Struggling with Onboarding New Customers? Here’s How SMS Can Help

Problem: New Customers Don't Use Your Product Fast Enough

Your product is selling. People are signing up for free trials. But then… they stall.

They don’t login. They don’t complete the setup process. They don’t experience those “aha” moments that make them stick around.

You’ve got onboarding emails in place, but they’re not getting opened. Maybe they’re buried in inboxes, maybe people intend to come back to them but never do. Meanwhile, your support and customer success teams are chasing ghosts.

At the same time, you’re getting rave reviews from the customers who do use your product.

In other words, the problem isn’t what you’re selling. It’s getting new customers’ attention.

Solution: Send Texts to Onboard Them

Add 1–2 automated texts to your onboarding email workflow.

Texting isn’t meant to replace your emails—it’s meant to add to your overall marketing strategy, and even draw attention to your well-crafted emails.

A well-timed SMS can nudge a new customer back into the onboarding process before they lose momentum.

👉 Use texts as an attention trigger.

Sample text messages: 

• Right after customers purchase: "You’re in! Check your email for setup instructions—or reply here if you have any questions.”
• If they haven’t engaged: "Still need to finish setup? Your account is waiting: [link]. Let me know if you need help!"

Companies using Salesmsg + HubSpot SMS workflows are seeing more engaged users, faster onboarding completion, and higher activation rates. Learn how in this blog post.

Now, let’s walk through how to set up an automated SMS + email onboarding workflow in HubSpot using Salesmsg.

How to Build an Onboarding Workflow with SMS

Before You Start:
Pre-work #1: Connect your Salesmsg account to your HubSpot account.

Go to Settings > App Marketplace and click to connect your HubSpot account. Then once you press connect, it will redirect you to your HubSpot account where you can connect your HubSpot account or create a new one. For more details on configuring your HubSpot settings and syncing your contacts, be sure to read this article first.

Prework# 2: Ask your customers to opt-in for your SMS list.

In the U.S., you must have explicit permission to send text messages for your business.

Before setting up this workflow, ask customers to join your SMS list. We recommend you do this by asking your entire audience to join your SMS list on every web form on your site. Then when a customer purchases, you can instantly text them. On your web forms:

✅ Ask for your leads’ phone number.

✅ Add an unchecked checkbox with the compliance language to ask for your leads’ permission to text them. Here’s the compliance language with all necessary items included:

(Unchecked checkbox) “I agree to receive recurring automated text messages at the phone number provided. Msg & data rats may apply. Msg frequency varies. Reply HELP for help and STOP to end. View our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.”

✅ Ensure your audience can submit this form, even if they don’t opt in for your texts.

Here’s an example of what a compliant opt-in form looks like below.

📌 Reference HubSpot’s SMS opt-in guide for details on these restrictions: Read Here.

Important Note: To build this workflow, you should create your web form(s) inside HubSpot too.

Please keep in mind: There’s many ways to build a HubSpot workflow.

For this example, we’re going to show you how to build a workflow that checks if your new customers opted in for text messages or not on your web forms.

To add this functionality to your workflow, you can build a custom property inside HubSpot that’s connected to your HubSpot opt-in forms. This property will specifically check if your customers checked this box that says “I agree to receive text messages…”

To create this form, go to forms inside HubSpot. Create a form that asks for your customers' first name, email and phone number. Add a single checkbox to your form that will ask your attendees to opt-in for texts. Drop in the exact opt-in message you see above that starts with “I agree to receive recurring automated marketing text messages…”

On the form, create a new connected property. Give it a name like “opt-in” or “Salesmsg opt-in.” Then you can use this connected property in your workflow.

📌 Done? You’re ready to build your workflow.

How to Build an SMS Workflow from an Existing Onboarding Workflow

Here's a sneak peek of the onboarding workflow we're building with text messages...

Step #1: To build this workflow, first find your existing onboarding workflow inside HubSpot.

For example, here's an onboarding workflow below that includes just emails. We're going to be adding SMS messages to a workflow like this.

Step #2: Add an and/or branch at the top

✅ Insert an And/Or Branch based on whether your customers have opted in for SMS or not.

• Customers who opted in for SMS will get both onboarding emails and text messages.
• Customers who didn’t opt in receive only onboarding emails.
• To create this SMS-only branch, click on “add criteria.” Then “contact properties.” Then search for the name of your custom property (like “SMS opt-in.”) From there, mark the criteria as “yes” as we did below.

When you’re done, you’ll create a branch that looks like this:

Since you’re inserting a branch to an existing workflow, you have the option to move all the rest of the emails in your welcome workflow under one specific branch.

• Move all emails under your “email only” branch 2 so you can reuse these emails later.
• Now customers who did NOT opt-in for SMS will only receive your original onboarding emails – not SMS

Step #3: For customers who opted in for SMS: 

✅ Add one text message to the SMS branch 1 of your workflow.

• This first text message should welcome your new customers.
• Introduce them to your Head of Support or Customer Success Manager, so they know who to contact if they have questions.
• Explain what’s happening next: Tell them to expect emails etc. 
• Give them a call to action (CTA) to text back with questions. 
• Or give your new customers a CTA to check out a video or other resource.

How to add this text message to your workflow:

• Click the plus sign under the SMS branch. This will open your “Choose an Action” menu.
• On the “Choose an Action” menu, scroll to Salesmsg SMS Texting & Calling. Open that menu.
• Click “Send SMS/MMS - Text Message.” This will add a SMS to your workflow. 

How to customize this text message: 

• Click on “Send SMS” in your workflow.
• Fill in all properties for how you’ll be sending your SMS.
• Under “phone number property” - add both “mobile phone number” then drop in a comma, and “phone number.” (The comma is important. Be sure to include it.)
• For the “send from” - the best practice is to send your SMS message from “owner” instead of an inbox. This allows you to scale and send thousands of texts at once.
• Owner property: Drop in “Contact Owner.” (This is important. Your workflow will not run from an owner if you don’t say “Contact Owner” in the owner property.)
• Write your text message. For example: “Welcome (firstname)! I’m (your name), your (job title). Watch your email, because I’m sending you critical onboarding info. Text back if you need anything!”

Pro tips:

• You may want to turn this SMS message into a MMS message by adding media like images, GIFs or videos to the “Media URL” section.
• Specifically, you might add a photo or GIF of your CS manager or Head of Support waving. This helps put a human face to your business. It also introduces your new customers to the people who will be helping them with onboarding.
• Is this the first text these customers will receive (ever from your business)? If so, add an SMS opt-out message by clicking the link at the bottom of your SMS screen.
• Consider using Salesmsg’s tool Phonechecker to only send your new onboarding text to valid, textable numbers. (To do so, click the link under the “Add an opt-out message.”)

✅ Add the rest of your onboarding emails + delays to SMS branch 1.

• Your customers should receive your first onboarding email on the same day as your first text message, and all follow-up onboarding emails after that.
• To set this up, clone all emails and delays in your “email only” branch 2 to add them to your SMS branch 1. Go to the first action in branch 2 and click “clone.” Then choose “clone this action and all following actions.”  

• You’ll see a button appear that says “place here” under your SMS in branch 1. Click “place here.” This will send out all your onboarding emails (with the appropriate time delays) to your customers. 

✅ Drop in one final delay of 3 days after the last onboarding email.

• This gives your customers more time to finish onboarding before you send them one final SMS message

✅ Add a second text at the end of your onboarding workflow.

• Your goal is to get customers to start using your product, so we suggest adding a final SMS message at the end of your onboarding workflow to check-in with customers. 
• To do so, add a SMS at the bottom of SMS branch 2 after all your emails. 
• This final reminder text may say something like: “Hey (FirstName), It’s Jake from Salesmsg. Have you already finished onboarding? If not, you can get everything you need to get started here: (link). Need any help? Just text back.”

Step #4: Looks good? Review and publish.

Why Texting Works for Onboarding

Onboarding emails are useful, but only if people see them and act on them. Adding SMS can:

✅ Interrupt the scroll & direct attention – Instead of hoping they find your email, you remind them it’s there.

✅ Re-engage customers before they go get distracted – People intend to come back later, but most don’t. A text helps them take action now.

✅ Increase product adoption – The sooner they complete setup, the more likely they are to become long-term customers.

Want help setting this up? Try Salesmsg for free for 14 days and start getting more users to complete onboarding today.