The best SMS campaigns don't start with a phone number. They start with customer behavior. Send too many generic blasts and customers opt out. Send the right message at the right moment and SMS becomes one of the highest-converting channels a brand has. The Friendbuy Attentive integration exists to make sure it's the second one: every referral share, reward, and loyalty milestone in Friendbuy becomes another trigger for an Attentive Journey.
Attentive already knows how to send a great text. Friendbuy makes sure it knows when to send it and what to say.
Why do referral and loyalty programs need SMS marketing?
Referral and loyalty programs stall without messaging because customers forget they exist. A referral program only works if people see it, and a loyalty program only works if members remember it. Both are messaging problems, and SMS is built for them: near-instant delivery, exceptionally high engagement, and a format that feels personal rather than promotional.
But none of that helps if referral and loyalty activity lives in one platform while SMS and email marketing lives in another. The cost shows up as missed moments. An Advocate shares a link and never hears a thank-you. A referred Friend earns a coupon code and lets it expire. A loyalty member sits one purchase from the next tier and never finds out. The behavioral data that should be powering ecommerce SMS marketing instead sits unused in a referral dashboard.
What does the Friendbuy + Attentive integration do?
The integration syncs referral and loyalty data from Friendbuy into Attentive in real time, turning program activity into behavioral signals marketers can act on. Specifically, Attentive can:
- Recognize whether a subscriber is an Advocate or a Referred Friend, and message each differently
- Trigger Attentive Journeys the instant someone shares, earns a reward, redeems a coupon, or levels up in a loyalty program
- Personalize a message with a customer's own referral link, coupon code, or live points balance
- Build segments around referral and loyalty behavior instead of guessing who your most engaged customers are
Attentive can also send subscription confirmations back to Friendbuy, allowing brands to reward customers with loyalty points or credit for joining SMS or email. That's the real value of the Friendbuy Attentive integration: it's not just contact syncing, it's context.
What data does Friendbuy sync to Attentive?
Friendbuy sends two types of data to Attentive: custom attributes that live on the subscriber profile, and custom events that trigger Journeys. Contact information is only sent when a customer explicitly opts in through a Friendbuy widget.
Subscriber attributes
| Friendbuy attribute |
What it contains |
| Friendbuy Referral Status |
Whether the subscriber is an Advocate (referrer) or Referred Friend (referee) |
| Friendbuy Customer Name |
The name the customer entered through a referral widget |
| Friendbuy Referral Link |
The Advocate's personal referral link (PURL) |
| Friendbuy Date of Last Share |
The most recent date and time the Advocate shared with a Friend |
| Friendbuy Coupon Code |
The most recent referral coupon code distributed to the customer |
| Friendbuy Coupon Value, Status, Currency |
The value, redemption status, and currency of that coupon |
| Friendbuy Campaign Name and ID |
The referral campaign associated with the customer's link or coupon |
Journey-triggering events
| Friendbuy event |
When it fires |
| Friendbuy Advocate Created |
A customer joins the referral program through an Advocate widget |
| Friendbuy Referred Friend Created |
A referred Friend submits their info through a Friend widget |
| Friendbuy Referral Share |
An Advocate shares via email, SMS, PURL, or social |
| Friendbuy Referral Advocate Reward Earned |
An Advocate earns a reward after a successful, fraud-checked referral |
| Friendbuy Referral Friend Incentive Earned |
A referred Friend completes a conversion and earns their incentive |
| Friendbuy Loyalty Reward Earned |
A loyalty member earns a reward from joining, purchasing, referring, signing up, or completing a custom event |
| Friendbuy Member Tier Changed |
A loyalty member moves up or down a tier |
Every event carries properties like coupon code, reward value, campaign name, and customer name, so the message can include the exact details the customer cares about. The full list is in our guide to enabling the Attentive integration.
Consent-first by design. Contact info is only sent to Attentive when a customer checks the corresponding opt-in box on a Friendbuy widget, and phone numbers complete Attentive's required double opt-in before receiving any SMS.
What can you build with the integration?
Each of these is a live Journey brands run today, with step-by-step setup guides in the Friendbuy Help Center.
Referral
Recover referral rewards before they expire
Referred Friends and Advocates who've earned a coupon code but haven't
redeemed it are some of the highest-intent customers in a referral
program. Trigger a Journey off the reward-earned event and remind them
before the code lapses.
Send referred Friends a reminder text with their coupon code
Loyalty
Reward customers for subscribing to SMS
Configure a subscription earning event so customers earn loyalty points
or credit simply for opting in. This turns SMS subscriber growth into a
loyalty action instead of an unrewarded ask.
How to reward loyalty members for signing up for Attentive texts and emails
Referral
Encourage Advocates to share again after earning a reward
The moment right after a reward lands is the moment someone is most likely
to share again. Trigger a text with their PURL front and center, or send a
dedicated referral message to your full Advocate segment.
Send a dedicated referral program SMS through Attentive
Loyalty
Welcome new loyalty members with personalized SMS journeys
The moment someone joins, a text confirming their status and pointing to
easy ways to earn turns a passive sign-up into an active member.
Loyalty
Celebrate loyalty milestones automatically
Tier changes, point thresholds, and anniversaries become SMS moments
instead of silent backend updates. Include a customer's live points
balance in any message to make the program feel alive.
Referral
Re-engage inactive Advocates before they churn
Use the Date of Last Share attribute to segment Advocates who shared once
and went quiet, then target them with a fresh incentive through Attentive
before they disengage entirely.
Does the integration drive results?
Yes. OLLY used the integration to build Attentive SMS Journeys around weekly loyalty touchpoints, reward-earned moments, and referral incentives. The results: OLLY's top-tier loyalty members show a 26 percent higher average order value than the site average, and 45 percent of new SMS subscribers are already loyalty program members, a clear signal of what SMS subscriber growth looks like when it's rooted in real behavioral data.
Marketer control was the deciding factor. OLLY's previous loyalty vendor offered what the team described as "empty promises about an Attentive integration" and tried to push OLLY toward a bundled SMS product instead. Unlike loyalty platforms that bundle their own SMS product, Friendbuy is built to work with the SMS platform brands already use.
"After meeting with the Friendbuy and Attentive teams, this is the first time I've ever been excited about loyalty." Jennifer Peters, Senior DTC Manager, OLLY
"We're thrilled to work alongside OLLY and the Friendbuy team to identify, implement, and continuously optimize journeys that will make sharing their referral and loyalty programs through SMS easier and more effective. The Attentive and Friendbuy integration was built to help brands like OLLY increase SMS subscriber acquisition, design personalized journeys, and drive more referrals."Carina Shahin, Senior Partner Manager, Integrations, Attentive
How do you set up the Friendbuy + Attentive integration?
Setup takes a few minutes and is done entirely by marketers, no engineering
ticket required:
-
Get your signUpSourceId.
Request it from the Attentive team, then confirm it appears in your
Attentive account under Sign-up Units.
-
Open the Attentive card in Friendbuy.
Go to Developer Center > Integrations and click Add integration.
-
Configure and install.
Paste your signUpSourceId, choose whether to send emails, phone
numbers, or both, and click Install Integration.
-
Authorize in Attentive.
Approve the Friendbuy app in the window that opens, then refresh
Friendbuy to confirm the blue checkmark.
How do you set up the Friendbuy + Attentive integration?
Setup takes a few minutes and is done entirely by marketers, no engineering ticket required:
- Get your signUpSourceId. Request it from the Attentive team, then confirm it appears in your Attentive account under Sign-up Units.
- Open the Attentive card in Friendbuy. Go to Developer Center > Integrations and click Add integration.
- Configure and install. Paste your signUpSourceId, choose whether to send emails, phone numbers, or both, and click Install Integration.
- Authorize in Attentive. Approve the Friendbuy app in the window that opens, then refresh Friendbuy to confirm the blue checkmark.
From there, marketers build segments, Journeys, and SMS automation directly inside Attentive. No engineering ticket to launch a new reminder flow, adjust a Journey ahead of a sale, or spin up a new segment for a seasonal push. Full walkthrough with screenshots: How to Enable the Attentive Integration.
Part of a connected ecommerce stack
For many brands, Friendbuy sits alongside Shopify, Attentive, and Recharge. Referral activity, loyalty milestones, subscriber growth, and purchase behavior aren't isolated events. They're inputs into the same customer journey Attentive is already messaging against, and a reward loop that keeps feeding itself: customer activity drives messaging, and personalized messaging drives more customer activity.
The bottom line
If Attentive powers your SMS and email marketing, Friendbuy ensures every referral share, loyalty milestone, and subscriber interaction becomes another opportunity to deliver relevant messages that drive more revenue. Whether you're launching your first referral program or scaling an established loyalty program, the Friendbuy Attentive integration makes sure Attentive always knows what to say next. To learn more about the Friendbuy Attentive integration, request a demo below.
Frequently asked questions
What Friendbuy events can trigger Attentive Journeys?
Referral events include Advocate created, referred Friend created,
referral share, Advocate reward earned, and Friend incentive earned.
Loyalty events include rewards earned from joining, purchasing,
referring, signing up, or completing a custom event, plus member tier
changes. Every event carries properties like coupon code and reward value
for message personalization.
Can Attentive send referred Friends their coupon codes?
Yes. When a referred Friend earns an incentive, Friendbuy fires an event
to Attentive with the coupon code, value, and campaign name attached.
Brands set up an Attentive Journey that texts the Friend their code
instantly, or sends a reminder if the code hasn't been redeemed.
How long does it take for Friendbuy data to appear in Attentive?
Data syncs in real time. Subscriber attributes update as customers
interact with a referral or loyalty widget, and events fire into
Attentive the moment the underlying action happens. A new event type
becomes selectable in Attentive's Journey builder once at least one
customer has triggered it.
What if I use Attentive alongside another SMS provider?
Customers will receive two separate double opt-in messages, one from
Attentive and one from the other provider, because each provider manages
its own opt-in status. Most brands consolidate on a single SMS provider
per region to avoid duplicate opt-in requests.
How is this different from using my loyalty platform's bundled SMS product?
Bundled SMS tools lock messaging inside the loyalty vendor's platform.
Friendbuy takes the opposite approach: it enriches the SMS platform you
already use with referral and loyalty data, so your Attentive Journeys,
segments, and deliverability infrastructure keep working exactly as they
do today.
I pretty much live inside Klaviyo, I have Klaviyo tabs open all the time. Having Friendbuy integrate with Klaviyo makes running campaigns so much easier
Meredith Erikson
Email & SMS Marketing Specialist, woom
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