SMS Campaigns
Set up, manage, and send SMS campaigns using Mailkit.
In the following article we will set out how SMS campaigns are set-up, how the content of the SMS campaign is created, what the options are for unsubscribing and will show you the specifics of handling SMS campaign recipients.
SMS campaigns are only available for Mailkit Syndicate and Agency users.
Create a campaign
The creation of an SMS campaign does not differ significantly from that of e-mail campaigns. Only the message type: SMS is selected when creating a new campaign.
Editing SMS content
Unlike an email campaign, the SMS editor only contains a text box where you put the content of the message.
- SMS messages longer than 160 characters will be split into multiple parts - Unless this option is ticked, when your message exceeds 160 characters it will automatically be truncated and only a partial message will be sent to the recipient.
- Convert accents to ASCII - if an accent is used in the message text, the system will delete it unless this is selected.
Below the text field, the resulting SMS message is immediately displayed:
- Preview Profile - Used to personalize SMS messages, ie if the message contains fields with variables. The variables that can be inserted are as follows:
Personalization codes (based on data for each recipient)
[VOCATIVE] - Salutation
[PREFIX] - Title
[FIRST_NAME] - First name
[LAST_NAME] - Surname
[NICK_NAME] - Chosen nickname
[GENDER] - Gender
[EMAIL] - Email address
[PHONE] - Fixed line phone number
[MOBILE] - Cell/Mobile number
[FAX] - Fax number
[STREET] - Street address details
[ZIP] - ZIP/Postal code
[CITY] - City/town/village
[COUNTRY] - Country name
[STATE] - State/Province/County
[CUSTOM1] - First piece of custom information about recipient
[CUSTOM2] - Second piece of custom information about recipient (you can include up to 25 custom fields, so CUSTOM25 would be the highest)
Content codes (based on the current dispatch date)
[DAY] - Day of the month
[DAYOFWEEK] - Day of the week
[DAYOFYEAR] - Day of the year
[WEEK] - Week number of the year
[MONTH] - Month number of the year
[YEAR] - Current Year
Instructions on how to opt-out
At the end of each SMS message, instructions are automatically added to how the recipient can opt-out/unsubscribe from future messages. The default wording of this information is: "Do you wish to opt-out of future SMS messages from us? Then reply to this msg with: XXXX" (XXXX is replaced with a unique code for each recipient when the message is sent).
This opt out text can be customised by you if you wish. When creating your own text you must add [CODE] as a placeholder for where you wish the unique code to be inserted on sending. Keep in mind that the wording you use is important and should be simple enough for people to understand how to opt-out of messages.
List of SMS recipients
In order for the SMS campaign to be sent to the recipients, a valid number in international format (+1XXXYYYZZZ; +44XXXYYYZZZ; etc.) is required in the Mobile number field.
You can only import phone numbers (ie without e-mail addresses) to the recipient list. When importing just select "Mobile numbers without emails only" during import.
