How WIN Reality transformed their customer engagement 

VR companies seek to enhance their marketing strategies as virtual reality (VR) evolves into a more sophisticated industry, tool, and marketing channel. WIN Reality, a sports technology startup, is no exception. By merging the world of virtual reality with real-world training for baseball and softball players of all levels—from youth leagues to the pros—WIN Reality is redefining the VR sports industry.

However, they couldn’t activate their first-party data to engage and convert users. WIN Reality hit their marketing efforts out of the park when they centralized their marketing automation and customer data.

WIN Reality faced significant challenges activating their data because they did not have a centralized hub and relied too much on email as the sole channel. Despite having multiple lead generation streams across owned and third-party channels, they struggled to power their marketing campaigns with cohesive and real-time data. The absence of a customer data platform (CDP) meant they could not integrate data from various sources seamlessly, hindering their ability to run automated activation campaigns and capitalize on immediate buyer intent.

Before transitioning to Customer.io, new customers at WIN Reality received emails that were not connected to a larger strategy nor personalized. Because their tech stack was disjointed—they used Klaviyo for prospects, HubSpot for customers, and Amazon Web Services for transactional messages—they couldn’t link behavior within their app, which meant they couldn’t personalize messages. They were missing out on valuable customer interactions. Even with complicated workarounds, different teams owned different channels, hampering marketing’s ability to act. Data engineering owned Amazon Web Services, preventing marketing from promptly making simple copy changes or iterating on creative strategies. They also couldn’t address other issues, like bounce rates or email verifications.

Timely marketing is always more likely to drive conversions. And for WIN Reality, their entire product offering depends on real-time data to be effective. On-demand virtual athletic training for baseball players requires instant, personalized feedback as players practice. The drop-off is steep. If a player (i.e., potential customer) doesn’t recognize value quickly in the platform, they will seek training elsewhere. WIN Reality needed to determine where players struggled in their game, what prevented them from completing another training session, and where they were getting stuck on the site.

With Customer.io and a centralized tech stack enabled by Data Pipelines, they could finally understand and leverage their insights! Using their own zero- and first-party data and external plug-ins, they could see events such as homepage activity, observe where users were struggling or dropping off, track abandoned carts, monitor order activity within their campaigns, and then incorporate that data into their messaging strategy—all within one platform. The team at WIN Reality increased conversions from owned marketing channels in a way that was impossible before.

Customer membership confirmation resides in Journeys and has expanded into a fully automated email workflow run entirely by WIN Reality’s lifecycle team. Marketing has complete control over their email, SMS, and push notification messaging.

The team has also expanded the confirmation flow from two simple emails with little personalization to four versions with dynamic and hyper-personalized content. These efforts lead to a 4x increase in booking sessions in only four months!

WIN Reality is scaling quickly, and centralizing their martech stack and capitalizing on their customer insights was critical to achieving success. Using Data Pipelines, the team activated their first-party data, added profile attributes, and personalized their messages in real-time. With Journeys, they expanded their marketing mix to include SMS and push notifications. WIN Reality upgraded their marketing tactics and strategies, providing them the support, usability, and insights needed to grow to new heights.

Your brand can also see results like WIN Reality did! Learn how Customer.io can help you use your data to power your marketing and customer engagement campaigns. Start a 14-day free trial today.