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:

1. Login to the Kixie Dashboard → My Profile → SMS Templates
2. "Add New"
3. Name the SMS template, fill in the message body, and save it.
   • 470-512 character limit but you should keep it below 160 to avoid being blocked by carriers
4. Open your Kixie PowerCall → reload/refresh. Your new SMS template(s) will now be available for use.

USE SMS TEMPLATE(S):

1. Open Kixie PowerCall
2. Click "Send SMS" 
3. If the number isn't already there (it's there in most cases, like after a call), just enter it in
4. Click on the "SMS Templates" dropdown
   • Note: if you do not see your template, please refresh your Kixie PowerCall
5. Select your SMS template 
6. The template will auto-populate the message field
7. Make your edits as needed
8. When ready, click "Send"

SMS BEST PRACTICES: AVOID GETTING BLOCKED

1. Don't use link shorteners like bit.ly or tiny.url, since receiver carriers tend to block them 
2. Don't send the exact same message repeatedly. Include the person's name in your message and you will avoid this pitfall
3. Don't send texts over 160 characters
4. Don't send more than 200 texts per day to a given mobile carrier
5. 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