The Before Visit campaign type allows you to automatically send text messages before a customer's appointment or class session. The message can include anything from advertising products to be purchased in-store, a pre-visit form, or instructions on where to park and how to get to your business. Configure before-visit campaigns to only apply to a specific service or class or your entire service/class menu, and configure your campaign to send from 1 to 30 days before the customer's visit. Customers will receive this campaign only if they are scheduled for the applicable service or class. For instance, if you set up a before-visit campaign that only applies to "Hair Coloring" appointments, your customers won't receive this campaign before, for example, a "men's haircut." This campaign will also not apply to appointments or classes booked before this campaign was created.
Before sending out a text campaign, keep the following in mind:
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Before-visit campaigns will continue sending messages for as long as they remain active, so you only have to create one before-visit campaign and let it run continuously. If you need to change the campaign, you can edit and reannounce it later.
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Campaigns will only be sent to customers with mobile phone numbers in their Customer Profile.
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Campaigns will not be sent to customers you have blocked from online booking.
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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.
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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.
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Any customers with invalid phone numbers will not receive this campaign.
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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." 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.
To set up a before-visit campaign:
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Select More
→ → .
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Under Select Delivery Method, select Text.
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Enter a Text Campaign Name. This name is used to label your campaign and is not shown to customers.
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Select the Before Visit campaign type.
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A slider will appear to select how many days before a customer's appointment you want to send the message.
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You'll also have to select the services or classes that apply to this campaign.
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Select Apply to continue.
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Specify the customers to include in the campaign by selecting the gender, customers of a specific employee, and age, then select Create Text.
You can select Reset to clear all filters.
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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:
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Link
: 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.
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Name
: 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.
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Image
: 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.
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GIF
: 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.
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Vagaro AI
: Use AI to help write and edit your message.
A text preview will appear on the right side of the screen.
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Select Next. A preview of your text message will appear.
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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.
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Enter the phone numbers you want to send the preview to. Select Add Number to add another phone number.
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Select Send Preview Text.
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Select Next.
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Schedule and announce your campaign:
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Schedule: Set a time for when this campaign will usually be sent out. By default, it is set to 8:00 a.m.
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Agree to the acknowledgment.
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Select Announce and confirm the Important Notice or Usage Alert that may appear.
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To set up a before-visit campaign:
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Go to Marketing
, then select Create Campaign under Email & Text Marketing.
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On the marketing dashboard, select Create Campaign.
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Next to Select Delivery Method, select Text.
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Enter a Campaign Text Subject. This subject is used to label your campaign and is not shown to customers.
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Select the Before Visit campaign type.
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A slider will appear to select how many days before a customer's appointment you want to send the message.
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You'll also have to select the services or classes that apply to this campaign.
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Select the recipients for this campaign:
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All Customers: Send this campaign to all customers in your Customer List.
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Filtered List: Send this campaign to a specific, filtered list of customers.
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Specific Customers: Not available for this campaign type.
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Optionally, set a Schedule for when this campaign will be sent out to customers.
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Select Next to begin drafting your text campaign.
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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:
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Emoji
: Add an emoji to your message
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Insert Link
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.
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Insert Name
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Add Image
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Add GIF
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Vagaro AI
A text preview will appear on the right side of the screen.
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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.
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In the Send Text Preview popup, enter the phone numbers (separated by commas) you want to receive the preview, then select Send.
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Agree to the acknowledgment, then select Announce.
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You can save a draft of your campaign by selecting Save for Later instead of announcing it right away.
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Acknowledge and select Announce in the Important Notice pop-up.
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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.
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Comments
2 comments
Is there a way to have our own personal text messages explicitly say go out immediately after any booking occurs in addition to the system one for day of appointments or appointments that occur less than one day out? We have a decent amount of same day bookings and would like our appointment confirmation reminder to go out immediately to help avoid same day booking confusion. Thanks!
Hi Jake, currently, there isn't a way to do this with a text campaign. The minimum time limit is one day. If you feel like this should change, I'd recommend submitting a feature request to our Product Team.
Thanks.
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