Timed messages are a great way to build and strengthen customer relationships. Signal enables you to set up timed messages to be automatically sent to new subscribers based upon the times and events you choose. These simple timed messages are a great way to cultivate your customer experience, and we’ve seen them lead to a 15% increase in site/store traffic. As an added bonus, they’re super easy to set up.
Define Your Customer Journey
Before creating your timed messages it’s important to consider your new subscriber and their expectations from the relationship. You know you’ll want to welcome them to your list, but you should also think about what to do afterwards to continue building the relationship. This may mean additional offers, more education, or helping one of your members set fitness goals for themselves. This step is as simple as taking a pencil to a notepad and defining how you would like the conversation with your brand new customer to progress.
Setup a Welcome Message
Welcome messages are a great way to offer an initial reward to your new customers for signing up, or provide them with helpful information to ground the relationship between them and your business. It also very likely that it is the first conversation between you and the customer, so you’ll want it to be very friendly and clearly communicate your appreciation to them for joining.
As an example, a yoga studio might welcome new members who join by sending a message with information on proper nutrition, attire and pre-session stretching. The studio could even offer deals on mats and accessories knowing a new practitioner is more likely to buy supplies than an experienced one. To set one of these messages up, just go to the List you’d like your timed message to be sent to and select the “timed messages” link on the left. On the next page you will see a link for ”New timed message” on the top right corner.
Once you click this you will be asked to provide a name for your message (for internal use) type of message (email or SMS) and lastly when you want to send it. We recommend titling your messages with details of when they will be sent, following that method, you should title this message “Welcome email”. In the next step Signal gives you the flexibility to choose how quickly after joining your list you’d like your message to be delivered to the new subscriber. From the drop-down “When should we send this message?,” you can select from minutes, hours, or days after the subscriber is created, or a specific time of day on the date of opt-in.
After specifying the timing details, you can choose your email template, and begin composing your timed welcome message. You will notice it feels just like creating any other email in Signal with the flexible WYSIWYG editor. It’s important to note you can also add a coupon to your welcome message, which is often used as a means to incentivize people for joining your list. If you’d like to add a coupon, you should follow the steps to create the coupon first, then create the timed message.
Setup Reminder and Informative Messages
If you’ve already welcomed new customers to your list, you probably want to reach out to them in a week or so to follow up with a new offer or additional information to keep them engaged. It’s never a good idea to welcome new subscribers and them immediately go cold-turkey with the relationship. You can set up a series of post-welcome messages to continue educating, and building the relationship. To give you an idea, at Signal we send out a series six timed messages to customers when they first signup as a way to welcome them and provide tips to quickly get familiar with the Signal product.
This is also helpful if you only send one or two newsletters a month, as a new customer may have just missed one. To set one of these messages up you will follow the same process as above but you should configure the message to be delivered after the welcome message, which in most cases means a few days or a week after opting into the program. If confused, refer back to your welcome message for timing.
Tip: If you’ve recently sold this person a product, or service, be sure to follow up with information on recurring maintenance, care, or usage tips. If you’ve recently sold them a membership, be sure to inform them of recurring events, classes, or associated membership discount partners so that they can realize the maximum benefit of their membership.
Setup Event Based Messages (ex: Birthday)
Remembering a customers Birthday is a great way to show you care about them. It’s also a perfect opportunity to send them a special offer for being a valued customer on their big day. To set one of these messages up, just go to the List you’d like your timed message to be sent to and select the “timed messages” link on the left. On the next page you will see a link for ”New timed message” on the top right corner. Next, name your message and , from the drop-down “When should we send this message?,” select “send on a user’s attribute e.g. birthday.”
Now choose when you want them to get it on their birthday. We recommend the earlier the better, as people are already making birthday plans when they wake up! Also, be sure to take advantage of Signal’s coupon functionality when creating your Birthday message.
Focus Your Energy Elsewhere
After you set up your timed messages, you don’t have to think about them anymore, we’ll make sure they’re delivered to your subscribers right on time. Just remember when writing your copy that the key to a good timed message, is ensuring it doesn’t feel like an automated message. Keep it personable, helpful and friendly!
Find us on: