Attentive FAQs

1. Are there guidelines for what the pre-populated Join" text should say?

We recommend that the copy is clear, concise, and directtell the user exactly what to do. We recommend the following text:

Send this text to subscribe to {company} and get your {discount} off coupon code!

You should also keep the length of the text under 160 characterssome carriers may cut your message off if it's longer than that.

Finally, avoid using special characters like %, &, or emojis in your join text because they may cause issues on certain Android messaging apps.

2. What is the (ref: 12345)" code in the pre-populated Join" text?

That's a reference ID that allows us to tie the cookie value we set on your site to a new subscribers phone number. This enables us to:

Suppress creatives for people who have already signed up

Attribute revenue to marketing and automated messages sent through Attentive

Create segments based on on-site behavior, like browsing and purchasing

Report on CVR for each creative

3. Why do some Join" texts have underscores?

When someone tries to subscribe on your site from within Instagram's app, Instagram will replace blank spaces with additional characters. Because this renders the text message unreadable, we proactively replace spaces with underscores to ensure the text is legible.

4. What are the reasons someone may not be able to sign up for text messages?

Attentive only shows creatives to users within the United States, so only people with US phone numbers are able to sign up for text messages.

We work very hard to stay on top of all industry developments. One current bug right involves the Verizon+ Messaging App which does not support sending a pre-populated message to a short code if the subscriber has never interacted with that number before. We have created solutions you can easily implement if you or any of your customers run into an issue. Alternate sign-up methods include:

Creating a Text-to-Join keyword for subscribers to send to your short code to opt in

Using a manual entry form field where the subscriber enters their phone number (like on our desktop creatives, for example)

5.Why isn't a subscriber receiving my messages (or is receiving them late)?

There are several reasons why a subscriber may not receive your message or may receive it late. They simply might not have cellular service. Additionally, carriers occasionally have delivery queues or short-term outages that impact delivery. Outages are very rare and are typically reported to Attentive slightly after the fact. We are usually able to reconstruct what happened if you provide us with the phone number in question.

When you or a subscriber experience deliverability issues, please reach out to your Client Strategy Manager or email [email protected], and we will try to help you understand the root cause.

6. How can a subscriber opt out?

Subscribers can opt out at any time by replying to your message with the words "STOP," CANCEL," UNSUBSCRIBE, END," or OPTOUT. These words can appear anywhere within the subscriber's message.

In addition, we utilize sentiment analysis to scan for other negative intent phraseslike "Take me off the list." When one of these phrases is recognized, subscribers are sent a fuzzy opt-out prompt to let them know they can unsubscribe by replying STOP.

Finally, if you or your CX team need to manually opt someone out, you can do so in the UI. Click the Settings tab, then click Remove a Subscriber. You will then enter their phone number and click the Unsubscribe button.

7. How long can a text be?

While the maximum length of a text message is 500 characters, we recommend you keep messages under 160 charactersthe standard text message segment length (and what we bill for).

When you include special characters, like emojis, the message segment length is automatically reduced to 70 characters. Please note that special characters also count as multiple characters.

When you compose a message, we'll tell you the total number of MMS + SMS your message contains so you are never caught by surprise.

8. What are the restrictions around images and GIFs?

Carries treat images and GIFs the same. The maximum file size for images and GIFs is 500 KB, but carriers recommend staying under 200 KB.

Because mobile screens vary in size, we recommend sending square graphics to ensure consistent display. We've also experimented with other graphic sizes and have found the following also tend to display consistently:

480 pixels wide by 720 pixels high

480 pixels wide by 640 pixels high

640 pixels wide by 640 pixels high

375 pixels wide by 500 pixels high

750 pixels wide by 1000 pixels high

9.What types of content work best in text messages?

This varies from company to company. The best rule of thumb is to use what works for you on other channels like email and social!

That being said, certain types of messages always tend to perform well, such as discounts, special offers, exclusives, early access/first looks, limited-time deals, and new arrivals. In addition, contextually relevant messages, like holiday-specific, weather-related, and references to the news or major events also tend to perform extremely well.

10. What's the best cadence for sending messages?

After analyzing performance metrics across all our clients, we've found that opt-out rates don't tend to increase until subscribers begin to receive more than 10 messages per month. We recommend sending an average of two messages per week for optimal program performance.

However, cadences shift around holidays, like the Fourth of July, or major promotional periods, like Labor Day. The following cadence works best during these times:

Grant early access to your text messaging subscribers before your other channels are activated

Send an announcement on the day of the sale to drive maximum performance (when combined with other channels)

Share a final last call message on the final day of the promotion (if it occurs over multiple days)

11.Can I preview a message before sending to my subscribers?

Yes, you can always send a test of your text message to yourself directly from our UI. When you're in the message composition screen, click on the Send a test message button at the top right-hand side of the phone to send yourself a test. If you'd like to send your test to other people, you can either type in additional phone numbers or send the test to all the people within your company who have logins to the Attentive UI.

12.Does MMS perform better than SMS?

In general, MMS has higher CTRs and CVRs than SMS. But you should always experiment to see what works best with your audience.

We've found that when images are used to communicate complementary information (such as images of a new product, details about a sale, or examples of how to use a product), they can be extremely beneficial and boost performance.

13. How can I disable the link preview for older versions of iOS?

On iOS 11 and earlier, messages that end with a link will automatically create a link preview, which pulls an image and headline from a webpage. You can prevent the link preview from appearing by simply adding a space and a period after the link (e.g. Click this link to shop now: link.com.)

14. Can I adjust the time frame in which automated messages are sent?

Yes, you can edit your Quiet Hours (the period of time in which automated message sending is paused) from within the UI. Click on Settings," then Message Settings to adjust the start and end times of your companys "Quiet Hours."

15. What are Attentive's A/B testing capabilities?

For marketing messages, you can test up to four variants, with traffic split equally between each variant. You can test elements like:

Different segments (e.g. men vs. women)

Different images (e.g. lifestyle vs. product; model vs. no model)

Different copy (e.g. CTAs, tone, capitalization, fun vs. direct, etc.)

You currently cannot run A/B tests for:

Time of day or day of week

Automated messages

16. What types of automated messages can I set up within Attentive?

We currently support the following automated flows:

Coupon reminders:

Sent only to subscribers who signed up for your text program but have not used their coupon yet

We recommend setting up a reminder that sends 24 hours after the initial sign-up

Welcome series:

Sent to all subscribers on a set cadence

We recommend borrowing from what has worked best for your brand's email program

Cart abandonment series:

Sent to all subscribers who have added an item to their cart but have not completed their purchase yet

We recommend sending one reminder 20 minutes after a subscriber abandons their cart and another reminder after 24 hours. However, you should adjust the cadence to match what works best with your existing flow from other channels, like email

Post-purchase series:

Sent to all subscribers who have made a purchase but have not purchased again

We recommend asking for reviews based on your normal shipping timelines and promoting additional items based on your normal reorder cycle.

1. What incentives work best to drive text message sign-ups?

Almost all of our clients offer their customers some sort of discount (either a percentage or dollar amount) to incentivize them to sign up for texts. Incentives have been proven to lead to much higher sign-up rates. We've also found that text as a channel is much more effective than email for getting people to redeem their sign-up coupon.

If you can't offer a discount, we recommend running some sort of giveaway. This form of incentive leads to the next best sign-up rates and is relatively inexpensive. If you choose to set up a giveaway, we need you to provide us with a link to the giveaway terms (or send us the actual terms for us to host).

If you can't offer a discount or run a giveaway, the best option is to offer Secret Deals, or Exclusive Offers, or "Be the first to know."

2. Can I set creatives to only be displayed on certain pages?

Yes, our creative rules support both whitelists and blacklists. We blacklist the entire checkout flow by default, but if there are additional pages where youd like to suppress creatives, we can blacklist those as well. We can also blacklist both full URLs (e.g. " www.website.com/category/product123 ") and all URLs containing a specific string (e.g. "/category/").

3. Can I set creatives to be shown on a delay?

Because the Attentive tag is last to load on the site, and because we purposefully ensure the full site is loaded before we show our creatives, creatives will be shown on a slight delay by default. We do not have a setting to further delay them. We can, however, make them appearfaster. If you'd like to do that, please reach out to your Client Strategy Manager or email us at [email protected].

4. Can I change creatives for a holiday or special event?

Yes, our team can make new creatives for you and swap them out at the appropriate time. Because there is some level of testing involved, those changes are made manually by our team, so we prefer to have advance notice of creative changes. If you would like to schedule creative changes, please reach out to your Client Strategy Manager or email us at [email protected].

5. How can I pause creatives in the UI?

To pause creatives, simply log into your account and click the Subscribers tab. Then, scroll down and click the "pause" icon to the right of the creative you wish to pause. You can unpause creatives the same way by hitting the play button.

6. What can be easily edited on Attentives creatives?

Because Attentive's creatives are dynamically rendered on the screen via Javascript instead of loading as a static image, they need to adhere to certain style guidelines in order to display at the highest quality across a wide range of Device/OS/Browser combinations.

In order to ensure our creatives always render correctly, our team has developed standardized templates with set view heights and spacing that gives us enough cushion to make basic edits (color, copy, image content) very quickly. These templates have been tested extensively to ensure the highest level of performance and consistency.

For a full list of what can and cannot be edited within each Attentive creative unit, please reach out to your Client Strategy Manager or email us at [email protected].

7. How does Text-to-Join work?

In order to set up a Text-to-Join keyword (e.g. Text SMS to 12345!), we need to know what keyword you'd like to use. To set up Text-to-Join, reach out to your Client Strategy Manager or email us at [email protected].

If you're on a shared short code, your keyword should be your companys name or something specific to your brand. If you're on a dedicated short code, you can use any word youd like. We recommend you choose a word that won't be autocorrected.

Once you have your keyword set up, you can roll it out across any of your channels (email, in-store signage, printed materials, on-site creatives, etc.). However, there is specific legal language that must accompany all Text-to-Join promotions that you run, which our team can provide you with.

1. What is a short code? How is it different from a regular phone number?

A shortcode a 5- or 6-digit phone numberis a special type of phone number that exists for high-volume message sending. The difference between short codes and long codes are:

Send speed:Long codes can only send one message per second. Short codes can send hundreds or thousands of messages per second.

Compliance: Long codes should not be used for marketing, and carriers can shut down a program if messages are sent through a long code. Short codes exist almost exclusively to send high-volume marketing messages.

2. How long does it take to set up a short code?

The application process for a new short code can take 8-12+ weeks because it must be approved by each individual carrier.

Because of that wait time, Attentive tries to maintain a stock of short codes for new client launches, as well as for existing clients who want to move from a shared to a dedicated short code. That means we are typically able to set you up on a dedicated short code almost immediately.

If you are considering getting a dedicated short code, please let us know so we can reserve it for you and speed up the process.

3. How much do short codes cost?

"Non-vanity" short codes cost $1,000/month, billed quarterly. These short codes are randomly distributed by carriers and can consist of any combination of numbers. We try to maintain a stock of non-vanity short codes so you don't need to wait the normal 8-12+ weeks that it takes to receive one from carriers.

"Vanity" short codes cost $1,500/month, billed quarterly. These are short codes where you get to choose the specific number you want (provided that it is available). In our experience, vanity codes do not drive increased results and have the disadvantage of waiting 8-12+ weeks once we place the order for you. Also, please note that you must immediately begin paying for the vanity short code once we submit the application.

4. What are the benefits of using a dedicated short code vs. a shared one?

There are a few reasons why companies opt to purchase a dedicated short code:

Dedicated short codes have their own sending queue on our platform. If you're on a shared short code and another company on that code is sending a message, your message may take longer to deliver.

Dedicated short codes send at a much faster rateup to 30 times faster than a shared code.

Dedicated short codes allow you to choose any keyword youd like for Text-to-Join promotions. If youre on a shared short code, we require you use a version of your company's name.

You don't run the risk of subscriber overlap with other brands. Even though the overlap on a shared short code is extremely low (< 1%), it's nevertheless possible that you may share it with a competitor.

If you start rolling out Text-to-Join programs in-store, on-site, via email, or through other collateral, your brand has total ownership over the number being prominently displayed to consumers.

5. How do I move from a shared to a dedicated short code?

Its a very easy process. Simply tell your Client Strategy Manager that you want to make the switch or reach out to us at [email protected]. Once you let us know, we'll take over the next steps:

We will send over a standard confirmation email for you to sign off on

We will then work with you to create your first marketing message with your new code, since it will need to follow a few guidelines:

It should be sent to all subscribers

It should not use timezone targeting

It should end with Reply STOP to stop

1. What is Attentives default attribution window, and can I change it?

We use a 30-day post-click and 1-day post-view attribution window because those are the defaults within Google Analytics. A member of our Client Strategy team can adjust that window for you if you would like to alter it.

2. What performance data can I find in the Attentive dashboard?

Our main Dashboard tab displays high-level subscriber growth and revenue over time. It also breaks down all performance metrics by message.

Our Reports tab contains preformatted reports with the following data:

One-time message performance within a given date range

Automated message performance by day

Creative performance by day

Overall subscriber growth by day

Attributed conversions by day

Attributed revenue by day

You can customize the time ranges youd like to view for each of those reports. You can also schedule recurring reports that will be sent to you via email.

3. How does Attentives attribution model work?

We are able to determine if someone purchased from a message using three different methods and criteria:

If a subscriber completes their purchase in a browser window that matches their cookie value, we can confirm the purchase was made by that subscriber. Each time a subscriber clicks a link, we create an additional cookie match for improved accuracy.

If a purchase occurs using a phone number that matches the subscriber, we can confirm the purchase was made by that subscriber.

If a subscriber redeems their welcome coupon, we can tie that purchase to that subscriber.

We attribute all revenue within the attribution window.

4. Why don't Attentive's click and revenue numbers match Google Analytics?

There are several reasons why Attentive's click and revenue numbers vary from Google Analytics:

GA operates under the framework of a session ( learn more here ), whereas Attentive operates under the framework of a click. People who browse very quickly may not be counted by GA.

GA can miss cross-browser behaviorlike people who click a link from an iPhone which is opened in a Safari window, but who then switch to Chrome because that's where they prefer to browse and have their payment method stored.

GA can also miss desktop browsinglike people who click the link and browse on their phone, but then complete their purchase on their computer where their credit card is saved.

Attentive's attribution windows may occasionally differ, although we use the same default as GA (30-day post-click and 1-day post-view). We can alter your attribution window if needed.

GA may use last-click attribution, which we do not use.

5. How does revenue driven by Attentive show up in Google Analytics?

All the links that we use as part of the welcome flow contain UTMs that we agree upon during the onboarding process, as do all links in the automated messages that we set up for you.

We also have a built-in link shortener in the UI which will pull in the pre-arranged utm_source and utm_medium. You can edit those values in the Settings tab of the UI.

Please note: UTMs are case sensitive.

The Main Dashboard is the first thing you'll see once you log into your Attentive account. Here you can view revenue generated, changes in subscribers, and message engagement over the last 28 days.

Revenue Dashboard

The Revenue Dashboard is where you can easily see high-level metrics, including:

Total amount of revenue generated over the past 7, 14, and 28 days, as well as all-time

Weekly and monthly trend comparison

Figure 1: Revenue Graph: This graph shows the net revenue generated daily.

Subscribers Dashboard

The Subscribers Dashboard is where you can easily see high-level metrics, including:

Total number of new subscribers over the past 7, 14, 21, and 28 days

Weekly and monthly trend comparison

Figure 2: Subscriber Graph: This graph illustrates the daily growth of your subscriber list.

Message Dashboard

The Message Dashboard shows your messages' performance over the past 28 days. You can toggle between one-time and automated messages to view performance across various message types. Other metrics include:

Total number of unique messages sent

Weekly and monthly revenue trend comparison

Click-through and conversion rates by message type

Total revenue generated per message

Figure 3: Message Performance Table, One-Time Messages Sent: View CTRs, CVRs, and revenue for recent marketing messages.

When you click on the Automated tab, youll see all of the Automated messages that are currently set up and live. Under "Title," youll see the name of the message (i.e. Cart Abandoner, Post-Purchase, Welcome Message). If theres more than one message in a series, a header will appear with a dropdown that allows you to view every message within that series.

Figure 4: Message Performance Table, Automated Messages: View CTRs, CVRs, and revenue for different types of automated messages.

Once you've started growing your subscriber list, it's time to engage your subscribers by sharing your latest news, promoting a new product, or announcing a sale by sending a one-time message.

To send a new message:

1. From any page, click theSend a Messagebutton in the main navigation bar. You can also find this button on the Messages page.

Messages

2. A modal will appear asking if you want to send a one-time message or an A/B test. Enter a name for your one-time message and click Begin. The flow for sending an A/B test is the same, with the exception that A/B tests can't be used for time-zone relative messages.

3.You can choose to send your message to your entire subscriber list or to a specific segment based on various subscriber data collected by Attentive. ( Click here to learn more about segmentation.)

To select your message recipients:

1. If sending your message to all subscribers, click the Select button under "All Subscribers."

2. If sending your message to a segment of subscribers,click the Select button under "A Segment of Subscribers," then click on your segment and selectNext: Compose Messageat the bottom of the page.

4. Now it's time for the fun partcomposing your message. Our message composition interface provides you with a rich canvas to create engaging messages in seconds.

Within the message composition text field, you'll notice two elements on the bottom of the "Message Content" area:

The value on the right will display how many characters are left before you incur additional SMS charges. This value is different if your message contains special characters, like emoji. (Click here to learn more about how emoji impact character count.)

The value on the left will display how many SMS and/or MMS your message will be billed as.

To compose your message:

Type your message copy in the message content field.

Insert a link in your message by clicking the Add a Short Link button below the message content field. Here you can add UTM parameters to your Attentive short links.

Add a PNG, JPG, or GIF to your message by clicking the Add Photo/GIF button below the message content field.

It's best to test your message before sending it to your list. To send a test, click the Send a Test SMS button at the top of the phone preview. A modal will appear allowing you to enter the mobile numbers that will receive a test of your message. Enter your mobile number and click Send Test. The test message will be sent via text to your mobile phone from Attentive's number. The end of the message will say "[test]". You can send as many tests as you'd like while composing your message.

When you're finished composing your message, click Review Before Sending.

5. Before sending your message, you can double-check that your message information is correct. You also have the option to turn off "Smart Sending," a default setting that prevents sending messages to subscribers who have recently received a message from you (you can configure the "recency" time in the "Settings" tab).

The final step in sending your message is to select if it should be scheduled for later or sent immediately.

If you choose to schedule your message for the future, you can select whichever date and time you like. Please note: the time zone displayed should match the location of your company's headquarters. The time will be displayed next to the time dropdown located below the calendar, as well as above the "Schedule" button.

You can also send messages to subscribers based on their local time zone which is determined by the IP address associated with their most recent interaction with you. Subscribers who do not have an associated location will receive the message in your company's default time zone.

If you choose to send your message immediately, it will be placed in Attentive's send queue for about 10 minutes before delivery begins. If necessary, you can quickly pause your message from sending in the tab during this time.

When you're ready to send your message, click the Schedule or Send Now button.

The "Settings" tab allows you to quickly and easily change default company message and tracking settings, as well as to opt out subscribers.

1. Company Settings

You can edit your company's address and timezone, as well as the name that is shown at the beginning of your messages.

2. Message Settings

Attentive's "Smart Sending" tool automatically prevents subscribers who recently received a one-time message from receiving another. The default setting is 12 hours, but you can edit this window to be longer or shorter than the default.

Attentive also prevents automated messages from sending during "Quiet Hours". Our default quiet hours are between 9pm and 12pm EST, but you can edit these to fit your audience's habits. Messages that would have been sent during quiet hours are queued up to send when quiet hours are over.

Finally, for when your subscribers reply to your messages, we recommend sending an auto-reply to acknowledge their message. You can change your auto-response (or turn it off) at any time. Auto replies only send once every 24 hours.

3. Remove a Subscriber

If a subscriber reaches out to your team requesting to be removed from your list, you can easily unsubscribe them by typing in their phone number and clicking the "Unsubscribe" button.

4. Google Analytics Link Tracking

If you use Google Analytics, we recommend setting the standard utm_source and utm_medium here so it is automatically included in all one-time message links. You can edit these values or turn link tracking off at any time. For one-time messages, the message name will be automatically added as the utm_campaign, but this can be overridden when you are creating the message.

Attentive's "Reports" tab allows for maximum flexibility and supplies you with the information you need to make data-driven decisions and report on the success of your SMS channel. There is a variety of pre-built reports that cover all aspects of your program's performance:

[email protected]

Figure 1: Pre-built reporting options

When you click on an individual report, you can easily select your desired date range. Once you select a time frame, enter the email address you would like to deliver the data to.

Figure 2: Select a date range and enter an email address to receive the report

For added security, reports are delivered as a link within an email rather than as an attachment. Please note that the link will expire after 7 days.

You can also schedule pre-built reports that will be delivered on a regular cadence by clicking the "Set Up Scheduled Reports" button:

You can choose to receive scheduled reports daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly.

If you regularly need data that is not available in one of the pre-built reports, you can request additional custom reports from our Client Strategy team by emailing.

Your subscribers are able to reply, in real-time, to messages you send. We make it easy for you to track incoming replies and respond back to your subscribers!

On the left side of the "Conversations" tab, you can see the messages customers have sent that do not contain the standard subscribing or global keywords (e.g. HELP or STOP). These messages can be sorted by unread or latest.

Figure 1: Conversations tab

Each reply contains the subscriber's phone number as well as a full history of messages sent and received with your program.

Replying to your subscribers is easy and intuitive! Type your responses directly within your Attentive web application. Your response will be sent as a text message back to the subscriber. You also have the option of unsubscribing people by clicking the "Unsubscribe" button in the top right corner of each conversation.

If multiple people on your team have accounts, you can view the name of who replied to each customer. Attentive can also integrate the conversations feature with various customer service platforms, such as Zendesk and Gorgias.

We recommend you set up an auto-response so your customers receive an immediate response, adding to their personalized experience. You can turn your auto-response on and off, depending on the availability of your team.

Our segmentation tools help you leverage data within Attentive to target your subscribers with the right message at the right time. To build a segment, click on the "+ Create a segment" button.

On the next screen, name the segment and write a short description for yourself so you can easily find the correct segment later when you're composing a message.

Figure 1: Naming your segment

When building a segment, you have the ability to filter subscribers by various sets of data:

Figure 2: Building your segment

Here's an overview of the types of data and how it can be used:

Joined: The subscriber's sign-up date

Clicked: The number of times someone clicked your message during a given time period

Purchased: The number of times someone has purchased from you during a given time period

Visited Site: The pages that someone browsed on your site. Note:this must be configured by an Attentive Client Strategy Manager

Source: All possible sources of sign-ups (on-site creatives, keywords, etc.)

Subscriber Tag: The specific tags related to manual uploads.Note: this must be configured by an Attentive Client Strategy Manager

Location (State, City, Zip Code): The information inferred from the subscribers' IP address

When building a segment, you have the ability to toggle between matching againstany conditions (i.e. an "or" statement") orall of the conditions (i.e an "and" statement).

Here's an example of how to use an "all" statement to look up subscribers who have purchased at least once and signed up in the last 7 days:

Figure 3: An example segment

The last step of building a segment is to confirm the details of your segment. Because segments take time to sync (typically less than 5 minutes), the total number of subscribers in the segment will not be immediately available.

Figure 4: The segment confirmation screen

In the "Subscribers" tab of your Attentive account, you can see detailed information about customers who have opted-in to receive messages from you.

The first chart shows the growth of your subscriber list over time, along with the total number of subscribers and unsubscribes. You can highlight a date to see the total number of sign-ups for that day.

Figure 1: All-time subscriber stats

You can also find detailed metrics about your subscriber sources, organized by the source of the sign-up.

Figure 2: Subscriber source reporting

You can view the following metrics for all creative sources:

Impressions served

CTR (and total clicks)

Both SMS + email (if applicable) sign-ups

CVR

You can pause a creative at any time by clicking the Pause button on the right-hand side of each creative. To re-activate the creative, simply click the Play button.

1. One-Time Message Performance

You can see all of your Delivered, Scheduled, and Draft messages in the "Messages" tab. Toggle between One-Time and Automated Messages to view different types of messages. The One-Time Messages panel features a calendar overview of your sent and scheduled messages from the previous and current weeks.

Here you will also find stats on the total number of recipients, CTR, CVR, and Revenue for each sent message sent.

Figure 1: Overview of all One-Time Messages' performance

Click on an individual message to display a robust breakdown of message performance:

Figure 2: Overview of a single one-time message's performance

The overview for a single message's performance will contain the following details:

Message name (internal)

Send time + date

SMS/MMS breakdown

Total recipients (and the time the message finished sending)

CTR (and total clicks)

CVR (and total purchases)

Total revenue (and revenue driven per recipient)

Unsubscribe rate (percentage) and the total number of opt-outs

24-hour snapshot of clicks over time

Purchases broken down by geographical region (South, West, Midwest, and Northeast)

Purchases broken down by device type (iOS, Android, and desktop)

2. Automated Message Performance

Similar to one-time messages, you can see an overview of performance for your automated messages. For an automated message series, performance is summarized under the type heading (i.e. "Recover Abandoned Carts").

Figure 3: Overview of all Automated Messages' performance

If you want to see the performance of each individual message in a series, click the down arrow next to the series heading. You can see the following metrics:

Start date (the date the message was activated)

Total messages sent

CTR (and total clicks)

CVR (and total purchases)

Total revenue driven

You can see the rules for all automated messages by clicking on the circuit icon on the right side of the page:

Within the Attentive UI you are able to:

Send and schedule one-time messages

View performance of one-time and automated messages

Click each section above to learn more!

The Welcome Series message is the first impression you make with a new customer. Brands can use this type of message to deliver special offers, give a friendly hello, and establish a relationship with the new subscriber.

This is the perfect channel to introduce shoppers to the unique characteristics of your brand.

An automated welcome text also sets the tone and expectations for future communication and encourages new subscribers to further engage with your brand.

A good starting point would be to borrow from and amplify what works well in email and continue to test until you find what resonates most for your audience through text messaging. Use some of these helpful content tips:

GIFs are a friendly and visually-appealing way to introduce people to your brand.

For higher ticket items, focus on building brand affinity and providing additional information to the customer.

For lower ticket items, focus on reminding people about their coupon and pointing them toward bestsellers.

Here are some examples of options for a strong Welcome Series:

Welcome! Your 20% OFF coupon is {coupon}. Click here to automatically apply it and shop now:

Welcome! Your 2 premium pillows with mattress purchase is waiting at checkout. Click here to shop now:

We'll text you about new arrivals & special offers as they happen. For now, shop our latest styles here:

You're on the list! You'll only hear from us every now & then, but when you do, it'll be good. Save our number & let's have fun! Click here to apply code 15ONLINE at checkout for 15% off

You made the list! Now, tap the link to get 20% OFF the ENTIRE site!

Welcome Series Messages, By The Numbers:

Welcome Series Avg. CTR: 16%

Welcome Series Avg. CVR: 12%

Welcome Series Avg. Revenue/Send: $1.50

Get to the point quickly to ensure you capture your subscribers attention with the first few words.

Treat the first few words as you would an email subject line: its the subscribers first impression of your message before they open it.

Emphasize important words with all caps, but do so sparingly. Texting is simple (youcan'thighlight, bold, italicize, or underline words) so you need to make the most important words stand out.

Use powerful, emotional words and short sentences to get the point across quickly.

If you need to save characters, start with the most obvious words first, but keep them to a minimum. Use text speak infrequently.

DONT - Dnt 4get 2 use code MDW50 b4 12pm 2day 4 free shipping:

DO - Dont forget to use code MDW50 before 12pm today for free shipping!

Insert emojis to add visual excitement and emotion to your messages, but choose them wisely. Dont use an emoji that feels off-brand just to include one.

Show a sense of urgency. Make sure your message encourages the subscriber to act immediately. Examples to create a sense of urgency:

Limited-time offer

Quantities limited

Only 10 left

While supplies last

Sale ends on September 10

Dont miss out

Get it before its gone

End with a strong and creative call-to-action. This is the difference between a text that converts a browser into a buyer and one that falls flat. Your customer is busy. Tell them exactly what next step to take. Examples of strong, creative calls-to-action:

Stop everything. 25% off mirrors and wall decor is happening now. Shop the sale while it lasts.

They're baaack! These two dresses sold out FAST, and we don't want you to miss them again! Shop ASAP:

Last day to save! Use promo code MEMDAY15 to save 15% now. Sale ends at midnight.

This sale is for you! 20% OFF sitewide + FREE shipping! This weekend only!

BONUSPro tip: Curious which call-to-action is more effective or which image will drive the best engagement? Simply select the A/B Test option when setting up your message. Your eligible subscriber list will be randomly split into groups and each will be targeted with a unique message variant. Youll be able to view the performance metrics of each message side by side in the Messages tab once sending is complete.

Apparel -Free shipping, sales, and discounts perform best in this category. New product announcements and best sellers are also successful and have an expected ROI of 20x.Here are some tips and examples:

Creative Pro Tip: Create one particularly good apparel sales message, one free shipping, one product announcement

Last chance to save BIG! take $50 off $150, $25 off $100, and $10 off $50

TODAY ONLY: Spend $50 on Beauty + Wellness and get this exclusive gift. Includes 12 travel-size faves.

Be the first. See our latest collection before anyone else! Shop the preview:

FREE Shipping Worldwide! No Minimum >> LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Our Draper James x ELOQUII jumpsuit that sold out in minutes is BACK! Get yours now (ships free!) while you can.

Beauty -New product announcements and holiday-themed messages (all holidays) have higher CTRs than sale promotions and discounts. However, sale promotions and discounts have an expected ROI of 20x. Here are some tips and examples:

Creative Pro Tip: Create one particularly good beauty new product announcements, holiday, and sale message

Surprise! You're invited to our 6 hour flash sale! SHOP 20% OFF NOW

Hey VIPs, this is a good one...! Get early access to our Friends & Family sale - aka 20% off your order - starting today. Use code FRIENDS2019 at checkout.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! CYBER BEAUTY BLOWOUT STEALS UP TO 60% OFF. Get in there NOW!! >>

This only happens once a year Our Black Friday sale (25% off your order!) is on - and VIPs like you are getting early access starting NOW. Shop first with code HOLIDAY.

This JUICY palette was freshly picked just for you! Shop it now >>

Your exclusive access to our newest launch (the best morning moisturizer EVER) starts now. Shop it first.

Scale your messaging channel even further by reaching high-value, in-market shoppers with off-site promotions:

This is a great option for driving subscriber opt-ins in-store, via mailers, and in other digital formats, like dedicated emails, social media landing pages, and paid media.

Use a unique, memorable keyword for your brand that subscribers text to a shortcode to opt in. On shared shortcodes, we recommend your brands name. (You can customize your opt-in keyword to anything you want on your own dedicated shortcode.)

This allows your brand to send unique welcome messages to new subscribers so you can introduce your brand, offer exclusive discounts, or link to specialized content

Entice subscribers with perks, discounts, or VIP status options for engaging with your program/message:

A discount (the higher, the better)- we recommend offering at least the same as what you offer to incentivize email signups on site

If youcan'toffer discounts, entice shoppers to sign up by providing free shipping or run a giveaway

If youcan'tgive either of those, hint at Special Offers instead of more general copy like Be First to Know

In order to MAXIMIZE subscriber growth on-site, we recommend that you show a fullscreen unit on the first load and a bubble on subsequent loads.

USING Attentive on both Mobile and Desktop

1. Mobile - Turn your mobile browsers into buyers by capturing a messaging subscriber in two taps. Brands regularly see success like:

Mobile Fullscreen: 5% CVR

Mobile Partial: 3% CVR

Mobile Bubble: 0.3% CVR

2. Desktop - Turn desktop browsers into buyers by prompting them to enter theirphone number in the onsite sign-up form. Theyll receive a text message where they simply reply Y to opt-in. Brands regularly see success like:

Desktop Lightbox: 2.5% CVR

Desktop Bubble: 0.32% CVR

MAXIMIZE emails collected with Attentives Email First solution. After a shopper enters their email address on the site, they are prompted to complete their sign up by opting in for text messages. Using Attentives two-tap sign-up, the subscriber taps the sign-up button to load a pre-populated text message. Then, they simply tap Send on the text to opt-in and begin receiving messages. This creates an easy, seamless sign-up process for the shopper, and you simultaneously grow email subscribers and a text messaging list. +

BONUSPro tip: We recommend showing creatives to 100% of traffic. Attentive will make sure to blacklist important conversion pages like /cart and /checkout to ensure youre reaching your customers where they are mostly likely to interact. This also helps create a clean user experience for the shopper.

The CTRs of marketing messages tend to be relatively constant throughout the day, peaking slightly in the afternoon (1-5pm EST) and night (after 8pm EST).

Revenue per message is 33% higher for message sent after 1pm EST vs. in the early morning (before 9am EST)

For the best performance when sending early or late, use Attentives time zone-based message sending feature. This allows you to deliver a scheduled message to subscribers based on their local time zone. The functionality scans the geographic info for your message audience and automatically adjusts the send time for each subscriber to align with the six different US time zones.

Marketing messages sent over the weekend drive higher CTRs than those sent on weekdays.

Weekdays see higher revenue per message than weekends.

We recommend sending at least ~8 marketing messages per month to your full subscriber base to hit the sweet spot for both revenue per send and opt-out rate:

Revenue per send peaks around 6 messages/month

Opt-out rate doesnt increase until ~10-15 messages/month

Marketing messages regularly see success like:

Avg. CTR: 15 - 25%+

Avg. CVR: 1 - 3%+

Avg. Revenue/Send: $0.20 - $0.60+

Avg. Opt out rate: 0.30 - 0.85%

The most successful types of marketing messages:Weve reviewed thousands of marketing messages sent through our platform to highlight the most unique and effective messages from our 400+ customers. For real-life examples of how forward-thinking brands are successfully sending marketing messages through Attentive, see our Mobile Messaging Masters guides in Appendix B.

Promotional messages geared toward sales and discounts

Limited-time sales

Mobile-exclusive coupons for text subscribers

Free gift with purchase

Seasonal offers & sales

Free shipping alerts

Non-promotional messages geared toward brand awareness & driving traffic (both site & in-store)

In-store invites

Product launch

Back-in-stock products

Bestsellers

Extra loyalty program points

Brand marketing

Giveaway

Retaining existing customers costs about five times less than acquiring a new one ( Invesp ). A post-purchase message is extremely valuable considering these shoppers have already shown intent to buy from your brand.Set this up as an automated message sent to subscribers after they purchase a product and time it for when a product has already arrived so the customer has time to experience their purchase.

A post-purchase message is great for promoting a loyalty or rewards program or for tracking existing loyalty points.

You can also use this type of automated message to mention new arrivals and incentivize repeat purchases with a discount, offer, or recommended products based on past orders.

If you have product reviews on your website, a post-purchase message can be used to encourage the shopper to leave a review of their most recent purchase:

15.9% of consumers who purchase clothing digitally say that their most valued website feature is customer reviews. ( eMarketer )

68% of Gen Z internet users say they read three or more reviews before making a first-time purchase. ( Internet Retailer )

For Prime Day, shoppers plan to rely on online reviews to inform their purchase decisions, with 41% reporting that this was their primary method for planning out their Black Friday in July shopping. ( BazaarVoice )

Here are some options for strong Post-Purchase messages:

Thanks for your order! Join X Rewards to earn points & get rewarded with early access, free shipping & more.

Have your eye on something? Snag your wantlist today with free shipping over $40 and easy returns!

Were you into your last order? OMG THANKS SO MUCH! (Assuming you said yes.) We think you'll love our latest collection:

Post-Purchase Messages, By the Numbers:

Post-Purchase Avg. CTR: 24%

Post-Purchase Avg. CVR: 10%

Post-Purchase Avg. Revenue/Send: $2.50

BONUSPro tip: Wait at least a week (using your average shipping times) after the product arrives before sending a post-purchase text message.

Heres the bad news: Cart abandonment is a serious problem for online retailers. 74.2% of consumers on e-commerce websites abandon a cart prior to purchasing, equating to well over $4 trillion in lost transactions each year. Now, heres the good news: 63% of that is potentially recoverable.While abandoned online shopping carts represent lost revenue that impacts your bottom line, a well-timed cart abandonment reminder sent via text is an effective way to re-engage high-intent shoppers. Fit this type of text message in between your existing touchpoints on email and web push notifications. Here are some tips:

Send two reminder messages to subscribers: one 15-60 minutes after they abandon their cart. Send a second message 24 hours after abandonment.

Use strong copywriting to maximize a sense of urgency.

Increase the chance for conversion by inserting a link to direct the shopper back to the cart page vs. your home page.

Here are some possible options for strong Cart Abandonment Reminder Messages:

The items in your cart are selling out fast Buy em before someone else does! Use code: SMS20 at checkout NOW for 20% OFF your entire cart!

You're so close--complete your order now before {productName} is gone!

Last chance: your cart is expiring! Get FREE shipping today:

Hey, it looks like you forgot something in your cart. It's selling out fast so get it before its gone! Checkout now:

Cart Abandonment Messages, By the Numbers:

Cart Abandonment Reminder Avg. CTR: 33%

Cart Abandonment Reminder Avg. CVR: 19%

Cart Abandonment Reminder Avg. Revenue/Send: $8.00