SMS Templates
THE BASICS
With SMS Templates on the Professional plan, you can auto-populate and personalize SMS messages to your prospects, then edit as needed before sending. In order to use SMS, you must first have an SMS number.
Question: When does it make sense for me to use SMS templates?
- If you find that you are sending the same message over and over to customers via SMS (e.g. "Hey, please call me back when you get the chance at..." or "Sorry, I can't talk right now..."), then you would benefit from SMS templates.
Question: How do I get the person's name into my SMS template?
- Glad you asked! Kixie offers personalization tags for first and last name.
- first name: [fname]
- last name: [lname]
- Just enter either one (or both) into your template, and Kixie will pull the name into the template whenever you use it
- If Kixie can't find a name for a given message, you will notice, and you can edit the name before sending
CREATE SMS TEMPLATES:
- Login to the Kixie Dashboard → My Profile → SMS Templates
- "Add New"
- Name the SMS template, fill in the message body, and save it.
- 512 is the character limit
- Open your Kixie PowerCall → reload/refresh. Your new SMS template(s) will now be available for use.
USE SMS TEMPLATE(S):
- Open Kixie PowerCall
- Click "Send SMS"
- If the number isn't already there (it's there in most cases, like after a call), just enter it in
- Click on the "SMS Templates" dropdown
- Note: if you do not see your template, please refresh your Kixie PowerCall
- Select your SMS template
- The template will auto-populate the message field
- Make your edits as needed
- When ready, click "Send"
SMS BEST PRACTICES: AVOID GETTING BLOCKED
- Don't use link shorteners like bit.ly or tiny.url, since receiver carriers tend to block them
- Don't send the exact same message repeatedly. Include the person's name in your message and you will avoid this pitfall
- Don't send texts over 160 characters
- Don't send more than 200 texts per day to a given mobile carrier
- More best practices here
ASK YOUR MANAGER TO SETUP AUTO-SMS:
It might make more sense to automate the sending of certain SMS templates, instead.
Use Case: as soon as a lead enters the CRM and gets assigned to me → auto-send a welcome text from me, so I don't have to think about it
Ask your manager about setting up Auto-SMS. You may be able to think of plenty of other use cases as well!
- More info on auto-sms (and auto-call) here