turning reporting into decisions

To decide what to do next, Claire uses Reporting Agent, currently in beta, to explore performance and prepare insights for her executive team. Questions that would otherwise require an analyst are now within her reach.

“And lastly I'll say that I love the depth and breadth of reporting at my fingertips. Attentive's Reporting Agent answers questions that would otherwise require an analyst. Pulling together monthly reports and bubbling up insights to my executive team is now a breeze!”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

Growing the audience while keeping creative control

Moving sign-up units into Attentive gave Claire an easier, faster way to launch new units, test list-growth tactics, and collect zero-party data. She can iterate within the same platform she uses to engage subscribers.

AI Grow builds on that foundation by adapting when, where, and how sign-up units appear, while Claire retains control of her creative and offers.

“AI Grow has delivered strong subscriber growth without requiring me to lift a finger since we launched in May 2026.”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

Since launching AI Grow in May 2026, Claire has seen especially noticeable growth in the SMS list, which continues to grow month over month.

Wine Enthusiast gives 5% of site traffic a control sign-up unit without AI Grow. Claire reports a 50% lift in subscribers and a 58% lift in conversion for AI Grow compared with that control.

Reaching the right audience with AI Pro

As her audience grows, Claire remains focused on sending content subscribers want. AI Pro helps her refine audiences using the data already in Attentive, even without a CDP. Wine Enthusiast uses it for the vast majority of campaign sends. Claire credits that refinement with keeping unique click-through rates healthy during non-promotional periods and improving SMS ROI.

“AI Pro has helped us work smarter without working harder.”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

From March 1–September 30, 2026, AI Pro audience refinement kept 363,052 messages from being sent, supporting Claire’s goal of being thoughtful about what subscribers receive.

Wine Enthusiast’s broader SMS program grew, too. Average daily attributed SMS revenue was 20.1% higher from July 12–September 30, 2026, compared with March 1–May 4, 2026.

Building on audience growth

Claire’s next focus is segmenting subscribers acquired through AI Grow by engagement and purchase history. Her goal is to keep them engaged through a first or subsequent purchase, tailoring follow-up to how people interact with Wine Enthusiast and what they buy.

A platform and partnership to do more

Claire recommends bringing email and SMS onto the same platform, especially for lean teams. She also encourages marketers to choose a provider that treats the relationship as a two-way partnership. For Wine Enthusiast, a consistent feedback loop with Attentive on platform features and improvements keeps Claire’s needs part of the conversation.

“My CSM team takes the time to understand the problem I'm trying to solve and get me to a solution.”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast

With email, SMS, and AI together in Attentive, Claire can put more of her strategy into practice. Her lean team has practical ways to grow its audience, personalize content, and refine who receives campaigns.

“Improvements in our program that were difficult to attain before, such as SMS list growth and audience segmentation, are now completely doable.”

— Claire Wallace, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Wine Enthusiast