How Monsoon Created New Demand With SMS Marketing, Increasing Their Revenue by 20%

Looking for the right partner to build a high-performing SMS program

Monsoon wanted to engage their current customer base in a more personal way, through a direct marketing channel that could also deliver incremental revenue. It was essential for any new channel in their technology stack to easily integrate with and complement their existing email program, which is managed by, Ometria, Monsoon's Customer Data Experience Platform. SMS marketing emerged as an ideal solution, checking each of these boxes. 

The team at Monsoon was eager to experiment with text messaging, but as a lean team that didn’t have much experience with SMS, they knew they would need ‌support to get the channel up and running. Finding an SMS partner with deep industry knowledge that could provide clear guidance and best practices was crucial to getting buy-in to test the channel. 

With Attentive, ​​Monsoon was confident they found the right vendor for the job. The platform’s user-friendly sign-up units, high-performing automations, and integration with Ometria made it a good fit for the brand. Attentive's nuanced expertise on everything from SMS list growth and segmentation to testing and automation, was also a major plus. .

“A lot of e-commerce brands saw a spike in growth during the COVID years, which started to plateau in 2023. As a business, we're always keen to look at new channels or tech that could help us get further ahead and fuel our growth. What stood out about Attentive is their commitment to driving engagement and demand performance at scale.”
Derhan Icel, Senior CRM Manager, Monsoon

Driving revenue and loyalty with personalized, relevant messages

Monsoon used their trial period with Attentive to learn about their subscribers and fine tune their segmentation strategy ahead of Black Friday 2022. Their partnership with their Client Strategy team was key in guiding them through this testing phase, especially during one of the busiest times of the year.

“Having someone that was an extension of our team was crucial and gave us a level of comfort during our trial period. The Attentive team was always there helping to set up campaigns and checking our work before it went out.”
Derhan Icel, Senior CRM Manager, Monsoon

As a first step, Monsoon launched Attentive’s two-tap sign-up units and migrated their previous subscriber list. During the trial period, Monsoon noticed that Attentive’s sign-up units accelerated subscriber opt-ins—and that those subscribers showed much higher engagement across the board. 

“The Attentive sign-up unit allows for a really frictionless customer experience, and we’ve seen a 15% increase in new subscriber opt-ins".
Derhan Icel, Senior CRM Manager, Monsoon

This finding informed the brand’s segmentation strategy going forward, focusing on these new, highly engaged subscribers. They evolved their opt-in experience to collect product preferences at the same time, which could then be used to create product-based segments to send more relevant messages. 

Monsoon also took advantage of triggered browse abandonment journeys to reach certain groups of shoppers, delivering dynamic imagery based on which part of the website they viewed. Monsoon invested in building other  triggered journeys with Attentive as well, such as a welcome series and an abandoned cart journey. These journeys became top performers in terms of revenue, achieving an average 15% and 19% CVR, respectively. 

The final step in their efforts to increase personalization was for the brand to launch campaigns focused on key moments, like seasonal launches and early access promotions. These campaigns proved especially valuable for driving retention and repeat purchases from their loyalty program customers. Monsoon creates and sends campaigns targeting loyalty members, with voucher reminders and early access to shop sales, to help increase engagement and spend. 

Monsoon’s marketing team was thrilled with the results. Their lowest value voucher reminder (£10) resulted in a 13% CTR and 45% CVR, while their highest one (£40) resulted in a 16% CTR and 57% CVR, well above industry benchmarks.

“Being new to SMS, the opt-in and engagement rates surprised me the most. The sign-up journey is really slick and converts a lot more visitors. Our click-through rate is also phenomenally high. Welcome journey automations hover around 50% and campaigns usually deliver at 15-20%. If it's a promotion, it's higher than that. I now believe there’s no way a channel with this level of engagement doesn’t work.”
Derhan Icel, Senior CRM Manager, Monsoon

Coordinating data across email and SMS to maximize results

Monsoon wanted to make sure that their SMS program was in sync with their existing email program and strategy. They’re intentional with how they orchestrate campaigns across both channels, tracking engagement data with each channel and then targeting subscribers based on their behavior. 

One way they use the integration between Attentive and Ometria is category targeting. For example, the brand’s wedding segment is very profitable, so they wanted to find a way to engage those niche customers via SMS too. They synced their existing wedding segment from Ometria with Attentive. Then, in combination with Attentive tag data, they could identify and reach the audience most likely to convert in the wedding category. 

“The ability to sync our existing segments with Attentive is great. The segments we create in Ometria are continually evolving, which can help us evolve our SMS triggers. It allows us to do true lifecycle messaging across two of our most impactful channels.” 
Derhan Icel, Senior CRM Manager, Monsoon

Monsoon created and launched an SMS campaign specifically targeting subscribers interested in the wedding category, which resulted  in a 10.2% CTR and 18.5% CVR.

Creating demand that converts to sales 

By using control group testing, Monsoon determined that their SMS channel drove a 20% increase in revenue since its launch. This proved the brand’s initial theory that adding the growth channel to their marketing mix would lead to new demand and incremental revenue from existing customers.

Thanks in part to the seamless and personalized customer experience it delivers, SMS is now the brand’s highest converting channel, converting four times higher than email. 

In less than a year since launch, SMS now drives 10% of all online sales for Monsoon. But Icel and the team are just getting started. Monsoon aims to keep growing their subscriber list to make sure they’re reaching all potential customers with SMS messages. 

Additionally, the brand wants to go beyond online sales. Monsoon reduced their retail estate footprint during the pandemic and now largely operates boutique stores that specialize in higher value browsing experiences. Icel sees an opportunity to drive sign-ups in stores and then use segmentation in Attentive to retarget local shoppers.