Sending out an immediate (Broadcast) or scheduled SMS message to your clients has never been easier than now with Pocket PA's latest marketing feature.

You can chose who you want to send your message to, what you want to say and whether to send it straight away or schedule it to go out at a time of your choosing.

Super handy if you have to close unexpectedly because of sickness or personal plans, or if you want to share a last minute slot you need to fill to keep your calendar full so that you're earning the most money!

Broadcast SMS messages

Start by going to the Marketing Tab on your dashboard

NEW: VERIFYING YOUR ACCOUNT

Due to recent malicious attempts from a small minority trying to misuse Pocket PA, we are now verifying all user accounts before any messages can be sent out. This additional step has enhanced the security of Pocket PA for all users.

Please click on the Green button to send a request for verification

- this will usually happen very quickly but within 24 hours at the latest.

Ensure you have SMS Credit

To send marketing messages, you will need to ensure you have purchased SMS credits. These can be bought in 'pay as you go' bundles and it will always show you exactly what will be taken off your balance before the message is sent.

Click on the + button to buy your credits

You can also select to auto renew and replenish your SMS balance by checking the tick box

PROTIP: If you send SMS booking confirmations, appointment reminder or thank you messages, the SMS credit balance will all go into one pot.

Sending a Broadcast SMS message (sends straight away) or Scheduled SMS message

Begin in the marketing area by clicking on the green + button

TYPE

You will start in the first tab where it will show as the message type of SMS by default.
Choose your 'Campaign name' which is just for your reference only e.g. Christmas special / Last minute availability Friday etc
The default is also set for a Broadcast message to be sent at the end of the set up process but you can amend it to Schedule it by switching ON the button
Click Next to go to the Filter Clients tab

To Schedule the SMS message switch the button to ON and select the date and time you want the message to be sent

2. FILTER CLIENTS

You can choose different filter options to fine tune the clients you want to send the SMS message to.
Decide if you want to include previously archived clients in messages to be sent out - if you do then switch the button to ON
Once you have selected the filters, it will show you how many clients are selected and qualify to received the message
You can choose to send to ALL clients, to filter according to their appointments or sales history or to send to SPECIFIC handpicked Clients
Select your preferred option and then press Next

Appointments and Sales can be filtered using the following ranges

Switch ON / OFF according to your preferences

e.g. choose to send a message only to clients who get a particular service with you and / or have bought a specific product in the past 3 months etc

Or filter by work location if one of your premises is going to be closed

3. MESSAGE TEXT

Add in the message you want to send out and you will be able to Preview it on the right hand side
Add in your Business name and/or contact number to ensure Clients know who the message is from as it will be sent from a no-reply Pocket PA number
Below the preview it shows how many characters your message will use up and how many SMS credits will be used from your balance.

NOTE: The OPT OUT message at the bottom of the SMS is a legal requirement and cannot be changed as clients must be allowed to OPT OUT of marketing messages under GDPR rules
For clients who do OPT OUT, it will automatically be updated in the clients settings so they will not be sent any further MARKETING messages.
This will not affect them receiving booking confirmation, reminders or thank you messages as these are classed as TRANSACTIONAL messages - you can still switch these options off though yourself under the client details screen

4. REVIEW AND SEND

In this last tab you can see a summary of the message to be sent
Return to the previous screens to amend anything by using the PREV button at the bottom
The total number of clients the message is being sent to and the total number of SMS credits being used will also show in this screen.
To send the message out now, click on the green Send Now button