Modern marketers need quick and efficient ways to reach and nurture leads in today’s competitive business environment, and automated text messages are one of the most effective tools in their marketing arsenal.
They can improve communication and increase engagement across different industries, helping with everything from boosting sales to collecting feedback. Of course, as with any other marketing tool, their success depends on how well you use them. So, it’s important to take the time to learn how they work and how you can best utilize them to improve marketing outcomes.
In this SMS marketing guide, we explore the value of automated messages and look at how you can use them in your campaigns.
*Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
What are automated text messages?
Automated texts are pre-written, pre-scheduled messages you can send customers based on certain actions, times, or conditions. Essentially, they’re responses to specific triggers that require no manual intervention.
Businesses use them for many purposes, including order confirmations, appointment reminders, customer support, marketing promotions, and abandoned cart reminders.
If you’re in ecommerce, you might schedule text messages with discount codes to go out when customers abandon their carts—in this case, cart abandonment would be your trigger. Similarly, if you’re running a product promotion campaign, you can fire off mass texts during the day by simply scheduling them.
Automated text messages are well suited for most business communications because SMS has a 98% open rate and 36% click-through rate. This means your audience will likely open your messages and interact with them.
Why are automated text messages a good idea?
Setting up auto texts can be a lot of work—you need to find an automation tool, define triggers, understand your target audience so you can personalize texts, and try out different messages to find what resonates with your customers. Is it worthwhile, though? Most definitely!
Running an automated text message campaign is one of the best things you can do for your brand. Here’s why:
Reach your customers at the right times
One of the biggest SMS marketing mistakes is sending messages at the wrong times. Doing so can reduce customer engagement and, consequently, your marketing campaign’s success.
Automated texts allow you to send messages at the most opportune times, like during peak engagement hours or right after a customer action or order completion. This is because they’re based on set triggers—when the right conditions are met, your automation tool automatically sends a message without any additional work on your end.
Sending messages at specific times can lead to higher open and engagement rates, boosting the chance of meeting your marketing goals.
You might be wondering how to determine the best times to communicate with customers. The answer is straightforward: with the right tracking tools, such as Bitly and Google Analytics.
When you add Bitly Links to your messages, you can see your click totals at different times through Bitly Analytics. With this data, you can determine when your target audience is the most likely to engage and respond.
The good news is that Bitly also integrates with Google Analytics, so you can map recipients’ interactions with your links more easily.
Save time, resources, and effort with increased efficiency
With automated texts, your team can forget the hassle of repetitive messaging tasks. Automation reduces the need for manual input, letting you focus on more important business operations and increasing overall productivity.
Automated texts also allow you to send personalized messages at scale without dedicating staff to the process. This saves you money without jeopardizing your SMS marketing campaign.
It’s worth noting, however, that you need to configure automation workflows correctly to reap these benefits. Properly set workflows help minimize errors and facilitate efficient communications, reducing the need for constant intervention.
Improve engagement through personalization
Seventy-six percent of consumers say that personalized communications play into their decisions to consider brands, making it an essential factor you don’t want to overlook—and automated texts help ensure you don’t. You can personalize them with customer names, purchase histories, or preferences, making them more relevant and valuable to customers. This can result in higher engagement rates and conversions.
Lean on data and analytics to segment your target audience and personalize messages. Twilio Segment is an excellent tool for this purpose—it can collect customer data across different touchpoints, help you create customer profiles, and segment recipients into groups based on factors like their behavior, demographics, and preferences. This sets the stage for personalization.
Improve customer satisfaction and retention
Automated texts keep customers engaged and informed throughout their purchase journeys, improving overall satisfaction. For instance, SMS appointment reminders and delivery updates offer timely and helpful information that enhances the customer experience.
To promote satisfaction, ensure that all your automated messages are clear, relevant, and provide a way for customers to respond. For delivery updates, for example, include the customer’s address and tell them how to reach out if you have the wrong location.
Examples of how you can use automated messages in your campaigns
There’s no shortage of ways to use automated messages to streamline your workflows, improve campaign efficiency, and offer better customer experiences.
Here are some automated message use cases and SMS marketing tips to spark your creativity:
Appointment or reservation reminders
Businesses like healthcare providers, salons, or restaurants can use automated messages to remind customers about upcoming appointments or reservations—this typically requires you to integrate your SMS automation tool with your scheduling software. Automating appointment or reservation reminders can improve customer experiences and reduce no-shows, boosting satisfaction and allowing you to run your business efficiently.
To enhance customer experiences further, include a confirmation link in the automated texts to make it easy for recipients to reschedule if necessary. Alternatively, you can enable two-way texting to improve response times.
Order confirmations and shipping updates
Manually sending order confirmations and delivery updates can be tasking and prone to errors. This is why many ecommerce stores use automated texts.
By integrating your SMS automation tool with your ecommerce platform, you can send confirmation texts immediately after customers check out, letting them know that you’ve received their orders.
Automated texts can also provide regular shipping status notifications, keeping customers informed from the moment they complete their orders until they receive them. With 59% of consumers surveyed by Shippo saying that they value shipping updates, this is one of the best ways to keep customers happy. To enhance their experiences, include tracking links in your messages to allow them to track their packages in real time.
Flash sales and promotions
If you’re considering using SMS marketing for slow seasons, automated messages should be part of your strategy. Texts are ideal for promoting flash sales, discounted pricing, and exclusive offers because of their high open rates. They increase the likelihood of customers on your contact list seeing special offers, potentially increasing your sales.
For the best results, schedule texts to go out when customers who have shown interest in previous promotions are the most active—your tracking tools can help you determine when. Also, leverage recurring messages and urgency tactics like limited-time offers to encourage immediate action.
Feedback or survey requests
Customer engagement doesn’t have to end after closing a sale or delivering a product. In fact, it shouldn’t end if you want to secure repeat customers.
Automated texts can help with post-purchase engagement by sending surveys or feedback requests. This is a great way to keep business-customer interactions alive and gain valuable customer insights for future service improvements.
To use automated texts for feedback collection, include short links to your survey page or rating system in your message, making it easier to access the questionnaire and respond. Also, consider providing incentives like special discounts or early product access to encourage link clicks and survey completion.
Top 3 features to look for in an automated text message provider
Your automated text message tool plays a key role in your campaign’s success. So, instead of settling for the first option you find, take the time to assess functionality and features to find the best fit for your SMS automation needs. Features to consider include:
1. Integration with CRM systems
Before you settle on any provider, check whether their tool can integrate with your CRM system. Integration between the two promotes streamlined data sharing and management, making it easier to send messages and personalize them based on customer information.
But don’t just assess integration capabilities with your CRM system. Also, check compatibility with other business tools. If you have a scheduling system, ensure your chosen automated text message tool integrates with the software for seamless automated appointment reminders.
2. Personalization options
Modern consumers want personalized messages. So, choose an SMS platform with templates that let you customize texts based on customer data.
Ideally, the SMS service should be able to pull information and phone numbers from customer databases. It should also allow you to segment recipients based on factors like previous purchases and locations to promote content relevance.
3. Compliance with SMS regulations
The last thing you want is to deal with compliance issues—they can impact business operations, affect your reputation, and sometimes result in fines and legal trouble. Choose a provider that adheres to SMS marketing regulations, including:
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): Requires businesses to obtain express consent from consumers before sending marketing texts and offer opt-out options in all messages.
- CAN-SPAM Act: Requires businesses to provide accurate information and allow consumers to unsubscribe from promotional texts.
- The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): It expects businesses and automated texting services to protect consumers’ privacy.
An example of how Bitly can help make your automated text messages even more effective
Bitly’s short links and QR Codes can elevate your automated text message campaigns by providing seamless access to desired destinations (ecommerce websites, survey pages, or appointment booking landing pages) and offering customer engagement data to facilitate continuous improvements.
Here’s an example of how you can leverage the platform to launch a holiday sale campaign with automated text messages:
Step 1: Prepare the campaign
Start by setting your campaign objective. This will guide your decision-making throughout the SMS automation campaign. Your objective for this workflow could be to “Promote a holiday sale to increase sales and engage customers.”
Once your objective is set, determine the next course of action. In this case, that would be to communicate personalized offers and drive traffic to the landing page created for the sale.
Step 2: Create a landing page with Bitly Pages
Leverage Bitly Pages to create a dedicated landing page for the holiday sale. Include key elements like an interesting header, action-oriented CTAs, compelling product visuals, and a clear copy that explains the sale.
Step 3: Use Bitly short links in automated texts
Generate branded short links that lead recipients to your holiday sale landing page—you can create one that looks something like “yourbrnd.co/HolidaySale2024.” Ideally, SMS marketers should use branded domains in their links to promote recognition and build trust. This can increase customers’ likelihood of engaging with them.
Once you create your short link, integrate it into your automated SMS messages and send them at pivotal moments in your holiday sale. These moments include one week before your sale, during your sale, and on the last day of the sale.
Be sure to monitor each message’s link performance regularly through Bitly Analytics. You’ll get data such as engagement totals, engagements by location, and engagements by operating system, showing you how customers interact with your messages’ links. These insights can help you identify what resonates with your audience as well as facilitate more effective targeting for future marketing campaigns.
Step 4: Use Bitly QR Codes
To supplement your SMS campaign, create Bitly Codes that direct customers to your holiday sale landing page. Add these codes to physical materials like flyers or even send them digitally via email to expand your reach. This can help you maximize your holiday sales.
Alternatively, include the codes in automated SMS follow-ups as an additional way for customers to access your landing page. When you do, add clear CTAs to let recipients know what to expect—you can write, “Scan this QR Code for exclusive offers!”
As with short links, track your QR Codes’ performance via Bitly Analytics to better understand your customers. Compare your total link clicks versus your total QR Code scans to identify which method of engagement resonates the most with your audience.
Step 5: Analyze for future campaigns
After your campaign ends, assess each link’s and code’s performance data on Bitly Analytics to identify the best-performing ones. When you do, study the messages you send with them to see the kind of SMS elements that drive engagement. This way, you can replicate or improve them in future marketing campaigns.
Also, check your click and scan location data to identify where most of your customers are. This can help you refine your targeting strategy.
Use Bitly to drive more business with automated SMS engagement
The value of automatic text messages for modern marketers can’t be overstated. These solutions ease the burden of SMS marketing, increase marketing efficiency, and boost customer engagement and satisfaction. To enhance their effectiveness, find the right text message automation platform and analytics tools.
With Bitly Pages, QR Codes, and short links, you have all the tools you need to increase your SMS campaign’s engagement—in one platform. Bitly Pages makes it easy for you to create dedicated landing pages for your SMS campaigns, while Bitly Links and QR Codes drive home branding consistency and give you valuable, actionable insights into your link performance for future improvements.
Sign up for Bitly today to access a suite of tools that elevate your automated SMS campaign!
