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Send Automatic Birthday Texts to Your Customers

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Jamie B
  • Updated

The Birthday campaign type allows you to automatically send text messages before your customers' birthdays. These texts can include a promo code, a form, a link to your service page, or just a kind message. Once set up, the system will look at the birthdays of your eligible customers and send messages a set number of days before their birthdays.

Before sending out a text campaign, keep the following in mind:

  • Birthday campaigns will send birthday messages to your selected customers every year until you turn it off, so you only have to create one birthday text campaign and let it run continuously. If you need to make changes to the campaign, you can always edit and reannounce it later.

  • Campaigns will only be sent to customers with mobile phone numbers in their Customer Profile.

  • Campaigns will not be sent to customers you have blocked from online booking.

  • Campaigns may be rejected if they break Vagaro's text guidelines or are flagged by phone carriers. Vagaro will not refund text messages used for flagged or rejected campaigns.

  • Campaign recipient lists will not include customers who have opted out of marketing on Vagaro. including customers who have replied "STOP" to your previous campaigns.

  • You can't create a text campaign while the number provided by Vagaro is still being approved.

Messages you send to customers are divided into parts, also known as "segments." Each segment you send uses up one or three credits, depending on the type of message you send. Check out this article to learn more about how credits are charged.

Prerequisites: This feature requires a text marketing plan with an approved phone number.

On a Phone

To send automatic birthday texts:

  1. Go to More → Email & Text Marketing → Create Campaign.

  2. Next to Select Delivery Method, select Text.

  3. Enter a Campaign Text Subject. This subject is used to label your campaign and is not shown to customers.

  4. Select the Birthday campaign type. A slider will appear to select how many days before the customer's birthday you want to send the message.

    • Move the slider to the left to always send this campaign on the customer's birthday.

    • Move the slider to the right to send this campaign up 30 days before their birthday.

  5. Select Apply to continue.

  6. Specify the customers to include in the campaign by selecting the gender, customers of a specific employee, and age, then select Create Text.

    filters_vpro_2x.png

    You can select Reset to clear all filters.

  7. In the campaign builder, compose a text message for the campaign. Emojis and Chinese or Japanese characters are also supported. Character limits may apply.

    In addition to drafting your message, you also have the following options:

    icons_message_vpro_2x.png

    • Link link-regular.png: Add a link to your booking page, service menu, products, forms, Daily Deals, and so on.

      Note

      Adding links to your campaigns allows for tracking how many customers book through the link. These metrics are only tracked for Vagaro links; Vagaro will not track clicks to external websites outside of Vagaro.

    • Name user-light.png: Dynamically add your customers' First Name or First & Last Name. The system will automatically replace the filler text "{first_name}" and "{last_name}" when sending the message.

    • Image image-regular.png: Upload an image from your computer or choose one from your Image Gallery to add your message. You can only add one image or GIF at a time. Currently not available in the United Kingdom.

    • GIF gif-regular.png: Choose from thousands of GIFs with Giphy and add one to your message. You can only upload one image or GIF at a time. Currently not available in the United Kingdom.

    • Vagaro AI CleanUpTime.png: Use AI to help write and edit your message.

    A text preview will appear on the right side of the screen.

  8. Select Next. A preview of your text message will appear.

  9. Optionally, select Send Text Preview to send a preview text to your phone.

    Warning

    Sending a text preview will pull from your Text Messaging plan.

    1. Enter the phone numbers you want to send the preview to. Select Add Number to add another phone number.

    2. Select Send Preview Text.

  10. Select Next.

  11. Schedule and announce your campaign:

    send_campaign_vpro_2x.png

    1. Schedule: Set a time for when this campaign will usually be sent out. By default, it is set to 8:00 a.m.

    2. Agree to the acknowledgment.

    3. Select Announce and confirm the Important Notice or Usage Alert that may appear.

On the Web, Tablet, Pay Desk, or PayPro

To send automatic birthday texts:

  1. Go to Marketing → Create Campaign → Create Campaign.

  2. Next to Select Delivery Method, select Text.

  3. Enter a Campaign Text Subject. This subject is used to label your campaign and is not shown to customers.

  4. Select the Birthday campaign type. A slider will appear to select how many days before the customer's birthday you want to send the message.

    campaign_type_web_2x.png

    • Move the slider to the left to always send this campaign on the customer's birthday.

    • Move the slider to the right to send this campaign up 30 days before their birthday.

  5. Select the recipients for this campaign:

    • All Customers: Send this campaign to all customers in your Customer List.

    • Filtered List: Send this campaign to a specific, filtered list of customers.

    • Specific Customers: Not available for this campaign type.

  6. Optionally, set a Schedule for when this campaign will be sent out to customers.

  7. Select Next to begin drafting your text campaign.

  8. In the campaign builder, compose a text message for the campaign. Character limits may apply.

    In addition to drafting your message, you have the following options in the text box:

    icons_message_web_2x.png

    • Emoji face-smile-regular.png: Add an emoji to your message

    • Insert Link link-regular.png: Add a link to your booking page, service menu, products, forms, Daily Deals, and so on.

      Note

      Adding links to your campaigns allows for tracking how many customers book through the link. These metrics are only tracked for Vagaro links; Vagaro will not track clicks to external websites outside of Vagaro.

    • Insert Name user-light.png: Dynamically add your customers' First Name or First & Last Name. The system will automatically replace the filler text "{first_name}" and "{last_name}" when sending the message.

    • Add Image image-regular.png: Upload an image from your computer or choose one from your Image Gallery to add your message. You can only add one image or GIF at a time, and images will always be shown at the top of any plain text you add. Currently not available in the United Kingdom.

    • Add GIF gif-regular.png: Choose from thousands of GIFs with Giphy and add one to your message. You can only upload one image or GIF at a time, and GIFs will always be shown at the top of any plain text you add. Currently not available in the United Kingdom.

    • Vagaro AI CleanUpTime.png: Use AI to help write and edit your message.

    A text preview will appear on the right side of the screen.

  9. Optionally, to see what your text will look like on your phone, select Send Text Preview:

    Warning

    Sending a text preview will pull from your Text Messaging plan.

    • In the Send Text Preview popup, enter the phone numbers (separated by commas) you want to receive the preview, then select Send.

      text_preview_web_2x.png

  10. Agree to the acknowledgment, then select Announce.

    • You can save a draft of your campaign by selecting Save for Later instead of announcing it right away.

    • Acknowledge and select Announce in the Important Notice pop-up.

      notice_auto_campaign_web_2x.png

    • If you don't have enough credits for the campaign, the Usage Alert popup will appear. You can choose to Upgrade Plan or Announce your campaign and accept the extra charge.

      usage_alert_web_2x.png

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