Create and send an SMS marketing message

Create an SMS (Short Message Service) marketing message, add your content, and schedule it to automatically send between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. to respect quiet hours

Important: Our SMS marketing tools are only available to US customers (excluding Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) with a valid 9-digit Tax ID Number (TIN), or an Employer ID Number (EIN) for businesses assigned by the IRS. Sole proprietors who are the only employee do not need to enter Employer ID Number (EIN). Contacts with phone numbers from Puerto Rico can join your list and receive text messages. Learn more.

Marketing through a text message is a quick and direct way to connect with your audience! Once you begin collecting SMS consent from your contacts, you can start sending SMS campaigns to connect with them in a much more personal way.

• Create and name an SMS campaign
• Use the AI Content Generator to create your message
• Customize your SMS message
• Consolidate your SMS message into fewer text messages
• Select your lists and schedule your SMS messages

Did you know? When someone receives a text message, they're likely to look at it, but you must be careful not to abuse this connection, or you risk damaging the relationship with your SMS contacts.

Create and name an SMS campaign

SMS messages can only be sent to contacts who have opted in to receive them.

1. Click Channels > SMS.
   
   Note: You can try the SMS features and create SMS message campaigns no matter your plan. When you're ready to send your SMS message campaigns, you must first add the SMS marketing add-on to your email plan and then complete the registration process in your account. 
   
   
2. Click the Create an SMS button in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
   
   
    
3. Click the pencil icon to rename your SMS campaign.
   
   
    
4. In the Campaign Name field, give your SMS message a unique name you can easily recognize in your account later. Your contacts never see this name.
5. Click Save.
   
   
    

Use the AI Content Generator to create your message

Feeling a little stuck with what to write? Our AI Content Generator can help you get started with just a few keywords. It's free to use, and you can make changes to the result too! Here's how it works:

1. In the Create message section, click the AI Content Generator button.
   
   
    
2. Select the type of message you want to create from the drop-down menu.
3. Enter a couple of keywords or the main point of your message into the Message details field.
4. Click Generate content. You can change the message type and content details until you find something you like. The results stay within the 160-character limit for a single text message segment.
   
    
    
5. Select the message you want to use. If it's not quite right, click the 'Generate content' button for more options or change the message type and details to try again. The message doesn't have to be perfect; you can customize it even further.
6. Click Insert message.
   
   
    
7. If needed, customize your message with a contact detail, such as a first name, a link, an emoji, or modify the text slightly.
   
   Note: While variables such as [[FIRSTNAME]] can be used within your messages, they cannot be used within a URL. For example, creating an SMS with the message "Visit our website at www.mycompany.com/[[FIRSTNAME]]" will result in an error and prevent the SMS from being sent.
   
   
8. When you're ready, click Save.
   
   
    

Customize your text messages

Be a better marketer: Need a little inspiration? Explore our Best practices for creating SMS message content and be sure to try our AI Content Generator!

The message preview shows how your message is broken up, giving you a better idea of how it affects your monthly message limit. When your message is sent to your contacts, messages with multiple segments usually appear in the correct order as a single, unbroken text message because the carrier combines them for you.

1. Enter your message text into the SMS message field. The Sender name and Opt-out message fields are automatically included in your message and count towards your character count, but they are required and can't be changed.

• AI Content Generator - Get content suggestions (see above for detailed information).
• Personalize - Click Personalize, then select from a list of contact properties, like "First Name," and your own custom fields, or choose from a list of account properties, like "Organization name" or other account details. Next, add fallback text to display when you don't have information for a contact, then click the Insert button.
  Tip: If you'd like to collect specific information to customize your SMS messages, please make sure you collect it through your Sign-up Landing Page as a required field. Make sure your contact list has a corresponding column when you import your file.
  
  
   
• Emoji - Click the smiley face icon to add an emoji to your message. Three emoji categories are available: smileys, food and drink, and objects. Emojis appear as a single "character" in a text message, but in the code the messaging app interprets, they take up more characters. This can cause your message to be split into multiple text messages, each shorter than 160 characters.
  Note: Images beyond emojis aren't compatible with SMS messages.
  
  
   
• Link - You can have a single clickable link in each SMS campaign. The link can be to anything you want, like your website, the permanent link to an email, or even an image. Click the link icon, paste your URL into the field, and click Insert. The link is automatically shortened, and tracking is added so that you can view the click results in your reporting. Please note that shortened URLs can increase bounce rates.
  
  Important: You cannot include variables in your links. Including a variable will cause an error and prevent your SMS message from being sent. 
  
  Tip: Make sure to test that the URL you're using is working before you add it into your SMS message!
  
  
   

2. Click Save.
   
    
   
   

Note: Test your SMS messages by sending them to a registered phone number to see what your contacts will see. This lets you view exactly what your contacts will experience before launching full campaigns. Read Send test SMS messages to learn how. 

Consolidate your SMS message into fewer text messages

Your message can have up to 1950 characters. It’s broken down into individual text messages (or segments) with about 160 characters each, or 70 characters when emojis are used. When your message has more than one segment, it uses more of your monthly text message budget.  Cutting out everything but the most important content shortens the message. It reduces the cost to your monthly budget—your sender name and opt-out message are required in your message and account for 40 characters before you even start adding your content. If you add a URL, it's automatically shortened for you to conserve characters.

Our SMS message editor tells you the number of text message segments your message will be broken into in multiple places, and shows the character count you're using so you can make better content decisions:

• SMS message with one segment - This message has a shortened character count of 160 and includes personalization and a URL. It only has one segment and is being sent to a list of 160 contacts. It counts as 160 text messages.
  
  
  
  
• SMS message with two segments—This message has a character count of 276 and includes personalization and a URL. It is broken into two segments and sent to the same list with 160 SMS contacts, for a total of 320 text messages.
  
  
  
  

Be a better marketer: Do you need help shortening your message? Explore our Best practices for creating SMS message content and try our AI Content Generator!

Select your list or segment, and schedule and send your SMS messages

We prevent you from sending during quiet hours by default to keep you compliant with the TCPA and to avoid sending messages when they're likely to bother the people who opted in to receive them. Quiet hours are between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., based on the time zone you selected in My Account. Phone numbers outside your time zone are also prevented from receiving SMS messages during quiet hours for that time zone, based on the phone number's area code. Messages begin sending once the quiet hours have ended. 

1. In the Schedule message popup, click the To section.

2. Use the radio button to choose Lists or Segments, and from the dropdown menu that appears, select the segment or list you want to send your message to. It's ok if your list has a mix of email and SMS contacts. Only contacts who have opted into SMS marketing are returned in the contact count; only those contacts receive your message. If you created a list from a segment, it must have SMS contacts, or it won't be available.
   
   Note: Broken messages count as multiple messages towards the monthly message limit. For example, if the message is split into two text messages and 161 contacts are on the selected list, each contact receives two text messages, even though they appear as a single message. Therefore, a total of 322 messages are sent, and they count towards the monthly message limit.
   
   
   
   

3. Expand the Send time section and select either:

   • Send Now - This sends your text message immediately, as long as it doesn't fall within the quiet hours timeframe (8:00 p.m.- 8:00 a.m.) based on the time zone in your account settings. The Send Now option is disabled during quiet hours, but you can still use the schedule option.

   • Schedule for later —This lets you select a date and time in the future to send your text message. You can't select times that fall within the quiet hours.

4. Click Save as draft as needed.
5. Click Send Now or Schedule when you're done.
   
   
    

If you don't want to schedule or send right now, save your campaign as a draft and send it whenever you're ready. SMS campaigns in "scheduled" status can be unscheduled and edited at any time, but once the status changes to "sent," the campaign can't be recalled. After sending your SMS campaign, give it a little time and then check your reporting to see how it did.

Save time: Our Automation Path Builder lets you create SMS messages in advance and automatically send them when your contacts trigger them! Learn more.

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