SMS 2.0 - Bulk Messages

Bulk Text Messages are used to send a text message to one or multiple Marketing Lists.  If you want to send to just one person, read about that in our SMS 2.0 - Individal Text Messages article. And if you haven't already, make sure you've set your SMS settings first.

Create a Bulk Message

To begin, navigate to Messaging > Bulk Messages in CRM.

You will be brought to the My Drafts view of the messages. Please note there is a Draft view for everyone's drafts, a Outbox view for messages scheduled to go out, and a Sent view for successfully sent messages.

We're creating a new message, so choose New to create a record and a new Bulk Text Message record will open:

Subject: This will be the subject of the text message.

Campaign: It can be associated to a CRM Campaign so that the records are shown on the Campaign.

Send Immediately: If Yes is chosen, the text messages will go out as soon as Send has been pressed. If No is chosen, the date and time fields will be active and can be filled out to schedule for a later sending time. Toggle this value by clicking on "Yes" or "No".

Send On: If Send Immediately is set to No then these fields will be activated. Place the future date and time the messages should be sent.

Status Reason: This field indicates the current send status of the Bulk SMS record and will update automatically once you choose to send the message. The statuses are (with N being the number of recipients):

• Draft - The Parent message for 1:N recipients is created and saved as a record.

• Processing– N individual messages are being sent to the queue for sending.

• Processed – N individual messages have been created from the Parent message.

• Sent - N individual messages are sent.

• Failed – A message has failed at some point of the delivery process.

From: This field is used to enter the phone number that will be used to send the SMS.

Subscription List: This field is used to specify the Subscription List that this particular Bulk SMS message will be related to. Subscription Lists help manage opt-ins and opt-outs, so selecting the appropriate Subscription List will ensure that only recipients who specifically opted-in to the specified subscription list will receive the text message.

NOTE: The Subscription List field will only be present if you have moved to our Subscription Opt-In style. Opt-Out is the default functionality.

Now Save the record to continue. This will add the Recipients section and Message Content area.

In the Recipients section, you can add the Marketing List(s) that will be sent the SMS. To do this, click on Add Existing Marketing List on the right side of the Recipients section.

This will open a Lookup Records pop-out with a search bar. You can use this to browse and add Marketing Lists or create new ones.

Add Text Message Content

Now create your message in the Message Content area. You can also use the Personalization dropdown to pull in any information listed there. These will pull in information from the respective entity. (The Owner refers to the owner of the Lead or Contact record that will be receiving the SMS. Account information is populated when you send to an Account record.) It will show you how many characters you've used in the bottom right corner. We recommend you use 160 or less but there is not a limit.

Make sure to press Save to save your changes. You can also use the Test button to send a test SMS using a sample Contact record.

Here, the Send Test To field allows you to specify what number to send the test SMS to. The From field will let you select an available number from your Twilio account to send from. The Contact To Test With field lets you select a Contact record whose details would be used for the Freemarker personalizations within the message, and it will not send a message to the Contact record.

Send the Text Message

When you are ready to send the message, you can hit Send in the Message Content window or at the top of the Bulk Message record:

You will see this approval message next. Make sure the number of recipients looks correct and that everyone on the list is okay with getting your texts. Then check the box and click Approve.

Now people will start receiving your text message!