Cross-channel attribution is the answer to "what's actually working?" Direct REI ties every inbound reply — call, text, email, or return mail — back to the outreach that triggered it. Here's how to read the data.
What attribution means in practice
You email someone Monday. You text them Tuesday. They call you back Wednesday.
Without attribution, that's just "an inbound call." With attribution, Direct REI tells you the call was a response to either Monday's email or Tuesday's text — and credits the campaign that ran more recently.
The "most recent touch wins" rule
When a contact responds, the reply is credited to whichever campaign was the most recent outreach touch within the attribution window (30 days by default).
If they were in two campaigns and got mail from Campaign A on May 1 + email from Campaign B on May 10, then call you back on May 12 — Campaign B gets the credit.
This is the right model for cold outreach because the latest touch is usually what jogged them to respond.
Where to see attribution
1. CRM — the attention banner. Open any red-flagged contact. The banner reads something like:
"Inbound call from John Smith. Last outreach: mailed May 15, email sent May 12."
This tells you the channel(s) of the last few touches before they responded.
2. Analytics — per-campaign breakdowns. The Analytics dashboard has widgets showing replies and reply rate per campaign across all channels. Filter by campaign to see how each one is performing.
3. Direct Mail dashboard — DM-specific reply tracking. On the Direct Mail page, the KPI strip shows total Replies and Reply Rate for direct mail specifically, plus a breakdown card showing which channel they replied via (📞 calls, 💬 SMS, ✉️ email, 📬 return mail).
4. Per-contact reply channel. Each contact has a last_reply_channel field showing how their most recent reply came in. Filter the CRM by this to see, e.g., "all contacts who replied via cold call" or "all contacts who replied via SMS".
The conversion funnel by channel
Watch your channels' relative reply rates over time. Typical patterns for real-estate cold outreach:
- Email reply rate: 1-3% on cold lists. Highest volume, lowest cost per reply.
- SMS reply rate: 8-15% on warm lists, 3-8% on cold (where legal). Best dollar-per-reply when you have consent.
- Direct mail reply rate: 0.5-3%. Higher when targeted at probate / absentee-owner lists. Highest cost per piece but highest-intent responses.
- Cold call connect rate: 5-10% reach rate, 20-30% conversation-to-interest rate on those reached. Highest conversion to deal of any channel.
Reading the breakdown
If your Direct Mail dashboard shows "10 replies — 6 calls, 2 SMS, 2 emails", that tells you:
- The mailers drove inbound calls primarily (good — calls convert best)
- Your phone number is on the card and prominent enough to act on
- 2 people texted back the number on the card (also good)
- 2 people somehow found your email and replied that way (your card has your business name and they Googled you)
If you ran a direct mail campaign and the breakdown is "1 reply, 0 calls, 1 email" — your mailer is missing your phone or burying it. Iterate.
Multi-campaign attribution
If a lead is in multiple campaigns and replies, the most recently touched campaign gets the credit. To see all the campaigns they were in:
- Open the contact
- Look at the campaign memberships section
- Each shows the date they were added + last touched
Time-window logic
Replies that come in more than 30 days after the last touch aren't auto-attributed (the lead probably had unrelated reasons for reaching out). The contact's status still updates, but the campaign credit goes uncounted. The 30-day window is fixed — if you run long-cycle campaigns and need it extended, reach out to support.
Why this matters for ROI
Without attribution, you can't tell which campaigns to scale and which to kill. With attribution, you'll see things like:
- "Campaign A: $300 spent, 8 replies, 1 deal closed → $300 CAC, profitable"
- "Campaign B: $600 spent, 2 replies, 0 deals → $600+ CAC, kill it"
That's the entire game. Direct REI does the bookkeeping; you make the decisions.
What's next
Loop back to the Quickstart if you haven't run your first campaign yet, or jump into the Outreach Tips section to refine specific channels.