Text Marketing: Fill Next Week’s Empty Slots in Ten Minutes
It’s Sunday night and you’re looking at next week. Tuesday has a hole in it from 11 to 2. Thursday lost a colour when someone moved a flight. Saturday is fine, Saturday is always fine.
You know exactly who would take those slots. Not strangers — the woman who is four weeks past due for a trim, the client who said “text me when you have something.” You know their names. You just aren’t going to sit there and type forty individual messages on a Sunday night, so you close the app and hope.
That’s the gap Text Marketing closes, and it takes about ten minutes.
Text Marketing is a great tool for your small business
- It’s included. Text Marketing comes with the $35/month Premium plan (currently on promotion for $19/month), — no add-on, no upgrade tier.
- It’s three steps. Write the message, pick who gets it, review and send.
- It’s cheap. One credit sends a 160-character text to one client. Texting 250 clients costs about $1.67, and you start with 500 free credits.
- You can see if it worked. Every campaign reports Sent, Clicks and Booked — and Booked is the only one that matters.
What Text Marketing is
Text Marketing lets you send one message to a chosen group of your clients at once, from inside StyleSeat, without giving out your personal number or copying names into another app. It lives in your Marketing Suite alongside promotions, email and the loyalty program.
The people who receive it have opted in to hear from you specifically. When a client books, there’s a checkbox that reads “Get important updates and offers from [your name] by text.” It’s unchecked by default, and consent is recorded for you alone — not for StyleSeat, and not for any other professional on the platform. That’s why the list is small and worth something: everyone on it raised a hand.
How it works, start to finish
Step one: write the message
Start from a template or write your own. A message runs to 160 characters, and the counter shows you where you are as you type.
Two things make the message do more work than a mass text usually does. Insert Dynamic Content drops in their first name, the discount, the end date, the service — so a hundred texts don’t read like a generic blast. And Include link to your profile appends a short link straight to your booking page, which is the difference between a client who means to book and a client who books.
“Text STOP to opt-out.” is added automatically and can’t be edited out. That’s not red tape getting in your way — it’s the thing that keeps you on the right side of text-messaging law without you having to learn any of it.
Step two: pick who gets it
This is the step worth slowing down on, and it’s the one that separates a text that works from a text that annoys people.
You can send to All Clients, to Clients Who Have Booked, to Clients Who Have Not Booked, or to anyone who booked in the last 4, 8, 12 or 18 weeks. Each one shows a live count, so you know you’re texting 44 people and not 431 before you commit.
Those windows are more useful than they look. If your average client comes every six weeks, then “booked in the last 8 weeks” minus “booked in the last 4” is roughly the group who are due right now. That’s your Tuesday.
Step three: review and send
The last screen tells you what the send costs in credits and what your balance is. If you’re short, you can buy more without leaving the flow. If you’re not ready, Save & Finish Later keeps it as a draft you can come back to, edit or duplicate the next time you need the same message.
What it costs
Texts run on credits. One credit sends one message of up to 160 characters to one client; a longer message uses two. New professionals get 500 credits when they subscribe, and packages are $5 for 750 credits or $10 for 1,500.
| Clients you text | Credits used | What that costs |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 100 | about $0.67 |
| 250 | 250 | about $1.67 |
| 500 | 500 | about $3.33 |
| 1,000 | 1,000 | about $6.67 |
Put that next to what a filled slot is worth. Text 250 clients for $1.67, one person books a $150 service, and you’re up $180 with a 20% tip. You don’t need a 5% response rate for this to pay. You need one person.
Say something you’d actually say
Here’s where most of these go wrong, and it has nothing to do with the software.
You have spent years learning to read a person in the first ninety seconds of a consultation — what she’s actually asking for underneath what she said, whether she’ll maintain it, whether she’s about to cry about her last colourist. That skill is the reason she comes back. It should be the reason your text sounds like you and not like a coupon.
“Hi Danielle, I’ve got Tuesday 11am and Thursday 2pm open this week if you’re ready for a trim” beats any percentage sign. Specific opening, specific person, one idea, and something she can do about it right now. Save the discount for the weeks when you genuinely need volume, because a client who only ever hears from you when there’s money off learns to wait for the money off.
What you’d pay elsewhere
Texting clients is a standard feature in this category — what differs is where it sits in the price.
| Price | Where text marketing sits | |
|---|---|---|
| StyleSeat | $35/month (promo: $19) | Included, with 500 credits to start |
| GlossGenius | $28-$56/month | Standard includes 500 SMS credits; Gold at $56/mo raises it to 2,500 and adds advanced analytics |
| Vagaro | $43.99/month ($23.99/month + $20/month for the sms marketing add on) | A paid add-on — Vagaro’s own page leaves text marketing out of its free trial |
Send one this week
Pick the thinnest day on next week’s calendar. Choose the clients who booked between 4 and 8 weeks ago. Tell them what you have open, in your own words, and put your booking link on the end.
Then look at one number when the results come in — not Sent, not Clicks. Booked. If two people took a slot that was going to sit empty, that Sunday night you spent hoping just became a Sunday night you spent working, and it cost you less than a coffee.
Frequently asked questions
Is text marketing included, or does it cost extra?
Text Marketing is included in the $35/month Premium plan, currently promoted at $19. The individual messages run on credits — one credit per 160-character text per client — and you get 500 credits when you subscribe. Packages are $5 for 750 credits or $10 for 1,500.
Who actually receives my texts?
Only clients who ticked the box at booking that says they want updates and offers from you by text. It’s unchecked by default and the consent applies to you specifically, not to StyleSeat or to other professionals. If a client replies STOP she’s removed automatically, and she can turn it back on herself from her SMS Marketing Preferences.
How long can a text be?
160 characters on one credit. You can go longer, up to 320 characters, and it uses two credits per recipient. The automatic “Text STOP to opt-out.” line and your profile link are added on top of what you write.
How do I know whether it worked?
Each sent campaign reports three numbers: Sent, Clicks on your profile link, and Booked — appointments made within three days of the send. Judge yourself on Booked. A campaign with modest clicks that filled two slots did its job.
Find a pro near you
Book the looks you are reading about — top-rated pros in your city.
