Challenge

ChocZero has built a loyal community of chocolate lovers. They see strong engagement on Instagram, email, and other digital channels. But they wanted a channel where they could have one-to-one conversations with their shoppers—an opportunity they saw through introducing SMS marketing. “Supplementing your digital channels, like social, with owned channels where you know you’re building an audience who you can reach at any time with any message is really key,” said Rhea Monique, CMO at ChocZero. “You’re not at the whim of an algorithm or third-party platform.” 

When evaluating different SMS platforms, ChocZero was focused on finding a partner that seamlessly integrated with Shopify. 

We had a thought in the back of our heads that SMS was something we should be looking at. We’ve been lucky to have a very engaged, loyal, VIP audience. We knew they’d want SMS.

- Rhea Monique, CMO at ChocZero

Solution

In November 2020, ChocZero partnered with Attentive to launch their text messaging channel. Attentive’s Shopify integration enabled ChocZero to get started quickly and easily—both in terms of launching sign-up units and creating dynamic segments within Shopify based on their shoppers’ preferences. And, with our in-house legal team who’s focused on TCPA law, ChocZero could be confident that our platform was up to date with the changing regulatory and legal landscape.

Having a partner who was experienced in compliance was a key point for us. We needed to make sure we had the right terms and conditions, legal language. We needed to be confident in that, and make sure we weren’t left out to dry if we had any questions.

- Rhea Monique, CMO at ChocZero‍‍‍

Strategy‍

To get their program up and running as quickly as possible, ChocZero worked closely with Attentive’s team to get guidance every step of the way. “The fact that we had the White Glove team who could help us set everything up to make sure it was working was really important,” said Monique. “We're a small team, and we don't have a lot of bandwidth to spare. Having a partner who could help us get going was great. It was one thing we didn't have to think about.” 

First, they focused on setting their sign-up units live on their mobile and desktop sites, collecting both email and SMS subscribers. ChocZero has also recently added an opt-in checkbox at checkout, so they can convert customers into subscribers when they’re most engaged and about to make a purchase. And, with Attentive’s Shopify integration, these new subscribers are automatically synced to ChocZero’s SMS program, so they can immediately begin receiving texts.

Next, they activated their triggered journeys, including their welcome message and abandoned cart reminders. These have helped ChocZero build customer loyalty by automatically sending messages based on their subscribers’ browsing or purchase behavior. 

After that, ChocZero sent their first campaign messages, first focusing on sales and special offers, then product releases. “We have great conversion rates on our text messages, and we can see that people are responding to those text messages,” added Monique. “It works really well. If we send an email in the morning and an SMS in the afternoon, it pushes those people to take action. We see that spike in revenue any time we do that.”

We’re really impressed with Attentive’s features and the roadmap of what’s coming next. We feel like Attentive is forward-thinking when it comes to SMS marketing and where it’s headed. We have a lot of resources available to us—like training calls, Attentive University, and Texts We Love—where we can learn what has worked for other brands, so we know that we are always following best practices.

- Rhea Monique, CMO at ChocZero‍

Results ‍

Since SMS was a new channel for ChocZero, they focused heavily on growing their SMS list. Month over month throughout 2021, they’ve averaged 85% subscriber growth. “Our SMS subscriber list has grown so much over the past year with Attentive,” said Monique. “We’re able to launch new products successfully because we’re able to tell our customers about them via text message.”

Even with such a large list, ChocZero is able to keep their subscribers engaged throughout the customer journey. Their campaign messages see average conversion rates of 22%. And their abandoned cart reminder has a 67% average conversion rate, helping the brand send high-intent messages, while recovering revenue that would otherwise be lost. “Having those automated journeys and extra support through SMS when we launch new products has really helped make sure they’re successful. We can easily see the performance and the revenue that SMS has helped us drive,” added Monique. 

As they’ve scaled their SMS program, maintaining the level of support they get from Attentive’s team continues to be very important to them. “We’ve been really impressed with the service we’ve had with Attentive. We can always get support when we have questions or ideas,” said Monique. “Our Client Strategy Manager is really proactive about reaching out with ideas or new things we can try. I don’t think we’d get that from another SMS company.”

Right away, we knew we could rely on Attentive to help us build the kind of program we wanted. Attentive is clearly the go-to for SMS.

- Rhea Monique, CMO at ChocZero

As for what’s next, ChocZero is excited to launch conversational campaigns over the holiday period, using Attentive’s Two-Way Journeys™. They’ll also be tapping into their Instagram audience to promote more list growth with their socially-engaged audience.