We're extremely excited to share the details of our newest feature in Beta! 🥁 Keywords & Automations! rolling out this week to all accounts. We want your feedback, so reach out to your CSM or support@hustle.com to share 🥳
In this article we will take you through what you can do with Keywords and Automations.
Also, be sure to check back here periodically as the team will be adding many more features over the coming weeks, including but not limited to:
- Publishing templates of automations from the account level to organizations
- Adding contacts to automations when a tag is applied to them
- Adding contacts to automations when they are added to groups
- Support for Message Series, where contacts receive new messages after a designated amount of time has passed
- Support for including Hustle Clips and Hustle Stories to messages
Skip to:
- What are Keywords and Automations?
- What can I do with Keywords and Automations?
- Who can use Keywords and Automations?
- How do I set up an Inbox for my organization?
- How do I set up Keywords and Automations for my organization?
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Frequently asked questions!
- How do I edit my automations?
- Why can't I remove a keyword from my automation?
- How do I delete an automation?
- Why is my inbox or group not available when publishing an automation?
- Why can't I publish my automation?
- Why can't I remove a keyword from my automation?
- Why is a keyword action not triggering?
What are Keywords and Automations?
Admins can set up specific words or phrases called Keywords that initiate one or more Hustle actions automatically. Automations refer to these keywords and their corresponding action(s).
Currently, automations are only initiated when a contact responds with a Keyword to a specified inbox or group phone number. In the coming weeks, admins will be able to initiate automations when contacts are added to groups or when tags are applied to contacts.
There are some properties for how Keywords and Automations work to be aware of:
- Keywords are not case sensitive
- Keywords can be up to 12 characters including spaces
- For an automation to initiate, the message must contain ONLY a specified keyword or phrase
- Automations can include many steps
- Each Automation step can be initiated by many keywords and phrases with one or more actions
- Keywords used in the initial step of an automation cannot be reused within that same Automation
- Automations that share initial keywords cannot be published to the same Hustle phone number
- Group phone numbers cannot be used to automatically send messages. If an automation with a send message action is applied to a group phone number, the send message action will be skipped. All other actions such as add to group, apply tag, remove tag, and apply opt out will trigger accordingly.
- Only keyword automations can be published to groups. Tag and Group automations can be published to inboxes only.
What can I do with Keywords and Automations?
Automations can use the following initial triggers (the starting condition that triggers contacts in your organization to enter the flow of your automation):
- Keyword (when contacts text any of the keywords to a published phone number, this will add them to the automation flow)
- Group (adds contacts to the automation flow when they are added to a particular group for the first time)
- Tag (adds contacts to the automation flow when a tag is applied in any group or inbox)
Initial triggers are not retroactive, so for example if you use the Group or Tag initial trigger, only contacts who are added to the group or have the tag applied after you publish the automation will be pulled into the flow.
Admins can set up Automations that perform the following actions:
- Send message (messages for automations now support MMS 🥳) For more info about enabling MMS for your account, see How do I text with MMS in Hustle?
The send message action will not trigger for contacts texting Hustle group phone numbers, but will trigger a message for contacts who text keywords to Inbox phone numbers.
- Apply tag(s)
- Remove tag(s)
- Add contact to group(s)
The add to group action will not trigger for contacts texting Hustle group phone numbers, unless inbound messaging has been enabled.
- Remove / deactivate contact in group(s)
- Apply opt out
- Remove opt out
Who can use Keywords and Automations?
By default, only Account admins can create or modify Keywords and Automations in an organization. Account admins can optionally grant organization admins permission to either create new or modify existing automations from the Account Settings of the Account Overview.
How do I set up an Inbox for my organization?
To take full advantage of all the capabilities of Keywords and Automations, admins are encouraged to set up at least one Inbox. Each Hustle organization can have up to 20 inboxes 🙌
Inboxes are equipped to automatically send messages to contacts based on keywords, whereas if an automation with a send message action is applied to a group phone number, the send message action will be skipped.
For more information on setting up an Inbox see How do I use the Inbox?
How do I set up Keywords and Automations for my organization?
To help save account admins time setting up automations, in the coming weeks, Hustle will enable accounts admins to publish templates of automations from the account level to all or some organizations in the account.
In the meanwhile, we encourage account admins to set up a few automations in one or more organizations to get comfortable with how they work. Then, when Automation Templates are available, Account admins can save some steps distributing templates to all or some organizations in the account.
To start creating an automation, admins can select the Automations option from the left-hand organization menu of the admin panel.
There are three required automations set up by default for every organization: Info, Opt Out, and Opt In.
Required automations will be published to all groups and inboxes by default and cannot be removed, but can be edited. To edit, click on the automation name to open the Edit page. From there, you can add the desired Actions, and additional Steps with more keywords and actions (click Save to confirm changes). When ready, click on Continue to Publish in the top right.
Required automations by default will apply to all groups and inboxes that have been assigned phone numbers and TCR campaigns. Please note the Starting Keywords for required automations cannot be removed, although you can click Edit Keywords to add additional keywords. Keep in mind that duplicate starting Keywords cannot be used in multiple automations.
✨ Now let's create some new automations! Admins will use the Automation Builder to configure the steps of an automation with desired keywords and actions. Be sure hit Save after the flow looks good!
First, you'll choose a Starting Trigger. This will be the condition that needs to be met for a contact to enter your automation flow. The Starting Trigger can be a keyword or comma separated list of keywords contacts will text in to the phone number(s) where the automation is published, a group where contacts are added, or a tag that is applied to contacts. Group and tag initial triggers will only be available to publish to inbox phone numbers.
For the below example, once this automation is published any contacts that text in 'Event' (not case sensitive) will enter the automation flow. We added a Send Message action to the initial step, so contacts will receive this automated message reply when they text the starting keyword.
You can now add a Time Duration between steps in your automation ⏱ To do so, select it when adding a new step.
With time duration, you can designate the day(s) and time when you want that automation step to trigger. This step will trigger any actions you attach automatically at the set time(s) with no additional action required from contacts 🆒 In the below example, contacts will receive the automated message on Tuesday or Thursday at 11am after the initial trigger is completed.
Adding multiple steps to automations will enable one automation to accomplish more for you 🙌 Keep in mind the order of steps, as contacts will need to complete the steps in order to receive all the automation actions. In this case, we are adding an additional step with a trigger keyword, then adding the action 'Add Tag' so that contacts who text 'Yes' will be automatically tagged in the organization.
When you are ready to publish your automation to make it live, Admins will be asked to select the Inbox and/or group phone numbers to associate with the automation. If your automation includes Send Message actions or Group / Tag initial triggers, please note you will only be able to publish to Inbox phone numbers.
And it's that easy! Now sit back, and let Automations do the work for you 😎
Please Note ✨: Phone numbers in Hustle do not support multiple automations with the same keyword(s). If you want to use the same keywords for different automation actions, you will need to publish those automations to different phone numbers.
Frequently asked questions 🤨
How do I edit my automations?
To edit any automation, from the Automations tab of the organization menu, click on the automation name to open the editor. From there, you can adjust keywords, actions, and add additional steps. Be sure to click Save before Continue to Publish, where you can make any changes to the group(s) or inbox(es) you'd like the automation to apply to.
👀 If you are unable to edit Automations, this means an account admin will need to grant you that access. Reach out to your admin, or support@hustle.com with a link to your admin panel if you don't know who that is!
How do I find my Inbox and Group phone numbers?
When publishing an Automation, the phone numbers used by all available Inboxes and groups will display for you convenience. If you need to see where a particular automation is published, click on the automation name > Continue to Publish to view all selected phone numbers, and make any adjustments needed.
How do I delete a keyword from my automation?
To delete a keyword from your automation, you'll need to add an action first:
You can then delete the keyword from inside the editing form.
Why can't I remove a keyword from my automation?
For required automations, the initial keywords cannot be edited or removed. Newly created automations cannot use the initial keywords that are in use in required automations.
How do I delete an automation?
At this time Automations cannot be unpublished or deleted, so to ensure automations are not triggering any actions, we recommend editing the Automation to remove any associated actions. Make sure you click the blue Save button before publishing to ensure those changes are made.
When you click on Continue to Publish, ensure no groups or inboxes are selected, and then Publish.
Why is my inbox or group not available when publishing an automation?
Inboxes and groups must have a phone number selected and TCR campaign fully applied to be available for use in Automations.
After applying a TCR campaign to a group or inbox, it will take up to a day to process. While a TCR campaign is still processing, you won't be able to publish an automation to that group or inbox. As soon as processing is complete, you can edit the Automation to publish to the desired group or inbox.
Go to the group or Inbox to ensure these steps are completed, refresh the admin panel, and then edit the Automation to publish it to the desired Inbox(es) and group(s).
For any new Automations admins create, you will be able to select a maximum of 50 combined inboxes and groups to publish to at one time. You can adjust where the automation is published by editing and changing your inbox and group selections.
Why can't I publish my automation?
Automations cannot contain overlapping initial keywords: Once an initial keyword is used for an automation, it cannot be used for others. The required automations keywords are set by default and cannot be removed, so please ensure any automations you create are not using the same initial keywords as existing automations.
Why can't I remove a keyword from my automation?
For required automations, the initial keywords cannot be edited or removed. Required automations will have the 'required' label.
Why is a keyword action not triggering?
There are a few keyword action behaviors for Automations that admins should be aware of:
1. The send message action will only work when contacts text a keyword to Inbox phone numbers. It is not supported for texts to group phone numbers.
2. The add to group action will only work when contacts text a keyword to Inbox phone numbers. It is not supported for texts to group phone numbers.
3. When publishing automations to Hustle groups, please note that contacts that have not yet been messaged in a group will not be able to text in to trigger automation actions, unless inbound messaging is enabled for the group.
4. Check to make sure your Automation has the desired action saved and published to the correct inbox(es) and group(s). When creating a new Automation or editing existing, admins must click the blue Save button before publishing to ensure the changes are applied.
To verify, go to your Automations page from the left Organization menu, click the "..." more options > Edit to view the actions. If the keywords and actions look correct, click on Continue to Publish to ensure the automation is published to your desired groups and inboxes.
5. After creating or making changes to any automation, clicking Save and publishing, it will take several minutes for the new automation to take effect. We recommend waiting a few minutes after making any changes, refreshing the admin panel with command + shift + r, and then testing the keyword again to ensure it triggers the desired action.
6. Although they disregard capitalization, keywords must be an exact match to trigger an automation action - if typos are common, we recommend adding additional keywords to the automation to account for misspellings or variations so these still trigger the desired action.
7. In Automations, the order of steps can be important. For example, if there is an action in the first step to 'Apply Opt Out' and then a second step action to 'Send Message', the second step keyword trigger will not work, because the contact has been opted out and can no longer receive messages unless opted back in. You may need to adjust the order of steps for your automation to function as desired.
8. Automations cannot share the same Initial Trigger Keyword as other automations.
None of these reasons resolving your issue? Email support@hustle.com with the link to your automation in the admin panel for help!