You put the event together, people registered, and then a third of them didn’t show up. For free or low-cost programs, that’s not unusual. Without money on the line, there’s nothing pulling people back to a commitment they made two weeks ago.
Manually following up with every registrant isn’t realistic, especially when you’re running programs across multiple locations or age groups. Automated SMS event reminders solve it cleanly: one setup, and every attendee gets a well-timed nudge before each event, without you having to do it manually each time.
This guide walks through exactly how to set it up in Activity Messenger, from scheduling and personalization to the post-event follow-up most organizers skip entirely.
Everyone has their phone within reach. Email competes with newsletters, promotions, and three other inboxes. A text message lands and gets read, usually within minutes.
The numbers reflect that. According to Forbes, SMS open rates average around 98% compared to roughly 20% for email, and 90% of texts are read within three minutes of delivery. An email reminder sent the morning of an event might not get seen until the afternoon, whereas a text gets through immediately.
The gap matters most for free and low-cost events. When someone pays $150 for a registration, they show up. When they register for a free drop-in swim class, the commitment is softer. A well-timed reminder is often the difference between a full room and a third of your chairs empty.
Beyond attendance, automated reminders eliminate the manual follow-up that eats into admin time before every event. You set it up once, and it runs on its own from there.
Once your event or class is set up in Activity Messenger (and you have personalized tickets using Canva that include a QR code for easy check-in), scheduling a reminder takes just a few clicks.
Go to your event details and select Reminders. From there, you can schedule an SMS, an email, or both to go out automatically to every registered attendee. Choose how far in advance the reminder sends: two days before, one day before, or a few hours out. You can stack multiple reminders at different intervals for events where turnout really matters. Configure it once before a single ticket is sold, and the workflow runs on its own from there.
This applies across all your program types, too. Activity Messenger supports event management for dance studios, gymnastics clubs, swim schools, camps, parks and rec departments, and more, so the same reminder setup works whether you’re running a weekly drop-in or a one-time competition.
A generic reminder is easy to ignore. A message that uses someone’s name and mentions the specific event they signed up for is harder to scroll past.
Activity Messenger includes placeholders you drop into any message template: attendee first name, event name, date, time, location, and more. The message reads as personal even when you’re sending it to hundreds of people at once.
A few examples across different program types:
Each of those takes seconds to set up and meaningfully improves turnout compared to a plain broadcast.
Already selling tickets through Eventbrite, Tututix, or another platform? You can export your attendee list as a CSV and import it directly into Activity Messenger. Once imported, you’ll have a full contact list with names, email addresses, and ticket types, ready for bulk SMS event reminders, post-event surveys, or future marketing campaigns.
It’s a practical way to layer automated communication onto a ticketing workflow you’re already running. But for organizers looking to consolidate, moving your full ticket sales operation into Activity Messenger means your ticketing, reminders, check-ins, waivers, and post-event follow-up all live in one place, replacing standalone tools like Mailchimp, SimpleTexting, and SurveyMonkey.
The fee difference is worth running the numbers on:
| Platform | Fee per ticket |
|---|---|
| Activity Messenger | 3.9% + $0.30 |
| Eventbrite | 6.4% + $1.29 |
| Tututix | 5% + $1.00 |
On a 100-ticket event at $25 per ticket, the difference between Activity Messenger and Eventbrite is over $300. Canadian organizers can reduce fees further by accepting Interac e-Transfer through Activity Messenger, bringing processing costs down to as low as 1% per ticket.
Most event organizers move on the moment an event wraps. That’s exactly when they should be following up.
Attendees are still engaged, and the experience is fresh. That’s the best window you have to collect honest feedback, highlight what worked, promote an upcoming program, or offer a discount to bring someone back.
A post-event thank you doesn’t need to be elaborate. A short note with three focused questions, sent within 24 hours, captures what a survey two weeks later won’t. You can incentivize responses with a small discount on a future registration and use the replies to make the next event sharper.
Activity Messenger lets you build that survey, follow-up email, and SMS thank you directly into the same workflow as your reminders. Once configured, it sends automatically, with no separate survey tool required and no manual sending.
Many event organizers end up piecing together several tools: one for email, one for SMS, one for surveys, and another for ticketing. It functions well until the administrative burden turns into an obstacle.
Activity Messenger consolidates all of it. It replaces Mailchimp for email, SimpleTexting for SMS, and SurveyMonkey for post-event feedback. Because everything is connected, you can build and schedule your full communication workflow before a single ticket is sold, and every automation runs on its own from there.
For Canadian organizers, there’s an added advantage. Activity Messenger is a Canadian-based platform with data stored locally, bilingual support in English and French, and Interac e-Transfer processing that brings ticket fees down to as low as 1% per transaction.
If you run birthday parties, kids’ programs, or recurring classes, the same platform covers party booking workflows, class management, digital waivers, and attendance tracking. Automated SMS reminders are part of a broader system that keeps your operation running without straining your team.
Automated SMS event reminders are text messages sent to registered attendees at a scheduled time before an event, with no manual sending required on your part. You configure the timing and message once, and the platform delivers them automatically every time. They are one of the most reliable ways to reduce no-shows and keep attendees informed in the days and hours leading up to your event.
Text messages have significantly higher open rates than email, and most are read within minutes of delivery. For event reminder SMS messages, that speed is what makes the difference. An email reminder sent the morning of an event might not be seen until the afternoon. A text gets through immediately, giving attendees enough time to act on it. For free or low-cost events where no-shows are more common, that gap matters even more.
Most organizers send at least two reminders: one a day or two before the event, and a second a few hours out. For free or low-cost events, adding a reminder earlier in the week can also improve turnout. Activity Messenger lets you stack multiple reminders at different intervals so you can build a sequence that fits your event type without any additional manual work.
Yes, Activity Messenger lets you use placeholders to include each attendee’s name, the event name, date, time, and location in every message. The reminder goes out feeling personal even when you’re sending to a large list, which consistently outperforms a generic broadcast in both open rates and attendance.
Not with Activity Messenger. The platform replaces standalone tools like Mailchimp for email, SimpleTexting for SMS, and SurveyMonkey for post-event feedback, so your entire event communication workflow runs from one place. Because everything is connected, you can build and schedule your reminders, follow-ups, and surveys before a single ticket is sold.
Yes, whether you’re running a single fundraiser or weekly classes across multiple locations, Activity Messenger manages registrations, reminders, attendance tracking, and participant communication for both. You can duplicate events, manage multiple dates, and track everything from one dashboard.
A well-timed text is one of the lowest-effort, highest-return changes you can make to how you run events. Most organizers who try it see the difference in attendance numbers and time saved on admin immediately.
Automated SMS reminders are just the starting point, though. When your ticketing, reminders, check-in, waivers, and post-event follow-up all run from the same platform, every event gets a bit easier to manage than the last. That’s the real case for building your workflow in Activity Messenger rather than piecing it together across multiple tools.
📣 Ready to stop chasing no-shows manually? Book a demo with Activity Messenger to see how organizations across North America manage tickets, reminders, and attendance all in one place.
