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?

[littlegriddle]

When using the text message marketing and customers receive a code. Can that code be used on the Square ECommerce on Weebly websites because the codes don’t seem to be working for my customers.

[T]he coupon that is automatically generated through the text message marketing (when someone text “join” and receives a coupon code) does not work when they use it through my weebly site. I tried to manually make the same coupon code through weebly but weebly doesn’t allow you to put spaces in the code (the code generated is a 6 digit number with a space in the middle) this is going to be super confusing for customers because when they copy and paste the code they receive it’s not going to work. 

Also, is there a place to see the codes that have been sent out to each customer?

[This post was merged by a moderator from a standalone thread titled "Square Marketing - Add Square Online Coupons".]

[Tom]

Hey @littlegriddle — thank you for taking the time to raise these questions and for providing additional context. I moved your post into this Q&A thread where our Square Marketing product team members will be able offer more insight directly. Appreciate your patience!

[Shavett]

Hey guys , this is my first time using square ,  so i'm new to this , and all I wanted to say hey . 

[Tom]

Welcome, @Shavett! 🎉

Feel free to reply to this thread if you have any questions about Text Message Marketing. For a quick rundown on how to navigate the Seller Community, check out this guide: Orientation — Welcome to the Seller Community! and be sure to review our Community Etiquette Guidelines. 💫

[Fficp]

I was wondering if you might have a list of suggested text marketing campaign ideas? I plan to send out something for rewards members every Tuesday. I have sent one for a free cookie with a purchase, bring a friend get a free scoop of ice cream, our secrete flavor of the month, etc. I need help with some other ideas. Would there be a list of something to look at?

[ruizmex]

When will the codes generated through text message marketing be able to be used on the Square Weebly site? We are online only and are unable to use text message marketing because the coupon codes in the text messages cant be used on our online store. When will this be resolved?

[mattmeddock]

I am having a same issue.

[Anneharris]

@littlegriddle, thank you for your questions! The coupon customers receive when joining your Text Message Marketing program should be redeemable on Weebly. The customer just needs to enter the 6 digits in the code with no space. The space is actually just there to help with readability for when cashiers enter the code at the Point of Sale; however, I will pass the feedback that this creates some confusion when redeeming online to our team. The one exception where the coupon code is not redeemable online is if you set a “Max Discount” when creating a coupon code. The team is working on some changes to better communicate these nuances.

Right now we do not have a place where you can see all the codes that have been sent to customers; however, if you go to your customer directory, you can see the coupons that have been issued to each customer.

[littlegriddle]

@Anneharris yeah unfortunately it does not work on weebly even with no space. see picture below for reference. 

 

[lornaz]

@littlegriddle Do you have a max value amount set on your coupon? Unfortunately, if there is a max value, it won't work with Weebly. We know this is a pain point and the Marketing team is actively working on making coupons useable across all different sale channels.

[dkhtodd]

I have a couple questions (or suggested enhancements) for Text Messaging.

1. It would be nice to see a subscriber count dashboard on the Marketing/Overview page. There isn't any way to see this unless you create a fake text campaign.
2. I'd love to be able to see a text messaging (or email, etc) growth chart. For example, how many new text subscribers did I gain/lose last week?
3. This one is one that bothers me each time I want to send a Loyalty text message. My goal (and I assume others) is to convert Loyalty members to Subscribed members. Besides signage and social media, we can send out a Loyalty text message asking people to reply with JOIN. The issue is, that message is going out to ALL Loyalty members - even the ones who already replied with JOIN. (And I believe therefore they are getting another coupon without really having to do anything.) It would be nice to be able to have a "don't include" filter. For example, send to all Loyalty members that aren't yet subscribers.

I do believe any of my 3 items are doable at the moment but I am hoping they are already on a soon-to-happen roadmap as they, to me, are no-brainers.

[This post was merged by a moderator from a standalone thread titled "Question or Enhancement for Text Messaging".]

[lornaz]

@dkhtodd Thank you for your feedback! We’ll definitely note down your suggestions and see if we can get them on our roadmap. 

1. Right now on the dashboard we do show your subscriber count; however, since you are a Loyalty member, you’ll have two types of subscribers: ones who have consented to receive text messages related to your Loyalty program and ones who have consented to receive general marketing for your business. The current subscriber count on the dashboards shows your total subscribers, but I assume your request is to also be able to see how many subscribers you have that have consented to receive general marketing messages from your business. Is that accurate?
2. Good idea! We’ll make a note of it for our future builds. 
3. Like you noticed, we don’t yet have a way to segment your Loyalty text message list to those who haven’t joined your general market text message list so you can send them a ‘please text JOIN’ message again. Customers who already joined won’t get another ‘thanks for joining’ coupon for replying JOIN, but they would be able to use the coupon attached to your Loyalty text, so it’s a question of how many coupons you want to offer the Loyalty audience.
1. We’ll make a note of the feature request for this new segmentation option. It’s worth considering, too, that texting the same audience repeatedly with an offer to join general marketing text messaging will likely drive up your unsubscribe rate, taking them out of the pool for even Loyalty-related text messages.

[indianathomas]

How do I get my list restored?  I was a beta tester and grew my list to over 20,000 customers.  We sent out over 50,000 text messages during the test with incredible results.  After the beta program ended and I signed up for the paid version, my Square Dashboard shows that I have our 20,000 customers who opted in.  When we go to send a text however, we are limited to 90 text messages.  Automated campaigns are also not working.  So far we have missed out on Super Bowl and our Valentines day companies.  

See the attached video: https://youtu.be/u9hlq-hjmSw

We do we need to do to fix this?

[Anneharris]

Hi @indianathomas, thank you for your question. Based on the video you’ve linked, it looks like you are creating a “Coupon” campaign instead of a “Loyalty+coupon” campaign. Most of your 20K subscribers are likely Loyalty enrollees who have agreed to receive texts about the loyalty program, but not about general marketing for your business.  I would recommend sending a Loyalty+coupon text if you’re planning on including a coupon anyways and then you’ll be able to reach your 20K customers-- don’t worry, you’ll still be able to send them a custom message.

[ThingsDublin]

When my customer checks out at the register and they join the loyalty program, can I have a link so they can opt in to the text messages as well?

[lornaz]

Hi, @ThingsDublin - the good news is that we’re rolling out a new consent so every customer who joins your Loyalty program will also be consenting to receive marketing text messages from you if you are using TMM. This new language is live on iOS, and will be released on Android (including Square Register) in the next few weeks. 

In the meantime, you can text your Loyalty audience using ‘Loyalty + Coupon’ and ask them to respond ‘JOIN’ to be part of your general texting audience that you can send non-coupon campaigns to. We've outlined some best practices for Text to Join here as well.

[LCvisions]

Hi! How do I register for the session ?

[Tom]

Hey @LCvisions, thanks for reaching out! There's no need to register—everything will be written in this thread. Simply submit your questions by replying below. The Square Marketing team will reply with more context and address any followup questions on February 17th. 📆

[LCvisions]

Thank you! I was hoping the live meant there would be demonstrations of how to set up and use the text messaging to grow sales. 

[schindoggies]

Just try it its super easy, theres no need for a live demo.