Choose your first playbook

Your first playbook should prove one clear business outcome before you expand.

In Hellotext, a playbook can be a prebuilt mission, an AI agent, a journey route, a campaign, or a capture depending on the job it performs. Start with the simplest option that can deliver the outcome and teach you something useful.

Before you choose

Confirm the basics first:

Your store, website, or data source is connected.
The signals the playbook needs are available on customer profiles.
The channel you want to use, such as WhatsApp or SMS, is connected and ready.
The audience has clear consent and enough recent activity to make the launch meaningful.
Someone on your team can review replies or handoffs.

If the signal is not available yet, set up tracking or integrations before choosing a playbook that depends on it.

Keep reading: What are signals?.

For cart recovery specifically, see Abandoned cart: route template vs AI playbook.

If you want to browse more options before choosing, use Playbook library by mission.

Choose by first goal

If your first goal is…	Start with…	Why
Grow your reachable audience	A capture such as a QR code, shareable link, form, popup, or subscriber booster	You need customers to opt in before most playbooks, routes, or campaigns can perform well.
Recover carts	A basic cart route or an AI cart saver playbook	Use a route when the follow-up should be predictable. Use an AI playbook when the experience should react to product context, customer intent, replies, or objections.
Convert new subscribers or window shoppers	A first-purchase, browse recovery, or product recommendation playbook	These playbooks work best when Hellotext can see product, browsing, subscription, and purchase signals.
Drive repeat purchases	A replenishment, cross-sell, birthday, anniversary, or soft reactivation playbook	These need enough purchase history or profile data to make the timing and recommendation useful.
Answer frequent questions or reduce support load	An instant answers, order update, return, or exchange assistant	Start here when your team spends time answering repeat questions and you have clear policies, order data, and handoff rules.
Send one planned announcement	A campaign or broadcast	Use a campaign when the message is time-bound and should go to a selected audience once.
Build a custom flow	A journey route or custom agent	Use this when no prebuilt mission fits, or when you need specific steps, conditions, actions, or business logic.

Start small

Choose one first outcome, one channel, and one audience.

For a first launch, avoid enabling several revenue playbooks at the same time. If multiple playbooks can act on the same customer, it becomes harder to understand what worked, what annoyed customers, and what should change.

Good first launches are usually narrow:

Recover abandoned carts for a small eligible audience.
Welcome new subscribers from one capture source.
Answer one group of common questions with a clear human handoff.
Send one campaign to a focused segment.
Replenish or recommend products only when purchase and product data are reliable.

Use the simplest tool that fits

Use a campaign when you already know the audience, message, and send time.

Use a route when the experience should follow known steps: trigger, wait, message, condition, branch, and handoff.

Use an AI playbook or agent when Hellotext needs to interpret replies, use product or policy knowledge, personalize recommendations, choose from several next steps, or decide when to escalate.

Use a capture when the main job is to collect subscribers or customer data before another playbook can run.

Questions to answer before launch

What business result should this first launch prove?
Which signal starts it?
Which audience can enter it?
Which channel will it use?
What should stop it?
When should a person take over?
How will you measure whether it worked?

If any answer is unclear, narrow the playbook before publishing.

After the first launch

Review the first results before adding more automation.

Look at replies, clicks, opt-outs, handoffs, failed messages, conversion, attributed revenue, and whether customers received the next step you expected.

Then adjust one thing at a time: audience, trigger, timing, message, offer, prompt, or handoff rule. For a deeper read, use Playbook reporting.