Automated Text Messaging
Automated text messages make business operations run smoother and more efficiently.
Introduction to Automated Texting Software
What is Automated Texting Software?
Automated text messages refer to using software like EZ Texting to automatically send personalized, timely, and targeted text messages to customers and prospects.
Why are Automated Text Messages Important for Business?
Automating repetitive tasks empowers businesses like yours to save heaps of time and instead focus on strategic activities while ensuring consistent and accurate messaging to those who matter the most.
Evolution & Adoption of Automated SMS Software
Before, businesses used SMS primarily for simple alerts and reminders. However, with open rates as high as 98% compared to other communication channels like email or traditional mail, many businesses have recognized the immense potential of automated texting software to engage customers on a more personal level and drive significant results.
75% of all companies already use at least one kind of marketing automation tool
Automated text message campaigns can be set to send reminders for payments or upcoming appointments or to wish valued contacts a happy birthday. Scheduled text messages and drip campaigns effectively engage and nurture contacts over time.
Why Are Businesses Using Automated Text Messaging?
Engage Instantly
Deliver information in seconds by creating automated text messages triggered by inbound text messages or any of EZ Texting’s list-building solutions.
Increase Sales
Use automated text messages to nurture leads, improve customer experience, send appointment reminders, and more
Save Time
Schedule campaigns to deploy at a specific date and time. Text automation allows you to create your messaging once and move on.
How Businesses Use Automated Texting
Use automated message updates for orders, appointments, and other customer service inquiries to keep your customers' peace of mind.
Seasonal campaigns are much more manageable when text marketing is automated from a central messaging system.
Managing event FAQs and RSVPs is a breeze with automated text confirmations and reminders.
HR and accounting departments serve staff better using automated text reminders that help everyone stay on track.
Sending Automated Text Messages
See how quickly you can start your texting journey and go from zero to send in minutes.
How to Send Automated Text Messages for Marketing
Before we discuss how to send these kinds of messages, let’s ensure you fully understand automated text messages.
So, what are automated text messages, and how can they benefit your business?
Automated text messages refer to texts you can program to send in response to specific events or triggers automatically.
For example, your text messaging platform can send a pre-set message to a customer when they perform a specific action, like joining a loyalty program or purchasing.
This automated text message software can help your business by allowing you to interact more with your customers without manually sending individual texts.
Your text message platform knows what to send and when based on the parameters you set, meaning you don’t have to monitor every incoming and outgoing text.
The beauty of text message automation is that businesses can program the specific triggers, and their text platforms do the rest without further human intervention.
How to Send Automated Text Messages in 5 Simple Steps
Follow along to learn how to set up automated text messages for your business.
1. Sign Up for an Automated Text Message Platform
EZ Texting is an automated SMS online software provider. You don’t need a credit card to sign up and look around, but if you want to harness its full power to send bulk messages and personalize a Keyword, you should sign up for a plan.
2. Upload Your Opted-in Contacts
If you have a list of contacts who have said “yes” to receiving text messages, you can upload it in minutes. To upload, browse for your contact file or drag your file onto the page. To make it easier, we also have a contact list template you can download and a tutorial video you can watch.
3. Build Your Text Marketing List with Keywords and Sign-Up Forms
How do you get permission to text someone? The easiest way is by running a Keyword campaign. You’ve seen signs that say things like, “Text JOIN to 858585 to get more information.”
In this example, JOIN is the Keyword, and 858585 is the short code. Anyone who texts using this short code can receive text messages. There are rules around introducing your texting program, and EZ Texting makes it easy to follow. Feel free to use our print form templates to advertise your Keyword.
4. Create Your Automated Text Message
EZ Texting provides an easy-to-use tool for typing messages and selecting recipients or subgroups from your contacts list. You can choose an industry-specific template from our message library or start from scratch. A preview of the text is updated in the real-time window so that you can see what your text will look like on the phone.
5. Schedule and Send Automated Text Messages
When your message is ready, you can easily schedule it to be sent in the future or send it immediately. You can even set the message to recur or set up a reminder campaign. There are many powerful ways to use these recurring texts and reminders to boost your business and retain customers.
Personalizing Your Automated Text Messages
Now that you understand how to deploy your automated text message responses, you’re likely asking yourself, how can I ensure my automated text messages stand out and get noticed?
The best way to ensure your automated text messages stand out and get notified is by personalizing your communication. This means including information about your customers, such as their names, references to their past purchases, and tailored recommendations.
It’s also essential to ensure your messages are clear, concise, mobile-friendly, and engaging.
Tracking the Performance of Automated Text Messages
You can gauge how well your customers respond to your automated text messages by monitoring your analytics, such as your open and engagement rates. For instance, if your customers aren’t opening your texts or interacting with the content, you should experiment with your messaging to see what yields the best results.
Benefits of Automated Text Messaging
1. Automated Messages Reduce Errors
The best way to ensure your automated text messages stand out and get notified is by personalizing your communication. This means including information about your customers, such as their names, references to their past purchases, and tailored recommendations.
Have you ever tried sending similar versions of the same text message to multiple people, like an invite to a BBQ or a meal train sign-up? If so, maybe you forgot to swap out the names or mistyped crucial information. Automated text messages help you reduce errors by eliminating the need for manual data entry, ensuring consistent and accurate message delivery.
2. Automated Messages Make Your Team More Productive
A huge benefit of automated text messages for businesses is that they free up your and your employees’ time. Acquiring and implementing tools that reduce company talent's time on task is crucial; automating your SMS marketing is one way to do that.
Instead of spending significant time manually writing and updating recurring text messages each week, your marketing team can offload much of the work to automated texting software like EZ Texting.
Upload contacts to create effective customer segmentation strategies, create messages or choose from templates, and schedule when messages should be sent.
3. It Boosts Customer Engagement
Leverage an automated message when customers have abandoned carts so that they’re prompted to complete a purchase. The same goes for order status confirmations, sales event notifications, and appointment reminders. By automating these events in the customer journey, you’re meeting the customer or client precisely at the right time. In addition, they’ll be more willing to act and engage with your brand if they receive marketing texts when needed.
4. It Helps Retain Customers
Automated texting software also allows you to set up recurring messages, which can help to retain customers. Don’t let your client base forget about you! Schedule Recurring Messages to boost your SMS campaign or simply remind customers of your brand throughout the year.
You can even send annual recurring SMS and MMS marketing messages on holidays, birthdays (if customers provide you with this information), and subscription renewals. These events remind customers that you care and remember moments in their lives. This path to personalization can create lifelong customers—just another great benefit of automated text messages for businesses.
5. It Can Help You Understand Your Customers
Finally, automated texting allows you to get a good look at who your customers are, what drives them, why they like your brand, and what your business could do better. How? Through post-purchase or annual surveys. Trigger surveys to be sent by SMS to customers after they purchase your product or service, and set up recurring automated texts every year to your audience. Doing so will give you a continuous supply of data and insights into your audience, which will help your business meet changing customer demands and boost sales.
Incorporate automated texting into your SMS marketing campaigns to boost customer engagement, retain clients, reduce errors, and increase employee productivity.
EZ Texting can help. We’re your one-stop shop for all things text marketing. No matter your industry, we can help your business thrive with proven SMS solutions.
What Industries Benefit from Automated Texting
Elevate your customer experience and streamline messaging tasks using automated messages.
Additional Resources on Text Automation
Frequently Asked Questions
An automated text reply is a preset text message triggered to send by a contact’s action, such as texting a Keyword, using a QR code, or inbound texts with frequently asked questions.
Scheduling your text messages is easy. Simply compose your message as you normally would, but instead of sending now, scroll down and choose “Schedule for Later” or “Schedule Recurring,” choose your dates, and your messages will send at the date and time you selected.
A recurring text is a message that sends on a recurring schedule — the first of every month, for instance — and is a reminder for recurring events such as payment due, timecards submissions, and more.
It's easy to create automations like a Keyword reply. Add a Keyword to your textable number and when a member of your audience or a potential lead responds to the Keyword, an automated reply message that you've created is sent. It's perfect for welcoming a new member to your SMS community or to complete a two-step authentication process.
