Opt-out SMS (Twilio)

[Ronen-Was-SRpro]

Hi Community,

We created a webhook that is using our Twilio account in order to send an SMS message.

What will be the best way to create the Opt-Out process from SMS in this case?

Thank you.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

First, you don't have to worry Twilio sending to people who have STOPped.

To flush those responses back into Marketo, you usually just need to build a lightweight service that translates Twilio's outbound notifications to Marketo updates. However, you should note that if you're getting like 25,000 STOPs per day, a more robust translation tier will be necessary, one that can store a batch of responses and then submit them to Marketo in bulk.

[Phillip_Wild]

Yep, as Sanford said, you won't be sending to people who have STOPed, but to ensure other systems know that, you can use something like Zapier and their Marketo integration.

Twilio can send outgoing webhooks from opt-outs, so when someone opts out, throw to Zapier. Zapier then uses its Marketo integration to add them to an opt-out list or similar, or simply update a field for you. Bingo.

(As Sanford said, this isn't hugely scalable, but will work for small to medium applications).

[Tyron_Pretorius]

Hi Ronen,

I built the workflow that @Phillip_Wild mentioned in Zapier.

https://theworkflowpro.com/2-way-sms-marketo/

The post above will show you how to 

• Parse the inbound SMS for keywords and choose an appropriate response
• Send the SMS response to the customer and optional alerts to your team
• Set the person's SMS subscription field in Marketo to TRUE or FALSE if the "STOP" or "START" keywords are present

As both Sanford and Philip mention Twilio (or in this case Telnyx) have inbuilt functionality to stop SMS from being sent to a person who replies with a "STOP" keyword. This Zap will let Marketo know the person is unsubscribed so you are not unnecessarily sending SMS from Marketo that will not be delivered.