Our latest product update closes that gap. Bringing you AI agents and a brand new loyalty platform, you can now deliver personalized messages that feel less like marketing and more like a one-to-one relationship with your brand. 

That’s just the beginning of what’s coming. Let’s take a closer look. 

Turn one-time shoppers into loyal customers with Dotdigital Loyalty

Dotdigital Loyalty is your new home for customer loyalty and retention, and it lives right inside the Dotdigital platform. Your loyalty data (points, tier progression) and your marketing data (recent opens, products purchased, marketing preferences) sit side-by-side from day one, so experiences are built on what you know about your customers. 

Customers earn points for the moments that build a relationship, not just the ones that drive a sale: purchases, of course, but also birthdays, anniversaries, reviews, social follows, or SMS sign-ups. You’re celebrating the people who spend the most and the ones who show up for your brand in smaller ways, making every customer feel valued. 

Programs are yours to shape. Build up to four tiers, set your own rewards, and let customers progress through tiers automatically as their points add up. Rewards are flexible and range from fixed discounts to free shipping and free gifts, redeemable at checkout online or in-store through Shopify POS.

Because those rewards are built on real customer data rather than a generic set of rules, they land differently. For your customers, it’s less like a discount and more like something special, just for them.

The email automations you’ll need to get started (like welcome, points updates, redemption pushes, and expiry warnings) are already built and waiting for you, so your time goes into the program itself, not the mechanics behind it.

If you’re just getting started with loyalty and retention, we’ve pulled together a blog series to walk you through building a program that fits your brand:

• Is a loyalty program right for you?
• Customer loyalty stats you need to know
• How to build a loyalty program that works
• How to launch a loyalty program

If you’re ready to dive in, the new ‘Building customer loyalty‘ marketing course in the Dotdigital Academy walks you through everything you need to know.

Let AI handle the repetitive work, so you can focus on strategy

We have two new AI agents that sit inside the Dotdigital Marketing platform, ready to take on the time-consuming tasks and free you up for the ideas only you can bring.

Content Agent

Our Content Agent lives inside your email editor, so you’ve got a colleague on hand to help brainstorm ideas, draft copy, edit text, style buttons, or generate and edit images. Train it on your brand voice, so every suggestion sounds like your brand, not generic AI copy. And because it lives in the platform and knows your data, it can drop personalization fields straight into the copy it writes.

You approve every suggestion, whether that’s to a single block or the whole campaign, so nothing goes out without a human touch. 

Segment Agent

Even with drag-and-drop builders, segmentation takes time, especially when you’re targeting a complex, multi-rule audience. Afternoons can easily get lost filtering through data and setting rules. But not anymore. Now, all you need to do is ask.

Describe the audience you want in plain language, and Segment Agent builds it for you. Ask for something like:

“Build a segment of customers who haven’t purchased in 30 days, are at high risk of churning, follow football or basketball, and live close to our flagship stores.”

That’s a segment that would’ve taken a while to build manually, done in one sentence instead.

And if you don’t have the exact data field you need, Segment Agent works with what you’ve already got, so you spend time crafting the message for the segment, not hunting for the data to build it.

These new agents are available in a private preview for customers. To join the waitlist, register here. 

Personalization that moves at your speed

Some personalization tools come with a catch: get it exactly right, and you’re waiting on a developer to get the data and scripts in place. Move fast, and you have to settle for something more generic. But not with Dotdigital. Our updates make it simpler to build, launch, and troubleshoot personalized experiences yourself.

Build triggered emails visually

With this update, triggered emails in Dotdigital Personalization move to visual, no-code building. Create and customize abandoned browse, abandoned cart, and other triggered emails using the same SmartBlocks editor you already use.

Personalize your website with any Dotdigital segment

Your Dotdigital Marketing lists, segments, and contact data fields now sync directly into Dotdigital Personalization, ready to be used to create hyper-personalized on-site experiences. The sync keeps pace with your customers: segments and lists are refreshed regularly, so every website visitor sees the most relevant message.

Get set up without custom scripts

We know you don’t want to always call for help when it comes to connecting your site to your marketing. That’s what our Personalization SDK is here to solve. One tag sends data into Dotdigital Marketing and Dotdigital Personalization at the same time, meaning there’s less onboarding, less maintenance, and no more waiting on developers.

See exactly what your tag is tracking

Tag Explorer is a new in-platform tool for testing and troubleshooting your Dotdigital tag. It launches an overlay directly on your live website, showing what data the tag is capturing in real time and flagging anything that looks off, like whether an issue comes down to a tag error or cookie consent behavior.

Connect Dotdigital Personalization to Shopify faster

The Dotdigital Shopify connector has been updated to use the latest tag code, bringing it in line with the Personalization SDK. One install now automatically sends data to both Dotdigital Marketing and Dotdigital Personalization, with no custom scripts or separate setup required. 

Get started with Dotdigital Personalization.

Spend less time building campaigns, more time launching

Campaign creation involves a lot of small steps: clicks, tab-switching, hunting for the right data field. They add up fast when you’ve got a long to-do list. We’re simplifying that with faster workflows and sharper editing tools built right into the Dotdigital platform.

• Copy sent campaigns: Use the new copy button to duplicate a sent campaign and get the next one ready to launch fast
• Image edit panel: Crop, edit, replace, add text, and set alt text and links, all without leaving the panel
• A smoother build, start to finish: Move between steps in any order, so you can select your audience before you even start building. Progress and audience selections save automatically, so you can step away and pick up where you left off, and plain text versions now generate in the background

Keep your customer data connected, wherever it goes

Customer data doesn’t stay still: contacts unsubscribe, numbers change, and platforms fall out of sync with each other. We’re keeping everything connected and easy to reach, wherever it needs to go, so you can easily act on what your data tells you.

Stay connected, even after someone unsubscribes

New API support lets you resubscribe SMS and WhatsApp contacts automatically, syncing straight from your CRM into Dotdigital. Contact details can also be updated even on unsubscribed contacts, so profiles don’t go stale while nobody’s allowed to touch them.

After all, unsubscribes aren’t always goodbyes. Sometimes someone just goes quiet until they need you again. Either way, when they do come back, their profile is already accurate, and you can reach them on their preferred channel once again.

Get a clearer view of every interaction

We’ve expanded the Events API to cover message sends, statuses, and receipts across every channel. However you pull your data out (into a CDP, data warehouse, or analytics tool) it now flows through in one clean connection instead of several. That means richer customer profiles, faster insights, and far less manual data wrangling to get there.

What’s next?

So, you now have a loyalty program that runs on real marketing and customer data, AI agents that take the repetitive work off your plate, personalization you can deliver faster, and data that stays in sync, so it’s ready the moment you need it. Together, that’s what it takes to send to thousands and still make one person feel like you’re only talking to them. We’re making your tech do more of the work, so you can spend more time on the ideas and strategy that make your campaigns flourish.

In Dotdigital’s Customer trend index, 53% of shoppers said that whether a brand has a loyalty program influences their overall commitment to it. That’s a clear signal that loyalty has moved from a nice-to-have to something customers are actively factoring into their decisions. The question is less “should loyalty programs exist” and more “is this the right moment for yours?”

This is an important question because not every loyalty program delivers. A brand can do everything right: invest the budget, buy the technology, build the mechanics, and still watch the numbers come in flat. Often, it’s not the program that failed. It was the conditions it launched into.

A loyalty program amplifies what you’ve already got

While 53% of shoppers find that loyalty programs inspire loyalty, 71% rank product quality as the number one driver of brand loyalty. Other top loyalty drivers include having good customer service (56%) and friends and family being fans of the brand too (55%). 

Loyalty programs don’t generate commitment from scratch, but they do accelerate and reward a relationship that’s already forming. If customers are coming back because they genuinely want your product or love your brand, a loyalty program gives them more reasons to stay and more reasons to spend. 

Brands with longer buying cycles, that sell high-ticket items or one-off purchases, aren’t excluded from using loyalty programs, but they do need to build a program that serves a different purpose. That might be upselling add-ons or focusing on the post-purchase experience. This helps keep you in mind when they decide to make another purchase in five years’ time. 

Before you commit to building your loyalty program, it’s worth checking whether you have the right foundations to make it a success.

6 things that make loyalty work

1. Repurchase is a realistic outcome

Loyalty programs perform best in markets where customers return regularly, like fashion, beauty, food, supplements, and homewares. The repurchase cycle is short enough that a program can actually build momentum.

In categories with longer cycles, like high-value, one-time purchases, the dynamic is different. Loyalty programs can still play a role, but the goal shifts. It’s less about driving the next purchase and more about shaping the entire ownership experience: post-purchase support, community, the feeling that the brand is still there years after the transaction. That kind of loyalty investment can absolutely pay off; it just needs a different frame.

2. You know who your customers are

The brands that get the most from loyalty tend to have a clear sense of who their customers are and what keeps them coming back. Not a 40-slide persona deck, just enough customer data to know what to reward and how to talk about it. Loyalty rewards a relationship, and the relationship has to be there first before you can start.

3. Your existing audience is engaged

A smaller list of active, responsive customers is a far stronger foundation than a large database that rarely interacts. If your emails are consistently going unread or your community isn’t engaging, loyalty incentives alone aren’t likely to move the needle. 

4. Your marketing infrastructure is connected

Your customer relationships generate a lot of data. Whether that data actually works for you depends entirely on whether it’s connected throughout your entire marketing stack. A sophisticated loyalty program built on disconnected systems or incomplete data will always underperform a simpler one built on clean, actionable insights.

5. Someone owns it internally

Even with strong automation, loyalty isn’t something you set and forget. You need a person or team (whether that’s marketing, customer service, or an agency) to set the strategy, secure buy-in across the business, monitor results, and run the ongoing tests. Without that ownership, programs tend to drift.

6. The numbers have been modeled

Before launch, work through the financials in detail. Whatever rewards structure you’re considering, make sure it holds up against your margins. Getting your finance team involved early means fewer surprises later and gives you a much stronger internal case when you need it.

Where do you actually stand?

It’s time for a quick self-assessment to see how ready you really are for a loyalty program. 

For each question, mark yourself as: ready (A), almost there (B), or not yet (C).

• Repurchase readiness: Does your product category support regular return purchases, or is there a natural reason customers come back?

• Audience clarity: Do you have a solid sense of who your customers are and what keeps them engaged with your brand?

• Audience engagement: Is your existing audience genuinely active? Are they opening emails, interacting with content, and participating in your channels?

• Marketing infrastructure: Is your marketing platform connected enough to actually use loyalty data once you have it?

• Internal ownership: Is there a person (or team) ready to own this program day to day, not just at launch?

• Financial modeling: Have you stress-tested the reward economics against your margins?

Mostly As: Your foundation is solid 

The conditions are in place. The next question is whether the commercial case stacks up, which is exactly what the next blog in this series covers. From there, you’ll find a practical blueprint for how to build a program that holds up.

Mostly Bs: You’re closer than you might think, but there are gaps worth fixing first 

The two most common ones at this stage are audience quality and marketing infrastructure. Neither is a blocker, but they do require attention. Address them, and you’ll be in a much stronger position when you do launch.

Mostly Cs: The honest answer is: not yet

This means the investment right now is better spent on building product-market fit and growing an engaged customer base. Those things come first. When the conditions shift (and they will) you’ll have a much better platform to build from, and the program will actually deliver on what you put into it.

Before you get started

Loyalty programs don’t have to be sophisticated or complex to have an impact. In fact, the most successful are those focused on building and improving your existing customer relationships. Rewarding customer relationships will give them reasons to come back. 

If you’re already thinking about what that could look like for your brand, Dotdigital Loyalty is coming soon.

Register your interest and be the first to know when it’s ready.

But WhatsApp isn’t just another channel to add to your marketing stack for the sake of it. It’s delivering standout engagement that exceeds expectations, and if you’re not already using it as part of a thoughtful, permission-based strategy, now’s the time to start.

What marketers are saying about WhatsApp (and why the numbers back them up)

WhatsApp has 2.5 billion monthly users. The average person spends 33 minutes a day on the app. In Dotdigital’s Global Benchmark Report 2026, we found that it delivers an average click-through rate of 51.1%, which is ten times higher than email.

When you look at those numbers together, it’s easy to see why marketers are investing in WhatsApp. It’s where customers already spend time and actively engage, making it a natural part of the channel mix.

And when WhatsApp sits alongside your email and SMS on the same platform, it becomes even more powerful. You can trigger messages from the same customer data, build it into your existing journeys, and manage it without needing to jump between tools, manually export or import customer data, or have more places to manage marketing consent

Here at Dotdigital, we’re big fans of WhatsApp, but don’t just take our word for it. We went straight to the source and asked marketers already on the channel to share how they’re finding it.

How Ultima Media uses WhatsApp to reach 90% open rates across event journeys

Ultima Media is a B2B media company that connects the automotive manufacturing, logistics, and design industries through expert content and professional events.

Like most event-led teams, email was doing a lot of the heavy lifting. But with crowded inboxes and fast-moving schedules, important updates weren’t always being seen when they needed to.

The brand now uses WhatsApp to manage the full attendee journey across three stages:

• Pre-event: Branded messages with imagery and multiple links to build anticipation and share logistics

• During the event: Real-time updates, timing reminders, relevant articles, and links like photo albums

• Post-event: On-demand content distribution and promotion of related products

Open rates have reached as high as 90%, which shows how engaging WhatsApp is as a marketing channel, particularly for messages that contain important updates or are time-sensitive

To keep things running smoothly, Ultima Media now captures WhatsApp opt-ins at registration. Mobile number is a required field, so every new attendee enters the journey WhatsApp-ready.

“We use WhatsApp as a real-time concierge throughout the entire attendee journey. Unlike email, which gets buried in crowded inboxes, WhatsApp is more likely to get read. And unlike SMS, it lets us send fully branded messages with rich imagery and clear link previews, so attendees feel confident clicking. WhatsApp keeps the entire event journey in one continuous thread. It feels like a reliable resource rather than a series of disconnected alerts.”

– Giada Nacucchi, Marketing Manager, Ultima Media

What this means for you

What’s interesting here isn’t necessarily the open rates, but it’s more about how WhatsApp fits into the wider customer journey.

For Ultima Media, it works because the communication is time-sensitive, structured, and part of a clear experience from start to finish. Nothing feels isolated, and each message supports the next step in the attendee journey.

Using WhatsApp marketing gives teams a way to keep high-attention moments in a single, continuous thread, especially when timing really matters.

The takeaway is thinking less about WhatsApp as a standalone channel and more about where it strengthens the journeys you already have in place.

How Lease Loco grew a new WhatsApp channel to 80%+ open rates in three months

Lease Loco is a car leasing comparison site with an established email and SMS program, but they wanted a way to share richer, more detailed offers than SMS allows. So, WhatsApp felt like the natural next step.

The team uses it to share its best deals with either its full subscriber list or targeted segments, with full deal specs, pricing, and imagery that SMS simply doesn’t have space for.

It gives the brand a more flexible way to communicate offers that need more than a short line of text.

Open rates now range from 78% to 81%, with the WhatsApp subscriber base growing by 43% in just three months.

“We’ve built WhatsApp into our marketing mix as a natural next step after email and SMS,and it’s already proving its worth. What makes WhatsApp exciting for us is the freedom it gives you compared to SMS. No character limit, rich imagery, emojis, full deal specs. For context, our WhatsApp lead volume is already around a third of our SMS channel, despite having a much smaller, newer subscriber list.”

– Michaela Crawford, Digital Marketing Manager, Lease Loco

What this means for you

What stands out here is how quickly WhatsApp can slot into an existing setup.

Lease Loco extended their strategy rather than doing a full rebuild because email and SMS were already driving results. WhatsApp just gave them another way to show high-intent offers with more detail and more visual impact.

The takeaway is that WhatsApp doesn’t need to start as a big, complex programme. It can begin as an extension of what you’re already sending, especially for content that needs more space than SMS allows but more immediacy than email.

How Bolsover Cruise Club drove 80%+ open rates with personalized WhatsApp messaging

Bolsover Cruise Club is one of the UK’s leading independent cruise specialists. With a strong SMS program already in place, WhatsApp gave the team a way to build on what was already working, with richer and more flexible messaging.

The team uses it to reach both existing and prospective customers with exclusive offers, new cruise launches, and partner campaign updates. What’s changed is the variety in how these messages can be displayed, and how it fits into the recipients’ day, landing on a channel that they’re already spending time on.

WhatsApp has opened up more room for personalized, automated communication, with richer content and a cadence that feels natural rather than intrusive.

And that’s reflected in the results, with open rates sitting above 80%, and early sign-up demand exceeding their expectations.

“We’d already seen sustained success with SMS, but WhatsApp opened up a whole new level of personalization and automation, with richer, more engaging content and the ability to communicate more regularly without it feeling intrusive. We use it to reach a mix of existing and prospective customers with exclusive offers, new product launches, and key partner campaign updates.

The appetite for sign-ups has been incredible, and the engagement speaks for itself. WhatsApp currently has far less noise than email, which means your messages genuinely cut through. We’re still in the early stages, but I’m convinced the best is yet to come. 

My advice to any travel brand on the fence? Be an early adopter. Get ahead now while the opportunity is there.”

– Danny Forsythe, Head of Marketing, Bolsover Cruise Club

What this means for you

This example shows how WhatsApp works best when it’s used consistently and not just for standalone campaigns.

For Bolsover Cruise Club, WhatsApp has become a way to deliver more personalized messaging, support automation, and keep engagement high, without feeling crowded. 

The opportunity here is building WhatsApp into your broader communication strategy early, while attention is still strong.

How a UK pub chain drove 82%+ open rates by shifting from telesales to WhatsApp

This UK hospitality brand was relying heavily on telesales and email to reach customers. With email engagement declining, the team needed a better way to stay connected with its audience without adding complexity to its setup.

The brand now uses WhatsApp to send promotions, business updates, and service messages, targeting either specific customer groups or its wider base, depending on the message.

By changing to this strategy, the brand has seen open rates at around 82%, compared to 48% for email, which shows how much more attention WhatsApp is getting.

“Before WhatsApp, we relied heavily on telesales and email to reach our customers. With email engagement declining, it made sense to diversify, and WhatsApp was the obvious next step. If you want to make sure your message is actually seen, add WhatsApp to the mix. Every customer has different preferences, and covering more channels means more of them hear from you.”

– Anonymous, UK pub chain

What this means for you

This shows what’s possible when you’re willing to rethink your channel mix. For this brand, email engagement was slipping, and telesales alone wasn’t enough – so the team brought WhatsApp in to fill the gap, not as a replacement, but as another route to reach its customers.

Where WhatsApp is working right now

Across very different industries and use cases, one pattern stands out. Messages perform better when they appear in channels people already use and in formats that make them easy to read and respond to.

WhatsApp is becoming part of the marketing mix for more brands, and those using it now are already seeing stronger engagement rates and deeper connections with their customers.

But impressive send volumes and click rates only tell half the story; it’s trust that drives customers to convert. Dotdigital’s Customer Trend Index reveals that customers need to trust a brand before they convert, and most customers trust people over brands. Friends and family recommendations jumped from sixth to third as a driver of brand loyalty in a single year. You need to give people a reason to trust your brand, and you can’t do that with brand messaging alone. 

Two-way SMS builds that trust by making your brand feel more human. It lets customers have real conversations with your brand. They can get quick answers to their questions, give immediate feedback on their experiences, and, overall, feel like they’re interacting with people. 

Let’s dive into the benefits of two-way SMS and see how it can help you exceed customer expectations and your own marketing targets. Read on to find out:  

• What two-way SMS is 
• How it works
• The benefits and challenges of launching two-way SMS
• Why it’s good at improving customer experiences
• How you can use it to drive results

What is two-way SMS, and how does it work?

Two-way SMS is simply conversational text messaging. Just like messaging your friends, it lets your audience reply directly to your brand without switching channels or searching for customer support emails or phone numbers.

Whether you’re using a short code (a recognizable 5 or 6-digit number) or a standard long code that looks like an everyday mobile number, two-way SMS is simple to set up. 

There are two types of replies you can offer customers. 

Automated responses

Automated responses handle predictable customer touchpoints. They use specific keywords to prompt a direct response from the recipient, like:

• “YES” to confirm a booking
• “HELP” if they need support 
• “DEAL” to claim an offer

The keyword triggers an automatic, personalized reply straight away, helping to move them on to the next stage of the customer journey.

Open-ended replies 

These are where the most valuable customer conversations happen. Complex questions that need a human response are a team effort, and you can respond, track, and keep every conversation moving across SMS, WhatsApp, and Live Chat in one place in the Dotdigital platform. This makes sure customers get the help they need, without conversations getting lost or delayed.

How does two-way SMS differ from broadcast SMS?

Broadcast SMS is perfect for delivering time-sensitive information fast, especially if a reply isn’t needed, like order confirmations, delivery alerts, or limited-time offers.

Two-way SMS is best for opening a direct line of communication. For example, customers can ask questions, give feedback, or confirm an appointment. It turns a message into a conversation and gives your team insight that broadcast SMS can’t give you, like:

• What people are asking
• Where they’re getting stuck
• What’s driving them to act 

Where two-way SMS adds real value

With two-way SMS, you get something most other channels can’t offer: clear and direct insight into what customers think, need, and want. Click-through rates sit around 26% — seven times higher than email, proving that your messages are seen and acted on. But, some of the less obvious wins can often be the most valuable, like: 

• Data you can actually use: Every response is a signal that reveals intent, context, and where customers are in their journey 

• Faster customer support: Instead of hunting for customer support contact details, customers can reply to a message for quick answers and friction-free resolutions 

• Instant and effortless feedback: Short surveys and feedback prompts help you find out what’s working and where improvements are needed

• Personal customer journeys: Automate and segment SMS messages to make sure the right message reaches the right person, and because customers can reply, it feels like a conversation rather than a broadcast

• Clear return on investment(ROI): Pay for messages that almost always get seen by a highly engaged, opted-in audience — the ROI case makes itself

The challenges of using two-way SMS and how to overcome them

No channel is perfect, but the challenges of two-way SMS are manageable once you know what to expect and how to handle them.

High message volumes

Opening yourself up to conversational marketing means a lot more people will engage with your brand, which could result in more conversations to manage.

Dotdigital top tip

You can manage this by automating FAQs, setting up keyword replies, and triaging anything complicated to your support team.

Expectation for speedy replies

Using a channel like SMS that is more conversational, your audience might get frustrated if your replies aren’t instant.

Dotdigital top tip

As with most marketing, automation is the solution again. Make sure you build automated messages that set expectations on reply times so no one is frustrated.

SMS word limits

Like one-way SMS, you’re limited to 160 characters per message. If you have a big message you need to share, it might have to be split into two or three messages, increasing send costs. 

Dotdigital top tip

Keep every message clear and to the point. Dotdigital’s AI editing tools can help you refine copy to fit the character limit. And, if you need more space, WhatsApp is a good alternative for longer, more detailed conversations without character limits.

Compliance and data privacy

Opt-in and opt-out processes are non-negotiable, but they don’t need to be hard.

Dotdigital top tip

Make sure opt-in and opt-out flows are set up correctly from the start. You can also work with your SMS provider or legal team to confirm requirements for each region you operate in.

Examples of using two-way SMS campaigns

Here are some ways marketers are already using two-way SMS to turn messages into conversations.

• Customer support: “Text HELP for your order status”. This is a quick way to handle common questions without customers waiting on hold

• Appointment reminders & confirmations: “Reply 1 to confirm, 2 to reschedule.” This can reduce things like no-shows and cut down on admin for your team

• Promotions: “Reply BUY to claim the deal and get the link instantly.” This can turn interest into immediate action

• Loyalty programs: “Text POINTS to check your status. Reply CLAIM to redeem rewards.” This gives customers a quick way to engage with your rewards program

• Flash surveys or NPS checks: “How did we do today? 1 = great, 2 = fine, 3 = poor.” “We’re sorry you were unhappy with your experience today. Please let us know how we can do better.” Follow-ups can be triggered instantly based on their response to close the loop in real time

• Open conversations that lead to sales: “Do you have a similar t-shirt in green?” “Absolutely, check out this link.” A simple way to move from question to purchase without friction

All of these examples work even better when you hook SMS up to other channels like email or WhatsApp, especially if you can manage them together in your marketing automation platform.

How to implement two-way SMS

When it’s set up properly, two-way SMS becomes just another part of your connected customer experience, quietly running in the background and helping drive results. Follow these seven steps to open a direct communication channel with your customers: 

1. Define your audience and set your goal: Know who you’re talking to and what you want to achieve, like driving engagement, increasing sales, or reducing no-shows

2. Decide what role SMS will play: Different messages work better on different channels — SMS is an open communication channel for customers, but if you want to send longer messages with emojis and media files (like images and PDFs), WhatsApp might be a better option

3. Choose the right SMS platform: Think about what you need today and in 12 months. Features like real-time replies, automation, and cross-channel support are going to be important as the channel grows

4. Set up your number and keywords: Decide whether you’re going to use a dedicated short or long number for your SMS marketing, and make it easy for people to reply by building simple keyword triggers 

5. Build out your flows: Automate what you can and make sure there’s a clear path for your team to step in when your customers need real-time, human support

6. Test everything before you send: Send test SMS messages, check your flows and triggered responses, and make sure it all makes sense for the customer journey

7. Launch, monitor, improve: Once live, use the reporting dashboard in your SMS platform to track SMS campaign ROI and keep optimizing

Tips for using two-way SMS effectively

• Keep messages short, clear, and actionable; every text should serve a clear purpose

• Segment your audience for more relevant conversations

• Let automations handle the basics, but be ready with human replies for anything outside the script for a more tailored experience

• Track things like response rates, survey results, and booking confirmations so you can tweak based on what moves the needle

• Sync with your other marketing channels; SMS is even more effective when it’s part of a bigger cross-channel strategy

Compliance: opt-in and double opt-in

Before you text anyone, you need to get permission. It’s non-negotiable, not just because it’s the law, but because clean, opted-in marketing lists perform better. Make sure every customer has actively opted in, and use double opt-in to keep your list clean and compliant.

Make opting out easy

Every message should include a clear way for people to unsubscribe, like “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”. If it’s easy to join, then it should be just as easy to leave.

Stay aligned with the rules

SMS regulations like TCPA, GDPR, and local requirements vary by region. This is where having the right guidance or support really matters.

Dotdigital helps you manage consent, preferences, and data handling in one place, so you can stay compliant without overthinking the setup. Our team will make sure everything is set up correctly from the start.

Key takeaways

Two-way SMS helps you build real-time conversations that bring you closer to your audience. Marketers who use it see things like:

• Higher engagement
• Spend less on wasted messages
• Deliver faster support
• Get the kind of data that drives better campaigns

And getting started is easy. When SMS sits alongside your email and WhatsApp channels in Dotdigital, you can manage everything in one place and build more connected customer journeys without adding extra complexity.

In this article, we look at how brands using Dotdigital’s advanced personalization tools are tailoring experiences based on what people browse, buy, or leave behind. The examples touch on industries like retail, B2B, travel, and media, but the result is the same, and that is, when experiences feel relevant, people are more likely to convert.

One more thing before we get into it. Dotdigital was recently named a G2 Leader in personalization in the Summer 2026 rankings. G2 rankings are based entirely on verified customer reviews. So, the proof isn’t just in the examples below, it’s in what our customers are already saying.

1. Send abandoned cart emails that match how urgently someone needs to buy

Many brands have an abandoned cart journey in place that runs quietly in the background, doing its job. But not every abandoned cart means the same thing. For example, a sofa can wait, but a match ticket can’t. 

The challenge is that many abandoned carts treat every product the same, such as:

• Same timing
• Same message
• Same level of urgency

And your customers can feel that mismatch. Advanced personalization helps to change that. Instead of sending a generic reminder, you adjust the follow-up based on what was left behind and how time-sensitive it is. 

How Cardiff City FC applied it

Cardiff City FC’s marketing team manages tickets, merchandise, hospitality, and memberships. The team found that fans were regularly abandoning carts before completing a purchase. For ticketing, that’s a different kind of problem than it is for an industry like retail because once kickoff passes, those tickets are gone.

Using Dotdigital’s advanced personalization tools, the team built a two-phase cart abandonment program:

• The first email lands within 30 minutes, showing the fan exactly what they left behind with a direct link back to checkout

• If they still haven’t purchased after 24 hours, a second email adds urgency around the approaching match day, alongside practical support like ticket office contact details

What happened when Cardiff City FC made the shift

• Cardiff’s original target was a 2-3x return on investment (ROI) but it actually achieved a 12.5x return
• Abandoned ticket recovery doubled compared to manual follow-ups
• Fan satisfaction scores for the ticket-buying process climbed consistently to 4+ out of 5 or above

Why does this work?

The timing matches the psychology of the purchase:

• The first email catches people while intent is still high
• The second taps into the time-sensitivity of match tickets without being pushy
• The tone stays helpful and fan-friendly throughout, which matters when you’re talking to supporters

Read the Cardiff City FC case study

2. Using browse abandonment to re-engage early travel intent

Not every website visitor is about to convert. In fact, a lot of early traffic happens while customers are in research mode. This is especially true for travel brands where a typical visitor journey can spread across a couple of visits and may look a little like this:

• People browse possible destinations
• Browsers comparing hotels, prices, or activities
• Saving things for later
• Just getting a feel for what they want

The challenge is what happens after that first visit. If they’re not ready to convert, it’s easy for that intent to disappear. So, the goal is to stay relevant without being pushy until they’re ready to book.

How Blue Sea Holidays applied it

Blue Sea Holidays sees a lot of this early-stage behavior. People are browsing destinations, but they aren’t ready to book yet. 

Working with the Dotdigital professional services team, Blue Sea Holidays used advanced personalization to extend its existing abandonment program to cover destination page visitors. So, instead of only following up when someone abandons a booking, they also send reminder emails when someone shows interest in a destination.

Each email is personalized to what they viewed, with recommendations like ‘people like you browse’ and ‘people like you buy.’ They also built a three-step pre-departure email program at 28, 14, and 3 days before travel, with helpful reminders about add-ons like car hire, travel insurance, and airport parking.

What happened when Blue Sea Holidays moved beyond cart abandonment

Within the first four months, the destination browse campaign was already performing in line with their existing abandonment programs, with a 37% open rate and 32% click-through rate. Since then, the pre-departure emails have become a reliable source of additional revenue.

Why does this work?

Not every visitor is ready to buy, and that’s fine. The key is staying relevant based on what they’ve already shown interest in. If someone is researching a destination, you’re the brand they think of.

The pre-departure journey builds on the same idea, too. Once someone books, personalization continues to add value right up to the point of travel.

Read the Blue Sea Holidays case study

3. What personalization looks like when you’re a team of one (or close to it)

A common assumption about advanced personalization is that you need things like a big team, a complex setup, or constant hands-on management to make it work.

But that’s not always that case. Sometimes the most effective setups are run by small teams who have marketing tech that syncs in real time.

How Anthem Publishing applied it

Anthem Publishing runs six magazine brands with a small team, managing multiple priorities at once. Their setup shows that advanced personalization doesn’t always need a large team or a complex build.

Using Dotdigital’s advanced personalization tools, Anthem Publishing focused on building personalization that runs in the background once it’s set up. On the website, they introduced smart targeting rules for banner slots, so messaging changes depending on who’s visiting. For example:

• New visitors see “Thanks for joining us”
• Returning visitors see “Welcome back”
• Existing subscribers see “Pick up where you left off” or something about their current subscription

They also replaced their previous recommendation setup with SmartBlocks (i.e., real-time, personalized content) on article pages, showing content based on browsing behavior rather than fixed placements.

That same approach was applied to emails, too. Weekly newsletters include automated blocks showing articles and recipes each person has already shown interest in. There’s also a monthly round-up that builds personalized content carousels for engaged readers without any manual input.

What happened when Anthem Publishing focused on building personalization

• Pages per visit increased by 14%
• Personalized newsletter blocks drove 500 additional website visits per send
• The health newsletter’s automated section generates 1,000 extra clicks per send, which is a 30% lift on previous performance
• The program delivered a 5.7x ROI in its first year

Why does this work

Once the rules are in place, Dotdigital does the work. That’s what makes this model viable for a small team. The output scales without the headcount needing to. It also regularly shows content the editorial team had deprioritized, which turns out to be just as valuable as creating something new.

Read the Vegan Food & Living case study

4. Using product recommendations to increase order value in B2B journeys

B2B buyers don’t usually come in looking for just one thing. They’re trying to solve a wider need, so every purchase is part of a bigger setup. 

B2B buying journeys are often longer and more complex than standard shopping experiences. Because of this, there’s  an opportunity to increase order value through relevant add-ons and complementary products. 

But the challenge is that while customers sometimes need multiple related products, many marketing teams don’t have a way to show the right add-ons at the right moment. It usually ends up being manual, inconsistent, or based on guesswork, which means opportunities to increase order value get missed.

How Lockhart Catering Equipment applied it

Lockhart Catering Equipment supplies professional kitchens across the UK. Their customers typically need multiple related products, but with a catalog spanning thousands of items, showing the right bundle at the right moment wasn’t something the team could do manually at scale.

Using Dotdigital advanced personalization tools, the team launched AI-driven product recommendation emails based on purchase history. Instead of using generic product pushes, customers received recommendations tailored to what they had already bought, including complementary items and relevant bundles. The program runs automatically, and is triggered by behavior rather than manual sends.

What happened when Lockhart Catering Equipment made the switch

• The program generated over £50,000 in revenue within 90 days
• Delivered a 10x ROI
• Produced a 1,200% improvement in last-click attribution

Why does this work

Customers don’t always know what they’re missing until it’s shown to them. When recommendations are grounded in real purchase behavior, they feel helpful rather than promotional. Automating this means every customer gets relevant suggestions at the right moment, without relying on manual targeting or team capacity.

Read the Lockhart Catering case study

5. Turning B2C browse behavior into targeted follow-ups

When someone browses or adds products to a cart, it usually means they’re interested, but they’re just not ready to buy yet. The challenge for most teams is scale. It’s easy to miss those signals or rely on generic reminders that don’t reflect what the customer was actually looking for.

How Wurth UK applied it

Wurth UK is one of Britain’s leading suppliers of trade tools, fasteners, and workshop consumables. With tens of thousands of products and a large customer base of tradespeople and businesses, delivering a follow-up that feels personal rather than automated was the challenge.

Using advanced personalization tools alongside Dotdigital, Wurth UK built a comprehensive abandonment program covering both cart and browse behavior. Customers received personalized emails based on the exact products they had been viewing or considering.

What changes did Wurth UK see

The program generated £800,000 in revenue from abandonment campaigns and contributed to a 72.4% overall revenue increase. 

Why does this work

In B2B, people compare, review, and come back when the timing is right. When your email marketing reflects what someone has already shown interest in, you stay relevant during that decision window without the need for manual campaign management. This helps keep your brand front of mind, increasing the likelihood they return and convert when they’re ready to buy.

Read the Wurth UK case study

6. Reminding shoppers about the items they nearly bought

People don’t always leave because they’ve lost interest. Most of the time, they’re just still thinking it over. The challenge is turning that hesitation into a return visit without relying on generic reminders that don’t reflect what someone actually viewed or added to their cart.

How Harvey & Thompson applied it

Harvey & Thompson, one of the UK’s leading pawnbrokers and jewelers, had plenty of traffic coming into their online ecommerce store but weren’t converting as much as it wanted. People were browsing products, adding items to their cart, then leaving before completing the purchase.

Working with Dotdigital’s personalization tools, Harvey & Thompson built a cart abandonment program with personalized emails showing each customer the specific items they left behind.

What happened when Harvey & Thompson switched to personalized emails

The program generated £151,843 in revenue within its first 10 weeks and delivered twice the UK retail conversion rate average, which is between 1% to 4%.

Why does this work

Jewelry is rarely an impulse purchase because people come back multiple times before they commit to buying. Sending a personalized reminder that reflects the exact item they were considering brings them back at the right moment in that journey. It feels timely and relevant, rather than a broad message sent to everyone.

Read the Harvey & Thompson case study

Where to start your personalization journey

These six examples cover different industries, different channels, and different use cases, but they all point to the same thing and that is, when content feels relevant to the customer, they’re more likely to act. 

None of these brand examples needed a large team or a lengthy build. Most were up and running in weeks. If you’ve been putting off personalization because it sounds complicated, then these results are a good reason to reconsider.

Dotdigital makes this kind of personalization accessible for marketing teams of all sizes.

Marketers need data that‘s complete, current, and immediately usable. When it’s fragmented, decisions slow down for your marketing team and for your business as a whole. Opportunities pass by, results plateau, and manual data exports create more chaos than clarity.

And when you could outperform your peers by 26% using real-time data, a single, connected data stream is the difference between reacting and staying ahead. It gives marketing, tech, and operations teams a shared, live view of every customer, ready to power the right message at the right time.

Dotdigital connects with your data warehouse so you can quickly turn insight into action. By syncing with platforms like Snowflake, BigQuery, or Databricks, you can start building campaigns using real-time data, so every message lands at the right moment, feels genuinely relevant, and doesn’t require a heavy lift from you or your team.

Connecting your data warehouse to your marketing channels

Data warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery and Databricks give businesses a secure, unified place to store and govern their data. So, when we launched integrations with these platforms, it was a chance to bring marketers the seamless data flow to turn data into unforgettable customer experiences. Combined with Dotdigital, your data stops sitting in storage and starts driving meaningful moments across channels like:

• Email
• SMS
• WhatsApp
• Web
• Push
• Social 

Our integrations leave no gap between knowing and doing. Information in your data warehouse flows straight into Dotdigital to be used in your campaigns, while engagement results from Dotdigital return to your warehouse for deeper insight. Your data keeps moving, your marketing keeps learning, and nothing goes stale.

Reducing friction between marketing and tech teams

Busy marketing teams can’t wait three days for the latest results to be downloaded, then uploaded to your email automation platform. When data feeds directly into Dotdigital, you can:

• Adjust journeys mid‑flow
• Launch segments in minutes
• Deliver hyper‑relevant content based on the latest customer behaviors

At the same time, data and tech teams need precision and control. These integrations help you:

• Meet governance standards
• Keep sensitive data securely housed
• Remove duplicate storage and risky sharing practices

When everyone works from the same single data source, friction between teams disappears. Plans move faster, creativity gets sharper, and everyone’s working toward the same goal with the same information.

The business impact of connected data

Connected data makes your marketing work better:

• Campaigns land because they’re timed and relevant
• Teams stop wasting hours on avoidable data exchanges
• Compliance becomes simpler because the governance sits inside the integration

As marketing execution speeds up, you see a direct impact with quicker campaign launches, higher conversion rates, and engagement that doesn’t plateau six weeks later. 

A customer data platform (CDP) trusted by marketers

One more thing before we share what connected data looks like in action: Dotdigital was recently named a G2 Leader for Customer Data Platforms (CDP) in the Summer 2026 rankings. Every ranking is based on verified reviews from real customers, so you know you’re in good hands.

What this looks like in action

When Dotdigital connects with data warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks, it starts to change how everyday marketing gets done. With data syncing smoothly in the background, teams can:

Capitalize on sudden spikes in interest

Your data warehouse shows an unexpected surge in sales for a product. Dotdigital then pinpoints customers who’ve shown interest and sends timely promotions without waiting for a data upload.

Personalize product recommendation journeys

Your data warehouse reveals the product categories customers explore most. Dotdigital turns that insight into personalized emails, push messages, and social ads with product recommendations based on what’s trending.

Deliver back‑in‑stock and new‑arrival alerts

When product availability changes in your data warehouse, whether an out‑of‑stock favorite is replenished or a new item lands, Dotdigital instantly sends a customer a personalized alert.

Prevent customer churn in real time

When your data warehouse indicates a premium subscriber is overdue for a repeat purchase, Dotdigital enrolls them into an automated cross-channel retention sequence. Once they buy, that transaction flows back into your data warehouse, closing the loop and keeping their profile up to date. 

Ready to push, pull, and personalize?

Dotdigital’s data warehouse integrations help you avoid compromises, like finding clunky workarounds or having to duplicate data at the expense of accuracy. It’s built for marketers and data teams alike. With one source of truth, you’ll have endless opportunities to turn data into meaningful moments for your customers.

With so many options out there, choosing the right platform can feel overwhelming. But don’t worry, we’ve broken it down into practical steps to give you a clearer picture of how to prioritize your requirements.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to:

• Assess your current setup
• Define your marketing automation goals
• Identify must-have platform features
• Compare pricing and scalability
• Check for ease of use and customer support
• Check integration with your existing tech stack
• Look at security and compliance
• Test platforms before making a final decision
• Ensure your new CRM works for businesses like yours

Step 1: Assess your current setup

Before you start comparing marketing platform features or booking demos, it’s a good idea to review what you already have. If you’re using an existing platform, or even just managing email campaigns manually, document your current workflow and think about:

• What’s working well, and what’s not?
• Which tasks take up the most time or feel repetitive?
• Are there gaps in functionality that stop you from achieving your goals?
• What do you wish your current system could do but can’t?

Step 2: Define your marketing automation goals

Once you’ve reviewed your current setup, have a think about the outcomes that matter the most to you and your team because the right marketing automation platform depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Every platform can look impressive at first glance, and it’s easy to get distracted by flashy features.

Some questions to think about are:

• Do you want to increase repeat purchases?
• Is customer engagement dropping?
• Are you focused on improving retention?
• Do you need to save your team time?
• Are you trying to get more customers/subscribers?

Connect your goals to platform capabilities

Once you know what you want to prioritize, you can map them to platform capabilities.

For example:

• If acquisition is the goal, you’ll need automated email journeys, strong segmentation and data capture popovers
• If retention is the goal, look for behavior-based triggers, personalized product recommendations, and lifecycle automation
• If you want to run coordinated multi-channel campaigns, make sure the platform supports email, SMS, web messaging, and paid media orchestration from one place
• If efficiency matters most, prioritize visual workflow builders, reusable templates, and AI-powered optimization
• If lead nurturing is your focus, you’ll need strong segmentation, automated email journeys, lead scoring, and CRM integration

Think short-term and long-term

It also helps to separate:

• What you need right now
• What you’ll likely need in 12 to 24 months

Maybe today you’re focused on email automation. But if you know you’ll soon invest in SMS, loyalty programs, or advanced personalization, you’ll want a platform that can grow with you.

Step 3: Identify the must-have platform features

Being clear on what you need helps you pick the right tier or package, or spot an all-in-one solution so you don’t end up juggling multiple tools. Think about the ways you want to connect with your customers, then use that to guide your search.

Many successful teams focus on a few core areas:

Segmentation

This is how you make sure the right message lands with the right person, rather than just sending everything to everyone.

Email and SMS automation 

Automated journeys and triggered messages that respond to customer behavior can save a lot of time.

Personalization

People like when messages and product recommendations feel like they’re written personally for them. Using customer data to tailor content, like including their first name or past purchases, can help drive campaign engagement.

Multi-channel campaign support 

Your audience isn’t consuming content in just one place, so it helps when your platform can handle email, SMS, WhatsApp, social, and web campaigns all together.

CRM integration 

Keeping your key systems connected makes workflows smoother and keeps everyone on the same page. But also, it’s best to consider your full tech stack. Instead of focusing only on your CRM, have a think about what other platforms your marketing relies on every day. That might include:

• Your e-commerce platforms
• Review sites
• Donation tools
• Any other tech your business relies on

Reporting and analytics 

Seeing what’s working (and what’s not) makes it easier to tweak your strategy as you go.

Multi-brand / multi-account support

If you’re a small team and need to manage multiple brands, you’ll want to choose a marketing automation platform that’s easy to handle multiple accounts within one account.

Helpful tip:

One way to narrow down your options is to make a list of “must-haves” versus “nice-to-haves” to help you spot the features that will make your life easier and help you hit your goals.

Step 4: Compare pricing and scalability

Platforms structure their fees in different ways. For example, some charge per contact, others charge per feature, and some just have a flat subscription.

When considering your budget, think about how your business might grow over the next year or two. A platform that fits perfectly right now could feel restrictive if your contact list doubles or you want to expand into new channels.

Also, keep an eye out for the hidden extras like:

• Additional costs for add-ons
• Premium support
• Advanced features 

Of course, the goal isn’t to pick the cheapest option – it’s about choosing one that gives you flexibility.

Step 5: Check for ease of use and customer support

Having all the features and capabilities in the world won’t matter if you and your team find it difficult to use the platform.

Take a look at the platform interface and the learning curve, and ask:

• Is it something your team can pick up without endless tutorials? 
• Does it let you build campaigns without constantly needing help?

Having access to helpful customer support makes a big difference, too. The best platforms guide you with things like onboarding, training materials, and an active community where you can ask questions and pick up tips from other users. It’s also helpful when you can contact real people (not bots), and in your time zone, who can walk you through issues, run live demos, or answer questions as they come up.

You can also check third-party review sites like Trustpilot to see how other businesses rate a platform’s usability and support. Dotdigital, for example, has consistently positive reviews from marketers, showing that marketing teams find it easy to get up and running while getting the help they need.

When a platform feels intuitive, and you know help is easy to reach, it keeps your team confident, stress-free, and focused on getting results instead of wrestling with the tool.

Step 6: Check integration with your existing tech stack

Your marketing automation platform needs to work with the tools you already use and rely on. That means things like your CRM, ecommerce platform, analytics software, and anything else you’re using day to day.

When everything talks to each other, your data stays clean, workflows run smoothly, and campaigns perform the way you want them to.  

Step 7: Look at security and compliance

Not every platform makes it easy to stay compliant. They need to help you meet legal data protection requirements across the regions you operate in, whether that’s:

• GDPR in the UK and EU
• CPRA in California
• Other local regulations

Check that the platform has solid security in place and the right certifications. That could mean things like ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certifications, SSL encryption, regular security audits, or even two-factor authentication for your team. 

Step 8: Test platforms before making a final decision

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, it’s time to try them out. Most marketing automation platforms offer demos or free trials, so you can use them to your advantage.

Play around with things like workflows, check integrations, and see how easy it is to get things done. It also helps if you bring your team into the process, too, if they’re going to be using it most.

Step 9: See if it works for businesses like yours

Check that the platform works with businesses like yours and review things like references or case studies in your sector. Seeing how it’s helped similar companies to yours can give you confidence it will meet your needs.

Why choose Dotdigital for marketing automation

Dotdigital‘s marketing automation platform is built for teams that want marketing automation to work, to be impactful, and to be easy to use. It brings together the essentials you care about, like email, SMS, multi‑channel journeys, and personalization, in a way that feels intuitive instead of being overwhelming.

Here’s why marketers choose Dotdigital for marketing automation

Recognized by the marketers who use it

Dotdigital was recently named a G2 Leader for Marketing Automation Software in the Spring 2026 rankings. Every ranking is based on verified reviews from real customers, so you know you’re in good hands.

It works with your existing tech stack 

Whether you’re syncing contacts from your CRM or pulling in ecommerce data, the integration tends to feel seamless.

The onboarding and support make a real difference

You’re not left to learn everything from trial and error or buried in generic help articles. From the moment you start, you get guidance that’s tailored to your setup and goals. Dotdigital is designed to be easy to use for any marketer, without needing to rely on designers, developers, or data teams. 

Scalability without surprises

As your contact list increases or you expand into new channels, Dotdigital grows with you instead of locking you into confusing pricing tiers. Managing multiple accounts through one platform is easy, and you can add extra child accounts at any time. We also develop new features based on what marketers tell us they need, so the platform keeps evolving alongside your business.

Security and compliance

The platform is designed to help you stay on top of data protection requirements. With robust safeguards and adherence to key regulations, you can feel confident that customer data is protected. If you want a deeper look at how this works in practice, you can explore more here.

It’s one thing to tick every box on paper. It’s another to pick a platform that feels good to use every day, that your team enjoys working with, and that frees you up to focus on strategy rather than troubleshooting.

But these tools sit outside your marketing stack, which means they don’t understand your campaigns, your audiences, or your performance data unless you manually feed it in.

That disconnect is exactly what a Model Context Protocol (MCP) is designed to solve.

So, let’s take a look at:

• How an MCP connects AI tools to your marketing stack
• What that means in real workflows
• What you can do with Dotdigital’s MCP server

What is an MCP server?

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It’s a standardized way (a protocol) to provide data and other information (context)to AI (models).

Instead of manually copying in information or uploading files, an MCP connects your marketing systems directly to the AI tools you’re already using, so, the context is there from the start.

This means your preferred AI tool can see what’s happening in your marketing in real time and you can ask it questions about your campaign data, such as: 

“What was my average campaign open rate in Q4?”

Or, get AI to take approved actions like adding a new lead into specific audience segments, or campaigns within your marketing platform.

This is exactly what the Dotdigital MCP server helps marketers to do.

The problem with ‘standalone’ AI tools

ChatGPT, and similar AI tools, are powerful, but on their own they’re missing something important for marketers. They don’t know your context. So, the answers you get are usually quite general, based on broad internet information rather than your actual campaigns.

Many marketers try to work around this by exporting reports, downloading CSVs, and pasting data into prompts to give the AI something to work with. And every time the question changes, you’re back doing the same thing again, re-explaining the context from scratch.

It also doesn’t really fit how marketing teams work day to day. In meetings, or while reviewing performance, you want answers quickly and not a process that involves pulling data, uploading files, and waiting to piece everything together. And even when you do get something useful out of it, you still have to jump back into your marketing platform to take action.

What you end up with is a lot of switching between tools and stitching information together manually.

An MCP removes that friction by connecting your marketing systems directly to your AI tools, so you’re working with live data in a single flow and not a disconnected process.

Why should marketers care?

You don’t need a technical background to start using AI directly with your marketing data. With an MCP in place, you can move from guessing, or manually pulling data, to working with it directly in your AI tool.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Answers at your fingertips: Instead of using AI just for ideas, you can ask questions and get real numbers straight from your marketing data, which is useful for when you’re in a meeting and need clarity quickly

• From insight to action in one conversation: Turn the insights from AI into actions in Dotdigital without leaving your workflow

• Use the AI tool you already prefer: An MCP isn’t tied to one platform. Whether you use ChatGPT, Claude, or something else, it works the same way

• Headache-free: Setup is simple and seamless. Paste the Dotdigital MCP URL into your chosen AI tool and follow the quick authentication prompts

What can you do with Dotdigital’s MCP server?

Get instant answers from real-life data

Ask questions of your Dotdigital email performance data and get answers fast. No need to export data and add it into your AI tools. You can ask questions like:

• What’s the YoY revenue growth from my emails?
• How much did our click-through rate increase in the past six months?
• Are there any anomalies in this week’s email campaign data?

Ask AI to spot trends that help you optimize

When you create hundreds of emails in a year, you don’t want to sift through each email to learn about what works and what doesn’t. Ask your LLM questions about what did well so you double down on your successes, like: 

• Did using emojis in my subject line improve my email open rates?
• What email length has the best impact on click-through rates?
• What did my best performing emails have in common?

Get insights from forms without digging through reports

Forms are a goldmine when it comes to understanding of customer intent, but analyzing them usually takes time. With an MCP, you can simply ask:

• Which volunteering interests were most popular on my form?
• How have form responses changed month by month this year?
• Which forms in my account are getting the most engagement? 

Your AI assistant pulls the data and summarises it for you.

Build and update marketing lists quickly

You can use your prefered LLM to turn queries into actions in Dotdigital, such as:

• Add all satisfied survey responders to a Brand advocates list in Dotdigital
• Add these webinar attendees to our VIP list
• Update the country for alex@domain.com to Germany

Make AI part of your everyday workflow

Marketers spend a lot of time switching between tools just to get answers.

With Dotdigital’s MCP server, your AI tool connects directly to your marketing data. So instead of jumping between platforms, you can ask questions, get context, and act on it in one place.

Connect Dotdigital to your AI tool of choice and start having real conversations with your marketing data.

You’ve used AI to write copy. We know, because we all have. And you’ve felt that specific kind of disappointment when it comes back sounding like every other brand in your inbox. Technically fine but completely forgettable. The kind of copy that could belong to anyone – and so, really, belongs to no one.

That’s not an AI problem, that’s a brand voice problem. Most AI tools are built to generate content that’s fast and functional but they’re not built to sound like you. AI doesn’t know the specific nuances of your brand voice or language preferences. It doesn’t know that your brand is sharp and dry, not warm and fuzzy, or that you’d never say “leverage” or “revolutionize.” 

There’s a better way to use AI

61% of marketers identified good taste and brand point of view as a priority. So, we’ve created Dotdigital’s brand voice to help teams shape a consistent brand style and personality across all their content.

Here’s what makes Dotdigital’s AI brand voice different

1. It learns your brand, not a generic version of one

Feed Dotdigital your brand guidelines or a sample of your existing content, and our in-platform AI engine gets to work understanding your tone, your style, and your boundaries in a deep, structured way, across 10 researched brand voice categories such as:

• Brand identity
• Audience
• Voice and tone
• Language accessibility (jargon or not)
• Do’s and don’ts
• Language and style
• Terminology to use or avoid

If you don’t have a set of brand guidelines ready to go, don’t worry, you can use our free template to create them and then let AI get to work.

2. It keeps your voice consistent across every channel

One of the hidden ways brands erode trust is by sounding different across channels. While websites are carefully crafted to match the brand’s tone, things like emails, landing pages, and social posts can feel disconnected. This mismatch, often caused by different people managing different touchpoints, weakens cohesion, authority, and conversion rates.

Our AI brand voice works across your entire Dotdigital account, so whether you’re sending an email or an SMS – the voice stays consistent. No other platform does this across all these channels in a single account. We checked.

3. It catches the moments you miss

Even the best marketers have off days. You’re rushing and you copy-paste from an old campaign, or perhaps someone new to the team writes something that sounds slightly off but you can’t put your finger on why.

The ‘Check Brand Voice’ option scans your copy for brand voice inconsistencies before anything goes live – and gives you an on-brand rewrite on the spot. Think of it as a second pair of eyes that never gets tired, never has a bad day, and never lets “leverage” slip through unchecked.

The results speak for themselves

Dotdigital customers are already seeing what happens when AI works with your brand and not against it:

• Mountain Warehouse: 15% increase in open rates using AI subject line suggestions
• 4Cabling: 20% increase in revenue from AI product recommendations
• Goodwood: 2x sales increase from AI-generated SMS

Why this drives better results

AI isn’t slowing down, and neither is your workload. The marketers who win won’t be the ones who use the most AI – they’ll be the ones whose AI actually sounds like them.

Our very own Head of Content once said:

“If your brand voice is generic, your content will be too. Make it uniquely yours.”

Copy that sounds like you – specific, consistent, authentic – that’s what gets read, clicked, and remembered. Our AI brand voice tool is built for exactly that.

Ready to sound like yourself again?

Book a demo today and see our AI brand voice in action. Or, if you’re already a Dotdigital customer, head to your account and try it now.

Marketers need data that‘s complete, current, and immediately usable. When it’s fragmented, decisions slow down — for your marketing team and for your business as a whole. Opportunities pass by, results plateau, and manual data exports create more chaos than clarity.

And when you could outperform your peers by 26% using real-time data, a single, connected data stream is the difference between reacting and staying ahead. It gives marketing, tech, and operations teams a shared, live view of every customer, ready to power the right message at the right time.

Dotdigital and Snowflake

Snowflake already gives businesses a secure, unified place to store and govern their data. So, when we launched our Snowflake integration in July 2025, it was a chance to bring marketers the seamless data flow to turn data into unforgettable customer experiences. Combined with Dotdigital, your data stops sitting in storage and starts driving meaningful moments across:

• Email
• SMS
• WhatsApp
• Web
• Push
• Social and more

Our integration leaves no gap between knowing and doing. Information in Snowflake flows straight into Dotdigital to fuel your campaigns, while engagement results from Dotdigital return to Snowflake for deeper insight.  Your data keeps moving, your marketing keeps learning, and nothing has time to go stale.

Reducing friction between marketing and tech teams

Marketers move fast. You can’t wait three days for the latest results to be downloaded, then uploaded to your email automation platform. With Snowflake data feeding directly into Dotdigital, you can:

• Adjust journeys mid‑flow
• Launch segments in minutes
• Deliver hyper‑relevant content based on the latest customer behaviors

At the same time, data and tech teams need precision and control. This integration:

• Meets governance standards
• Keeps sensitive data securely housed
• Removes duplicate storage and risky sharing practices

When everyone works from the same source, the friction disappears. Plans move faster, creativity gets sharper, and everyone’s working toward the same goal with the same information.

The ripple effect on your business

Connected data isn’t just a time‑saver; it’s a performance multiplier:

• Campaigns land because they’re timed and relevant
• Teams stop wasting hours on avoidable data exchanges
• Compliance becomes simpler because the governance sits inside the integration

As marketing execution speeds up, you see a direct impact: quicker campaign launches, higher conversion rates, and engagement that doesn’t plateau six weeks later. 

What does it look like in real life?

Real impact comes from the way this integration changes everyday marketing operations. Here‘s how Dotdigital and Snowflake work together to impact marketers:

Capitalizing on sudden spikes in interest

Snowflake shows an unexpected surge around a product. Dotdigital then pinpoints customers who’ve shown interest and sends timely promotions without waiting for a data upload.

Personalized product recommendation journeys

Snowflake reveals the product categories customers explore most. Dotdigital turns that insight into personalized emails, push messages, and social ads with product recommendations based on what’s trending.

Back‑in‑stock and new‑arrival alerts

When product availability changes in Snowflake, whether an out‑of‑stock favorite is replenished or a new item lands, Dotdigital instantly sends a personalized alert. 

Churn‑prevention journeys in real time

When Snowflake data indicates a premium subscriber is overdue for a repeat purchase, Dotdigital enrolls them into an automated cross-channel retention sequence. Once they buy, that transaction flows back into Snowflake, closing the loop and keeping their profile up to date. 

Ready to push, pull, and personalize?

Dotdigital’s Snowflake connection avoids compromises, like finding clunky workarounds or having to duplicate data at the expense of accuracy. It’s built for marketers and data teams alike. 

It’s not just an integration; it’s your data and your marketing finally working in real time, together. One source of truth with endless opportunities to turn data into meaningful moments.