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04.07 Run a 100-contact reactivation pilot with stop rules

04.07

Run a 100-contact reactivation pilot with stop rules

Send your approved messages to 100 top-ranked contacts in small daily batches, answer every reply by hand, log results, and stop early if opt-outs or complaints cross your limits.

45 minMatches official docsChecked 2026-10-20

Video walkthrough

Coming soon100 contacts, five days, fixed messages: the pilot
It will cover
  1. Why 100 and not your whole database
  2. Picking the 100 from the workbook rank and splitting versions A and B
  3. HighLevel drip mode and Follow Up Boss one-by-one sending
  4. Answering replies: the one-hour rule
  5. Stop rules: when to pause and what to check
This chapter is complete without it. Every step is written out on this page.

What you're building

A small, controlled test: 100 contacts, two fixed message versions, a fixed send schedule, every reply answered by a person, and written stop rules. At the end you know your reply, conversation and appointment rates from your own database, not from someone else's claims.

Why it matters

Sending to 3,000 people at once risks carrier blocks, a wave of opt-outs, and more replies than you can answer. A 100-contact pilot shows whether your list quality, consent records and message are good enough before you scale, and the cost of a mistake is 100 messages instead of 3,000.

What you need

  • Workbook with Tier A and B contacts ranked (chapter 5)
  • Saved message templates (chapter 6)
  • Texting registered: A2P 10DLC complete in HighLevel's Trust Center or Follow Up Boss Business Registration
  • 2 hours a day blocked for replies during the pilot week

Time and cost

Time
1 hour setup, then 30 to 120 minutes a day for 2 weeks
Cost
Your normal per-message SMS and email costs

Per-message pricing depends on your CRM plan and carrier fees; check your account's billing page.

Step by step

  1. Pick the 100 and split versions A and B

    Sort Contacts by rank and take the top 100 with a channel other than None. Paste their contact_id values into Pilot tracker column B. In column F type A, B, A, B down the list so each version gets a similar mix of scores.

    Check: Pilot tracker shows 100 names, scores and channels filled in automatically, half A and half B.

  2. Tag the pilot contacts in your CRM

    Tag all 100 reactivation-pilot plus react-version-a or react-version-b. In HighLevel use the bulk Add Tag action on selected contacts. In Follow Up Boss select the contacts and use the Tag icon > Add/Remove Tags, or import the 100 emails with the tags typed in the import's Tags box.

    The Smart Lists from chapter 4 exclude reactivation-pilot, so these people will not be messaged twice by any other campaign.

    Check: A filter on tag reactivation-pilot shows exactly 100 contacts.

  3. HighLevel: send texts in drip mode

    Filter to react-version-a, select all, choose the SMS icon, Ok, Proceed, pick your template, then Send in drip mode: Start On tomorrow, Batch Quantity 10, Repeat After 1 day, Send On Monday to Friday, Process Between Hours 10:00 to 16:00. Repeat for version B. That sends 20 a day in total.

    For email, the same drip options are available when you add the contacts to a published workflow (Trigger automation > Add to Automation > Send in Drip Mode, with Number of Messages per Batch and Repeat after).

    Check: Contacts > Bulk Actions shows two scheduled SMS jobs with the batch settings you chose.

  4. Follow Up Boss: send in daily batches

    Email: each weekday, select 10 version A and 10 version B contacts and send the matching template with Batch Email (each user can send up to 10,000 emails a day through connected email). Text: Action Plans and Automations have no text step in the help articles we read, so send the day's texts one by one from each profile using your saved template. That pace also keeps replies manageable.

    Check: Day one: 20 messages sent and logged, none to a contact outside the pilot tag.

  5. Answer every reply and tag the outcome

    1. Reply personally within 1 business hour. Deliver what you offered (the street update) within 48 hours.
    2. Tag react-replied on any human reply, react-conversation after a real back-and-forth, react-appt when a date and time is booked.
    3. STOP or "don't contact me": confirm the opt-out is set the same day and tag react-optout. Do not try to win them back.
    4. Log each outcome as Y in the Pilot tracker columns.

    Check: Every reply has a response from you and a tag; the Pilot tracker matches the tags.

  6. Check stop rules on days 1, 3 and 7

    Open the workbook Results tab. The status cell reads Keep going or STOP and review. If it says stop, cancel the remaining drip batches (Contacts > Bulk Actions in HighLevel) or stop sending (Follow Up Boss) and look at the pattern: one segment, one message version, or one data source causing the problem.

    Pilot scorecard

    Type your pilot counts. Rates use delivered messages as the base.

    First-touch messages, one per contact
    Sent minus bounces and failed texts
    Any human reply, including 'not now'
    Two or more back-and-forth exchanges
    A date and time on the calendar
    STOP replies plus email unsubscribes
    Spam reports or angry replies
    Your own limit. 2% is a starting assumption, not a published standard.
    Reply rate0.0%
    Conversation rate0.0%
    Appointment rate0.0%
    Opt-out rate0.0%

    No stop rule triggered. Keep the pilot running as planned.

    Same math as the Results tab. Enter your counts to check stop rules between workbook updates.

    Check: Stop rules were checked on schedule and any stop has a written reason.

What success looks like

  • 100 contacts messaged on schedule, no one outside the pilot
  • Every reply answered by a person, every opt-out honored the same day
  • Pilot tracker and CRM tags agree
  • Results tab filled; a clear Keep going or Stop decision

Copyable templates

textOne-page pilot plan

Fill in before you send anything. The stop thresholds are assumptions to replace with your own.

REACTIVATION PILOT PLAN (Coastal Key Realty example)

Audience:     100 contacts, Tier A first then Tier B, from the workbook rank
Excluded:     Suppressed, Recently active, anyone tagged do-not-contact
Channel:      the workbook's channel column (Text only with SMS Consent = Yes)
Messages:     Version A = street sales update offer
              Version B = "still thinking about a move?" question
              Alternate A/B down the ranked list so both get similar tiers
Schedule:     20 contacts per weekday, 10:00 to 16:00 their local time, 5 weekdays
Follow-up:    one follow-up after 5 days to non-repliers only, then stop
Replies:      a human answers every reply within 1 business hour
Tags:         reactivation-pilot (on send), react-replied, react-conversation,
              react-appt, react-optout
Stop rules:   pause sending and review if
              - opt-out rate above 2% of delivered (our assumption; set yours)
              - 1 spam complaint or angry reply
              - delivery rate below 90%
Measure:      Results tab of the workbook, reviewed day 3, day 7 and day 14
Owner:        Dana Reyes
XLSXDatabase Reactivation Workbook (.xlsx)Pilot tracker (100 rows) and Results tab with stop-rule status and A/B comparison.

Try it

Pilot scorecard

Type your pilot counts. Rates use delivered messages as the base.

First-touch messages, one per contact
Sent minus bounces and failed texts
Any human reply, including 'not now'
Two or more back-and-forth exchanges
A date and time on the calendar
STOP replies plus email unsubscribes
Spam reports or angry replies
Your own limit. 2% is a starting assumption, not a published standard.
Reply rate0.0%
Conversation rate0.0%
Appointment rate0.0%
Opt-out rate0.0%

No stop rule triggered. Keep the pilot running as planned.

Try 96 delivered and 3 opt-outs: the 3.1% opt-out rate trips the 2% stop rule.

How to test it

  1. Before day one, add your own phone and email as a pilot contact. Confirm you receive the right version at the scheduled time.
  2. In the workbook, mark 3 of 96 delivered as opted out. The Results status must read STOP and review.
  3. Confirm no contact tagged reactivation-pilot appears in any other active campaign or workflow.

Troubleshooting

Replies arrive faster than you can answer.

Lower Batch Quantity to 5. Reply speed matters more than send volume.

Many texts show failed or undelivered.

Pause. Check numbers are mobile, A2P registration is approved, and your message matches your registered samples.

Version A and B got very different tiers.

You did not alternate down the ranked list. Re-split before sending the next batch.

A contact replies to the follow-up angry about being messaged.

Apologize briefly, set the opt-out, tag react-optout, and count it as a complaint for your stop rule.

Advanced technical details

Optional. You can follow every step above without these.

Technical detailsDrip mode limits

HighLevel's current drip architecture allows a Batch Quantity from 1 to 10,000 and removed the old 30-day cap, but carrier and platform safety limits still apply (HighLevel's example is 1,000 SMS per minute). Low Volume Standard A2P campaigns are limited to 6,000 message segments per day. A pilot of 20 a day is far below every limit, which is the point.

Follow Up Boss Apply Automation (People > select > Mass Actions) can run a Manual-trigger automation on many contacts; it is Owner/Admin only and its actions include Send Email, Add Tags and Create Task, not texts.

Sources

Every product step matches the current official documentation listed under Sources. Last checked 2026-10-20.