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Fill empty class spots by text
Racket sports programs · 80% of text questions auto-answered; members spend 5x more
- Task
- turn one-time court renters into members, fill last-minute class openings and answer texts without a full-time responder
- Result
- members spend five times more than non-members (goal: membership within 60 days of first interaction); targeted segment emails outperform database-wide blasts by 15–20%; 80% of SMS questions answered automatically; 33% of SMS campaigns had zero unsubscribes and the rest under 1%; 500+ abandoned cart recoveries in six months
- Tools
- ActiveCampaign (three-layer tags for entry point, behavior and park/zip code; automations; SMS with keyword triggers; Active Intelligence for zip-code and timing analysis)
- Setup
- tag every contact by entry point (court rental, lesson inquiry, class signup, brand activation), engagement behavior and park name/zip → first court rental triggers "Save 10% on your next rental," second triggers 15% off lessons, six rentals triggers membership at 15% off, 90 days inactive triggers a free class, no response moves them to quarterly check-ins → three days before a class with open spots, text contacts tagged with that park or top zip codes, excluding current registrants, offering the spots at half off for 24 hours → set SMS keyword auto-replies ("time"/"when," "cost," "level," "location," "register") and flag other questions for staff
Send this to your AI
A ready-to-send prompt built from this card. Your AI will ask a few questions about your business, then give you a beginner setup plan.
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Help me set this up for my business: "Fill empty class spots by text".
Example business: Chicago racket-sports programming company (park district classes, court rentals, private…. Task: turn one-time court renters into members, fill last-minute class openings and answer texts without a full-time responder.
Reported result: members spend five times more than non-members (goal: membership within 60 days of first interaction); targeted segment emails outperform database-wide blasts by…
Tools: ActiveCampaign (three-layer tags for entry point, behavior and park/zip code; automations; SMS with keyword triggers; Active…
Setup outline:
1. tag every contact by entry point (court rental, lesson inquiry, class signup, brand activation), engagement…
Starter prompt from the guide (use it as a base):
Write 3 SMS messages under 160 characters each to past customers near [PARK/ZIP]: [CLASS NAME] starts in 3 days with [N] spots left, [OFFER, e.g. 50% off], booking link [LINK], friendly and no pressure. Also write one-line auto-replies for the keywords TIME, COST, LEVEL, LOCATION and REGISTER using my details: [DETAILS].
First, ask me up to 5 questions about my business and tools. Then give me a beginner step-by-step setup plan, plus copy-paste prompts/templates I can use. Plain English, and tell me if any step needs a tech helper.
via autopilotbusiness.ai/use-case/toss-and-spin-activecampaign-rental-to-member-offer-ladder-park-tagged/Step-by-step setup guide
> Cost: Paid. ActiveCampaign starts at $15 a month (Starter, billed annually, 1,000 contacts); most of what this guide uses needs Plus ($49) or higher, and texting is a paid add-on. 14-day free trial, no card.
Honest note: Rules plus a little AI. The offer ladder, tags and keyword replies are rule-based. The AI is Active Intelligence answering questions about your own data (top zip codes, the most common text questions). The numbers are vendor-published: "members spend 5x" is a comparison of members against non-members, who chose to join, so it does not show the automation caused it; "500+ abandoned carts recovered in six months" has no cart total; "80% of questions answered autonomously" comes from the AI's reading that five question types make up 80% of incoming questions, not a measured auto-resolution rate (the page says the other 20% go to people). The timeline conflicts: it says implementation started in March 2024, yet the breaking point that led to the search was December 2024. Check that a 50% last-minute discount still leaves margin. Consent flag: text only people who opted in to SMS.
Prerequisites
- An ActiveCampaign account (Plus or higher) and the SMS add-on; US senders must complete 10DLC registration first.
- A booking or checkout system that adds a tag or sends a purchase into ActiveCampaign (WooCommerce, Shopify and Zapier are options; the page does not say which it used).
- Signed SMS opt-in from the people you will text.
- Decide the offers and check margins.
Step-by-step setup
Step 1. Tag everyone by how they came in. Make three groups of tags, as the page does: how they entered (Court Rental, Lesson Inquiry, Class Signup, Brand Activation), behavior (such as clicked lesson info, inactive) and location (park name and zip). Apply them with forms, link clicks and your booking system's integration, or by a Zapier Zap that adds the tag.
Step 2. Build the offer ladder. Automations (left menu) → Create an automation → Start from scratch → Add a start trigger → Tag is added (for example a first-rental tag). Add the page's steps: first rental gets an email *Save 10% on your next rental*; second rental gets *Need practice? 15% off lessons*; after six rentals, *Become a member and save 15% permanently*; after 90 days with no activity, one email with a free class; if there is no response, move them to quarterly check-ins only. Counting rentals needs tags like Rental 1, Rental 2 or a number field; the page does not say how it counts. Use Wait steps between emails.
Step 3. Fill open spots by text. Three days before a class with open spots, ask Active Intelligence to build a segment: *contacts tagged [Park] or living in [zip codes], who do not have the tag [Registered for this class]*. Then send an SMS from an automation: click Automations, Edit, the + node, Send an SMS under Sending, write the offer with the booking link, and keep the STOP wording. The page used 50% off and excluded people already registered, which prevents confusing texts.
Step 4. Auto-answer common texts. Ask Active Intelligence what questions come back after your texts, then make one automation per answer: start with Replies to an SMS message, add a keyword condition (for example *time*, *cost*, *level*, *location*, *register*), and send the matching SMS. The page uses those five keywords. Replies that do not match go to your people in the SMS inbox. Note the built-in HELP and INFO replies are fixed and cannot be edited.
Texting consent flag (US): marketing texts need the person's clear prior consent. Collect it with an unchecked box on your form or ActiveCampaign's Subscribe by SMS keyword (SMS → Keywords → Create a keyword), keep the records, and register your number for 10DLC before sending. Every text must carry STOP opt-out wording; ActiveCampaign adds it if you leave it out. Check your state's rules on quiet hours.
Easier: let your AI do it. ActiveCampaign publishes a remote MCP address (Settings (gear) → Developer → Remote MCP URL) that you can add to Claude as a connector (Customize → Connectors). I did not verify which actions it can take, so keep approval on for every write. ActiveCampaign's own Active Intelligence (icon above the search bar, or the ActiveCampaign logo for the home page) can also build a first draft of an automation from a typed prompt, which you then review and click Activate.
What success looks like
A test text to the segment arrives with the offer and STOP wording; a reply of the keyword *time* gets your schedule back within a minute; and the offer-ladder automation shows contacts waiting at each step. Compare class fill rates before and after using your own counts.
Common issues & fixes
- People complain about texts: check consent records and quiet hours; remove anyone who never opted in.
- Keyword reply does not fire: the trigger needs an exact keyword condition and an SMS number registered for your region.
- Discounts eat margin: cap the discount or the number of spots offered.
Optional: Maintenance
- Weekly: build the open-spot segment for classes under capacity.
- Monthly: ask Active Intelligence which zip codes and subject lines performed best.
- Quarterly: review unsubscribe rates on SMS.
Copy-paste prompt
Use this prompt to draft the texts; have a person approve before turning anything on.
Write 3 SMS messages under 160 characters each to past customers near [PARK/ZIP]: [CLASS NAME] starts in 3 days with [N] spots left, [OFFER, e.g. 50% off], booking link [LINK], friendly and no pressure. Also write one-line auto-replies for the keywords TIME, COST, LEVEL, LOCATION and REGISTER using my details: [DETAILS].Sources
- Case: ActiveCampaign customer page: racket-sports programming business in Chicago. Credit: the founder of a Chicago racket-sports business (vendor customer page)
- ActiveCampaign help: Create an automation from scratch
- ActiveCampaign help: Automation triggers explained
- ActiveCampaign help: Overview of plans
- ActiveCampaign help: Active Intelligence overview
- ActiveCampaign help: Send SMS messages with automation
- ActiveCampaign help: SMS Reply Trigger and conditions
- ActiveCampaign help: Subscribe by SMS keyword
- ActiveCampaign help: SMS HELP and INFO keywords
Industries: AI automation for Real Estate & Property Management
Results as reported by the source; not independently verified. Community-sourced from public sites and attributed to the source platform. Original author? Ask us to correct or remove it. Read the disclaimer.