Reach your audience in near real-time with text message marketing. Text message communication has 5x more engagement than email and is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience. We have developed our own text message-sending platform that lets you send to your past and present attendees with just a few steps.
This article will cover the setup and basics of text message marketing, from creating your account to sending messages and managing your plans.
Most popular ways to use Text Messaging:
Announce new events
Offer special discounts
Send limited-time promotions and specials
Distribute important information before and during the event
Post-event communication and follow up
Learn more of what you can do with SMS and how to do it by clicking here.
NOTE: Currently, you can only choose US-based phone numbers for sending messages. The business you are running must be based in the same country as the number you are selecting (ie both need to currently be US based). We are looking to add Canadian numbers in the future.
Also, it can take about upwards of two weeks to be approved to send your first SMS message. We encourage you to start the approval process early so you are ready to send leading up to your event.
Jump to....
Get approved to send sms text messages
The approval process is known as brand verification. To prevent spam, carriers require each organization to go through brand verification and have its own number. Shared sending numbers are no longer allowed.
From the Pages screen, click Text Messaging from the top navigation bar
Select the plan you'd like to go with
If you have not yet published a page on your account, it will ask you to do so prior to setting up the SMS feature.
NOTE: SMS plans are setup on the per-product basis. So if you use both TicketSpice and GivingFuel for example, you'd need to setup a separate plan for each. This is simply because it allows you to reserve one phone number per product. A single sms plan cannot be used across multiple products.
1 plan = 1 product = 1 SMS 10 digit phone number
Plans and pricing
SMS text message pricing
Each text plan comes with:
Ability to pick your own phone number
Send to up to 5,000 recipients per text, per page
Basic Plan
$19/month
$0.04/text
A $49 one-time brand verification fee charged by the carriers
Super Sender Plan
$99/month
$0.02/text
A $49 one-time brand verification fee charged by the carriers
NOTE: A text is considered 160 characters or less. Messages above 160 characters will be counted as two messages.
You will be taken through the sign-up process in order to be approved for your 10-digit phone number.
Submit your personal information to authorize yourself. If there are urgent issues with your text messaging service, this is who is contacted.
Once submitted, you will see a screen that lets you know your application is under review. This review process can take up to two weeks to receive approval by the carriers.
Reserve a text number
Once your brand has been approved, you will see a green screen inviting you to officially select phone number by clicking the Choose Phone Number button.
Search for a phone number by area code or the last 4-digits of the number you'd like
Once you've selected your phone number, you are ready to start sending text messages!
💡 Tip: Once you get your text message number setup, be sure to edit any existing phone fields on your page(s) that you'd like to use to capture phone numbers to send text messages to. You'll want to set the phone field as a mobile phone number so it will display the opt-in messaging. The opt-in language is:
Yes, it's okay to send me text messages including confirmations, changes, and updates. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. View our terms of service & privacy policy.
Create your first text message
From the Pages screen, click Text Messaging from the top navigation bar
Click the Create New Message or a Create Message button
Customize your text message
Enter the text message name (this is for internal and reporting purposes only)
Select the page you'd like to send a text message to the attendees
You can send to all attendees, or you can select to only send a text to specific ticket levels
Select whether to send the text message immediately, or choose to schedule it for a day and time in the future
Enter your message - You'll notice the sample text message on the right update as you type your message
Click the Save button
NOTE: Text message character count includes message text, account name and opt-out language. Carriers will bill the message as two messages when using more than 160 characters. The organization name will only send in the first sms message and will not be included in the following messages. More details on this under FAQs.
The text message will show as Scheduled until it sends. Prior to it sending, you can make edits or even delete it in order to prevent it from sending. Once the text message has sent, it will show Sent as the new status and how many recipients and at what time the text was set. You also can still copy and view the text message, but no longer can edit or delete it.
Congrats! 🎉 You have sent or scheduled your first text message.
Change or cancel your text plan
If you choose to change your text messaging plan or cancel it all together, here is how:
From the Pages screen, select Text Messaging from the top navigation bar
Click View Text Plan from the left menu
Here you can view and switch your current plan, delete your existing number to choose a new one or even delete your plan all together
Warning: While it is possible to delete an existing phone number and choose a new one, we highly advise against doing so after messages have already been sent out from the original number. This could cause undue confusion as the attendees would be getting messages from a new number.
Also, once a text message number is deleted, there is no way to recover the number.
FAQs
Does the text messaging feature offer phone numbers outside of the US?
As of now, our SMS text messaging feature will only send to US based phone numbers.
Which users can use Text Messaging on my account?
Users with “full access” enabled have the ability to add Text Messaging to a product, send/schedule messages, create keywords, etc.
Why is my TicketSpice Organization name showing up on the text message?
The new carrier guidelines require that the first message we send to any number includes the name of the sender.
TicketSpice won't send that in subsequent messages. If you want to change your organization name you can update it in the Organization Details. The message will display the updated name for any future sends.
Can I import numbers?
Phone numbers are not able to be imported to the text messaging feature at this time.
What counts as a single text message?
A single text message is 160 characters long. We let you send more than 160 characters in a single message, it will just count as two messages.
How do my attendees know the messages are from me?
On the first text message you send we include the name of your account at the top of the message as it’s listed in your Account Settings.
If someone replies to a text message I send, can I reply back?
The ability to reply to text messages in conversation format could be a future enhancement. Currently, the feature allows for 1-way broadcast messaging to your attendees and keyword replies.
How does a subscriber opt out?
Your attendee's first message instructs them to reply STOP to opt out. This is the industry standard. Their number will be added to a do-not-send list by the carriers. If an attendee sent STOP by mistake or wants to remove themselves from the do-not-send list, they should send the keyword START to resume. When an attendee opts out, they opt out of all future messaging from that number, not just that event.