SMS Add-On Setup

By creavio Team April 10, 2026 1 views

SMS Add-On Setup

Email open rates are 20-30% for marketing messages. Text messages? 98% within 3 minutes. If you want clients to actually see your booking confirmations and payment reminders, SMS gets it done.

What the SMS Add-On Includes

The SMS add-on is a premium feature available for $10/month on top of any paid plan. It includes:

  • Text notifications for bookings, invoices, and gallery delivery
  • Two-way messaging with clients
  • SMS automation support in workflows
  • A dedicated phone number for your business

Enabling SMS

  1. Go to Settings > Add-Ons
  2. Find SMS Messaging and click Enable
  3. Complete the activation:
    • Choose your business phone number (select from available local numbers)
    • Verify your business information (required for SMS compliance)
    • Accept the messaging terms of service
  4. Click Activate

Configuring SMS Notifications

Once enabled, go to Settings > Notifications > SMS to choose which events trigger a text to the client:

  • Booking confirmation — "Your session with [business name] is confirmed for [date] at [time]."
  • Booking reminder — sent 24 hours before the session
  • Invoice sent — "You have a new invoice from [business name]. View it here: [link]"
  • Payment received — confirmation that payment was processed
  • Gallery delivered — "Your photos are ready! View your gallery: [link]"

Each notification has a default message you can customize. Keep messages under 160 characters to avoid splitting into multiple texts.

SMS in Automations

With SMS enabled, your automation workflows gain a new action type: Send SMS. This means you can build workflows like:

  1. Trigger: Booking confirmed
  2. Immediately: Send booking confirmation email + SMS
  3. 1 day before session: Send SMS reminder

SMS automations use the same merge fields as email templates.

Two-Way Messaging

Clients can reply to your texts. Their replies appear in your Communication > Inbox alongside portal messages. You can respond from the inbox and the client receives a text.

Compliance and Opt-Out

SMS marketing laws require opt-in consent. creavio handles this by:

  • Only sending texts to clients who have provided their phone number through your booking form or CRM
  • Including an automatic opt-out instruction in every message ("Reply STOP to unsubscribe")
  • Honoring opt-outs immediately and permanently

Do not use SMS for cold outreach or purchased lists. It is for existing clients and booked sessions only.

Message Limits

The $10/month add-on includes 500 SMS messages per month. Additional messages are $0.02 each. Most photographers use 50-150 messages per month. Usage shows in Settings > Add-Ons > SMS > Usage.