We’re always looking for ways to make attending our launch events as easy as possible for our attendees. We want the process to be simple and streamlined. So for our last launch we looked at using SMS reminders alongside our usual emails.

We chose a provider called FixYourFunnel. We needed a platform that integrated with Infusionsoft/Keap, our CRM and marketing system, and FYF does just that. They offer a $1 30 day trial so you can test the system out before you fully invest, which was great for us.

We added in a checkbox for people to opt in to receive SMS launch reminders when they registered for the bootcamp event. This added them to an SMS campaign we built in Infusionsoft, and linked through to FYF. We then wrote a series of friendly reminders for our launch attendees. These were sent out 30 mins prior to our live events streamed over our launch week.

The SMS reminders were really well received! We’ll definitely use them for the next round.

Top tips from newbies using SMS!

• Stick to 160 characters or under. If you go over this, your SMS will split across multiple messages.
• Include any links to your live launch events within the 160 characters (use pretty links to keep it simple, and avoid compressed links like ‘bitly’ as this looks unprofessional).
• You can include emojis in your SMS! Each emoji is classed as 1 character.
• Always offer a way for registered users to unsubscribe from your service. We did this in our service confirmation SMS delivered upon opt in – all the registrant needs to do is reply to any SMS reminder with the word STOP and it adds them to a ‘no send’ list.
• Always do test sends of each SMS to your own device – this will allow you to check for and fix any formatting and grammar errors before your attendees see them!
• Test your Infusionsoft campaign – fill in the registration form, check you’ve been added into the SMS reminder campaign, and make sure you are scheduled to receive all the reminder messages at the correct time and date.

Things we loved

• There is a messenger feature, so if anyone replies to your SMS then you can enter into an SMS conversation with them on the messenger tool on the platform.
• Reporting is available in the FYF platform, so you can see the number of SMS messages sent out for each reminder. This was constantly increasing for us as more and more people opted in. We started with 55 and by the end of the launch we were sending reminders to 117 people.
• Great support on their live chat. I asked them a lot of questions during the set up. If you’re in a US time zone, you’ll get a reply pretty quickly. If you’re in the UK like us, you can be waiting until mid-afternoon to hear back.

Things we wish we’d known

• Can’t send SMS to the US and Canada from a UK marketing number (that service had just been changed by the provider a few weeks before) – Europe worked though
• Don’t copy and paste your SMS content into the input field – although they say you can do this but test before you do your send, we did this and some of the formatting completely broke the SMS send! So always hand type your copy in.
• The interface is a little outdated, and not very intuitive. It can also be hard to find what you’re looking for in there, but their live support team helped me each time.

How many buyers signed up for the SMS reminders?

27.5% of our buyers also signed up for the SMS reminders.

What did it cost?

$1 for a 30 day trial, and you get $20 credits on your account for that.
$0.04 per SMS send
$0.07 to receive SMS replies to your number

Once you’ve spent your $20 on the free trial, you’ll need to add credit to your account – minimum $25 per recharge.

After the 30 day trial has expired, it’s $49 per month for one SMS number, and adding credit to your account is on top of that.

Have you tried SMS reminders for your launch events before? We’d love to know how you got on and what you thought of them!