Text Message Automation Made Easy

Leverage the power of our automated texting service to engage with your audience at scale.

What is Text Message Automation?

Text message automation, simply put, is the automatic sending or triggering of text messages to individuals or groups of people with little or no manual intervention. Marketing automation has become extremely popular with brands, as it allows them to personally engage with their audience at scale.

Our automated texting service offers several options for reaching your audience. From simple scheduling, to more complex recurring SMS and event-triggered messaging, we provide the ease and flexibility to put your engagements on autopilot.

Millennial man receives an automated confirmation text after subscribing to a business texting list.
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How to Send Automated Texts

There are several different ways for you to send automated text messages. Our service provides the tools you need to automate virtually anything through our drag-and-drop workflow builder, set up autoresponders with keywords, and schedule your mass text messages days, weeks, and months in advance. Each feature is easy and intuitive, so you can confidently put your SMS marketing on autopilot.

Woman receives an automated text message from a restaurant SMS marketing program.
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Automated Workflows

Workflows are automated sequences that subscribers can flow through that create a personalized and tailored experience. With workflows, you can send automatic text messages and customize the experience based on the behaviors of the individual. For example, you can send a text with a link and then follow up after a period of time based on whether or not they clicked. They are perfect for creating SMS chat bots, collecting information, nurturing leads, and more.

Building automated SMS workflows is as simple as dragging and dropping objects onto a canvas and connecting them all together. No coding required. We're the only automated texting service to offer this type of tool, and it's a total game changer.

Trendy woman receives a discount code from an automated SMS workflow.
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Types of Automated Workflows

Ecommerce SMS: Abandoned Cart, Order Status, and Review Collection

If you own or operate an online store, you probably understand how much revenue is wasted due to abandoned orders. People often fill their shopping carts, start the checkout process, and then get distracted and don’t complete their purchase. Text messaging is proving to be the number one way to re-engage those lost customers, bring them back to your website, and drive them to complete their purchases.

Our service for sending automated abandoned cart text messages is easy to set up and runs 100% on its own. Simply connect SlickText to your ecommerce site via an integration or API and configure the message to be sent. Your automated message will begin sending out to those who leave your checkout flow with links that bring them back.

Once your ecommerce site is connected to SlickText, there’s no limit to your automation possibilities. Set up custom workflows to confirm purchases, provide order updates, and follow up with a request for reviews via SMS.

You can then view the performance of your cart recovery, order updates, and review collection from our gorgeous analytics dashboard. Access all of the necessary data to ensure you're getting the optimal ROI.

Example of an abandoned cart workflow for ecommerce owners

SMS Drip Messages

SMS drip messages are texts that send automatically at different intervals after people subscribe to your SMS marketing program. What's great about drips is that you can chain several together to create a series of automated text messages that send days, weeks, or even years after they initially subscribe.

You can make your drip text messages even smarter by applying what we call "segment filters." This allows your drips to send only if people match specific criteria you specify. Some examples could be whether or not they provided their name, clicked a link, or even made a purchase.

This is a very powerful feature that can be as simple or complex as you need. Regardless of the complexity, our service makes setting up these automated drips a breeze.

Example of a drip campaign with several automated text messages sent over a set time period

Automated Birthday Rewards

Automated birthday text messages are one of the most fun and personal ways to engage with your customers or audience. This feature allows you to send text messages on or a specific number of days before your subscribers' birthdays. This is another set-it-and-forget-it feature that provides great value while requiring no effort whatsoever.

You can either collect birth dates on your website popup or set up an automated text message that immediately replies to new subscribers asking them to share their birthday. All information is stored within the SlickText system and sends people a customizable text on their special day.

Example of an automated birthday rewards workflow delivered via SMS

Text Message Surveys

Texting surveys are a great way to collect input and engage with your audience. This feature allows you to build out a series of questions that people can answer entirely through text messaging. Once built, SMS surveys are totally automated and are a powerful tool for organizations looking to capture ongoing feedback.

Example of an SMS workflow that automatically requests reviews from happy customers
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Autoresponders

Autoresponders, also known as "auto replies", are the simplest and most common SMS automation tool. An autoresponder is simply an automated text message that is sent back to a person when they text a unique keyword to a short code or phone number. They are fully customizable and are sent immediately after a keyword is texted.

Autoresponders are typically used to confirm subscriptions to SMS marketing programs or mass texting services. When someone joins a text messaging list, they receive an auto response that thanks them for joining and usually provides some additional offer or piece of information. Some businesses use autoresponders purely to provide information and set up hundreds of keywords that deliver specific responses to people seeking info on specific things.

Happy young man receives an automated SMS campaign with 15% off his first order.
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Scheduled Text Messages

Scheduling text messages is one of the most common and easiest ways to take advantage of SMS automation. Our texting service makes scheduling a breeze. When composing a message, you have the option to send it now, later, or on a regular basis. By choosing to send it later, you are provided with options to specify a date and time at which you want your text message to be sent. You can even choose which timezone your messages are scheduled to send in.

With scheduled texts, you can send appointment reminders, event reminders, stock replenishment alerts, and so much more. It's a must have feature when looking for a mass texting service.

Image of the Slicktext Campaign UI with options to send your message now, later, or on a recurring basis.
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Recurring Text Messages

Recurring texts, also known as "repeating messages," are SMS messages that send automatically at regular intervals. Similar to scheduled text messages, recurring messages allow you to specify a time for the message to send, but additionally, you can choose to have it repeat in the future.

With this tool, you can set up text messages to automatically send daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. We offer virtually unlimited scheduling options, giving you the flexibility you need to put those important SMS messages on autopilot. As an example, you could set up a bulk text message to send to a list every other month, on the second Tuesday of the month, at 3:15 PM. The options are endless. You can even combine these messages with our segmentation tools to target only people who meet specific criteria.

Ready to get started with text message automation?

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Example of a texting campaign set up to automatically send on a recurring basis.

Reasons to Use SMS Automation

There are plenty of reasons why automating your text messages makes sense. In this fast paced world, the more you can automate, the more you can focus on other important tasks that require you to be hands-on. Here are just a few reasons why you could be putting your SMS and MMS marketing campaigns on autopilot.

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Simple Setup

Setting up any of our automated text messaging features is as simple as possible. We believe that great marketing tools should be easy AND powerful. That's why we've built our SMS marketing software to be simple to use but with the ability to get as complex as necessary.

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Hands-Free Messaging

Using automation allows you to focus on other important areas of your business or organization. Let our auto texting service handle the grunt work of staying engaged with your audience so that you can focus your attention elsewhere.

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Consistent Returns

SMS automation provides consistent returns by broadcasting to your audience on a smart and consistent basis. One of the main reasons brands fail with outbound marketing is because it requires consistent, hands-on focus. By sending automated texts, you can provide consistent value and stay top of mind with your customers.

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Intelligent Engagement

Automation can backfire if your messages are not relevant, engaging, or timely. By using our segmentation tool with all of our SMS automation features, you can create a higher level of assurance that each of your group texts provides value and is well accepted.

Automated Texting FAQs

If you’re looking for an automated texting service, there’s a good chance you’ll have questions. It can be a bit nerve-racking to take your hands off the wheel, and it’s important to know how things work. Below are some of the common questions we receive from organizations looking to put their messaging on autopilot.

What do people use SMS automation for?

Organizations across many different industries are using SMS automation. Every day we see a new use case for our automation tools. Some of the most popular uses include ecommerce abandoned cart flows, lead nurturing and chat bots.

How can I personalize my automated messages?

There are several different ways to personalize your text messages. It’s especially important to do so when sending them automatically. You make this happen using “merge tags” which allow you to use people’s first and last names. You can further personalize by sending different messages based upon their behavior like clicking a link, placing an order or how they respond to a previous message.

What are the best practices for automation?

Most of the best practices for sending auto text messages are the same as traditional SMS marketing or mass texting programs. Make sure people have opted in. Everyone should know how to opt out. Only send messages that create value. Send during normal hours. They aren’t complex. Just put yourself in the recipient’s shoes.

Is sending automated text messages legal?

Yes, automated text messaging is perfectly legal. It’s important to ensure, however, that each person you’re messaging has opted in to receive your texts beforehand. There can be large legal fines associated with SMS spam so make sure people are subscribing first.

Does it cost extra to automate my texting?

In most cases it costs nothing more to send automated SMS messages. All automation features, besides workflows, are included with a paid subscription. Workflows do cost extra and it’s well worth it. They give you maximum flexibility when putting your texting on autopilot.

How does SMS automation work at scale?

The great thing about automation is that it works just as well with 10 people as it does with 100,000. The important thing to remember is that you should be personalizing every text message that’s sent. This leads to better engagement and response rates. Each automated text should use the person’s name when necessary and only send if the message is relevant to that individual person.

Why Choose SlickText As Your Automated Texting Service?

There are several text alert services out there. None rise to the level of overall quality and depth of features that SlickText offers. Here are a few reasons why we're your best bet for automation...

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Easy & Flexible

We understand the need to minimize the amount of time spent on software. That’s why we've engineered every tool to be simple to use—especially our automations. You'll love how quickly you can set up your workflows and put revenue generation on autopilot.

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World Class Messaging Quality

There are a lot of different ways to send text messages today. That includes a lot of low quality methods that leave your texts undelivered. Our text blast service uses the best North American SMS messaging routes to ensure the best possible delivery for your campaigns.

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Hundreds of Other Features

While automation is an important component to any texting strategy, it's not all of it. Our SMS marketing service provides a ton of additional features and functionality at your fingertips for managing a complete text messaging program.

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Fanatical Support

Forget the frustrations of learning this all on your own. There's no doubt you'll have questions, and we'll be here for you. Our knowledgeable support team has helped tens of thousands automate their messaging and is ready to do the same for you!