How to Send Twilio SMS Notifications from WooCommerce

SMS text messaging is one of the most direct and effective ways to reach customers in real-time. According to recent statistics, SMS marketing has a 98% open rate and 90% of messages are read within 3 minutes.

For ecommerce businesses, SMS notifications can be invaluable for order updates, promotions, surveys and driving engagement. With WooCommerce powering over 43% of online stores, integrating SMS is now easier than ever.

In this detailed guide, I‘ll show you how to set up automated SMS notifications in WooCommerce using Twilio and the Uncanny Automator plugin.

Why Your WooCommerce Store Needs SMS Notifications

Here are some powerful benefits of enabling SMS notifications from your online store:

Instant Order Updates

Important order status alerts like shipping and delivery notifications can reach customers much faster via SMS vs email.

Improved Customer Experience

Sending proactive updates over text message improves post-purchase experience and satisfaction.

Exclusive Promotions

SMS is a great way to send followers time-sensitive coupon codes and alerts on flash sales or limited inventory.

Personalized Communication

SMS delivers a more intimate and personal customer experience compared to other channels.

Works for All Customers

SMS will reach customers even if they did not provide an email during checkout or abandoned cart.

High Engagement Rates

Over 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery driving higher engagement.

Deeper Insights

With SMS, you can conduct quick customer surveys to gain feedback and improve your store.

As a store owner with over 15 years of experience driving growth through better customer engagement, I highly recommend investing in SMS messaging and automation.

Now let‘s look at how to set it up.

Step 1 – Creating a Twilio Account

Twilio provides a leading cloud communications platform for sending SMS, voice and messaging from your web and mobile apps.

To start, you‘ll need to create a free Twilio trial account:

1. Go to Twilio.com and click on Sign Up.
2. Provide your basic contact details on the registration form.
3. Verify your email address and phone number.
4. From the Twilio dashboard, click on Get a Trial Number. This will assign a phone number to your account for sending SMS.
5. Make note of the Account SID, Auth Token and Twilio Number provided on the screen. We‘ll need these credentials later.

Twilio offers a limited free trial that lets you send verification messages only. To unlock unlimited SMS capabilities, you‘ll need to upgrade to a paid plan starting at $15/month.

For high-volume messaging, I recommend the Pay as You Go plan which lowers your costs to under a penny per SMS text message sent.

Step 2 – Installing Uncanny Automator Plugin

To automate SMS notifications from your WooCommerce store, we‘ll use Uncanny Automator.

It‘s a powerful WordPress plugin that lets you create conditional workflows and automations between different apps and services without needing code.

Here are the steps to install Uncanny Automator:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for "Uncanny Automator" and click on Install Now.
3. After installation completes, click on Activate.
4. Install the premium add-on pack to unlock integration with Twilio and other tools.

Alternatively, you can also download the plugin files and upload via FTP.

After activating the plugin, we‘ll need to connect our Twilio account in the next step.

Step 3 – Connect Twilio with Uncanny Automator

To access Twilio‘s SMS capabilities from Uncanny Automator, you need to link your Twilio account:

1. Go to Automator > Settings > Premium Integrations from your WP dashboard.
2. Scroll down and click on "Connect" below the Twilio section.
3. A pop-up modal will appear. Enter your Twilio Account SID, Auth Token and your Twilio Phone Number here.
4. Click on "Validate and connect Twilio".

This will sync your Twilio account with the Uncanny Automator plugin so you can leverage its SMS API.

Step 4 – Creating an Automation Recipe

Now we can create a recipe in Uncanny Automator that sends an SMS alert to customers when an order is completed:

1. Go to Automator > Add Recipe > Select "Everyone" from the list.
2. Under Trigger, search for "WooCommerce" and select "Order is completed" from the dropdown.
3. Click on "Add" next to Actions. Search for "Twilio" in the integrations list.
4. Select "Send SMS" from the Twilio actions dropdown.
5. In the To field, select the customer‘s billing phone number as the variable.
6. Write your SMS body text. You can include customer name, order details etc.
7. Click on "Save" to create the automation recipe.
8. Toggle the recipe to "ON – Live" to activate it.

This simple recipe will send an SMS to your customer each time an order is marked as completed in WooCommerce.

Customizing the SMS Message

To make your notifications more dynamic, Twilio supports merge tags that will automatically insert order details like the customer name, product names purchased, total amount, order URL and more.

For example, you can include {{ customer.name }} to personalize the message with the customer‘s first name dynamically. See Twilio‘s documentation for the full list of available merge tags.

Segmenting Your SMS Lists

You may not want to send certain SMS alerts to all customers. Using tags and custom user fields in WooCommerce, you can segment your subscriber list and send targeted notifications.

For example, exclude customers who have opted out of SMS messages from your marketing automations. Or send SMS only to loyalty program members who have consented to it.

Use Cases for SMS Notifications

While order updates are most common, here are some other creative ways to use SMS notifications:

• Alert customers when out-of-stock products are back in inventory
• Promote limited time sales and promotions
• Offer exclusive VIP coupons or perks to loyalty members
• Send cart abandonment reminders to recover lost sales
• Collect quick customer feedback using SMS surveys
• Announce giveaways, new arrivals or blog posts
• Re-engage inactive subscribers with personalized offers
• Send shipping and delivery updates
• Wish loyalty program members on birthdays and anniversaries

Best Practices for SMS Marketing

Here are some tips to ensure your SMS notification campaigns remain effective:

• Only message customers who have explicitly opted in to receive SMS notifications.
• Include an easy opt-out mechanism in each SMS message you send.
• Personalize the message copy including customer names when possible.
• Keep your SMS text messages brief, under 160 characters in length.
• Send SMS notifications during business hours when most users are active.
• Monitor open and click-through rates to identify the best times and frequency for SMS campaigns.
• Regularly clean up your SMS subscriber list by removing inactive numbers.
• Comply with all local telecom regulations regarding promotional SMS messages.

Alternatives to SMS Notifications

Although SMS provides the fastest way to reach customers, it‘s not the only way. Here are some other notification channels you can consider:

• Push notifications within mobile apps for real-time order updates.
• Email receipts and notifications for customizable order statuses.
• Web push notifications that persist on desktop and mobile browsers.
• Buyer-seller chat messaging within the order details page.
• Social media messaging via Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

Evaluate all options to choose the channels that best suit your business needs and audience preferences.

Premium WooCommerce SMS Extensions

While Twilio covers basic SMS messaging, some advanced WooCommerce extensions offer additional capabilities:

• SMS Manager – Allows collecting customer mobile numbers at checkout for SMS marketing.

• NativeChat – Provides an automated post-checkout SMS chat solution.

• SMS Alert Order Notifications – Officially supported Twilio extension by WooCommerce.

• Messente – Global SMS provider with support for two-way messaging.

Review each extension in detail to pick the right premium SMS add-on for your WooCommerce store.

Wrap Up

I hope this detailed guide helped you understand how to send automated Twilio SMS notifications from your WooCommerce store using Uncanny Automator.

SMS messaging allows you to provide quick order updates, run targeted promotions and surveys, recover abandoned carts and boost engagement.

Implementing some of the best practices outlined in this article will ensure your customers enjoy your SMS campaigns.

Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments!