How to create message templates using Memo
In this article:
What is Memo?
Memo is Touch Stay’s guest messaging system. Schedule unlimited, customised emails and/or SMS text messages to guests with a link to the relevant Touch Stay guide.
How does it work?
There are three simple stages:
- Select and customise the message templates you want to use
- Create an invitation for each person whom you want to send messages to
- Schedule the messages to send out to each of your chosen recipients. You can set and adjust the schedule for each individual message
How do I create message templates?
1. Select your templates
Head over to to the Memo page and start adding message templates by using the “Add Email Template” or "Add SMS Template” buttons.
In the “Add Email Template” and “Add SMS Template” button dropdowns, you’ll find suggested templates which come pre-filled with customisable content. Either select one of these templates, or choose “Custom Message” from the bottom of the list. When you select a template, a form will appear for you to complete. We’re going to run through how to complete each section of this form. Whilst completing the form, be sure to check the little help icons for each section if anything is unclear.
N.B. If you used Touch Stay messaging prior to the launch of Memo on May 11th 2022, any existing message templates that you were using have been copied over into Memo. You can:
- continue using these templates as before
- edit them
- archive them and start fresh
If you have multiple guides in your account then Memo’s new template system will allow you to simplify and consolidate your templates, see this article for more guidance on that.
2. Select the message recipient
The Recipient is the person who will receive this message. In most cases you’ll want the recipient to be the “Primary Guest”. This message will then go to the contact details that you later add to the invitation.
However, you can also set a “Fixed Recipient”. This allows you to send the message to yourself, a member of your team or any 3rd party providing services to your guests.
3. Choose your message schedule
The Schedule simply determines when a message will be sent to the recipient. “Immediate” means the message will be sent as soon as the invitation has been created. “Scheduled Time” allows you to set the message to send at a time period related to the arrival, departure or creation date of the invitation (e.g. 2 days before the arrival date). You can also set the time of day that the message will send.
4. Adjust the sending criteria
The Send Criteria allows you to determine which recipients receive your messages. This allows you to create different messages for different guides, events or people. This is an advanced feature of Memo, in most cases you’ll probably just want to use “Always Send” and this message will then be used on all your invitations.
If you do think different criteria would be useful to you, then there’s a more detailed explanation about setting template criteria and all the options available in this article.
Templates set to “On Demand” will not be used in any invitations automatically but can be optionally added to invitations. Use this option if you want to save a message template for occasional use only.
5. Customise your message content
The final element of the template is the message content. For email templates this is the:
- “email from” name
- email subject
- email body
You can adjust the “email from” name and “reply to” email if you want guests’ responses to arrive at a different email address from the one linked to your guide.
For SMS templates you only need to edit the message content.
If you’re using one of our suggested templates, be sure to read the content and make any adjustments according to your place or business practices.
Field codes
Each message can contain field codes to automatically customise the content depending on the guest or guide. Field codes allow you to create templates where certain elements (such as the link to your guide, guest name or stay dates) will update automatically and don’t need to be changed on every message you send out.
In practice, field codes look like this:
{{guest_first_name}}
It’s simply a short code surrounded by double curly brackets. You insert it into your message and then, when the message is sent, the code is replaced by the relevant data. For example, if you add {{guest_first_name}} to your message, it will be replaced by the actual first name of the guest as set on the invitation.
To add field codes to your messages use the “Insert Field Code” button found next to the relevant text entry box, or the “Field Code” option in the toolbar of your message body:
A more detailed explanation of field codes and their uses can be found in this article.
Don’t forget to include the field code {{invitation_link}} (or a deep link, see below) if you want the message to include a link to your guide. All of our pre-filled templates, or those copied over from the legacy messaging system, come with this field code included already. If you are editing these templates, or creating your own for guests, then be sure you have included the {{invitation_link}} field code, or a deep link to a specific section.
Deep links
Deep links can be added to Memo message templates to direct people to specific Categories, Subcategories or Topics within your guide.
The “Deep Link” option can be found on the toolbar of the message body. Do not use links from the direct links option found in Content Hub, those links are for your Quick Share link and should not be used for invitations.
How do I create invitations?
Invitations can be created from both the Invitations tab on the Memo page, and from the “Invite & Share” tab on each Guide page.
Use the “Invite by Email/SMS” button and then complete the form with:
- the details of the person you want to invite
- their access dates and lead time
- any custom fields
You will then be presented with the message schedule for this person based on the message templates which have matching criteria.
On this screen, you can edit or remove messages using the options found in the 3 dots menu for each message. You can also edit the invitation details using the button at the top right or add new messages to just this person from the options at the bottom.
Once you’re happy that the invitation details and messages are correct click Submit. Memo will now schedule all the messages and send them out on your chosen day and time. You can check the status of each message by opening the message schedule screen again, use the 3 dots menu for the invitation and choose “View/Edit”.