Prepay Picture Day Text Message Triggers

Studios now have the ability to send event-driven text messages to customers whose mobile phone numbers are associated with prepay events.

Examples of event-driven notifications include:

  • “Prepay for your school photos now!” sent to all customers a day after prepay event creation. This message only makes sense when a studio imports mobile phone numbers into a prepay event.
  • “Picture day is tomorrow! Please dress your child appropriately tomorrow.” sent one day before picture day to customers who have purchased.
  • “Picture day is tomorrow: Last chance to prepay!” sent one day before picture day to customers who have not placed an order.
Pricing for Text Messages
  • Premium SimplePhoto members will not be charged for the first 5000 triggered text messages sent each month. Each additional text message will be billed at the rate of 1 cent per text message.
  • Lite or Pro SimplePhoto members will not be charged for the first 1000 triggered text messages sent each month. Each additional text message will be billed at the rate of 1 cent per text message.
  • Before billing for triggered text messages starts, the SimplePhoto Dashboard will show the current number of text messages sent in a month.
  • An email notification will be sent to your account's billing email address the day when the free allotment of triggered text messages has been exceeded and you will begin being billed for triggered text messages.
  • All triggered text message fees will be included in your monthly bill as an individual line item.
  • There is no charge for text messages sent for import gallery notifications or digital download orders.

Restrictions: 

  • A maximum of 10 triggered texts can be set up within a single SimplePhoto account. This restriction is subject to change.
  • A text trigger will only run once per day. For example, you set up a text trigger to run at 10 am. At 11 am, you decide that you want to change the time for the text trigger to 3 pm. Since the text trigger already ran at 10 am, the text trigger will not run at 3 pm.

Mobile phone numbers can be stored using the following three methods:
Note: Photographers who set up prepay picture day reminder text messages primarily use the first method "Import mobile numbers into a Prepay Event."

  • Import mobile numbers into a Prepay Event: First, make sure the Show text message notification form in Gallery Control Panel is turned on inside Text Message Notification Settings, found by clicking Marketing at the top of your dashboard. Then, click Galleries at the top of your dashboard and navigate to the appropriate prepay event control panel. Next, click Manage SMS Notifications. Paste mobile numbers separated by commas or line breaks into the box under Import Mobile Numbers. Click the Import Mobile Numbers button.
  • Checkout: Click Marketing at the top of your dashboard and then click General Marketing Settings. Check the box next to Enable email address and phone number collection during checkout. If a customer checks the box next to "Notify me about gallery updates and sales," their email and phone number will be stored and can be used later for notification purposes. Place an order for a gallery or prepay event and make sure the opt-in checkbox is checked when you enter the email and phone number on the checkout screen.
  • Guestbook: Click Marketing at the top of your dashboard and then click General Marketing Settings. From the drop-down menu next to Prepay Guestbook, select either Enable - Email Optional and Phone Optional or Enable - Email Required and Phone Optional. The Guestbook form will appear on the prepay event homepage. If the guestbook is required, customers must provide an email address to view a gallery. To test, enter the phone number in a prepay event's guestbook. You can either access an event where you have not yet entered the guestbook or you can open the event link using your web browser’s incognito or private browsing mode (so the fact that you already entered the guestbook is not remembered).

How to Set up Text Triggers:

There is one pre-built text trigger in your account that is disabled by default. Feel free to modify and enable this trigger or delete and build your own triggers from scratch.

  1. From your SimplePhoto Dashboard, click on Marketing at the top of your dashboard and then click Text Triggers.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Add button to create a new text trigger.
  3. Enter an identifiable name in the Label field for the new trigger such as “Prepay Picture Day.”
  4. In the Days field, enter a number of days that you would like the text to be sent before or after the Trigger Date.
  5. Select the Before or After  checkbox . If Before is selected, then texts will be sent X days before the trigger date. If After is selected, then texts will be sent X days after the trigger date.
  6. Choose the Trigger Date, which will trigger the text to be sent. Applicable triggers for prepay include:
    • Creation: This is the date a  prepay event is created.
    • Event Trigger 1: Picture day: This date can be set inside a prepay event control panel. Note: To create a new prepay event, visit the How to Create a Prepay Event help page.
    • Event Trigger 2: Makeup/retake day: This date might be applicable for prepay if you plan to retake photos before posting them online. This date can be set inside a prepay event control panel.
  7. Enter a message to your customers in the Template field such as “Prepay for your school photos now!” or "Preorder for [EventName]. Picture day is [PictureDay]." Refer to the examples of event-driven notifications above. The Template field is restricted to 78 characters. Click Here for details about using parameters in your template, which can be used to pull in information from each of your prepay events such as the event name, picture day date, etc.
  8. Check the box next to Gallery/Event Link if you would like to include a direct link to the prepay event in the text message.
  9. Select Prepay in the drop-down menu under Event Type.
  10. Under Phone Source, select the source where mobile numbers will be pulled from for the triggered text.
    • All: All mobile phone numbers that you import, are pulled from your guestbook, or are submitted by a customer for an order at checkout, will be included in the triggered text.
    • Imported: The triggered texts will be sent only to mobile phone numbers that you import for your prepay event.
    • Guestbook: The triggered text will be sent only to mobile numbers added through your Guestbook feature. Verify that the “Collect mobile phone in Guestbook” setting is enabled inside Text Message  Notification  Settings.
    • Checkout: The triggered text will be sent only to mobile phone numbers collected at customer checkout.
  11. Under Gallery/Event Filter, select the type of customer who will receive the triggered text based on their order status.
    • All: All customers will be targeted by this triggered text.
    • No order placed in SimplePhoto: Only customers who have not placed an order in your SimplePhoto account will be targeted by this triggered  text .
    • Order placed in SimplePhoto: Only customers who have placed an order in your SimplePhoto account will be targeted by this triggered text.
    • No yearbook pose selection: Only customers who have not selected a yearbook pose will be targeted by this triggered text. Applies to Image Gallery Text Triggers ONLY.
  12. Select the Delivery Time that you would like your text to be sent. Text triggers will only be sent during the hour of day they're set to send. The timezone for the delivery time can be updated inside the Photographer Information screen. Visit the Timezone help page for more information.
  13. If you would like this text to be enabled immediately, check the Enabled checkbox.
  14. Click Save when finished.