From Fragmented Customer Data to Personalized Customer Journeys

Written By Jim Squires

How Ozark Foundation unified 35+ outdoor recreation events onto a single customer data foundation

Client: Ozark Foundation Industry: Nonprofit / Multi-Event Outdoor Recreation Engagement: 6 weeks of hands-on implementation, delivered in two phases around Ozark Foundation's event season — a 3-week Klaviyo foundation build completed ahead of the season, followed by a 3-week identity resolution and BikeReg integration build once the season wrapped — plus ongoing management

The Challenge

Ozark Foundation manages multiple outdoor recreation events, each historically run as its own silo — separate website, separate registration flow, separate marketing list. An event participant who did three events over two years looked like three strangers to the marketing team.

That fragmentation showed up as real operational drag:

  • Customer data lived across 6 core systems — and was fragmented far beyond that: a separate email opt-in on every event website, registration data siloed across 35+ individual BikeReg events, and additional participant information scattered across numerous Excel and Google Sheets

  • Email lists were managed per-event, so event participants across the portfolio couldn't be recognized or engaged as returning participants

  • Registration data and engagement data couldn't be viewed together, making it impossible to segment by event participant behavior or interest

  • Every campaign was effectively one-size-fits-all, and building a targeted list meant manual spreadsheet work

  • Event teams had no visibility into what event participants across the broader portfolio actually cared about

The Approach

Journey Signals designed and implemented a unified customer data foundation connecting registration, marketing, and engagement data into a single source of truth — while strengthening the event-specific experience event participants expect from each brand.

Identity & data infrastructure

  • Built a centralized customer data layer (Azure SQL) to resolve event participant identity across events and systems

  • Integrated BikeReg registration data via API into unified event participant profiles

  • Synchronized profiles and engagement data into Klaviyo in real time via the Klaviyo API

  • Integrated Kickbox for email validation, protecting sender reputation and ensuring deliverability across all campaigns

Activation & experience

  • Centralized opt-in management while preserving each event's specific interest data

  • Event website forms captured intent and fed directly into the customer profile — no manual list-building

  • Built dynamic, self-updating segments based on demographics, registrations, behavior, and lifecycle stage

  • Launched contextual, automated journeys covering acquisition, onboarding, event prep, retention, and re-engagement — so an event participant now receives communications based on what they've actually done and shown interest in, not a generic blast

  • Gave marketing teams and event directors the ability to build automated participant journeys spanning the full lifecycle — from registration through event day and beyond — rather than one-off, event-specific sends

The Result

Ozark Foundation moved from managing disconnected marketing lists to running a true unified customer engagement platform — with measurable impact across both marketing and event operations:

  • 96 overall deliverability score — best-in-class vs. peer group*

  • 60.7% average campaign open rate — best-in-class vs. peer group*

  • 9.67% average campaign click rate — best-in-class vs. peer group*

  • 16.3% click-through rate — best-in-class vs. peer group*

  • 0.381% bounce rate — best-in-class vs. peer group*

  • 0% spam report rate — best-in-class vs. peer group*

  • 8 hours/week of manual list-building work eliminated

  • A single event participant profile now spans 35+ events from the past 3 years, giving Ozark Foundation portfolio-wide visibility into participant interests for the first time

For marketing teams, who own top-of-funnel activation:

  • Previously, building a single campaign meant manually harmonizing and deduplicating overlapping audiences across event-specific lists — often 1-2 hours of manual list work per send. That work is now automatic, with segments generated dynamically from the unified profile

  • Deliver more relevant acquisition and re-engagement messaging based on real participant interest and behavior, not one-size-fits-all sends

For event directors, who own the participant experience from registration through the event and beyond:

  • Gain a complete view of each participant's journey — registration status, event-day communications, and post-event follow-up — in one place instead of piecing it together across systems

  • Can trigger automated, contextual touchpoints at key moments (confirmation, pre-event logistics, day-of information, post-event follow-up) without manually managing each send

  • Get visibility into participant engagement and satisfaction signals that were previously invisible once registration closed

*Benchmarked against Klaviyo's own industry benchmark report for nonprofits

Facing the same fragmentation across your own portfolio of brands, events, or locations?

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Jim Squires