Text Messaging
You can send text messages to your most treasured fans and clients from within your boomtime account!
There are two parts to getting SMS/Text Messaging working, one of which we'll cover in another help topic and one right here:
- Getting Clients Signed Up
- Configuring your boomtime account with a designated phone number
Configuring Your SMS/Text Settings
Once you're all set with a few clients confirmed and interested, you are ready to take the first steps. Here's how to get it all working:
Through your Marketing Tab, find your Social Media link and click on it.
On the lower left you'll see "Text Message Settings" - click on this.
First we will need to assign a phone number just for you to use for sending messages, as well as the number your clients can call or respond to - so it must be a real number, of course. We'll help out by choosing a number based on your parameters - if you must have a 2 as your first digit, just put 2****** and we will do the rest. To search for available numbers in your area code, just blank out the (optional) field.
If nothing is available in your area, or if the area code itself is not allowed, you'll see an error:
Just give it another go, and you'll see a list of numbers to choose from - how cool! You can decide which one appeals to you or even has some similarity to your business phone number.
With your number set up, you'll see this screen, where you can specify if you'd like to also include a "click to call" button on your website:
Now that you have a number, you're ready to start sending messages to your interested clients. On your Marketing tab under Social Media, you'll see a button to "Add" new posting:
Click this and you'll be taken to a New Post window where you can specify which Social Media accounts the post will go out to. If you have not yet set up Twitter or Facebook, you'll only see the Text Messaging checkbox, like below. Add in your text, with or without a web link, and check the time that the post will go out - it defaults to at least 15 minutes in the future, but up to 30. So if you'd like it out faster or with a longer delay, edit the time field. Once you're ready, the post will look like this:
Your posts will go to subscribed clients on schedule and they have the ability to call you right from the message on their cell phone, or they can follow any web link you might provide to your specials page or whatever you want them to see.
You can track all of your total SMS and Click to Call activity in the Text Messages Report via the Reports Tab:
Unlike the Twitter and Facebook social media options, SMS or Text Messages can be touchy for some of your clients, so we recommend that you only send them occasionally - too often and you'll have many clients that choose to unsubscribe. The balance is tricky, but if you have questions, just give us a call and we can help. For the business-y details, see our features list for what's included in your account package: http://boomtime.boomtime.com/pricing