How to Set Up Twilio & Send SMS Notifications from WooCommerce (Bonus Campaigns Included)

Tavleen Kaur
June 1, 2021
How to Set Up Twilio & Send SMS Notifications from WooCommerce (Bonus Campaigns Included)

If you’re looking for an easy solution to send WooCommerce Twilio SMS notifications, this one's for you.

SMSs have a 35%+ click-through rate and offer a whopping 25x higher ROI as compared to emails.

SMS lets you interact with your customers, promote your products, send notifications about discounts and coupon codes, and so much more.

In this post, you’ll learn how you can set up Twilio and send SMS notifications from your WooCommerce store.

Why Send WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notifications?

Text messages have a better open and click-through rate than any other form of communication channel.

These messages are highly personal and give you creative ways to interact with your customers and deliver value.

You can use the WooCommerce Twilio SMS notifications to give your buyers updates about their orders.

Plus, give them discounts to encourage them to come back again to your store or engage them with all kinds of post-purchase campaigns.

Here’s what you can do by enabling the Twilio SMS service on your WooCommerce store:

  • Send notifications about flash sales on your store
  • Notify customers about their orders and refunds
  • Get in touch with your customers for product reviews or recommendations
  • Alert users with product back in stock or subscription due messages
  • Lure users in with exclusive discount coupon codes

WooCommerce Twilio SMS notifications will help your campaigns get noticed leading to generating high revenues from your store.

Step 1: Set Up Your Twilio Account

You’ll need a Twilio account first to get started.

Twilio is an online solution provider that offers services such as calling, voice messaging, and SMS that you can use with different applications.

It provides a free trial of the premium services that you can set up and experiment with.

Head over to the Twilio website and sign up for the free trial.

Head over to Twilio and sign up for the free trial.

Enter your name, email and password to create your Twilio account.

Enter your name, email and password to create your Twilio account

You’ll receive a verification email - confirm it to proceed.

The next step is to verify your email address and phone number.

Verify your phone number for WooCommerce Twilio integration

After that, select the products that you want to use.

Here, we’ll be selecting the ‘SMS’ with ‘Alerts & Notifications’. Then choose ‘With no code at all’ and ‘3rd Party integrations’.

Click on Get Started with Twilio once done.

Click on "Get started with Twilio"

You’ll get redirected to the Twilio dashboard.

Click on ‘Get a Trial Phone Number’ to link a phone number to your account.

Click on ‘Get a Trial Phone Number’ to link a phone number to your account

This will generate your trial phone number.

You can find your Account SID, Auth Token, and Twilio phone number here on this screen.

You can find your Account SID, Auth Token, and Twilio phone number here on this screen

Make sure to copy these details - you’ll need them in Step 3 of this post.

Step 2: Install and Activate FunnelKit Automations

We will be using an automation plugin to send SMS from WooCommerce.

FunnelKit Automations is the best marketing broadcast and marketing broadcast plugin for WordPress.

It opens up infinite possibilities by integrating with different plugins and third-party applications to achieve your use cases.

Not just that, you can store unlimited contacts and send unlimited emails.

Get a copy of the FunnelKit Automations here.

Please note that FunnelKit Automations also has a Lite (free) version but we will be using the Pro version for advanced functionalities.

Once you’ve purchased FunnelKit Automations, go to your FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) account and download the following zip files:

1. FunnelKit Automations Lite

2. FunnelKit Automations Pro

3. FunnelKit Automations Connectors

Once you’ve purchased FunnelKit Automations, go to your FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) account and download the following zip files.

Install and activate all the plugins by uploading them to your WordPress website.

Once it’s done, go to your account and copy the activation code of the FunnelKit Automations Pro and Connectors plugin.

Paste the code in the settings page of FunnelKit Automations.

Paste the license to activate FunnelKit Automations

That’s it! You’re now ready to use FunnelKit Automations.

Step 3: Connect WooCommerce-Twilio with FunnelKit Automations

Twilio lets you send and receive messages with ease using messaging APIs.

You can create an SMS marketing campaign with Twilio using FunnelKit Automations.

FunnelKit Automations integrates well with Twilio to set up SMS automations and broadcasts the way you want.

But first, you need to connect the two. 

Go to the Connectors tab on FunnelKit Automations and click on ‘Connect’ under Twilio.

Go to the Connectors tab on FunnelKit Automations and click on ‘Connect’ under Twilio

Paste your Twilio Account SID, Auth Token and Phone Number here.

Paste your Twilio Account SID, Auth Token and Phone Number here

Once done, click on ‘Connect’.

You have successfully connected Twilio with FunnelKit Automations.

This way you have completed the Twilio WooCommerce integration - you can now start setting up SMS-based automations from your store.

Step 4: Send WooCommerce Twilio SMS Notifications with FunnelKit Automations

Now that you’ve connected Twilio with FunnelKit Automations, you can set up a Twilio SMS notification.

Let’s try this use case - when a user places an order, it’ll automatically send them a message.

To do this, go to Automations >> Add New.

Add new automation

Click on ‘Start from Scratch’ and name your automation as ‘WooCommerce Twilio Order Created SMS’.

Name your automation as ‘WooCommerce Twilio Order Created SMS’

You’ll get directed to the automation workspace area.

The first node is for your automation trigger. Click the trigger button to set it up.

The first node is for your automation trigger. Click the trigger button to set it up

Select the event trigger - ‘Order Created’ under WooCommerce.

Select the event trigger - ‘Order Created’ under WooCommerce

Configure this event node by clicking on the trigger.

Select the order status as ‘Processing’ and make the automation run ‘Multiple Times’

Click on 'Save' when done.

Configure the order created event node by clicking on the trigger - WooCommerce Twilio integration

Next, click on the blue icon from where you can add actions, conditions, delays, exits and goals for your automation.

Select ‘Action’ from here.

Select ‘Action’ from here

Click on the ‘Send SMS’ action under Messaging.

Click on the ‘Send SMS’ action under Messaging

Now you need to fetch the details of the customer's phone number in the ‘To’ field.

To do that, click on ‘Merge Tags’.

Click on merge tags to fetch the details of the customer's phone number in the ‘To’ field.

Copy the billing phone number merge tag - this will fetch the phone number entered by the customer during the checkout process.

Copy the billing phone number merge tag - this will fetch the phone number entered by the customer during the checkout process

Now, paste the ‘billing phone number’ merge tag here.

Write your Twilio SMS body that you want to send when someone places an order from your WooCommerce store.

Write your Twilio SMS body that you want to send when someone places an order from your WooCommerce store

Click on ‘Save’ to lock all your changes.

Next, activate your WooCommerce Twilio SMS automation by clicking on the toggle to ‘Active’.

Activate your WooCommerce Twilio SMS automation by clicking on the toggle to ‘Active’

Well done! Your automation is now live and running.

Now your customers will receive the SMS notification once they make a purchase from your WooCommerce store.

You can also send SMS updates to customers when their order status is updated or even many other use cases.

This is how you can send WooCommerce Twilio SMS notifications to your contacts with FunnelKit Automations.

BONUS: 7 WooCommerce Twilio SMS Campaigns You Must Set Up

We’re sure by now you're convinced about using SMSs to engage with your customers on autopilot.

It complements your email marketing strategy really well.

Please note that we have various campaigns as pre-built automation recipes already available for you to use in FunnelKit Automations.

All you need to do is import them with a single click and save your time brainstorming about your next WooCommerce Twilio SMS campaign.

WooCommerce Twilio recipes

Let’s look at some effective Twilio SMS campaigns that you should automate on your WooCommerce store.

#1: Abandoned cart reminders

8 out of 10 online shoppers tend to abandon their cart.

You can use the power of FunnelKit Automations to bridge the gap between WooCommerce-Twilio and reach out to cart abandoners via a series of SMSs with adequate delays.

#2: Post-purchase conversations

It’s important to carry the conversation forward after the sale and not cut the cord abruptly.

So make sure you reach out to your customers after the purchase is complete just to check in with them or get a review or inform them about the next sale.

#3: Subscription-based campaigns

SMS offers a great way to engage with subscribers and remind them when their subscription renewal is due.

Set up a simple WooCommerce-Twilio based SMS automation to remind them about subscription expiry, auto-renewal, payment details updation, and more.

#4: Purchase anniversary celebrations

Celebrating your customers’ 3 months or 6 month or 1-year purchase anniversary is a great way to stay top-of-mind.

Therefore, FunnelKit Automations lets you easily set up an automated WooCommerce-Twilio SMS campaign for their purchase anniversary.

#5: Customer winback sequences

FunnelKit Automations allows you to send WooCommerce Twilio SMS notifications to your customers who haven’t bought in a particular time period.

So let’s say if a customer had bought from you around 3 months back but hasn’t bought anything since then, you can send an automated SMS to win them back.

#6: Incentive-based campaigns

Loyal customers, those who make frequent purchases from the store are great for every business.

You can increase their shopping frequency by offering them incentives and making them feel special.

#7: Shopping experience or product review sequences

Your VIPs are more likely to respond to your request for review and shout out on social media than one-off buyers.

So it’s a great idea to send a blast campaign to your segmented list of VIP customers asking them for reviews.

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In our next post, we will dive deeper into some more WooCommerce SMS campaign ideas and how you can set them up in your store.

You can always follow our YouTube channel and Facebook group for more such tips/tricks and strategies to help boost your store’s revenue.

Create a Perfect Automated WooCommerce Twilio SMS Sequence with FunnelKit Automations!

We’re sure by now you already are excited about setting up your automated SMS services to boost the engagements in your store.

While one can set up email campaigns using the free version for cart abandonment, and post-purchase sequences; one needs the pro version for SMS-based campaigns.

FunnelKit Automations lets you automate SMSs and emails to help ease up the burden off your shoulder to be in constant contact with your customers.

It can be used in many more scenarios than the ones discussed above.

So go ahead and play around with the tool to understand its full potential.

Create an automated SMS sequence with WooCommerce-Twilio setup and retain more customers for your business.

Get FunnelKit Automations today >>

Author: Tavleen Kaur
Do you know after Amazon implemented the 1-click buy system, their sales shot up year-on-year hitting $88.9 Billion mark in 2014? Jeff Bezos attributed it to a friction-free & streamlined buying process. At FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels), we're determined to give you the tools you need to do the same in your business. I am Tavleen and I help you get there faster.

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