Automated Text Messages

How to text-enable your marketing for instant reach and greater impact

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What is Text Automation
(SMS Automation)?

SMS Automation is the process that allows you to send SMS messages to your contacts automatically without you having to manually compose messages. The power of automation is that it helps to remove as much human error as possible, while also freeing you to focus on more time consuming tasks that require more effort or more attention.

You should use Trumpia’s industry-leading texting automation for three main reasons: first, you are able to save more of your energy for campaigns that need more manual supervision, allowing you to not waste time by doing menial tasks. Secondly, you are able to ensure that sophisticated campaigns are performing at a high level. Finally, you can create a quality and consistent campaign by having our system do all of the repetitive work for you.

Automated Text Campaigns

Automated Text Campaigns vary in their complexity, and can be broken down into 3 types.

  • Basic SMS automation icon

    Basic

    In its most basic form, an automated text campaign is a follow up sent automatically whenever a subscriber takes an action. A common example of this is sending a message when someone texts your keyword. While this is what most software vendors consider automation, this is only the beginning for Trumpia.

  • Drip campaign chart shows how you can send messages to your contacts at specific intervals

    Intermediate

    This next level enables you to incrementally send messages to a subscriber at specific periods of time such as a day, week, and month after they texted your keyword. While these time intervals can be preset, most automated text message software cannot dynamically adjust their campaign flow based on the subscriber’s actions or responses. This can become an issue because if the contact has already responded to your question or clicked your link, you should be able to immediately stop sending the remaining messages in the drip so you don’t annoy them. That’s why, while time is just a main variable in most automated campaigns that competitors offer, it is just 1 of 18 variables for Trumpia’s automated campaigns.

  • Automated SMS workflow chart

    Advanced

    What sets Trumpia’s automation apart is our advanced automation capabilities that are truly unique in the industry. Our automated workflows branch down diverging paths based on responses, whether or not a subscriber takes an action (e.g.: clicks a link or submits a form), whether the response was positive or not, and a multitude of other criteria. This makes each campaign tailored and engaging to the subscriber. This unique advantage minimizes opt-outs, takes the relationship to more steps, and maximizes the customer’s lifecycle with your business.

Basic Types of Automated SMS Messages

The following are a few examples of basic automated SMS Messages.

  • SMS Automated workflowSMS Drip Campaigns

    One type of SMS automation that we offer at Trumpia is what we call a SMS drip campaign. This type of automation sends messages that are sent at time intervals you decide to set. We usually recommend using this type of automation when your contact completes a desired action with your campaign. Therefore, by designating the message response and the timing of the message, you are able to control every aspect of the campaign while maximizing your results. Our software even stops or creates new messaging paths based off of the messaging paths you create!

    Auto response to an SMS message iconText Auto Responses

    Text Autoresponders automatically send a text in response to contacts that opt-in via your mobile keywords. Text auto replies are typically sent to customers to confirm their subscriptions to a mass texting service. Some businesses use text auto responses to provide information to customers, like sending them their store hours, while other businesses use text auto responses to drive customers to further engage by asking them questions.

    Trumpia goes beyond simple text auto responses by offering dynamic and automated features that do more than just send a static message. With our text auto responder we can start an automated campaign that asks customers questions and captures their responses so that you can use this information to personalize your messaging.

  • Reminder iconAppointment Reminders

    One extremely helpful and effective way to use SMS automation is by setting up appointment reminders that target specific users or groups.. Every office or HR department knows how frustrating it can be when appointments get canceled or no shows occur. That is why appointment reminders can help confirm or reschedule appointments in order to save you and your company time. Rescheduling through Trumpia is very easy too - contacts just need to text you and ask for a new appointment date, which can trigger a message that sends them a link to reschedule.

    Schedule SMS appointment reminders iconScheduled Text Messages

    Scheduled text messages are messages you set to be sent at a later time. With a mass texting software like Trumpia, scheduling your message is as easy as composing your message, choosing your recipients, and selecting the option of when you want it sent. If you choose to send it later, you can also edit it before the message is sent or cancel the message if needed. Scheduled texts are perfect for sending things like appointment reminders, event invites, product updates (like when items are back in stock), and so much more. One way to improve this feature is to use a dynamic list that updates instead of a static list to send the scheduled messages. Imagine how much more effective your offers can be if 100 more subscribers now qualify to receive a scheduled message but they signed up and qualified after the message was already scheduled?

  • Site tracking iconLink Tracking

    Click-Through or Link Tracking allows you to track whether or not a contact has clicked a link you sent them. You can then save that data to their profile for future targeting or have further actions carried out automatically. So how does it work? First you create a link in your text messaging software that leads to a webpage. You then embed that link in your texts and emails. Then the SMS automation software will automatically track whether the contact has clicked your link, and take an appropriate followup action.

    For example, you can send an event invite with a link that leads to signing up for the event. Then a week before the event, a text automation service like Trumpia can automatically resend the invite to everyone who hadn’t clicked the link yet. On the day before the event, we can automatically send a reminder to everyone who clicked the link by then. This kind of automated interaction is great, but can be taken much further if Link Tracking is just a single step in a larger series of automated engagements.

    Opting out of SMS messagesRecurring Messages

    Recurring Text messages are a subset of scheduled text messages. They allow you to create your messages and then choose when they will be sent out on a regular basis -- daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever interval you choose. They are especially effective for things like meeting reminders, sales calls, or online and store sales. You can improve these messages based on dynamically changing conditions of a target group as situations change while they are receiving canned messages. Just be sure to keep to the promised message count, as regulators may crack down on you if you don't.

Trumpia’s Advanced Text Automation (SMS Automation)

While Trumpia is capable of all the above, our text automation solution does more than the basic automation of our competitors. The following are our advanced text automation tools.

Automated Workflows

Trumpia’s automation allows you to set your text automation campaigns to run themselves. The software automatically carries out predetermined tasks for you whenever a specified trigger or condition is met.

Even better, our Automated Workflows can automatically branch text conversations down different messaging paths based on how they respond to your prompts. This allows you to answer common questions and send the correct information or links to contacts without tying up your employees on the phone.

SMS automated workflow
Iphone with a text conversation showing someone inquiring about marketing positions at ABC via SMS messages

To illustrate the difference between simple text automation and our advanced Automated Workflows, we can look at an example surrounding sending a reminder to fill out HR paperwork to a group of new hires. With a simple text automation service, the most you would be able to do is schedule a reminder to be sent to all the new employees the day before the form is due. But with Trumpia, you can do a lot more. To begin, you can ask each employee more about them like which position they are hired for and in which state. Different roles may require different forms, so this allows you to automatically send them only the forms they need. Then, you can track who’s filled their forms, so you can send specific reminders to only those who still need to fill theirs out. It’s this string of interactions that make Trumpia’s Automated Workflows so powerful. Whereas the simple service requires loads of manual intervention at each step, Trumpia is able to fully automate the entire engagement until the task is done.

Smart Targeting

In order to stand out from the crowd, it’s increasingly important to cater to your customers’ growing desire for more personalized and relevant messages. Our Smart Targeting lets you sort contacts into separate distribution groups based on any criteria you want, from customer demographics and specific interests to their interactive behavior with our system. This allows you to only send automated text messages to the right customers, and it reduces the headache of sorting them yourself, saving you valuable time. It also helps protect your company’s brand image, rather than annoying people with irrelevant messages they don’t want to receive.

Trumpia's UI with distribution list popup
Cellphone with an MMS message advetising an event for math majors

Targeting is a powerful tool, but the chore of keeping your lists updated can get extremely time-consuming. That’s why Trumpia has Dynamic Targets, which keep your filtered distribution lists organized in real time, automatically updating whenever a new subscriber is added, a contact unsubscribes, or an existing profile gets updated. The main benefit of this is it saves you time and eliminates the pain of having to manually update lists one at a time yourself.

So for example, a university may opt-in their entire incoming class of freshmen. In the following year, they would need those lists to update so those contacts are now listed as sophomores since there will be a new group of freshmen class. Dynamic Targets do this so you save time and don’t have to manually add, remove, or update records yourself.

Tracking and Scoring

This enables our software to automatically assign scores to contacts based on the behavior and interactions they take in our system. This means your most qualified leads will receive the highest scores, helping you to determine who to target the most. We offer various ways to track customer interactions, which you can use to score them.

  • Site tracking icon

    Our Site Tracking feature allows you to tell when a contact has visited certain web pages, or performed a specific action on your website. You can then use this information to segment your audience and target them. For instance, you can send a follow up message to a customer who has visited your pricing page, but a different message to a customer who visited your tutorial videos.

  • Link tracking icon

    Our Click-Through Tracking lets you embed links into your texts and emails. Trumpia then automatically tracks who did or didn’t click on which links, letting you use this information to better target your next round of messages. For example, send an announcement for a new sneaker release, and then a special 20% off coupon to only those who clicked on the link. Another example can be made for recruiting. When someone expresses interest in a job by texting your mobile keyword, you can automatically send them a link to apply. A week later, if that candidate still hasn’t clicked the link yet, you can automatically send them a reminder.

  • Lead scoring icon

    Our Lead Scoring feature is the tool that automatically assigns scores to your contacts based on the behavior and attributes they take within our system. Contacts can also accumulate scores in different categories. For example, a car company may want to score leads separately based on if they seem motivated to buy a sedan vs a truck so they can send special and more targeted promotions. Another way to score the same buyers is to score them based on their preference for lease vs purchase. So depending on the latest promotion you offer in the week, your target may be high on truck and lease while another week’s promotion may focus on sedan purchase promotions.

  • Image of a drip campaign

    You can also have an Automated Workflow initiated when someone hits a certain score in a category. For example, for a nonprofit, if a contact scores 25 points for interest in volunteering in their community, we can automatically send them a link detailing your upcoming volunteer event schedule.

Lifecycle Engagement

Trumpia takes pride in something none of our competitors offer – Automated Lifecycle Engagement. Our platform is more than just a collection of independent tools, opting instead for an approach that values the lifecycle of a customer or subscriber in its entirety, helping you build lasting relationships.

So instead of sending just a coupon or survey as an isolated incident, you can plan and build a lifelong automated relationship - from contact collection, to nurturing, to decision making, to support, to feedback loop, to re-engagement. This holistic approach yields far greater results than a spot promotion, event, or visit. Keep them informed, help learn, give them a compelling decision point, and keep them satisfied.

Illustration of the customer lifecycle, covering collecting contacts all the way through the feedback loop

How Automated Texting Works with Integrations

In order to make the most out of your customer’s data, you may want to integrate your applications with Trumpia so that they work together. If you have an in-house development team, they may be able to build some integrations yourself, but that could eat into their valuable coding time for other priority projects. If you don't have a development team or your team is busy, there are some other great options.

Integration platforms like Zapier allow you to connect different programs together so that they trigger off of each other, so you can turn your unconnected programs into an interconnected web. This applies to your customer relationship management programs (CRMs) too. Applications like Salesforce allow you to integrate different applications and messaging channels into one easy-to-use interface.

And of course there are always API integrations. Implementing a multichannel API into your programs allows you to scale up to thousands of messages that you can send customers across any channel you’d like.

Trumpia Zapier intergrations

Here are some advantages to Trumpia’s API:

  • Notepad and pencil icon

    With Trumpia’s API, you get powerful database management. This way, you don’t have to write code to create lists, add contacts, update them, or even unsubscribe them. It’s almost like having a built-in CRM at no additional cost.

  • Boost security with SMS icon

    Quickly increase login security with our 2-factor authentication tool. This secures your software or website by requiring a one-time passcode that’s either emailed or texted to users.

  • Long code and short code icon

    Trumpia's API service supports short codes and toll-free number options. Both come with high throughput, but toll-free costs $1000s less.

  • Trumpia's API is able to send out 150 Toll-Free messages every second

    With Trumpia API, you can send up to 100 messages per second through a toll-free number (that’s much faster than the slow speeds a typical competitor can offer).

  • Increase sales with SMS software icon

    On average, our high-throughput toll-free pricing stays 30% below typical short code message pricing without losing any benefits of a dedicated code.

Getting Started

Text automation works wonders, but it can’t do anything if you do not have contacts to send messages to. So, to get started, here are a few simple steps you should take.

  • 01Sign Contacts Up

    When you want to get started with text automation, the first thing you have to do is build a contact list. Regulations say you have to have consent from your contacts before you can message them. There are 3 easy ways to do this:

    1. 1.Mobile keywords allow your contacts to opt in to your campaigns. You can capture their phone number and send them automated text messages. A mobile keyword can be any word you select for your customers to text in order to subscribe for your alerts. When a customer texts in your keyword, a text messaging software will automatically capture their phone number and store it in your database.
    2. 2.Online signup pages let your customers opt themselves in to receive your messages by filling out their information and giving you consent to send them automated text messages.
    3. 3.Outside Trumpia, you can also sign up existing contacts for automated text messages provided you have their express written consent to do so. You can then import this to your text automation software easily.
    Illustration of Trumpia's Online Signup Page feature

  • 02Best Practices to Get Signups

    Once you've decided that you would like to use an automated messaging service like Trumpia, you'll need to build your database so that you can reach as many potential customers as possible. While that may seem daunting, there are a number of easy ways to beef up your subscriber list. Here are a few:

    • Make Subscribing Easy Potential subscribers aren't going to jump through hoops to join your automated text messaging lists. If it's not easy to subscribe, they won't spend the time to figure it out. You can make signing up as easy as texting your keyword to a designated number, automatically opting themselves into your messaging lists and then if you have a service like Trumpia we can automatically ask them more questions to learn more about them.
    • Offer Incentives Simply being able to get all of the latest information about your organization probably isn't enough to entice most people to subscribe to your mass texting program. Instead, consider offering a drawing for some kind of prize or gift certificate from all of the subscribers during a specific period or during a vendor event. Or you can offer anyone who signs up a coupon like 20% off their next purchase.
    • Use Multiple Channels You never know where a potential customer will first notice your company. It could be on your website, on social media, or even in print advertising. Be sure to have a way for all of these readers to sign up. Just because a potential customer is reading your brochure doesn't mean that they don't use text messaging. To simplify this you can put your mobile keyword across all of your forms of advertising so that they can easily sign up no matter where they are.