How to create an SMS campaign.

How to create an SMS campaign.

An SMS campaign in our system is any sending of SMS messages to one or more contacts.

1. How to go to the Create SMS section

Create an SMS campaign:

1. In the top control panel in the “Products” section, click the “Send SMS” button in the drop-down menu.

2. Or, on the left control panel, click “Create” and “SMS” items

You can also add this tool to your Favourites and start working on your newsletters from this section.


How to prepare a messaging for sending:

1. Add the name of your SMS campaign

Only you will see the name; it is required to identify campaigns. You can use any naming system for newsletters you like.

Simply enter the name in the required field.

We don’t limit the number of characters, but we recommend staying within 70 characters, since the rest of characters will not fit into the visible area.

2) Specify a list of recipients

3. Choose the Sender

Enter the sender* or choose one from the registered names here:

Sender is the Sender’s name that the recipient of the bulk messaging will see.

If this is your first time using the SMS messaging service, you may need to register a  sender’s name (it depends on country where you send messages).

Register an  sender’s name if you are using the service for the first time:

It is advisable to use easy-to-read and understandable sender’s names; this increases the recipient's trust, and there are higher chances that the message will not only be read but will also induce the recipient to take conversion action. And that's exactly what SMS messages are for!
4) Add text of the message

Perhaps the most important part of a successful SMS campaign is the text of the message itself. When working with text, you can not only type your message but also use personalization tools (add names, order numbers, etc.), add short links, and even give the recipient an opportunity to unsubscribe from your future campaigns.

Enter the text of the message for your campaign in the field.

Insert short links, use templates and personalize messages. You can also add a link for users to unsubscribe from your future newsletters.

The maximum number of characters to send is 335.

The text can be divided into parts (up to 5 parts).

Such parts are charged as 1 SMS each, while your message will come in one text at a time.

Enable transliteration for Cyrillic

Transliteration is used to optimize the cost of messaging, as well as to make the message readable on phones that don’t support Cyrillic (mostly outdated models).

Enter the text of the message and choose the type of transliteration you need (transliteration from Russian or from Ukrainian).

Use personalization

Personalized data in your campaign may include not only the name or phone number of recipients but other data assigned to them. For example, the order number, the personal promotional code, the size of their discount, the amount of money. All this data will be taken from the corresponding column of the file with contacts. You just need to use a variable pointing to the necessary column.

To do this, choose the Personalization item and select an available variable from the drop-down list.

Note! The number of characters in the fields is taken into account in the total count of the message text. Therefore, the cost of personalized messages in your campaign may vary. When sending them out, the system will recalculate the cost of the messaging.  

Shorten long links

Use link shorteners to make links take up less space in your SMS. Short links created using a shortener service are as easy to open as regular links, and they also support tracking via tags.

1. Select additional options in Settings

Here you can choose a pricing plan from the available ones^[a], turn on email notifications about the end of the campaign, turn on or cancel the clearing of fields after sending and select the validity period of SMS messages.

By changing the additional parameters, you can optimize the cost of your campaign.

Let's study them one by one.

Select a pricing plan: here you can apply another available plan instead of the default one. The plans of choice will depend on the size of your contact list and the country of recipients. Check out your list, maybe you can save a bit.^[b]

Validity period of a message: the period during which the system will send SMS to temporarily unavailable numbers. The longer this period, the greater the chance that all contacts will receive your message.

Notify about the end of the campaign by email: check this box if you want to receive a notification about the end of your campaign. This is quite convenient, since you won’t have to keep in mind the whole plan of your messaging. You will simply wait for the notification and read the report at the end of the campaign.

Consider SMS stop list: here you can specify whether to use the list of unsubscribed users to exclude them from your campaign.

Do not clear after sending: this option cancels the clearing of fields after the campaign. It allows you not to create the same campaign every time but to use the already filled fields.

8) Specify the start time of the campaign

The newsletter can be sent immediately or scheduled for any date and time. You can schedule it for 2 months after creation. This means that all scheduled messages can be sent no later than 2 months after creation of the campaign.

The "Send" button allows you to start sending right now. If you need to schedule a campaign, select the necessary date and time by clicking “Schedule”.

2. Preview of your SMS campaign

The preview mode is necessary so that you can check that all fields are filled in correctly and the necessary parameters are selected.

We've added a simple checklist to make sure you don't miss out anything when getting your newsletter ready to be sent.

The preview mode lasts 120 seconds.

If you are sure all parameters of the campaign suit you, you can start it without waiting for the expiration of the timer.

You can send the newsletter right now using the "Send now" button.

You can also cancel the campaign while previewing, in which case all filled fields will be saved for further edits.