When a new lead fills out your contact form, FollowFire sends them a text message from a real phone number — within 60 seconds. Automatically.
SMS is configured automatically when you connect your contact form during onboarding. Your leads will start receiving texts right away — no Twilio account, no developer, no extra steps needed.
If you signed up and SMS isn't working, email us at hello@followfire.app and we'll sort it out.
Lead fills out your form
Someone visits your website and submits their name, phone, and what they need.
They get a text from your business
FollowFire sends a personalized SMS from a dedicated phone number. It reads like it came from you — not a robot.
Email follow-up
If they haven't replied, a follow-up email goes out to stay top of mind.
Second text
A gentle check-in SMS for leads still in the "new" status.
Final email
One last message before the lead is marked as inactive.
45%
higher open rate vs email
90 sec
avg SMS response time
~$1/mo
Twilio cost for 500 texts
This section is for customers who are self-hosting FollowFireor want to use their own Twilio account. If you're on the standard plan, you can skip this entirely.
Go to twilio.com/try-twilio and sign up. Verify your email and phone number. A free trial gives you ~$15 in credits — enough for hundreds of test texts.
In the Twilio Console, go to Phone Numbers → Manage → Buy a number. Choose a local number in your area code (~$1/mo). Local numbers have better deliverability than toll-free for home service businesses.
In the Twilio Console, go to your Account dashboard. You'll see your Account SID and Auth Token. Click the eye icon to reveal the Auth Token.
Account SID: ACxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Auth Token: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
⚠️ Never commit these to Git or share them publicly. They grant full access to your Twilio account.
In your Vercel project settings → Environment Variables, add these three values:
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=ACxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx TWILIO_FROM_NUMBER=+15551234567
Use E.164 format for the phone number: +1XXXXXXXXXX. After adding, click Redeploy on your latest deployment.
Self-hosting locally? Add these to your .env.local file instead. Never commit .env.local to Git.
In your FollowFire dashboard, go to Settings and click Send test lead. If Twilio is connected, you'll receive a confirmation SMS within seconds. You can also check the Twilio SMS logs to see all outbound messages.
For business SMS in the US, carriers require A2P 10DLC registration — a one-time process that registers your business as a legitimate SMS sender. It improves deliverability and reduces spam filtering.
❓ SMS not sending — no errors in logs
Check that TWILIO_FROM_NUMBER is in E.164 format (+15551234567). Dashes or spaces cause silent failures.
❓ Error: 'Authenticate' — 401 Unauthorized
Your Account SID or Auth Token is incorrect. Double-check you copied from the correct project (not a subaccount).
❓ Free trial: 'unverified number' error
Twilio free trials can only text verified numbers. Upgrade to a paid account or add the test number to your verified caller IDs.
❓ Environment variables set but not working after deploy
Vercel requires a new deployment to pick up new env vars. Go to Vercel → Deployments → Redeploy your latest deployment.
SMS follow-ups get 5–10× more replies than email alone. FollowFire handles it in 60 seconds — automatically.