We unify customer data into one profile and build segmented email, SMS and WhatsApp journeys that only send with valid consent.
In most businesses, marketing messages still run on a calendar: a monthly newsletter, the same SMS to everyone at campaign time. But sending one message to a customer who just placed a first order and to one who hasn’t bought in months wastes both budget and hard-won consent. Our marketing automation ties messages to behaviour, not dates, so each one reaches the right person on the right channel at the right time.
It all starts with data. If the online store, the tills, the CRM and the app each keep their own customer list, segmentation is guesswork. So we first unify customer data into a single profile, then build RFM and behavioural segments, loyalty and win-back scenarios. Sending only to consents registered in İYS, Türkiye’s commercial message registry, is treated as a core part of the setup, not a setting added later.
- 01E-commerce and retail brands sending the same newsletter and the same campaign SMS to every customer.
- 02Companies whose customer data is scattered across the online store, in-store tills and the CRM.
- 03Businesses that want to turn one-off buyers into repeat customers.
- 04Marketing teams struggling to keep commercial message consents and İYS records in order.
- 05Brands that run a loyalty programme but can’t use its data in their campaigns.
- 06Marketing managers who want to know which campaigns actually drive incremental sales.
What is marketing automation, and how is it different from bulk email?
Bulk email sends one prepared message to a whole list at once. Marketing automation ties the message to an event instead: a customer signed up, abandoned a basket, placed a first order, hasn’t bought in a long time or has a birthday coming up. Each event starts a pre-designed journey made of several steps, with waits and conditions in between. If the customer buys, they leave the flow; if they ignore the email, the next step tries another channel.
The result is fewer but far more relevant messages. A welcome series introduces the brand to new customers, a basket reminder gets the purchase finished, a post-purchase flow works towards the second order, and a win-back scenario targets customers on the verge of lapsing. Sales opportunities and quotes belong to our CRM service, and answering incoming customer messages belongs to omnichannel communication. Here the focus is the marketing communication a business starts itself, shaped around the customer lifecycle.
How customer segmentation and RFM analysis work
Segmentation means grouping customers by what they have in common. One of the most useful methods is RFM analysis: recency of the last purchase, frequency of purchases and monetary value. On those three measures customers fall into groups such as top customers, loyal regulars, newcomers, at-risk and about-to-lapse. Each group needs different treatment: perks rather than discounts for loyal customers, a nudge for those at risk, a strong win-back offer for those about to lapse.
Behaviour and interest data sit on top of RFM: which categories people browse, which channel they buy through, loyalty points, return history. That requires customer data to come together in one profile. In this CDP-like setup, records from the online store, tills, CRM, mobile app and loyalty programme are matched on email, phone or customer number, duplicates are merged and segments refresh themselves every day with new data. A segment stops being a spreadsheet pulled once and forgotten.
What is İYS, and how do you send SMS and WhatsApp campaigns legally in Türkiye?
İYS, the Message Management System, is Türkiye’s central registry for commercial electronic message consents. Businesses sending commercial messages by SMS, phone or email must register recipients’ consents in İYS and check that consent is still valid before sending. Recipients can also opt out directly through İYS, and that opt-out applies even if the person still looks opted in on the business’s own list. Any sending setup that isn’t kept in sync with İYS carries risk on every campaign.
In our setups we collect consent with clear wording on forms, at checkout and in store, pass it to İYS and build the pre-send check into every flow. WhatsApp adds Meta’s own rules on approved templates and recipient opt-in, so we send campaigns only through the official WhatsApp Business API. Consents are kept separately per channel, and opt-outs are processed quickly everywhere. We also draw a clear line between transactional and commercial messages from the start, and recommend a final review with your legal adviser.
Measuring campaign success: A/B tests, attribution and common mistakes
Open rates don’t tell you whether a campaign worked. The real question is what would have happened without the message. So in key flows we hold back a small control group and compare purchases between the two groups. A/B tests try out subject lines, send times, channel order and offers; we change one variable per test and never call a winner before enough data is in. For attribution, we credit sales to messages and channels within a time window agreed in advance.
The mistakes we see most: giving every segment the same discount until customers won’t buy without one, overlapping flows that hit the same person several times in a day, sending SMS without cleaning the consent list, and watching only revenue while ignoring unsubscribes and complaints. We set a per-channel frequency cap for every customer, prioritise flows against each other and build reports that show revenue, repeat purchase, list health and consent loss side by side. Paid advertising and media planning are handled by a separate service of ours.
- 01Customer data unified into single profiles
- 02RFM and behavioural segments
- 03Email, SMS and WhatsApp journey flows
- 04İYS integration and consent management
- 05Loyalty and win-back scenarios
- 06A/B tests and campaign attribution reports
Data first, campaigns second
Before building any flow we unify and clean customer data into one profile. Segments rest on a single customer view that updates daily, not on scattered lists, so messages genuinely reach the right person.
Consent is part of the job
İYS registration and per-channel consent and opt-out handling are among the first items in every setup. We send WhatsApp campaigns only through the official API with approved templates, never putting your number or reputation at risk.
Measured with a P&L mindset
Twenty-plus years answering for media, sales and P&L taught us that a campaign is judged by the extra sales it brings, not by how many messages went out. That’s why our reporting is built on control groups and attribution.
We build the plumbing ourselves
We built and run the automation and messaging layer of Rocketly CRM. We can build your flows there or connect to the email and SMS services you already use, and we write the integrations ourselves.
Data and consent inventory
We map which systems hold customer data, how much of it is duplicated, who has valid consent on which channel and the state of your İYS records.
Segment and journey design
We pin down segments, trigger events, the steps of each journey, channel order, wait times and exit conditions in a written journey map.
Build and integration
We connect data sources, merge profiles, integrate İYS and sending platforms, prepare templates and test every flow end to end with test profiles.
Test, measure, improve
We launch flows with a control group, use A/B tests on subject lines, timing and offers, and switch off steps that attribution shows aren’t pulling their weight.
There’s no fixed package price for marketing automation; every proposal is scoped to the work. What drives it is the number and condition of data sources to unify, the size of your customer base, the scope of segments and journeys, the channels involved, İYS and loyalty programme integrations, and the testing and optimisation support you want after launch. SMS, email and WhatsApp sending fees are billed separately by the relevant providers, and our written proposal lists implementation and those fees as separate items.
Let’s talk about this
Marketing automation means email, SMS and WhatsApp messages triggered automatically by customer behaviour. It becomes necessary when repeat purchases matter, when the customer base is too large to follow by hand and when you sell through more than one channel. Even a few core flows make a real difference for a smaller business.
İYS is Türkiye’s national registry of commercial electronic message consents. With certain exceptions, businesses that send commercial messages by SMS, phone or email must register with İYS and manage consents there. Sending a commercial message to someone without consent in İYS can lead to administrative fines, so we recommend confirming your scope with your legal adviser.
RFM is a segmentation method that scores customers on recency, frequency and monetary value of their purchases. The scores separate top, loyal, new, at-risk and about-to-lapse customers. Each group gets its own journey: perks for loyal customers, a reminder for those at risk and a win-back offer for those about to lapse.
A CDP, or customer data platform, unifies customer data from different systems into one profile and makes it usable for marketing. A CRM is where the sales team manages opportunities, quotes and conversations. Not every company needs a separate CDP product; often a CDP-like data layer that ties existing systems together is enough.
Campaign messages can be sent only through the official WhatsApp Business API, using Meta-approved marketing templates, to people who have opted in to WhatsApp. Messages are tied into segment and journey flows, and clicks and replies are measured. Meta charges separately for marketing conversations, so we usually reserve WhatsApp for the most valuable segments and time-sensitive messages.
An abandoned-basket flow starts when items go into the basket but checkout isn’t completed: first a reminder, then, if needed, help or an offer on another channel, and the flow stops as soon as they buy. A win-back flow kicks in when a customer passes their usual buying interval and invites them back with stepped offers.
We split the audience randomly into two or more groups and send each a message that differs in just one variable, such as subject line, send time, offer or layout. We pick the winner on clicks and purchases wherever possible rather than opens, and only once enough data has come in.
In most cases, yes. We can connect the layer that holds your segment and journey logic to your current email service, SMS provider and İYS through their APIs. If your existing setup falls short or you want to bring several tools into one place, building the flows on Rocketly CRM’s automation layer is another option.
In the systems we build, AI can predict which customers are likely to lapse, suggest the best send time for each person, personalise product recommendations and draft copy variations for templates. Decisions such as which segment gets which offer, and how the brand sounds, always stay with your team.
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