Most marketing platforms talk a big game about data-driven personalization. Attentive actually has to live it.
As an omnichannel marketing platform that helps brands deliver the right message at the right time through SMS, email, push, and RCS, Attentive sits on a mountain of consumer behavior data. They see which messages drive engagement, which subject lines get opened, which CTAs convert, and which customer segments respond to different types of messaging. It’s the kind of data goldmine that most marketers dream about.
But having access to data and actually using it to improve your own marketing are two different things, as we learned from our podcast conversation with Jess Ellis, Attentive’s VP of Brand, Content, Creative, and Comms. Jess is a B2B SaaS marketing vet who has been in the trenches, and she’s laser-focused on using that data to identify positioning blind spots, build smarter feedback loops, and make Attentive’s marketing as personalized as the platform they sell.
But what does that look like in practice? Here are the key ways you can follow in Attentive’s footsteps and translate your data into better marketing.
1) Track customer awareness gaps to identify positioning blind spots.
Like many SaaS brands, Attentive is always releasing new products. But Jess points out that they recently realized many current customers didn’t know Attentive offered email marketing. The company had been known as SMS-first or mobile-first for a long time, and that perception stuck—even among people already using the product.
These weren’t prospects who needed to be convinced to buy. These were paying customers who could be getting more value (and paying for more services) but simply didn’t know those services existed. That’s a positioning problem, and it’s one only surfaced by looking at the data.
So how do you find these gaps in your own messaging?
First, analyze your customer support tickets and sales call transcripts. What questions keep coming up? What features do customers seem surprised to learn about? That’s a sign your messaging isn’t communicating your full value.
Second, track which features or products your customers actually use versus what they’re paying for. If you offer multiple solutions but most customers only use one, that’s a sign they don’t understand your broader capabilities.
Third, run regular brand awareness surveys with your existing customers. Don’t just ask if they’re satisfied; ask them to describe what you do. Ask them what problems they think you solve. Ask them what they’d tell a colleague about your company. The gaps between what you think you’re saying and what they actually understand will be illuminating.
Tip: Consider doing a quarterly audit where you survey current customers about your offerings. Compare their responses to your actual positioning. Wherever there’s a gap, that’s where your messaging needs work.
2) Build post-campaign feedback loops that inform your next message.
Again, Attentive is an AI-powered marketing platform that allows businesses to conduct personalized SMS and email marketing. Not only do they have access to their own analytics but a wealth of customer data too. To get the most value from these insights, Jess’ team takes data from their Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaigns and shares it with customers one day after Cyber Monday.
This data includes granular insights, including which messages drove the most engagement, which subject lines had the highest open rates, which calls-to-action converted best, which customer segments responded to which types of messaging, etc. Not only does this valuable info help inform Attentive’s campaigns going forward but sharing it with their audience helps build community and demonstrate that they’re invested in their customers’ success.
Tip: After every major campaign, do a postmortem to assess what worked and what didn’t. Which headlines got the most clicks? Which value propositions drove conversions? Which emotional appeals resonated? Which calls-to-action worked? Don’t just look at overall campaign performance—break it down to the message level, then use those insights to create a messaging playbook that your team references for future campaigns.
3) Use sentiment analysis to catch when your message is creating the wrong emotion.
Here’s a specific tactic that too few brand teams use: Track the emotional response your messaging creates, not just whether people engage with it.
At Attentive, the entire platform is built on personalization, helping brands deliver messages that feel personal, not intrusive. “It’s that level of personalization, one-to-one, where your end customer feels like one in a million,” Jess says. But here’s the nuance: Attentive also pays attention to the messages customers don’t want. For example, Jess points out that Mother’s Day may be a painful time for someone. If they’ve opted out of that holiday-related messaging, that gives you another layer of insight into their emotions.
A brand that pays attention to that signal isn’t just avoiding a misstep; they’re demonstrating empathy and building trust.
How do you apply this to your own messaging? Start tracking sentiment alongside engagement. Use tools to analyze social media comments, customer service interactions, and review site feedback. Look for patterns. When you message about a certain topic, what’s the emotional tone of the response? When you use certain language, do people respond positively or negatively?
Tip: You can also run A/B tests that specifically measure emotional response. Don’t just test which subject line gets more opens—survey a sample of recipients about how the message made them feel. Did it feel helpful or pushy? Relevant or generic? Trustworthy or salesy? Then adjust your language accordingly.
Remember: Data Makes Your Messaging Sharper
Data isn’t the enemy of creativity. It’s the tool that makes your marketing more effective.
The best brand marketers don’t guess about what’s working; they know because they use concrete data and built-in feedback loops to review their work, refine, and improve everything from homepage CTAs to multi-channel campaigns. That said, to be successful, you do need the infrastructure and tools to not only track but also interpret your data. Make sure you have a designated person or people who can dig in and surface those insights, then translate them effectively to your team.
And if you’re looking for more info on how Attentive uses data to sharpen their marketing, listen to Jess’ full episode of Best Story Wins podcast, where we dive into how to win hearts, minds, and market share.
