Welcome flows are very important as they both introduce the subscriber to your business, offer some introductory offer or reward for signing up and establishes the platform of SMS as a way for future communication.
How to setup
- Head to Automations and select 'Create New'
- Name the 'Automation Title' as Welcome Flow or something similar and select the Triggering Event as either 'Incoming SMS' or 'New SMS subscriber' depending on your requirement.
- Incoming SMS - This flow will be created when anyone sends an inbound message containing a keyword or phrase (such as those associated with Smartlinks) regardless of whether they are already an opted in subscriber or not. The 'Incoming SMS' is an automation that is only used in combination with the Trigger Event Filter 'Message Text' (see below in point 6.)
- New SMS subscriber - This flow will be created when a customer becomes a subscriber. This could either be by sending an inbound message (and therefore opting in) or signing up via a popup/embedded form. The 'New SMS subscriber' is an automation that is only used in combination with the Trigger Event Filter 'Optin Source' (see below in point 7).
- Set the 'SMS Subscription Settings' to be 'Marketing - Requires explicit consent' (this is to be used for marketing purposes) and set the 'Once Per Contact' toggle 'on' (if wanting to only be able to enter this flow once).
- For Incoming SMS, set the 'Triggering Event Filter' to Has > Message Text > Equal to or Contains and then add the keyword or phrase you'd like to trigger the flow. It's recommended to select the Contains filter to allow for any deviations in the incoming message (e.g 'VIP please' or "I want to be a VIP thanks").
- For New SMS Subscriber, set the 'Triggering Event Filter' to Has > Optin Source > 'Contains' and then the name of the source such as klaviyo or privy for example (it is not case sensitive). For more information on the Klaviyo Subscribers Integration.
- Leave the 'Contact Filter' off if this applies to all contacts. If there are specific contacts you would like to include/exclude, select the relevant contact statuses. In the example below, this flow would only be sent to those who have spent $100 or more.
- Leave the 'Exit Event' off is it does not apply. If sending further messages in the flow to try and push the contact to make a purchase, make sure the 'Exit Event' option is toggled on and set to Exit on Order. This will mean that if a contact makes a purchase they will be taken out of the flow and not receive any other messages in the flow.
- Set the time when the first message is sent under 'Send first message after...'. If you'd like the automated response to be instant, set the time to 0 minutes. The message content can then be added below. Here are some tips on message copy.
- If you'd like to add multiple messages in the flow, select '+ Add Message' and then select a time frame under the 'Then wait...' section.
