Few businesses understand the mission of delivering joy to customers as innately as gorjana, a jewelry brand based in Laguna Beach. Founded in 2004 by co-founders Gorjana and Jason Reidel, the company has since grown to over 65 retail stores, making jewelry intentionally designed to mix, match, layer, and have a whole lot of fun with.

gorjana’s ability to connect to its customers is critical. To get a 360-degree view of its customer engagement all in one platform, the company chose to partner with Iterable.

gorjana Upgrades to Iterable for a Cohesive Customer View

Prior to Iterable, the gorjana marketing team had used two separate providers for email and SMS and, therefore, lacked the cross-channel orchestration they needed to build more advanced customer segmentation and journeys.

When searching for the right martech tool, they noticed that some vendors excel at providing certain features, but few were able to deliver the complete package: the centralized view of a customer data platform and robust, AI-powered capabilities of a cross-channel marketing platform.

After a thorough evaluation, gorjana selected Iterable as the top choice.

Harnessing AI to Power Winning Cross-Channel Campaigns

The gorjana team leverages Iterable for many of their essential marketing campaigns, whether it’s welcoming new customers or triggering abandoned cart and browse reminders. But where the team has found huge success has been with its on-demand segmented campaign messages.

gorjana sends email and SMS communications about product launches multiple times each week, and the brand’s loyalists are usually over the moon to receive updates on new arrivals. But to ensure customers don’t experience message fatigue, the team uses several key features in Iterable’s AI Suite.

Frequency Capping and Optimization

With Iterable’s Frequency Capping, the marketers at gorjana can limit how many messages can be sent to specific users, whether it’s no more than three text messages per week or one email per day. And if a customer is expecting an order, transactional shipping or delivery notifications can be prioritized over marketing promotions.

But now with Iterable’s AI-powered Frequency Optimization, the team can go even further by automatically determining what frequency is right for each individual within a set range. 

Nala Hanna, Retention Marketing Manager at gorjana, explained that their strategy is no longer one-size-fits-all: 

“We’re able to pick and choose what days, what emails, and what content we want to go to which customer. We didn’t have those capabilities before, and it’s been such a big unlock for us in creating a more advanced program.”

Send Time Optimization

When it comes to sending the right message to the right person at the right time, marketers should be able to use AI to set their communications on autopilot. That’s where Iterable’s Send Time Optimization (STO) comes in. 

Hanna reports that since the team enabled STO, their average click rate for their email campaigns has grown by 12%—a dramatic increase given the company’s large list size.

“We use Send Time Optimization for almost all of our campaigns, and it’s been great because it takes the guesswork out of when’s the best time to send an email. Not having to think about when a user will most likely open our messages has unlocked greater efficiencies for our small but mighty team, and as a result, we can focus our efforts on optimizing our cross-channel communication strategy.” ~ Nala Hanna, Retention Marketing Manager at gorjana

Giving BOPIS a Major Boost

One of the many ways that gorjana delivers joy to its customers is the quality of service the company provides, especially during important holidays, like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. To reduce the stress surrounding these special days, gorjana sends reminders via Iterable that customers can buy online and pick up in store (BOPIS).

What sets gorjana’s BOPIS campaigns apart is personalized messaging based on how customers prefer to shop. To appeal to people who enjoy visiting in person, gorjana’s store staff go the extra mile and provide complimentary gift-wrapping for items that are picked up at its 65+ locations. 

In fact, this tailored messaging to both retail and e-commerce customers during the holidays has been so successful that this personalization has led to a 4x increase in BOPIS orders.

gorjana’s CMO Elton Graham says that the impact Iterable has been able to enable has been significant:

“It’s really important for us that we have a messaging system in place that can orchestrate these campaigns seamlessly. We know when we’re speaking to customers who prefer to shop in stores, and to those who prefer to shop online. Iterable allows us to properly segment our customers by shopping preferences, so we can come up with personalized messages that cater to each segment.”

Sealing the Deal With SMS

While BOPIS orders are a huge boon during the holidays, gorjana seeks to convert even the customers who save their gift-buying until the last minute. With SMS, the team can send timely suggestions to purchase a gift card before it’s too late.gorjana’s “You gift, they choose” SMS campaign converts last-minute shoppers during special holidays.

In the company’s big push for Valentine’s Day, SMS played a valuable role. gorjana saw a 55% increase in the total number of SMS messages delivered that February, and the growth led to a 17% increase in year-over-year conversions.

Of course, SMS doesn’t just drive orders around the holidays. The team also sends testimonials via text to prospective customers. These messages feature the jewelry styles that are most often a customer’s first purchase, and the added social proof can be just what a user needs before completing a checkout.gorjana uses Iterable SMS to share customer testimonials and drive first purchases.

This testimonial SMS campaign has been wildly successful, leading to a whopping 337.5% increase in conversions year-over-year. And no, that’s not a typo!

Graham explains how less can be more when it comes to mobile communications:

“Compared to our daily email campaigns, we send a lot less SMS, but it’s still driving high sessions and revenue for us. The overall role of SMS on our bottom line has been so impactful.”

The Growth Ahead of gorjana

As gorjana continues to accelerate its growth plans, the marketing team is confident it can maintain its level of personalization at a massive scale. Thanks to Iterable’s AI Suite, sophisticated segmentation, and centralized customer view, they can create cross-channel campaigns that shine.