Automated text message automation sends or triggers SMS marketing messages to customers without manual intervention. This technology has recently gained popularity as businesses seek to streamline communications and enhance customer experiences. An automated text message is an effective way to capture your customers’ attention. Unlike emails, which may not be checked frequently, almost everyone always keeps their phone with them. It makes it convenient for both you and your customers. Many people prefer SMS as a communication option.
A successful SMS marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. It requires following simple yet essential rules to ensure delivery and maximize engagement. Sending automated SMS messages is one of the most direct and effective methods to inform customers about promotions, confirm orders and deliveries, and maintain customer engagement. It reaches their pockets directly, and they see it seconds after sending it. So, let’s explore some of the benefits of using automated text messages.
What is Text Message Automation?
Text message automation is a part of marketing automation, ensuring the automatic sending of text messages to individual or multiple recipients with little to no human intervention. It can be used for various purposes, including customer engagement and marketing, promoting products and services, notifying users about new updates and alerts, sending reminders, and fostering engagement.
Imagine this. You have planned to send those welcome messages to your new customers. But Monday is in full swing, and after the usual weekly meeting and unexpected visits, you have completely forgotten to send those “Welcome to our community” messages.
Text message automation will end such communication failures once and for all. The best part is that it doesn’t involve any additional costs. Additionally, automatic text message-sending services are part of comprehensive SMS solutions. They are designed to help businesses effectively engage with their customers, simplify communication, and increase sales. Let’s dive into some benefits of using automated text messages in the company.
How to Send Automated Texts?
Sending automated text messages or SMS (Short Message Service) is a valuable and efficient method for individuals, businesses, and organizations to communicate crucial or timely information without manual intervention. With the progress of technology and the widespread use of mobile devices, automating this process has become more accessible and convenient. To send automated text messages, follow these detailed steps and consider utilizing advanced features to enhance the semantic richness and effectiveness.
- Select a platform or service – Research a reliable SMS or service provider. These providers typically offer a web-based interface or an Application Programming Interface (API) that enables you to configure and send automated text messages. Some popular platforms include JookSMS, ClickSend, and Twilio.
- Create an account and acquire a phone number – Sign up for an account with the selected platform or SMS service provider. Most providers offer a free trial, enabling you to test their services before committing to a plan. After setting up an account, purchase a distinctive phone number (local, toll-free, or short code) for sending automated messages.
- Configure message triggers and schedules – Define the conditions or events that prompt an automated text message. These triggers can be based on specific dates, times, user actions, or system events. For instance, you can send an automated SMS to new customers when they sign up for your service or to all subscribers as a reminder of an upcoming event. Set up these triggers and schedules within your SMS platform’s interface using the provided tools or API.
- Write the SMS content – Compose the text message you want to send, keeping it concise and meaningful. For higher semantic richness, consider employing personalization, actionable language, and clear instructions to make the message more engaging and valuable to the recipient. Respect the character limit, typically 160 characters for standard SMS.
- Use variables and templates to enhance your automated text messages – You can ensure consistency and streamline content creation by incorporating placeholders and variables representing personalized data. These placeholders can then be replaced with the relevant information from your data source, allowing you to create unique messages for each recipient.
- Integrate with data sources – Connect your selected platform or SMS service provider to the data source of your choice. It can be a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management), database, or spreadsheet that holds the essential information for your automated messages, including names, phone numbers, and other pertinent details. Follow the instructions provided by the provider to establish a proper connection and synchronization between the two systems.
- Establish opt-in and opt-out mechanisms to comply with SMS regulations and industry best practices – Provide recipients with the option to subscribe or unsubscribe from your automated text messages. For example, allow them to reply with “STOP” to unsubscribe from future messages. Keep your database or CRM updated to maintain a clean and accurate subscriber list.
- Test your automated text messages before launching your campaign – Ensure they are sent correctly, with the right content and trigger conditions. It will help you identify and resolve any technical or content-related issues that may come up.
- Monitor and analyze performance – As soon as your automated text messaging system is up and running, use analytics tools provided by your platform or SMS service provider to track performance, success rate, and message engagement. This data will help you make informed decisions and make adjustments to improve the effectiveness of your automated text messaging campaigns.
Creating an efficient and effective automated text messaging system to support your communication goals requires several detailed steps. These include researching and selecting an appropriate platform, setting up triggers and schedules, crafting meaningful and semantically rich content, personalizing messages with variables, and ensuring compliance with regulations. You can develop a robust automated text messaging system by following these steps.
What are the Benefits of Sending Automated Text Messages?
Businesses can enjoy various benefits by using automated text messages as part of their communication and marketing strategies. Let’s explore some of the advantages in more detail.
- Improve Your Team’s Productivity
One significant advantage of using automated text messages for businesses is saving you and your employees time. Acquiring and implementing tools that reduce the time spent on tasks for your company’s talent is crucial. One way to achieve this is by automating your SMS marketing.
Instead of spending significant time manually writing and updating recurring text messages each week, your marketing team can delegate much of the work to an automated texting service like JookSMS. Upload contacts to create compelling customer segmentation strategies, craft your messages or choose from templates, and schedule when messages should be sent. Learn more about how to send automated SMS.
- Reduce the Potential for Errors
Human error is always possible when sending text messages manually. Whether it’s a typo, incorrect scheduling, or forgetting to send the message, these mistakes can harm your communication and marketing efforts.
Using automated text messaging services eliminates the potential for human error and ensures that all messages are sent accurately and on time. The system will execute your instructions precisely without any discrepancies.
Also, retyping the same message multiple times for different customer or client groups is time-consuming, increasing the chances of errors. Moreover, customers expect accurate information and personalized communication. With automated SMS marketing, you can carefully craft and review your messages before scheduling them to be sent. Additionally, you can ensure that the correct customer segmentation group is selected, guaranteeing accurate recipient names.
- Personalize Your Customers’ Experiences
Automated SMS campaigns can also assist in cultivating robust customer relationships by ensuring that you send timely, targeted messages to your customers. With most SMS marketing software, you can effortlessly identify specific segments in your list and deliver relevant offers.
You can enhance the distribution of customer surveys by leveraging text messages. Automated text messaging can be a powerful strategy for customer retention.
Automated text messages can enhance productivity and maintain a consistent brand voice. You can leverage smart messaging instead of generic mass texts using the right business text messaging platform.
- It Makes Your SMS Marketing Scalable
Automated text messaging streamlines your business operations and allows scalability. As your company grows, you can send more messages without adding additional resources.
Whether you want to reach a new customer segment or increase the frequency of your messaging, automated text messaging makes it easy to scale up without incurring extra costs. This convenience benefits startups or small businesses looking to expand their customer base.
- Appointment Reminders
Automated text messages are an excellent way to remind customers of upcoming appointments or deadlines and reduce the chances of no-shows. With features like scheduled sending, you can program targeted reminders to be sent at specific times, such as a day before or a few hours before the appointment.
It helps customers stay organized and increases their satisfaction with your services. Additionally, it saves time and resources for your team by reducing the need for manual reminders or follow-ups. Learn more about the various Benefits of SMS marketing for your business.
How to Automatize Your SMS Marketing Campaign
Automating your SMS marketing campaign involves steps that facilitate effective communication with your customers. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you implement your automated text messaging system:
- Use an SMS platform – First, select an SMS marketing platform, such as “SMS marketing automation,” to send mass and automated text messages to your customers. This platform should offer features like customer segmentation, message templates, and scheduling.
- Import your contact list – Import your contact list into the chosen platform. Make sure all phone numbers are up to date and correct. Additionally, segmenting contacts into different groups based on their preferences or behavioral patterns can help personalize your messages.
- Create your messages – Use templates or create your messages from scratch. Remember, it is essential to keep your messages clear, concise, and engaging for your recipients. You may also use SMS marketing templates to lessen the manual drafting of messages.
- Schedule your messages – After drafting them, set the schedule for sending. You can schedule your texts to be sent at specific times or in response to certain triggers.
- Set up automated responses – Ensure your system is configured to send automated responses to customer interactions. It can include purchase confirmations, appointment reminders, or answers to frequently asked questions.
- Monitor and analyze your campaigns – Remember to monitor the performance of your campaigns and analyze the results. It will help you identify areas for improvement and make adjustments to increase the effectiveness of your SMS marketing campaigns.
By following these steps, you can establish an efficient system of automated text messages that enhances communication with your customers, boosts team productivity, and reduces the possibility of errors.
What Kind of Messages Can Be Sent by Automation?
There are multiple types of automated text messages that businesses can send. Some types of automated text messages include:
- Automated SMS Workflows
Workflows are automated sequences through which subscribers can flow, creating a personalized and tailored experience. With workflows, you can send automated text messages and customize the experience based on individual behaviors. For example, depending on whether they clicked, you can send a text message with a link and follow up later. They are perfect for creating SMS chatbots, collecting information, and nurturing leads.
Creating automated SMS workflows is as simple as dragging and dropping objects onto a canvas and connecting them all. No programming is required. Most SMS marketing platforms offer this tool with their service plans.
- SMS Drip Messages
Scheduled SMS messages are texts automatically sent at different intervals after people subscribe to your SMS marketing program. The incredible thing about these scheduled messages is that you can combine several to create a series of automated text messages sent days, weeks, or even years after the initial subscription.
The right text automation platform can make your scheduled messages even brighter by applying “segment filters.” If subscribers meet the specified criteria, it allows your scheduled messages to be sent. Some examples could be if they provided their name, clicked on a link, or even made a purchase.
This compelling feature can be as straightforward or as complex as you need it to be. Regardless of the complexity, you will find that setting up these scheduled messages is a precise process.
- Scheduled Text Messages
Scheduling text messages is one of the most common and simple ways to leverage SMS automation. Our text messaging service makes planning easy. When composing a message, you can send it now, later, or regularly. By choosing to send it later, you can specify a date and time for your text message to be sent. You can even select the time zone in which your messages will be scheduled.
You can send appointment reminders, event reminders, stock replenishment alerts, and more with scheduled messages. It is an essential feature when looking for a bulk text messaging service.
Read our guide on How to Schedule a Text Message.
- Autoresponders
Autoresponders, or “automatic replies,” are the simplest and most common SMS automation tools. An autoresponder is simply an automated text message sent to a person when they send a unique keyword to a short code or phone number. They are fully customizable and are sent immediately after a keyword is received.
Autoresponders are typically used to confirm subscriptions to SMS marketing programs or bulk messaging services. When someone joins a text message list, they receive an automatic response thanking them for joining, usually offering additional offers or information. Some companies use autoresponders exclusively to provide information and set up hundreds of keywords that provide specific responses to people seeking information on particular things.
- Repeating Messages
Recurring messages, also known as “repeated messages,” are SMS messages that are automatically dispatched at regular intervals. Similar to scheduled text messages, recurring messages allow you to specify a time to send the message, but you can also choose to repeat it in the future.
With this tool, you can automatically send text messages daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. We offer practically unlimited scheduling options to provide the flexibility you need to automate those essential SMS messages. For example, you could set up a mass text message to be sent to a list every two months on the second Tuesday of the month at 3:15 p.m. You can even combine these messages with our targeting tools to send them only to people who meet specific criteria.
- Survey Text Messages
Text message surveys are excellent for gathering input and engaging with your audience. This feature allows you to create a series of questions that people can answer entirely through text messaging. Once created, SMS surveys are fully automated and are a powerful tool for organizations seeking ongoing feedback.
Surveys consist of three specific questions: numeric response, multiple choice, and open-ended. Each question type expects an answer relevant to its type, ensuring streamlined responses.
All data collected through text message surveys is automatically populated into a stunning analytics dashboard that provides detailed breakdowns of responses and overall respondent behavior.
Read more about different SMS marketing Campaign Ideas for 2023.
- Abandoned Cart SMS Messages
If you own or operate an online store, you probably understand the significant revenue wasted due to abandoned orders. Customers often fill up their shopping carts and start the checkout process but then get distracted and fail to complete their purchases. Text messaging has emerged as one of the most effective ways to re-engage those lost customers, bring them back to your website, and motivate them to complete their purchases.
Text automation service is easy to set up, and it runs entirely on its own. You can soon send cart reminders to your subscribers to help them finish the checkout process. This SMS automation strategy is a surefire way to return customers and increase sales.
Connect your text marketing platform to your e-commerce site using an integration or API, configure the messages for sending, and sit back. Your automated text messages will start sending to those who leave your checkout flow, providing them with links that bring them back.
There are various strategies to bring customers back into your business. Read our guide on How to Reduce Abandoned Cart Rate for more ideas.
What Tools are Used for Text Message Automation?
Many SMS marketing platforms offer text message automation features. These tools are essential for businesses to integrate automated text messaging into their overall marketing campaign. It has become possible for companies to send messages even if they are away from the office or not logged into their computer.
Automation software allows businesses to schedule and send messages in advance, making it easier to manage multiple customer interactions simultaneously.
Some popular SMS marketing tools for text message automation are:
- JookSMS – JookSMS is a bulk SMS and text message marketing platform offering various automation features. Businesses can set up rules to automatically respond to specific keywords, send scheduled messages, and even create drip campaigns.
- Textedly – Textedly is a text messaging platform that offers automation tools like scheduled messages, autoresponders, and drip campaigns. It also has advanced targeting options to send personalized messages based on customer data.
- Twilio – Twilio is a cloud communications platform that offers text message automation through its API. Developers can use Twilio to send automated messages, create workflows, and integrate SMS into their applications.
- ClickSend – ClickSend is a cloud-based communications platform offering text message automation through API and integrations. It also has features like scheduled messages, autoresponders, and personalized messages.
- TextMagic – TextMagic is a business SMS service with automation features such as scheduled messages, autoresponders, and drip campaigns. It also offers integrations with popular e-commerce platforms for abandoned cart messages.
Can You Create an Automated Response System for Customers?
Yes. You can easily create an automated customer response system with text message automation software. With features like autoresponders and scheduled messages, businesses can set up automatic replies to common customer inquiries or confirmations for appointments and orders. It saves time and improves the overall customer experience by providing timely and accurate responses.
Can You Send Notifications and Reminders by Using Automation Software?
Yes. Text message automation software allows businesses to send automated notifications and reminders for various purposes, such as appointment reminders, order updates, delivery notifications, and more. By using scheduled messages and drip campaigns, businesses can ensure that their customers stay informed and up-to-date with important information.
Is Text Message Marketing Automation Legal?
Yes. Text message marketing automation is legal if businesses comply with regulations set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). It includes obtaining customer consent before sending automated messages and allowing them to opt out of receiving future messages. Understand more about SMS Consent and Compliance to ensure you do your SMS marketing right!
What is the Cost of Sending Automated Text Messages?
The cost of sending automated text messages varies depending on the SMS marketing platform and the number of messages sent. Some platforms offer a pay-per-use model, while others have monthly subscription plans. Businesses must consider their budget and messaging needs when selecting an automation tool. Choose the right text marketing platform to ensure you have the best cost of SMS marketing for your company.
What to Care While Using Automated Text Message Services?
SMS marketing is effective and offers many benefits for businesses. However, there are also a few things to consider while using automated text message services to maintain responsible and ethical practices. Here are some things to consider when using automated text message service.
- Get Permissions – Before sending automated messages, ensure proper customer consent. It includes obtaining opt-in for receiving text messages and offering an easy way to opt-out.
- Keep it Personalized – Use customer data to personalize your automated messages. It leads to higher engagement and better results.
- Be Consistent In Sending Frequency – Be mindful of how often you send automated messages to avoid overwhelming your customers.
- Test and Monitor – Regularly monitor your automated messages to ensure they function correctly and provide the desired results.
- Comply with Regulations – As mentioned earlier, comply with the FCC and TCPA regulations when sending automated text messages. Non-compliance can result in penalties and damage to your brand reputation.
By following these guidelines, businesses can use text message automation ethically and effectively to improve customer experiences, increase sales, and ultimately grow their company.