Attentive Review

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If you’re serious about driving revenue through mobile marketing, Attentive has likely come across your radar. It’s a leader in personalized SMS/MMS for e‑commerce brands looking to go beyond batch-and-blast tactics and instead deliver hyper-targeted, real-time experiences. Built for scaling brands, Attentive offers a unique mix of automation, AI-powered optimization, enterprise-grade compliance, and strategic support that goes far beyond just sending text messages.

In this full Attentive review, we’ll explore the platform’s capabilities, pricing, onboarding experience, performance reputation, and overall fit for different types of brands. By the end, you’ll know whether Attentive is the right tool for your growth—or if another solution might be a better match for your budget and goals.

Table of Contents

Quick Answers

1. What is Attentive? A mobile-first SMS/MMS marketing platform for e‑commerce brands that want enterprise-grade automation, AI, and compliance tooling.
2. Who’s it for? Mid-market to enterprise brands using SMS as a core revenue-driving channel.
3. Key features? Advanced flows, MMS support, AI personalization, compliance automation, and segmentation tools.
4. Compared to alternatives? More robust than Postscript or Omnisend for scaling brands; not as globally diverse as Twilio or Braze.
5. Easy to set up? Yes—with guided onboarding, strategy sessions, and visual builders that reduce friction.
6. Integrations? Shopify, Klaviyo, Salesforce, Zapier, Yotpo, and more.
7. How much? Starts around $500–$1,000/month (Growth), with Enterprise pricing customized to needs.
8. Pros & cons? ✅ High ROI potential, amazing support, bulletproof compliance. ❌ Pricey entry point, limited global SMS reach, quote-only pricing.
9. Worth it? Yes—if your brand is scaling and mobile engagement is part of your core strategy.
10. Where to get it?
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1. Features & Capabilities

Attentive is all about mobile-first engagement. Their bread and butter is SMS, MMS, and increasingly RCS for conversational marketing. This means real-time messages personalized to user behavior—not just generic promotions blasted out on holidays.

You get automated flows for welcome sequences, abandoned carts, reactivation campaigns, and even loyalty/VIP tiers. These flows aren’t static. They dynamically adjust to behavior, including site visits, purchase frequency, geo-location, and even AOV tiers. Every message can include rich media (MMS), deep personalization tags, dynamic coupon codes, and time-sensitive triggers.

One standout feature is Attentive’s pop-up opt-in tools. These dynamically adjust based on referral source, scroll behavior, and customer profile to increase SMS list conversions. Brands have reported 2x to 3x faster list growth using these tools compared to traditional email captures.

The AI capabilities go beyond just list growth. You also get smart send-time optimization, content suggestions, auto A/B testing, and behavior-based dynamic product recommendations—particularly effective when integrated with your product catalog and order history via Shopify or custom feeds.

For compliance, Attentive leads the pack. TCPA and CAN-SPAM rules are built into the core of the platform. You get automated opt-out handling, double opt-in flows, age gates for sensitive verticals, 10DLC registration, and suppression list management. They actively monitor deliverability and can throttle or re‑route messages during carrier slowdowns or ISP blocks.

While email isn’t Attentive’s primary strength, it is available—and well integrated with their SMS flows. You can trigger a cart email immediately, followed by an SMS an hour later if unopened, or reverse the order depending on customer behavior. This unified approach to cross-channel timing is a major plus for conversion optimization.

2. Pricing & Value

There’s no public pricing page on Attentive’s site, but based on client quotes and public case studies, most Growth plans begin around $500/month for smaller volumes, and can exceed $1,000/month rapidly based on monthly SMS volume, contact list size, and feature requirements.

The Growth plan generally includes core features—flows, segmentation, MMS, compliance, and integrations. Enterprise pricing is fully customized. It includes strategic SLAs, uptime guarantees, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, multi-user permissions, audit logs, and deliverability escalation channels.

Usage fees for SMS/MMS are usually separate and based on carrier rates + a platform margin. There’s no credit rollover, so planning is essential. You’ll be billed monthly based on message volume and tier.

While this might feel steep, many brands report substantial ROI gains. Some report SMS accounting for 18–30% of total online revenue, especially when paired with personalized triggers. The onboarding and white-glove service included in most plans also offset what would otherwise be expensive agency fees.

3. Ease of Use & Onboarding

Attentive’s onboarding experience is one of the most robust in the space. For Growth and Enterprise clients, setup includes strategic calls, flow design assistance, migration help (from Klaviyo, Postscript, etc.), compliance review, and even creative support to build pop-ups or design templates.

The platform UI is clean and visual. Flows are built using a drag-and-drop canvas, and templates come pre-built for common journeys. Segments can be previewed in real-time, with logic built from dozens of filters and triggers—everything from “purchased last 30 days” to “clicked but didn’t buy in 72 hours.”

If you’re less tech-savvy, your success manager walks you through setup and reviews results regularly. For advanced users, the platform supports API integrations, custom event tracking, and multi-touch attribution—especially useful when syncing with CRMs, loyalty tools, or complex product catalogs.

4. Case Studies & Reputation

Attentive powers mobile messaging for hundreds of high-profile brands including CB2, Urban Outfitters, Steve Madden, and Brooklinen. Their case studies often boast 20–30% of e‑commerce revenue attributed to SMS campaigns after just 3–6 months of usage.

In one example, a footwear brand used Attentive’s A/B testing and segmentation to boost conversion rates 2.4x compared to their prior SMS tool. Another lifestyle brand grew its subscriber list 4x in under 60 days using Attentive’s intelligent pop-up logic with mobile-first templates.

Industry recognition includes a “Customer Experience Champion” rating by Info-Tech, frequent top marks on G2 and Capterra (4.6+ average), and praise for strategic account management. The platform consistently earns high NPS scores from B2C marketers across industries.

5. Customer Support & Reliability

Support is where Attentive goes far beyond the competition. Even Growth users receive onboarding calls and flow audits. Enterprise plans include a named Customer Success Manager (CSM), weekly check-ins, access to deliverability specialists, and 24/7 incident response coverage.

The help center includes over 300 articles and video tutorials, while customer webinars and best practice guides are published regularly. Their team has deep knowledge of retail cycles, so support is proactive around BFCM, holiday campaigns, and seasonal spikes.

Platform uptime is rated 99.9%+, and Attentive maintains regional failover protection, data encryption, and TCPA/CAN-SPAM compliance monitoring. Messaging queues are dynamically adjusted based on volume and carrier limits to ensure optimal delivery performance even under load.

6. Attentive Review Summary & Final Rating

Pros

Cons

Final Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)

Attentive delivers elite-level SMS and MMS capabilities for brands ready to take mobile marketing seriously. With powerful AI, strategic guidance, and unmatched compliance tooling, it’s an enterprise platform in every sense. The only catch? It’s not for the bootstrapped or globally diversified yet. But if you’re running a scaling e‑commerce brand focused on North American markets, Attentive is arguably the most complete mobile marketing solution available today.

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