Doubling Engagement and Revenue with OneSignal

Zenni Optical is the first and largest online retailer of prescription and non-prescription eyewear. They are focused on addressing the accessibility gap for affordable eyewear and have sold over 50 million pairs of glasses worldwide.

Although Zenni began as a web-first company, 15% of their total traffic now comes through their mobile app. Zenni noticed that app users tended to be more actively engaged, more loyal, and more likely to make purchases than visitors who engage via the website. With this goal in mind, Zenni CTO David Ting spearheaded a digital transformation, redefining Zenni’s identity not only as an eyewear provider but as a dynamic, mobile-friendly, and data-driven company.

Before OneSignal, Zenni faced a significant challenge early on in their mobile pivot: their marketing campaigns were plagued by bugs, requiring engineers to step in and rectify issues. Moreover, their existing marketing software had limited flexibility, making it difficult for their marketing team to execute personalized campaigns without developer support.

OneSignal’s intuitive marketing interface and full suite of developer resources made it the ideal choice for Zenni at this critical growth juncture. With OneSignal, their marketing teams have been able to devote more attention to understanding customer segments, crafting automated messaging campaigns, and conducting A/B testing.

Presently, Zenni's engagement strategy is meticulously planned, with a quarterly testing plan and CRM roadmap guiding their initiatives. They delve into user behavior patterns, seasonal trends, and past successes to inform their approach. Zenni discerns user preferences, taking into account factors such as prescription needs and fashion preferences, often consulting in-house eye doctors for additional insights.

Experimental campaigns form the cornerstone of Zenni's strategy, encompassing diverse variables such as image selection (male vs. female), review highlights (prescription-focused vs. fashion-focused), and target audience segmentation (family-oriented vs. individual-focused).

Leveraging personalized experiences and GenAI testing, Zenni has achieved impressive growth, including a 31.75% increase in revenue per delivery, a 32.64% surge in revenue per session, and a remarkable 33.79% boost in conversions.

Notably, one of their most impactful messaging optimizations has been contextualizing calls-to-action (CTAs), transforming generic prompts like “shop now” into tailored options such as “shop men's eyewear” or “shop progressives.”

There are many different prescriptions and eyewear solutions available today, so educating customers is essential to keep prospective customers engaged and help inform their purchase decisions. In-app messaging (IAM) has been a valuable tool to nurture users through the awareness and discovery stages of their buyer’s journey. With IAM, Zenni was able to provide personalized guidance to help users better understand their eyecare requirements and match them to specific products and features. As a result of these educational efforts, they increased in-app purchases by 8%. This underscores the efficacy of their strategy in not only informing but also engaging customers, ultimately fostering stronger relationships and driving meaningful outcomes.

As custodians of vast biometric and facial fit data, Zenni prioritizes customer comfort and efficacy in eye care. This commitment extends to their messaging strategy, which is meticulously tailored to deliver personalized experiences.

Their journey began by implementing retention campaigns aligned with OneSignal's best practices and guidance. In less than two months, Zenni witnessed tangible returns on investment, with users exhibiting heightened activity within the app and accelerating their purchasing decisions.

Since migrating to OneSignal, Zenni's ROI has skyrocketed, doubling both their engagement and revenue. Embracing a more data-centric approach, Zenni now triggers campaigns based on discernible customer actions and has the ability to capitalize on emerging social trends to deliver a truly personalized experience across their mobile app.

Zenni points to OneSignal's asynchronous communication model as revolutionizing the customer-brand interaction paradigm. Whether through emails, SMS alerts, or push notifications, each interaction nurtures a dynamic relationship, fostering heightened brand awareness and deeper engagement.

OneSignal has taken Zenni's omnichannel strategy to new heights by centralizing campaign management and eliminating the need for multiple vendor setups. By coding campaigns just once, Zenni gains the flexibility to seamlessly leverage various communication channels without the hassle of coordinating data across disparate platforms. With unified data insights across channels, Zenni benefits from a holistic understanding of customer interactions, enabling more informed decision-making.

Zenni's strategy to boost app engagement across all channels involved implementing universal links, ensuring that any interaction with a Zenni link seamlessly redirects users to the mobile app, if it's installed. This integration spans across various channels, including email campaigns and paid media efforts, effectively channeling traffic towards the app.

Recognizing the importance of cohesive messaging, Zenni understands that each interaction contributes to a unified user experience. This necessitates meticulous planning and orchestration of messages across multiple platforms for their priority campaigns:

• Re-engaging abandoned cart users

• Driving sign-ups for their rewards & loyalty program

• Educating users on services and products

• Conducting proper onboarding to retain customers

• Driving sales through promotional communications and supporting notifications
  

While email remains a cost-effective communication channel, Zenni emphasizes leveraging SMS and in-app messaging to help deliver content that prioritizes education, urgency, and exclusivity, thereby maximizing the impact of each interaction within the app.

One of the standout features of the partnership between Zenni and OneSignal is a shared commitment to execution. Zenni prioritizes action over prolonged deliberation, ensuring that ideas swiftly translate into tangible outcomes. OneSignal's responsiveness to Zenni's input and ability to implement requested features seamlessly aligns with Zenni's dynamic approach to problem-solving.

In just a year, Zenni has achieved remarkable milestones with OneSignal, leveraging capabilities to deliver timely and relevant content while significantly enhancing customer engagement. The incorporation of email into their messaging strategy exemplifies the versatility and depth of the collaboration, enabling Zenni to navigate the intricacies of this communication medium with ease.