SMS and email campaigns with a fixed end date, such as an event, a seminar, an open day or a deadline, need a calendar more than a clever message. The question is which touch goes out on which day, on which channel, to whom, and when each person drops out because they already acted. This article answers how to sequence one time-bound campaign across both channels on the levelpartner.ai platform, using a worked three-week event as the model.
Start from the date and work backwards
A campaign with a deadline has a natural shape: an announcement, a period of reminders and a final push. Fix the end date, then place each touch backwards from it. Decide the channel for each touch by what it needs to do, not by habit.
A typical three-week shape for an event looks like this:
- Day 1: announcement email with the full details.
- Day 4: email to non-openers with a different subject line.
- Day 8: short text to consented contacts who have not registered.
- Day 14: email with a speaker or agenda highlight.
- Day 19: text to remaining non-registrants with a last-places message.
- Day before: reminder text to registrants with time and location.
- Morning of: final reminder text with the joining link or directions.
Everyone who registers leaves the promotional track and joins the reminder track.
Before you start
- A fixed event date and a registration form or booking calendar.
- Email and SMS consent recorded separately on contacts.
- A verified sending domain for email and an SMS number registered where your market requires it.
- Copy for every touch, drafted together so the story builds.
- A tag that marks registrants.
How to set it up
The campaign uses two workflows: a promotion workflow entered by a campaign tag, with the email and SMS touches in date order and a Goal Event that removes anyone who registers, and a second workflow triggered by the registrant tag for confirmation and reminders. Build each one with the same platform steps.
- Go to Automation > Workflows.
- Create a new workflow or open an existing one.
- Choose the trigger that should start the automation.
- Add the Send SMS action.
- Enter the message you want to send.
- Add personalisation or a template where appropriate.
- Add Wait steps, conditions or other actions when needed.
- Test the workflow and SMS content.
- Publish the workflow when it is ready to run.
Before each SMS step in the promotion workflow, add a condition that checks SMS consent, and test both workflows with a staff contact before enrolling the real list.
Imagine the firm invites 3,000 contacts over three weeks. Say the emails bring 85 registrations and two promotional texts, sent only to consented non-registrants, add 41, for 126 in total. With reminder texts the day before and on the morning, an attendance of around 100 would fill most of the room. The figures are hypothetical; the sequencing is what to copy.
Why two workflows instead of one
Promotion and service messages have different rules. Promotional touches need marketing consent and should stop the moment someone registers. Reminders are transactional for people who registered, and should reach everyone who signed up. Separating them keeps the logic simple and makes sure a registrant never receives a "places running out" text.
How this differs from ongoing marketing
A campaign ends. Ongoing email and SMS marketing runs indefinitely, with rules about which channel does which job. If you are designing that longer programme, read email and SMS marketing. For a text-only version of a campaign plan, see SMS marketing campaign.
Time it takes
Building a three-week campaign takes a day the first time, including copy. Reuse the two workflows for later events and it drops to two or three hours. During the campaign, someone should spend fifteen minutes a day checking registrations and replies.
The mistake most people make
Sending every touch on both channels. Seven emails and seven texts in three weeks is too many. Most touches should be email; texts are for the moments when timing matters most, usually the middle push, the last call and the reminders.
Forgetting the goal step. Without it, people who registered on day two still receive every promotional message, which makes your firm look disorganised.
When not to use a combined campaign
If the event is small and invite-only, a personal email and a phone call beat any sequence. If your list has few SMS opt-ins, run it as an email campaign with reminder texts only for registrants. For a single text-only send, see how to run a bulk SMS campaign.
Troubleshooting
Registrants still get promotional texts. The goal or exit condition is missing or checks the wrong tag. Test with a contact who registers part way through.
Reminder texts arrive for people without SMS consent. The consent condition sits in the promotion workflow but not the reminder workflow. Add it to both, and see mass text marketing for how consent should be recorded.
Reminder timing is off. The wait steps are relative to enrolment, not the event. Use waits based on the event date or appointment time instead.
Some contacts get emails but no texts. They lack SMS consent. That is correct; do not add texts for them.
Attendance drops despite registrations. Add the morning-of reminder and include practical detail such as parking or the joining link.
Frequently asked questions
How many touches should a three-week campaign have?
Five to seven in total across both channels is enough for most audiences. Two or three of those should be texts.
Should reminders be text or email?
Both work, but texts are read faster. Use email for the confirmation with full details and text for the short reminders.
Can I reuse the workflows?
Yes. Duplicate them, change the dates and copy, and re-test before each new campaign.
What if the event date changes?
Pause both workflows, update the waits and messages, and send a short correction to registrants first.