Stabilizing data, improving deliverability, and driving efficiency: how Acima scaled SFMC success with a dedicated team from Mavlers
Industry: Financial Services (Lease-to-Own Retail Financing)
About Acima
Acima is a leading provider of lease-to-own solutions, helping customers access the products they need with flexible payment options. With a mission to empower consumers through accessible financing, Acima partners with thousands of retailers across the U.S. to deliver affordable leasing options and elevate customer purchasing power.
When growth outpaced structure: the barriers limiting campaign scale & data reliability
Unstructured Subscriber Key architecture
Inconsistent Subscriber Key relationships across campaigns and journeys- Multiple Subscriber Keys created for the same email address, leading to duplicate records in All Subscribers
- Inflated subscriber counts impacting Salesforce billing limits
- Fragmented engagement history and reporting accuracy
- Manual subscriber removals every 15–30 days, causing loss of historical tracking data and risk of deleting potential customer
- Duplicate Subscriber Keys sometimes triggered multiple sends to a single user
High manual campaign dependency
- Weekly, monthly, and ad-hoc campaigns relied heavily on manual processes
- Journeys and Automation Studio workflows lacked structured data relationships
- Campaign setup became time-consuming and error-prone
- Limited bandwidth for strategy and optimization
Limited data governance & hygiene controls
- Inconsistent Data Extension structures and under-optimized hygiene practices
- No preventive controls to stop duplicate subscriber creation
- Weakened segmentation accuracy, higher bounce rates, and inconsistent reporting
Deliverability & subscriber fatigue risks
- Overlapping targeting increased subscriber fatigue risk
- Lack of engagement-based suppression and optimized send timing
- Domain and IP configuration gaps affected inbox placement and campaign effectiveness
From reactive fixes to continuous optimization: the dedicated team approach
To support long-term platform stabilization and campaign scalability, Acima partnered through a dedicated half-time engagement model, ensuring consistent expertise embedded within their marketing operations.
Team structure
- 1 Salesforce Marketing Cloud SME
- 1 Campaign Manager & Developer
What this enabled
- Continuous oversight of data architecture and governance
- Faster campaign execution without heavy internal dependency
- Strategic and technical alignment across automation, deliverability, and reporting
- A scalable operating model without the cost of a full in-house team
Re-architecting SFMC for scale: data unification, automation & deliverability optimization
Working as an embedded team, the dedicated experts leveraged their Salesforce Marketing Cloud expertise to re-architect Acima's marketing setup and unlock the full potential of SFMC.
Subscriber key unification & data architecture correction
- Comprehensive audit across All Subscribers, Data Extensions, Journeys, and Automations
- Standardized Email Address as the unified Subscriber Key
- Identified and resolved records with multiple Subscriber Keys
- Redesigned recurring journeys and related Data Extensions to maintain consistent Subscriber Key relationships
Data cleanup with governance & reporting protection
- Created structured backup Data Extensions for engagement, bounce, and unsubscribe data
- Executed cleanup to remove non-aligned Subscriber Keys while preserving valid data
- Implemented governance controls, validation rules, and standardized data management practices
Automation & campaign optimization
- Reviewed and optimized Automation Studio workflows to streamline recurring ad-hoc, weekly, and monthly campaigns
- Restructured journey entry sources to control record injection logic
- Aligned Data Extension relationships and naming conventions to support scalability and structured execution
Deliverability & engagement enhancement
- Implemented Einstein Send Time Optimization (STO)
- Strengthened deliverability through IP warming, domain alignment, and authentication standardization
- Introduced engagement-based segmentation and suppression logic for controlled communication frequency and structured targeting
Whether it's landing pages, email templates, or journeys in Marketing Cloud, Mavlers is a valuable part of our
team- making changes on
the fly, always there for support.
From data chaos to performance stability: the measurable impact
Data integrity & subscriber management
- ~80,000 duplicate records eliminated
- Removed the need for recurring manual deletions to control billing limits
- Unified Subscriber Key structure preserved historical engagement tracking
- Stabilized the database environment
Operational efficiency
- Optimized journeys and automation improved campaign execution efficiency
- Reduced manual effort across recurring campaigns
- Improved consistency and lowered operational risk
Deliverability & engagement
- Improved data hygiene and frequency management enhanced email performance
- Bounce rates declined
- Duplicate sends were eliminated
- STO contributed to improved open and click-through rates
Business impact
- Better control over Salesforce subscriber utilization
- Improved reporting accuracy with unified engagement visibility
- A more reliable and performance-driven SFMC foundation now supports ongoing growth
- The dedicated half-time team model provided ongoing governance, faster optimization cycles, and a stable SFMC operating framework for future growth