How to Set Up SMS and Email Drip Campaigns in GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel splits drip messaging into two separate systems, and most agencies pick the wrong one on the first try. A workflow enrolls contacts automatically when they hit a trigger, like a form submission.

A bulk action sends to a list you select by hand, right now or spread over days. Knowing how to set up SMS and email drip campaigns in GoHighLevel starts with picking between those two engines.

Both run into the same carrier registration step before a single text goes out.

Where the drip action lives inside Workflows

An email drip sequence starts in Automation, where you create a workflow and choose the Email Drip Sequence recipe instead of building from scratch. Add a Form Submitted trigger filtered to the right form, write the email, and publish.

SMS needs one more piece. Put a Drip action before the Send SMS action, not after it, or every contact who matches the trigger gets texted at once.

GoHighLevel's guide to automatic email and SMS follow-up sets that batching at 100 contacts per run with a one-day interval between runs.

That pacing matters more for SMS than email, because carriers watch the sending pattern on a number, not just the words in the message.

A workflow automation build is the place to get it right from the start, since repairing a flagged number's reputation takes longer than configuring the Drip action correctly the first time.

Sending a one-time drip to a list you already have

Not every drip needs a workflow. If you're messaging an existing list instead of waiting on new signups, Bulk Actions inside Contacts does the job.

Select the audience, choose Send SMS Bulk Action, pick the sending number, and write the message.

From there, you choose how it goes out. Send Now suits a time-sensitive announcement. Schedule queues a promotion for later. Drip Mode spreads a large list across batches instead of firing it all at once.

Drip Mode's own settings give you control over the pacing: a batch size from 1 to 10,000 contacts per run, a repeat interval in minutes, hours or days, specific weekdays to send on, and a daily cutoff time.

GoHighLevel rebuilt this into a modular drip architecture in September 2025, removing the old 30-day scheduling ceiling and adding checkpointing so a long batch doesn't stall partway through.

The same engine paces SMS, email, tagging and opportunity updates alike.

A2P 10DLC registration comes before the first text

None of this works on a US 10-digit number until the sub-account completes A2P 10DLC registration. Brand registration identifies the business to carriers. Campaign registration declares what kind of messages it sends.

Most agencies start on Low Volume and move up once a client's campaigns are genuinely big enough to need it.

Twilio, the carrier infrastructure behind GoHighLevel's SMS sending, charges a one-time $41.50 vetting fee for Standard Brand registration on top of whatever GoHighLevel bills.

Campaign registration asks for a live, public website matching the brand details, a documented opt-in process, sample messages, and HELP/STOP instructions.

GoHighLevel's campaign registration guide covers the full checklist, and a rejected campaign shows exactly which field needs fixing before resubmission.

Agencies register the brand once per sub-account, then reuse it across every workflow and bulk send that follows.

That's the pattern behind the reminder sequences in a dental practice's recall and no-show automation and the recovery texts in an ecommerce abandoned cart flow.

Skipping registration is the most common reason a drip campaign stalls before it reaches anyone.

The same Drip action that paces SMS inside a form-submission workflow also runs missed call text-back automation, so it's worth getting comfortable with here.

If sub-account setup is still in progress, register the brand and build the first drip workflow in the same sitting.

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