There’s a stat that keeps many performance marketers up at night (or maybe helps them sleep a little too soundly).
According to Klaviyo, the average conversion rate for a broadcast campaign (a generic email blast) sits around 0.08%. Compare that to automated flows (triggered messages based on user behavior) which convert at 1.42%. That is not a margin of error; that is a chasm. Automated flows are reported to generate up to 30x more revenue per recipient than standard campaigns.
When you look at those numbers, the logical conclusion seems crystal clear: Pour every dollar into trigger-based activities. Focus on the abandoned cart, the “next best offer,” and the post-purchase follow-up. This is where the ROI lives, right?
But here is the problem with that logic. You can’t send an abandoned cart email if nobody ever adds to the cart. You can’t trigger a “next best offer” if the customer never engages with your brand in the first place.
We see marketing teams constantly under pressure to deliver immediate, business-KPI-aligned results. This leads to a hyper-focus on capturing today’s sale. But if you aren’t engineering those sales further up the funnel, you are missing a massive opportunity and leaving your brand exposed to competitors who are willing to chase market share, not just conversion rates.
It is time to stop limiting your CRM to reactions and start using it to engineer intent.
The myth of the standalone trigger
A common misunderstanding in our industry is treating direct channels like they exist in a vacuum. We obsess over the mechanics of the trigger: What is the subject line? What is the discount? How quickly should the SMS go out?
They’re valid questions, but they ignore the ecosystem that creates the trigger event.
Think of your CRM strategy like a harvest. Trigger-based campaigns are the combine harvester, they are incredibly efficient at gathering your crop. But if you haven’t spent the season planting, watering, and fertilizing (brand building, media, social), your state-of-the-art harvester is going to drive over a barren field.
As the researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute so often put it, a brand must be “easy to find, easy to mind.” Your CRM team needs to think about how media, social, and even culture convince consumers to take the action that allows us to capitalize with the right triggered message.
When you only focus on the bottom of the funnel, you optimize for efficiency but cap your growth. You might have an incredible conversion rate on your automated flows, but if your top-of-funnel volume creates a trickle of leads, that percentage is applied to a shrinking base.
Engineering intent means marrying the strategy that builds interest with the mechanics that capitalize on it.
Breaking down the silos: A cross-discipline approach
If you are a senior marketing leader, you cannot afford to have your media team and your CRM team working in different rooms. Engineering intent requires a holistic view of the path to purchase. It is not enough for the CRM team to own the email; they must influence what happens before they get the email address.
Here is how this looks in practice across different verticals:
- Direct-to-Consumer (DTC): Your paid media shouldn’t just scream “BUY NOW.” It should create moments of interest (a video view, a quiz completion, an influencer interaction) that capture first-party data. That data is the fuel for your high-ROI automated flows.
- B2B: Don’t wait for the demo request. That is the end of the movie. Engineering intent means being at the trade show, not just to scan badges, but to cultivate the conversations that lead to a future sign-up. It means working with sales to create flows that generate an experience people actually want to opt into.
If you treat direct channels solely as performance tools, you ignore their power to build brand affinity. By the time someone gives you their email or phone number, they have trusted you with a personal piece of information. That is a responsibility.
Using that channel smartly means offering value, not just extraction. It means nurturing the relationship so that when the trigger event finally happens, the conversion is a foregone conclusion.
The Audit: How to Assess Your “Intent Engine”
If you want to move from reactive to proactive, you need to audit your current ecosystem. Failing to do this is like trying to navigate a new city without a map. You might stumble upon a good restaurant, but you’ll waste a lot of time wandering down dead-end streets.
Here is a practical framework for auditing your efforts:
- Map a Path to Purchase: accurate documentation of every touchpoint your customer has.
- Categorize Your Activities: Label each touchpoint. Is it a “Brand” activity (creating intent) or a “Performance” activity (capturing intent)?
- Analyze the Handoff: Look specifically at the friction points between those categories. Is your media spend actually driving the specific behaviors that your CRM team needs to trigger their flows?
- Check Your Segmentation: Are you segmenting based on who they are (demographics) or what they did (behavior)?
Don’t confuse the difference in performance metrics for one being “better” than the other. Of course, top-of-funnel brand activities won’t have the same immediate ROI as an abandoned cart email. But those brand activities are the oxygen that allows the abandoned cart email to breathe.
The Final Word
Strategy is a holistic company exercise. It is not something you can do within the silo of a single department.
If you want to grow your business, look beyond your swim lane. Remember that the best performance marketing is powered by strong brand marketing, and the best brand marketing is validated by strong performance mechanics.
Don’t just wait for the customer to raise their hand. Create the environment where raising their hand is the only logical choice.
Reach out to newbiz@mythic.us to hear more about how we engineer intent for ambitious brands.