Essentially, campaign groups are customer segments that you can use to determine which contacts need to receive your outbound message. Use the Groups function to easily manage your contacts, know where they came from, and keep them organized according to your specific segmentation needs.

To create a new group, navigate to ‘Groups’ in the left-hand navigation bar. Click on the ‘Actions’ drop-down at the top right-hand corner of the Groups page and choose ‘Add Group’. You can then name your group and click on the ‘Save’ button.

Manage your groups at any time by selecting the action button in the row of the group you want to edit. You’ll be able to perform the following actions:

• Send a message

• Add a contact to the group

• Edit the group

• Delete the group

Campaign Manager is integrated with bitly.com to shorten and track link clicks in the platform. You can shorten any URL link used in your text messages in order to limit the number of characters you use.

From within Campaign Manager, navigate to Tools ->Short Links from the panel on the left. In the top right, click on the 'Actions' drop-down list and select ‘Add Short Link URL’. Give your short URL a descriptive name so that you can identify which campaign it belongs to and enter the full URL (that will be used to generate the new short URL). Click 'Save'.

To send a campaign that includes your short URL, you can do it by selecting the 'Send' button (envelope icon) in the row of the short URL you want to use. You can also copy the link from the page and paste it into the desired campaign.

The number of clicks that each short URL receives throughout your campaign will automatically be updated in the ‘Clicks’ column next to the short URL. You can use this to measure campaign success or A/B test your SMS messages. Learn more about how to calculate the click-through rates for your SMS campaigns here.

Message templates can be created to save common or often-used SMS messages so that you won’t need to re-enter the same message repeatedly.

Select Campaign -> Campaign Template in the left-hand navigation menu. Select the ‘Add Campaign Template’ option from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list. Name your template in the ‘Template’ text entry box and enter your message in the ‘Message’ text entry box before clicking on ‘Save’.

You can edit or delete your template message at any time by selecting the ‘Edit’ button in the row of the message template you want to edit.

To update your time zone, navigate to the 'Preferences' tab in the Campaign Manager tool. Select the relevant time zone from the drop-down menu and click 'Save' at the bottom of the page.

If a message contains one or more non-GSM characters, the entire message is automatically converted to Unicode in order to successfully deliver the message. One message part equals 160 GSM characters or 70 Unicode characters, which means that using non-GSM characters in your messages could result in additional and inflated costs per message.

To check whether your messages contain non-GSM characters, navigate to Tools -> Non-GSM Character Checker and enter the text that you want to send. Any non-GSM characters will be highlighted in red. Remove non-GSM characters to ensure that you only pay for one message part.

You can view and manage your contacts by navigating to Contacts from the left-hand panel.

To add an individual contact, select Actions -> Add Contact and choose the group to which this contact should be added. Add the details of the contact and submit the form.

To edit or delete a contact, click the edit/delete button in the row in which the contact is displayed in. You can also send a message to an individual.

Here are some key metrics that you can use to measure and optimize the success of your outbound SMS campaigns:

• SMS delivery rate per message: Select 'Logs' in the left-hand menu to view all sent messages.  You’ll also be able to view the delivery rate for individual messages here.

• Click-through rate: If you used a shortened URL in your SMS, you’ll be able to see the number of clicks received on that link by navigating to Tools -> Short links. Your click-through rate (CTR) is calculated by taking the number of clicks or messages delivered multiplied by 100. If the objective of your campaign was to drive your subscribers to a web page, the CTR will give you an indication of how successful the content of your message was in achieving that objective.

You can personalize your SMS messages with the name of the subscriber when you set up an outbound SMS campaign.

Navigate to the Campaign tab. In the ‘Message’ text area, add [name] in your message content as the merge field. The name of your subscriber will automatically be pulled into the message if the name is available in your contacts list.

Step 1: Upload your contact list or enter contacts manually.

Step 2: Navigate to the 'Campaign' tab

Step 3: Schedule the message for delivery and compose your message using either an existing template or compose a once-off message.

Be sure to schedule your messages to be sent from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM local time to adhere to the applicable guidelines published by the Mobile Marketing Association. Familiarize yourself with the specific regulations and best practices for the country you are sending messages to. If you want to send your message immediately, leave the field as is and don’t make a date or time selection.

To use a message template that has already been created, simply select the one you want to use from the 'Message Template' drop-down list. If you want to create a new template, click on the Campaign Template.

Enter your message in the message text entry box. SMS message parts are limited to 160 characters, including opt-out text. Note that longer messages can be sent using concatenation, but you will be billed for each message part. Read more about concatenated SMS here.

Messages containing non-GSM (Unicode) characters are limited to 70 character segments. Read more about how you can check that your messages do not contain non-GSM characters here.

The Message Footer field will be appended to the message when sending and will add to the total characters used within your message.

Step 4: Click the 'Save/Send message' button

You can add and import your contacts list via a CSV file upload.

Contacts need to be assigned to a specific group when uploaded, so make sure that you know which group this list needs to be added to or create a new group before uploading your list.

If you already have a list of permission-based contacts and you'd like to upload them in bulk, you can do this using the bulk import feature. Navigate to Contacts ->Import Contacts and click on the 'Choose File' button to upload your contact list. Select the file you want to upload and select 'Open'. Your files need to be in CSV format (the file should be saved in comma separated format) with the name of your customer in the first column and their phone number in the second. You can also add their birthdate and email address as third and fourth columns. Include a header row to ensure that your first contact is not seen as a header.

Note:

The phone numbers should not include spaces, dashes, or parentheses. Country codes must be included in the number but no leading zeros are required. E.g.:

• US Example: 12025248725

• UK Example: 447481340516

The birth date should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD

If the file you're importing does not contain customer names, and only numbers, leave the first column in your CSV file empty and ensure that your numbers are in the second. It is, however, recommended that you upload your list containing the names of your customers from the beginning. This will allow you to easily personalize your messages which will result in better customer engagement.

Next, select the required group name from the 'Group Name' list. This will import all contacts in the CSV file into this group. Choose the header names that you want to import and click on ‘Next’. Your contacts list will then be uploaded and displayed on the ‘Contacts’ page.

You should only use the bulk import feature if the contacts on your list have already given their permission for you to send them marketing messages. Never use purchased or third-party lists.

Please ensure that you read our terms and conditions and that you comply with the regulations and best practices for the country where you are sending messages to.

Note that in order to receive replies to your message, you need to have purchased a two-way number (short code or long number).

To view all your received messages, navigate to 'Logs' from the left panel. In the ‘Actions’ drop-down, select ‘SMS Inbox’.

From here, you can read and respond to individual SMS messages. You can export the log of all messages as an Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the 'Export' button at the top right of the logs table.

Select ‘Logs’ in the left-hand navigation menu to view the logs for your inbound and outbound messages.

SMS Outbox

All messages sent to contacts can be viewed in the SMS Outbox. Navigate to ‘Logs’ and select ‘SMS Outbox’ from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list.

SMS Inbox

All messages received can be viewed in the SMS Inbox. Navigate to ‘Logs’ and select ‘SMS Inbox’ from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list.

There is no charge for using the application. You only pay for the SMS messages you send.

Note:

• The maximum length of one SMS is 160 characters if you use GSM characters only.

• If you use special characters in your SMS message, Unicode is used automatically. This reduces the number of characters per SMS to 70.

Also see:

• SMS Pricing Estimator

• What character sets do you support?

• Do you support Unicode?

• What is the maximum length of an SMS?

• Why do some characters use up two spaces?

• How do I make sure my message does not contain non-GSM characters?

For SMS campaigns, opt-out text may be mandatory for each outbound SMS as per local legislation. The text (e.g. "Reply STOP to end") can be included in the message footer field. This text forms part of your message character limit.

The Campaign Dashboard contains the steps required for you to start sending your first campaign:

• Step 1: Gives you two options on how to add your contacts - you can either upload a contact list or add a single contact

• Step 2: Enables two-way messaging by giving you an option to purchase a long number or short code (country-specific)

• Step 3: Tops up your balance by allowing you to add your desired amount and review the amount you added to your shopping cart

• Step 4: Creates and sends a message - this shortcut will allow you to create a campaign message and send the message to your selected customers

The Dashboard is not only limited to steps for you to start sending your first campaign, but it can also be used for shortcuts.

The scheduled SMS calendar makes it easy to get an overview of all your scheduled campaigns.

Navigate to 'Calendar' from the panel on the left to view your campaign calendar. To schedule a message for a specific date, simply click that date on the calendar.

You can view the success and failure status of each individual message on the platform by navigating to 'Logs’ in the side navigation. Scroll down to the relevant message you want to see. If the message failed, the status of the message will be “Error / Failed.”