Repeat Purchases

Are you a time waster?

Of course, you don’t want to be - nobody wants to be.

But sometimes we can’t help it. Sometimes we’re stuck doing menial tasks and we just get the sense that, “There must be a better way to do this.”

According to [smartsheet.com](https://www.smartsheet.com/), nearly 70% of workers say the biggest opportunity of automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work.
![Text repeater automation statistic](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/text_repeater_statistic_01_8980dc5e8e.svg)

*Source: “[How Much Time Are You Wasting on Manual, Repetitive Tasks?](https://www.smartsheet.com/content-center/product-news/automation/workers-waste-quarter-work-week-manual-repetitive-tasks)”, Smartsheet.*

Getting stuck doing repetitive tasks can happen with sending out notifications for your business/organization.

You know that text messages are the best way to communicate effectively - whether you’re sending promotions, internal office alerts, or other types of messages.

But let’s say you have a lot of notifications to send. And you might even want to send the same message out multiple times.

How can you set your text messages up in a way that’s efficient so that you’re not wasting valuable time?

One way is to use a text repeater for recurring messages.

![Business man on phone using text repeater](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/text_repeater_businessman_1_7d0a23539f.png)
## What Is a Text Repeater?
There was a time when if you needed to send out the same text message multiple times, you would have had to manually type it in and submit it each time.

Not anymore!

A text repeater saves you time and hassle by allowing you to set up and send [automated recurring messages](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/automated-text-message-service).

Ah, yes, that magic word *automated*.

Automated means one and done. In other words, you can set up your message and designate how often you’d like it to repeat.

Then you can relax and enjoy not having to worry about it as the recurring message sends out.

## How Can You Use a Text Repeater?
A text repeater may sound intriguing, you think - but is it actually *useful*?

How can you actually use recurring messages? In what cases would it be beneficial?

Here are some real-life examples you can check out.

### Recurring Employee Notifications
Use recurring messages internally for your business or organization’s staff.

This can allow you to send notifications about recurring meetings, HR items, IT maintenance, or other relevant reminders or announcements.

*Examples:*
> Don’t forget to clock in today!

> Hello! If you are reporting to work today, please submit your Daily Health Self-Certification by clicking this link: [link]

> COVID-19 Daily Check In - Night Shift: Use link to answer all 5 questions daily BEFORE arriving on site. [link]

> Here is the daily question and graphic of the day to go over in morning huddles. [link]

> Good morning! The Morning Motivation Group is today at 10AM. To join, please click [link]

> Please complete and submit your reports by the end of the day. 

> Weekly reminder: Management meeting at main office at 5 pm.

> Weekly remote system maintenance will begin at 7:00 pm.  Please connect your company laptop to the internet to receive updates - Thank you.

### Event Reminders
Whether you have a for-profit business, a non-profit organization, or something else, recurring text reminders can help drive up attendance to your events.

That way, both you and your audience can get the most benefit from your services.

*Examples:*
> Going live in 5 minutes on Facebook! Hope to see you there :)

> Prayer Line today @ 6 p.m. Join us! Mondays,Tuesdays, & Thursdays. Dial [phone number].

> Reminder: Hot lunches today at 12-noon @ [location]. Until supplies last.

> Ready for the Word and worship tomorrow? Join us at 10am! Access the live stream here: [link]

### Recurring Promotions
Do you run regular promotions for your business or service? Maybe monthly specials? Weekly discounts?

Use recurring notifications to let people know about these deals - thus, saving time while still reaping the rewards of boosted revenue from your SMS promotion.

*Examples:*
> Tonight it's Steak Night at Leo’s - Steaks are 25% off! Come hungry!

> Get ready for our new releases!  Dropping soon!

> Enjoy $75 off when you schedule a FREE consultation with us. Schedule here: [link]

### Appointment Reminders
Appointment no-shows are frustrating.

But most of the time, these “truants” are not intentionally missing their appointments. Likely, many of them simply forgot.

Reduce that no-show rate with recurring appointment reminders via SMS.

It means less frustration for you and your office. Not to mention it benefits your client, patient, or customer, because they’ll be able to take advantage of the benefit of your service.

*Examples:*
> Hi, this is an APPOINTMENT REMINDER for [name] at the [business]: Thursday 2:30-5:00PM and Friday 2:30-6PM

> Reminder: Your child has speech therapy this week at 2:00PM. Please arrive 10 minutes early.

![Business woman setting up text repeater](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/text_repeater_phone_example_2_cdfac9fc67.png)
## How Do You Set Up a Text Repeater?
Let’s say you’ve decided to use recurring SMS.

But there may be a few questions burning inside your mind:
- How in the world would you go about it?
- Is it difficult to set up?
- What if you need to edit or delete the recurring message?

Not to worry! Setup is not difficult, and all of these questions will be answered below.

### Step 1: Sign Up for an SMS Platform
To set up and manage recurring text messages, you need an SMS platform like Mobile Text Alerts.

Sign-up is simple and doesn’t cost anything to try it out. Just [create a free trial account](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup) and you’ll be able to test it out to see if it’s a right fit for you.

[SIGN UP NOW](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup)

### Step 2: Load in Contacts
Once your account is set up, you’ll need to add in contacts before you can send messages.

There are several easy ways to add contacts:
- [Manual entry](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-Subscribers)
- [Importing spreadsheets](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/importing-contacts)
- [Text-in keywords](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-to-join)
- [QR codes](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/qr-codes)
- [Online sign-up page](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/web-forms)
- Automations ([integrations](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/integrations) and [API](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-message-api))

To get started with testing, we’d recommend that you do a quick manual add of your own phone number from the [Manage Contacts](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010894314-Manage-Subscribers) page.

### Step 3: Select to “Schedule” the Message
From your platform’s [Send a Message](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010970933-Send-a-Message) page you’ll see options to send the message “now” or to “schedule” it for later.

Select the “schedule” option.
![Screenshot to schedule a message text repeater](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/screenshot_schedule_a_message_text_repeater_01_f94711caa3.svg)


### Step 4: Choose the Date/Time
Next you’ll choose the date and time you’d like the message to go out.

Simply select the date and time from the calendar tool. (Note: you’ll need to make sure your time zone is set up correctly in your account [Settings](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011471994-Settings).)

![Text repeater schedule day and time](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/scheduled_messages_options_text_repeater_c06ff4bffb.png)


### Step 5: Identify Your “Repeat” Preference
You will then be able to select how often you’d like your message to repeat. 

Your “repeat” options are:
- Don’t Repeat
- Every Day
- Every Week
- Every 2 Weeks
- Every Month
- Once Per Year

![Text repeater schedule frequency](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/scheduled_messages_option_repeat_text_repeater_8f65ab727c.png)

If you’d like your message to go out on specific days of the week, you can designate that as well. For example, you can set the message to go out every 2 weeks on Thursday and Friday, or every week on Tuesday.


### Step 6: Fill Out the Rest of Your Message Preferences
Once you’ve determined when and how often you’d like your message to send, scroll down to select the recipients for your message.

Lastly, scroll to the bottom of the screen to type out the content you’d like to include in your message, and click the “Schedule” button.

That’s all there is to getting it set up! 

### Editing or Deleting a Recurring Text
What if you create a recurring text but then decide you don’t need it anymore?

Or what if you only need a text to recur for a certain period of time?

No sweat!

You can easily manage your scheduled messages from the [Scheduled Messages](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011411793-Scheduled-Messages) tab on your platform.

Simply click the “Delete” icon if you want to stop a recurring message.

If you just need to adjust the days of the week or change how often it goes out, you can click the “Edit” icon. This will allow you to make changes. You can then scroll down and click “Save Scheduled Messages” to save those changes.
![Screenshot of text repeater scheduled messages](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/scheduled_messages_screenshot_text_repeater_01_7672dbcf5e.svg)

![Business woman using phone for text repeaters](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/text_repeater_other_options_1864fc0045.png)

## Other Options for Recurring Texts
Perhaps you prefer not to use the text repeater on a particular recurring text message for whatever reason.

For example, maybe you don’t want to have to select the specific day and time of the first send. Maybe you don’t want to designate a particular repeat cycle.

(Or maybe you just want to be aware of all of your options.)

There are 2 main choices available to you if you want to send recurring texts without using the text repeater:
- [Drip campaigns](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/drip-campaign)
- [Message templates](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/sample-text-messages-to-customers)

### Drip Campaigns
An SMS [drip campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_marketing) is a series of automated texts you can set up to go out over specified periods of time.

For example, you could set up a workflow such as:
- A message sends out as soon as a contact is added into your SMS database
- A 2nd message sends out a week later
- A 3rd message goes out 2 weeks after that

So you could set up the same message (or different messages) to send automatically as many times as you’d like. Then once your contact receives the final message in the campaign, they wouldn’t receive any further automated messages.

Here are some scenarios in which you might choose the drip campaign option for your recurring message:
- If you only want to send a certain number of recurring messages (rather than having a message perpetually recur over and over again)
- If you don’t want to designate a specific date for your first message to go out (since drip campaigns are triggered when the recipient is added to the campaign, rather than scheduled for a specific date)

### Message Templates
Let’s say there’s a message that you’re sending now, and you know you’ll want to send out again in the future. But you’re not sure when you’ll send it again, or how often you want to send it.

In that case you wouldn’t want to use the text repeater or drip campaign options.

However, what you can do is save your message as a [Message Template](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011325774-Message-Templates).

This will allow you to easily access the content again later so you can send out the same message.

--

Having these additional options on top of the text repeater opens up your possibilities to fit whatever needs you may have for recurring text messages.

## Use a Text Repeater to Maximize Efficiency
Why waste time manually sending out the same notifications over and over again when you can automate the process?

Use a text message repeater to maximize the efficiency of your communication, saving hassle and frustration in the process.

Ready to try it now?

[Sign up for a free trial account today!](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup)


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Learn how to save time by setting up recurring text messages for your business or organization.

How to Set Up a Text Repeater

Drip... Drip... Drip...

Did you just get an image of a leaky faucet? And can’t you just hear the steady sound of that water slowly *drip, drip, dripping*?

That image illustrates the idea of a [drip marketing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_marketing) campaign (the name reportedly being derived from the concept of [drip irrigation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_irrigation)).

A drip campaign is a series of automated messages that “drip” out over a period of time.

Because we all know that automation can help free up time in your busy life and focus on what’s important!

Plus, you’re already aware of the dominance of texting in society, and you want to take advantage of it. (There were [2.2 trillion texts](https://www.ctia.org/news/2021-annual-survey-highlights) sent in a single year in the United States alone, after all!)
 
![Number of SMS & MMS Messages Exchanged in 2020](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/drip_campaigns_infographic_69dca6fd47.png)

You may already know about the concept of a [drip campaign for email](https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/drip-campaign/). But what is a drip campaign for SMS? Can you do the same thing with texting?

The answer is yes!

Here we’ll talk about how you’d go about that.

## What Is a Drip Campaign for SMS?
Before we get into how to set up a drip campaign for SMS, let’s go a bit more into what *is* a drip campaign for SMS?

Let’s say you what to send out a series of messages to your audience. Maybe an onboarding campaign or a promotional series or educational snippets.

But here’s the rub: You don’t want everyone to receive the flow of messages at the same time.

You want them to get started on the messaging flow when they take some kind of action, like signing up for your texts, for example.

And you also don’t want to deal with the hassle of manually scheduling out all of these messages individually to all of your contacts. Because that would be a nightmare!

So what do you do?

Enter SMS drip campaigns.

![Drip campaign flow chart](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/drip_campaign_flow_chart_example_01_bb0db74b53.svg)

Drip campaigns allow you to set up the entire series of messages you’d like to send ahead of time. (You can even include delays in between the messages to indicate how far apart each message should be sent from the previous one.)

Then people will individually start receiving the message series once they’re added into the campaign.

This allows you to individually send out the flow of messages you want to send in the timeframe you’re wanting to send it. And it frees you up from having to manually schedule all of these messages one by one.



## What Is a Drip Campaign *Use Case* for SMS?
So the idea of SMS drip campaigns is an interesting concept.

But is it actually *useful*?

You betcha!

So how can you use it?

Although the possibilities are only limited by your imagination, there are 3 primary use cases for SMS drip campaigns.

### Promotional
You know that texting is the best way to get in front of people (and thus drive up sales and engagement).

So you can use a drip campaign to send out a series of promotional texts.

For example, let’s say you have an awesome, extended deal or series of deals. You want to set it up so that when a user takes a particular action, like signing up for your texts, they receive a new deal a day for 7 days.

How would you go about that?

The answer: SMS drip campaigns.

Set up a workflow with the deals you’re wanting to include and your campaign will cycle through the messages automatically for each individual recipient.

Just set it up once and you’re done.

How cool is that?

### Onboarding
Onboarding new customers, users, or employees can be a tricky thing.

What’s the best way to go about it? How much hand-holding do people need? How much documentation should people have to go through on their own?

An SMS onboarding campaign can be a nice tool to help simplify this process.

Through an SMS drip campaign, you can guide people step by step via manageable text messages.

Bite-sized chunks of information sent out through texting are digestible and reach people where they’re actually looking (on their phones).

### Education
Say you have a segment of your audience that needs education about something.

They could be employees or recruits needing training about your company/organization.

They could be customers who want info about a new product or service.

In any case, an SMS drip campaign gives you the freedom to automate a series of educational texts so that you can provide people with the info they need at little hassle to you.

It’s a win-win all around!

## What Is the Drip Campaign Setup Process? 
Learning new tools can be difficult, even if you know they would be beneficial.

Sometimes you avoid things just because you have so much to think about already. You don’t want to add yet another thing to the plate!

Will these SMS drip campaigns be difficult to set up? Will it be time-consuming and stressful to learn the platform, figure out the tool, and make it effective?

As long as you know what messages you’d like to send, you can have your SMS drip campaign set up in minutes.

Here’s how.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kLidRxPRpU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

### Step 1: Sign Up for the SMS Platform
In order to utilize the drip campaign function you’ll first need an account on the Mobile Text Alerts platform.

[Sign up here](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup) to test it out for free (no credit card or obligation required).

### Step 2: Navigate to the Drip Campaigns Page
Once your SMS platform account is set up, you can navigate to the [Drip Campaigns](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011325834-Drip-Campaigns) page.

From there, you’ll be able to see a list of any drip campaigns you’ve created. Click the “Create a Drip Campaign” button to set up to create a new campaign.
![What is a drip campaign screenshot](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/what_is_a_drip_campaign_screenshot_a2c2d6a704.png)

After typing in the name you’d like to give to the campaign and clicking “Save,” you’re ready to start setting up the workflow for your campaign. Click the “Workflow” icon.

### Step 3: Set Up Your Flow of Messages and Delays
From within your campaign workflow edit page, you can click “Add Message” to create your message.
![Drip campaign create a message screenshot](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/drip_campaign_create_a_message_ed3ebb27d4.png)

You have the option to select the time of day you want your message to go out if you’d like. You can also include an image in your message.

Once you’ve filled out the message content, you can click “Save.”

You can add delays between messages by clicking the “Add Delay” button. This will allow you to select how many days of delay you’d like there to be before the next message in the workflow sends.

You can position new messages or delays that you add anywhere within the workflow. (You can reposition them later on as well if you change your mind.)

### Step 4: Assign a Group to Your Campaign
Once you have your drip campaign workflow all ready to go, you just need to assign a group to the campaign.

“Groups” are [organizational segments](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/targeted-sms-marketing-software) you can create within your account to help you manage your contacts. You can go ahead and create a group from the [Manage Groups](https://mobile-text-alerts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010982473-Manage-Groups) page by selecting the “Add a Group” button.
![Drip campaign create a group screenshot](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/drip_campaign_create_a_group_a4c0e40330.png)


Once your group is created, you can go back to editing your drip campaign. Then, select the group from the drop-down menu at the top, and click “Start Campaign for This Group.”
![Drip campaign select a group screenshot](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/drip_campagin_select_a_group_33b81aa9f0.png)

This means that any of your contacts that get added to the assigned group will be automatically added to your drip campaign as well.

Thus, they will receive the messages you set up for your drip campaign workflow.

--

And you’re done setting it up!

Rest easy that you don’t need to spend hours figuring out how to get the drip campaign tool to work.

(And support is always [willing to help](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/contact) with any questions.)

## What Is a Drip Campaign Tool Used in Conjunction With?
A drip SMS tool may be fine and dandy and simple to set up, but are there other features that you need to learn in order to use it?

You want to make sure you’re not signing up for more than you bargained for!

There are 2 features that the drip campaign tool requires in order to work: opt-in methods and groups.

### Opt-in Methods
An “opt-in method” is simply a way to [add contacts](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/add-contacts) into your text platform’s database.

Adding contacts can be as easy as clicking a button and typing in some information (if you want to manually add in people who have already agreed to receive your texts).

So this can be very simple and straightforward.

There are a couple other ways you can add contacts on your end as well:
- [Import a spreadsheet](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/importing-contacts) of phone numbers
- Set up integrations with your current database management services via [Zapier.com](http://Zapier.com) or by using [API](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-message-api) (if you’re a developer or have access to developers)

You can also give your audience options to subscribe themselves and be added to your database automatically.

There are several methods by which you can give this option to them:
- Provide them with a “[text to join](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-to-join)” keyword they can text in
- Post a [QR code](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/qr-codes) they can scan 
- Share a link to a free [web form](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/web-forms) they can fill out

As you can see, getting contacts loaded into your database can be very easy, but there are also robust options in case you’d like to dig deeper.

### Groups
“Groups” allow you to organize all of those contacts from your SMS database into [manageable segments](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/targeted-sms-marketing-software).

You can manually assign your contacts to groups on your end, both individually or by importing a list.

Or, to save time and hassle, you can have your contacts add themselves to groups when signing up.

You can do this by assigning your “[text to join](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-to-join)” keywords to a particular group you’ve set up. Or by allowing your audience to select their desired group from the free [web sign-up form](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/web-forms).

As it relates to SMS drip campaigns, “Groups” are how the system knows which people to send the campaign messages to.

The campaign workflow is triggered automatically as soon as your audience member is added to the campaign’s assigned group(s) - whether they are added manually on your end, or whether they add themselves.


--

Onboarding for these other features that are necessary for drip campaigns to work is not difficult.

So not only can you have your drip campaign set up in minutes, you can have people added into your database to receive your messages within minutes as well.

The whole process can be set up and ready to go within half an hour.

([Sign up](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup) for the free trial today and [schedule a demo](https://calendly.com/mobile-text-alerts/demo?background_color=faf5eb&primary_color=4b94d8%27) to get a live walkthrough of how to get it set up.)

## Other Frequently Asked Questions
### How Much Does It Cost?
SMS drip campaigns are included in [all of our plans](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/pricing).

Pricing starts at $19 per month billed annually, or $25 month-to-month.

### What Is the Difference Between a Scheduled Message and a Drip Campaign?
With your SMS platform you can set up [scheduled messages](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/automated-text-message-system) to send at specific days/times.

So what’s the difference between a scheduled message and a drip campaign?

While a scheduled message has to be scheduled for a specific date, drip campaigns will go out according to whatever date the subscriber is added into the drip campaign’s group.

Another difference is that scheduled messages can only be set up one at a time. A drip campaign, on the other hand, is a workflow of a series of messages and delays.

### Can I Send More than One Message on the Same Day?
Yes! By specifying the time you’d like a message to be sent, you can also set up another message to be sent later in the same day by simply selecting a later time of day.

### Can the Drip Campaign Messages Start as Soon as a Subscriber Signs Up for Texts?
Yes, you can assign a "[text to join](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-to-join)" keyword to a specific [targeted group](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/targeted-sms-marketing-software). Then you can assign your drip campaign to that group.

Whenever someone texts in that keyword to sign up for your texts, they’ll be added to that targeted group and will start receiving the messages in your drip campaign right away upon sign-up.


## Free Up Your Busy Life
Any way that you can successfully automate processes is a win!

After all, your life is busy and your time is precious.

Use SMS drip campaigns to help you make the most of it.

[SIGN UP TODAY FOR FREE](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup)

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Discover how to use SMS drip campaigns to promote your business, onboard your customers, & educate your audience.

What Is a Drip Campaign for SMS?

## 1. Recurring Messages

Do you have repeated messages you need to send out on a regular basis? You don’t want to have to go in and manually send these messages! Use recurring messages to send out these texts automatically on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. (That way, you don’t have to do it all yourself every time!)

[Learn more about recurring messages](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-repeater)


## 2. Drip Campaigns

You may have a whole series of messages you’d like to send out. Did you know you can boost efficiency by planning all of these messages out ahead of time using our “drip campaigns” feature? (You can even designate delays in between your automated messages.)

[Learn more about drip campaigns](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/automated-text-message-system)


## 3. Smart Replies

What if you could send out different automated texts based on what your audience texts in to you? (Kind of like an online chatbot, but for texting.) With smart replies, you can do just that - giving a better user experience and saving hassle for you all at the same time.

[Learn more about smart replies](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/smart-replies)


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Learn about 3 automated features that will make your mass texting easier and more efficient.

3 Automated Text Message Service Tools

Life’s Easier with These 3 Automated Text Message Service Tools

Automation is a businessperson’s best friend.

Why?

Because your life is chock-full to the brim of things to do, meetings to attend, plans to consider, and strategies to execute.

(And that’s not to mention everything you have going on in your personal life apart from work!)

With all that you have on your plate, you don’t have time to spend manually doing everything. You need automated processes to help keep you sane and free you to focus on what you need to accomplish.

That’s why you need an automated text message system.

Because you know you want to send texts for your business. You know people are constantly on their phones. You know SMS marketing could be a huge asset to boost your business.

But you don’t want to add yet another thing to micro-manage.

So what is an automated text message system? And can it truly be helpful in making your business better and life easier?


## What Is an Automated Text Message System?

An automated text message system allows you to send mass texts for your business on your own time.

It allows you to schedule all your messages ahead of time.

It allows you to send recurring text messages on an automated basis.

It allows you to create [drip campaigns](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/drip-campaign) - a series of messages to go out at different intervals of time.

The ability to do all of this “hands off” frees up your time, brain space, and frustration, while letting you take full advantage of the benefits of [SMS marketing](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/sms-marketing-guide).

![What is an automated text message system infographic](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/automated_text_message_infographic2_a6f8e4ad26.png)


### Schedule Messages Ahead of Time

With an automated text message system, you can set up and schedule all of your messages for the exact day and time that you’d like them to be sent.

You can also schedule them as far in advance as you’d like.

This means that you could designate one day each month, for example, in which you map out and schedule all of your messages for that entire month.

Then all you need to do is watch as the messages are sent out automatically at your designated times.


### Send Recurring Text Messages

Not only does an automated text message system allow you to schedule messages ahead of time, it allows you to set up recurring messages via a [text repeater](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-repeater).

A “recurring message” would be a message that’s repeated on a regular basis.

So if you have a text message that you would like to be repeated monthly, for example, you can easily set that up and let it go.


### Create Drip Campaigns

“Drip campaigns,” or [drip marketing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_marketing), involve setting up a workflow of messages that are automatically sent out over a period of time.

Here’s an example:



* A message sends to contacts immediately upon sign-up.
* A follow-up message is sent a day later.
* A third message is sent 2 weeks after that.
* A final message is sent 30 days later.

Once you set it up, this flow of messages is totally automated and can be assigned to specific [groups](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/group-texting-app-for-business), or segments of contacts, within your account.


## How Can You Set Up an Automated Text Message System?

Concerned that an automated text message system will be complicated and difficult to set up?

Don’t be!

Here are a few easy steps.


### Step 1: Create an Account

You’ll first need an account with an SMS platform.

Setting up an account is as simple as filling out a short online form.

And if you’re not ready to shell out some cash for a full paid account, you can always [sign up for a free trial](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup). That will allow you to test things out and get a feel for how it all works.


### Step 2: Plan Out Your Messages

Once you’re up and running on an SMS platform, you’re ready to start planning out the messages you’re going to be sending through your automated text message system.

Maybe you’ll be sending a specific promotion to a subset of your leads.

Maybe you’ll be sending an announcement of an upcoming release to current customers.

Maybe you’ll be sending a series of onboarding messages to new customers.

Whatever the case, you can start thinking about specific aspects of your campaign:



* Who will receive your messages?
* How many messages will you send?
* What will be your primary call to action for your campaign? For each individual message?

Need an example? Get a free [SMS drip campaign template here [Google Spreadsheet]](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PvuYfx_vyzrkxHlYHUdIp72mFy8Nr4VF9Oxt5XeJp4U/edit?usp=sharing).

Nothing is set in stone during this planning phase, so you can always change your mind later.

You also don’t need to have everything figured out before you move forward, although it’s good to have a general idea of what you’re going to do.


### Step 3: Schedule Your Messages

You can start setting up or scheduling messages as soon as you know what content you want to include in the first message you’d like to send.

There are 2 ways to schedule your messages.


#### Schedule for a Specific Date and Time

You can schedule your messages for a particular date or time.

You can even schedule subsequent [recurring text messages](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-repeater) by selecting for your text to go out on the same day or time at regular intervals (such as monthly, weekly, or daily).

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DpHo7X5zExg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

#### Schedule a Drip Campaign

Perhaps you want to automate a campaign but not specify the particular date that you’d like the messages to go out.

For example, let’s say you want to create an onboarding campaign for new trial accounts and send them a series of automated messages to help them get started.

In a case like that, you can use a [drip campaign](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/drip-campaign) option.

You can simply set up all the messages you’d like your audience to receive, and designate how long of a delay you’d like in between each message.

Then customers or leads can be added to your campaign’s message flow automatically as soon as they sign up for your texts, or as soon as you add them to a designated list.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kLidRxPRpU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

### Step 4: Build Your SMS Marketing List

Once you have your messages scheduled and ready to go, all that’s left to do is to get people loaded into your overall SMS marketing list so that they can receive those messages!

Some tools that can help you build your SMS marketing list so that you can utilize your automated text message system include:



* [QR codes](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/qr-codes) - People can join your text list by scanning an automatically generated QR code
* [“Text to join” words](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-to-join) - These allow people to automatically join your SMS list by texting in a particular word to your account’s free phone number
* [An online sign-up page](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/web-forms) - This is an online form that your leads and customers can fill out in order to sign up for your texts
* Integrations - You can automate with [CRM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management) software and other management services via [API](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/text-message-api) or via the integration site [Zapier.com](https://zapier.com/)


## How Much Does an Automated Text Message System Cost?

As a smart businessperson, you obviously don’t want to waste money.

You want to ensure that you’re making a financially sound decision when adding new tools to any aspect of your business.

You _don’t_ want that nagging feeling of buyer’s remorse that comes with spending more than you intended!

That’s why it’s important to be fully aware about what the costs of setting up an automated text message system will be.


### Cost Considerations

First off, you want to pick a provider who has straightforward pricing - that way you don’t bump into any hidden fees along the way.

Next, in order to be fully aware of how much your automated text message system will cost, you need to have an idea of what the size of your audience will be, as well as how many messages you will be sending.

Some other considerations to be aware of when thinking about costs:



* Pricing for SMS platforms is typically based on how many messages you will be sending, and each recipient for your message counts as at least 1 message
    * For example, a message sent to 100 customers would count as 100 messages
    * Thus, if you have a text list of, say, 5,000 contacts and want to send 2 messages per month, you’ll need a plan that allows at least 10,000 messages per month
* Note that if you are planning on sending longer messages (more than 160 characters), those would count as 2 or more messages per recipient rather than 1
    * So if you have a text list of 5,000 contacts and send 2 messages per month, but your messages are 200-300 characters long, you would actually need a plan that allows at least 20,000 messages per month
* One final thing to note is that text messages that include pictures ([MMS messages](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/mms-services)) cost 3 messages per recipient each, so you’ll need to consider that as well if you’re going to be sending texts with images


### Cost Breakdown

So now let’s get into specifics.

Your costs for getting an automated text message system set up may vary widely depending on the factors mentioned previously (size of your audience and the number of messages you plan on sending monthly).

But if you’re just getting started with your business or are brand new to SMS marketing, your starting cost can be [as little as $228 for a year](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/48) (comes out to $19 per month), or $25 monthly.

A basic plan like that would allow you up to 500 messages per month, and you can always upgrade later as needed.

Other plans would be:



* [1,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/41) for $26 per month billed annually ($35 monthly)
* [2,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/42) for $48 per month billed annually ($59 monthly)
* [5,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/43) for $110 per month billed annually ($138 monthly)
* [10,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/44) for $199 per month billed annually ($249 monthly)
* [20,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/45) for $349 per month billed annually ($449 monthly)
* [50,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/46) for $749 per month billed annually ($949 monthly)
* [100,000 messages per month](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup/47) for $1,299 per month billed annually ($1,749 monthly)
* More than 100,000 messages per month - you can [contact for a custom quote](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/contact)


## What Can You Do with an Automated Text Message System? 

So you have an idea of what an automated text message system is and how much it might cost.

But what can you actually _do_ with automated texts?

Here are a few examples to give you some ideas.

![Automated text message infographic](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/automated_text_message_infographic_e5392f6e53.png)


## Why Set Up an Automated Text Message System?

Still not sure about whether implementing automated text messages for your business will be worth it?

Did you know that [75% of millennials prefer SMS messages](https://mobilemarketingwatch.com/eretailers-text-consumers-or-risk-irrelevancy-in-2017-69642) for promotions and surveys?

That [97% of American adults send texts every week](https://www.localproject.net/docs/texting-stats/)?

That 95% of texts are read within 3 minutes after being sent?

In case that doesn’t convince you, here are some other numbers to consider:

![Why use text alerts infographic](https://mta-site-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/small_automated_text_message_infographic3_38c434fa7c.png)


The stats speak for themselves!

I would say texting is the way of the future, but in reality it already dominates.

It’s the way of _now_.


## Who Uses an Automated Text Message System?

Maybe you’re still wondering whether an SMS platform is something that would work for you and your business. Is this really something that people use?

After all, email and snail mail are tried and true methods of marketing that people have used for decades.

But texting?

The reality is that SMS for businesses is more normative than ever and is used by industries and businesses across the board.

From [Aisin](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/jamie-uses-sms-for-safety) to [Kroger](https://www.kroger.com/) to [Yamaha](https://www.yamaha.com/), virtually any and every industry uses an SMS platform to help their business in one way or another.

Here are some examples of industries that take advantage of SMS:



* Online Businesses
* Healthcare
* Retail 
* Restaurants
* Real Estate
* Gyms
* Banks
* Construction
* Distribution
* Salons and Spas
* Government
* Manufacturing
* Churches & Non-Profits
* Education
* Direct Sales
* Coaching
* Transportation

And that’s not even an exhaustive list!


## Conclusion: Set Up an Automated Text Message System Today

In this age of busyness and technology, you need tools that are effective for your business.

Effective, but not difficult!

Automated text messages give you the amazing benefits of SMS - high read rate, visibility, and responsiveness - and don’t require you to hover and micro-manage.

Thus, you can release some stress in your life, increasing sales and leaving you happier with your marketing efforts.

What are you waiting for?

[Sign Up Now ](https://mobile-text-alerts.com/signup)


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