Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Text Message Marketing!

[Tom]

Hello Sellers — On February 17th, we hosted a Square Text Message Marketing Q&A!

@lornaz and @Anneharris are the product manager and the product marketing manager for Text Message Marketing. Together, they’ve been at Square ~4 years total, and they’re excited to talk more about this powerful new way to reach more customers via text messaging. When they’re not in the (home) office, Lorna enjoys catching up on new TV shows with her 1 year old Goldendoodle, Percy, while Anne likes trying new recipes and forcing the results on friends and family.

A few example questions:

• How can I get more customers to opt in to receiving texts from me?
• How does Text Message Marketing interact with a Square Marketing or Square Loyalty subscription?
• What should I text my customers about, anyway?

[Anneharris]

Hi @indianathomas, customers don’t have to be present to sign up at the register. Right now, buyers who sign up for Loyalty using the Check Loyalty Status link WILL be textable, but only for the Loyalty + Coupon texts. They will have to text JOIN to receive general marketing texts from you (and be available in that audience). As we mentioned earlier in the thread, there is updated consent language on iOS and we’re rolling it out over Register and other surfaces. We’ve highlighted the need to our team to ensure the Loyalty status link language is updated then, too.

[indianathomas]

OK.  I want to be clear on how we create our POP material.  Here's the scenario:

1) I create a poster called Klub (whatever) with snazzy graphics and a QR Code on that poster.

AND

2) In addition to the QR Code I have a secondary method that says.  Text "JOIN" to [Redacted] to get juicy updates, promotions, and FREE stuff.

Scenario:

If the customer clicks on the QR code, then I can't send them general updates.  So the idea of this type of graphic would be confusing, hence, there is a 50% chance that they would use the QR Code vs. the 1877 number.

Is that correct????

[lornaz]

Thanks for the question @indianathomas, it depends on what the QR code contains. We actually have created a Text to Join opt in poster (which can be found in your settings page) that has a QR code which your customer can scan and it will pre-populate a text that says “JOIN” to your unique phone number. If you use that QR code, then regardless of which option your customer chooses, they will be fully opted into your Text Marketing program.

Also, I wanted to correct the previous response. We just confirmed with our team that if buyers enrolls through the Loyalty Status page link, they will now be opted in to all Text Marketing messages. Sorry for the confusion on that. This was a recent change that we made that we have been implementing across different platforms.

[foodiefit1234]

What is the best practice to segment a dynamic new acquisition list/audience group. I'd like to run a drip for coupons but seems like i would need to run it manually in a dynamic group.

[indianathomas]

I'm building a new loyalty site for a client HERE:   Will the link for Square Loyalty opt them in for BOTH SMS and Loyalty coupons.  I'm afraid based on the comments of this post that Square will require an additional step of Texting JOIN to a specific phone number.  It would be dumb if you required a two-step process.

[lornaz · Accepted solution]

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Q&A last week and I hope your questions were answered! You’ve given great suggestions about how we can improve our Text Message Marketing product that we’ll be sharing with the team. 

To wrap up, here’s a summary of a few themes I saw in the questions:

Buyer Opt Ins for Loyalty Sellers

We know the buyer opt in process, which affects who you can and cannot text, can be confusing, especially for our Loyalty sellers. Many of you have noticed that it’s possible to text most of your loyalty enrollees about your loyalty program using the Loyalty+coupon campaign, but other manual (blast) campaigns show a much smaller audience size. This is because some Loyalty enrollees have agreed to receive texts about your loyalty program, but they haven’t said yes to general marketing messages from your business. We are actively working on updating our Loyalty enrollment screen so that new enrollees will be opted into general text marketing from your business as well as your Loyalty program to make the buyer enrollment process more straightforward. This update is live for Square Stand sellers with the most recent app update and will be live for Register in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience and sharing ideas on how we can improve.

Coupon Redemption Online

Seamless online integration is an important feature for Text Message Marketing, especially the ability to redeem coupons online. We want to clarify that most coupons sent by Square Marketing can be redeemed online. The only exceptions are coupons that are specific categories or coupons that have a max value field.

How to Use Text Marketing

Text Marketing is a new product that just launched in December. For many of you, this is your first time using a text marketing product and have lots of great questions about how to get started. We are working on a video tutorial that will walk you through how to set up Text Message Marketing, collect opt-ins, send a campaign and review your results. Stay tuned for more on that front!

Again, thank you for your participation. If you have additional questions, please check out our FAQs or feel free to add them to this message and we will try and get to them as quickly as possible.

[shellyf]

So far this option has turned out to be crap for me!  My customers scan the QR code, hit join, send back a yes and only 1 has ever gotten their code to get the % off.  I have had to put in a % off as a discount and enter that at checkout instead of a code they should be getting.  I have watched them do it, they have shown me that they replied yes and getting no replies back.  What gives?  Not worth my time or effort right now so I have removed all signs and posts about it.  

[lornaz]

Hi @shellyf  I'm so sorry to hear you've been having trouble with our Text to Join functionality. The team looked into it this week and were able to use the QR code to join your Text Marketing program. Our systems also show that the coupon message was sent to everyone who opted in to your Text Marketing program; however, we do know that sometimes carriers will block messages from being sent but unfortunately do not have visibility into why that happens   :(. Anecdotally we've heard that this is more common with T-Mobile than other carriers. Even if your customers haven't gotten the coupon code reply back, you should be able to see the coupon they were provided in their customer profile if you look up their phone number and apply the code from there. 

[Blackwell_]

Are the coupons texted to the customer? Or do they get a coupon later? I opted in to see how it works and I haven’t received a coupon.

[TiffanyNR]

Hello,

The link included in the message says "page not found".

 

How do I edit or troubleshoot this? Is this autogenerated link setup by Square to my online site?

[lornaz]

Hi @TiffanyNR Are you still having trouble with the link? I'm able to visit the link and see the coupon.

[TiffanyNR]

@lornaz Hello, yes now it works! Is there a wait time for it to work? It seems like the wait time is a week...

[cheesecakeonpoi]

When customers text to join they are sent an automated reply with a coupon for joining. Also when we request people's birthday they are going to be sent an automated reply coupon as well. Are we going to be charged for these automated replies?

[nika]

Good question @cheesecakeonpoi. I don't believe the automated texts count towards the fee. But I'm going to double check on that and let you know for sure.

[sabeenster]

Is there a way to edit the coupon being sent with the Opt In campaign? Would be nice to have a link to my store/website directly for users to click on via the coupon. New customers have no way of knowing where to use the code when they receive the coupon via text message on their phone. A simple link to click would be super helpful. 

[AHHealth]

Having issues with subscribers not receiving the opt-in coupon. Even tried subscribing myself to no avail. Is this a common occurrence depending on the mobile provider?