The Emarsys SMS product is found in the Channels menu, Emarsys SMS.
The SMS Dashboard
The Dashboard tab presents you with your usage statistics, as well as your current credit balance in the upper right corner.
You can select a date range for your report and see the total number of messages sent, their total cost, as well as a Breakdown by Country, which contains columns with information on the country, the total number of messages sent, the total number of SMS parts sent, the price per part and the total cost for the given country.
The SMS campaigns list
The Campaign tab lists all your existing campaigns that are currently in work, or have not yet been launched.
If a campaign has been scheduled or added to an Automation Center program, it will be visible here until it has sent its first messages.
Here you can search for existing campaigns, view, edit, copy or delete them, and create new SMS campaigns.
The Type column indicates both the type and the status of the campaign:
- Draft batch - No recipients have been chosen. Please note that you cannot schedule the SMS campaign before choosing the recipients.
-
Sent batch - Recipients have been chosen and the campaign has been scheduled. In this case the following information is also included:
- Scheduled - The schedule date and time are shown in DD-MM-YYYY HH:MM format.
- Recipient source - In the form of Segment/Contact list: segment/contact list name - message name.
- Automation center campaign - The recipient source is defined as For Automation Center on the Recipient and scheduling page. Only campaigns that are saved with this recipient source are available for selection in the Automation Center SMS node.
Creating an SMS campaign
On the Campaigns tab, click Create New SMS to open the SMS creation wizard. This wizard has three steps, Campaign Settings, Content Creation and Scheduling.
As a quick reminder, here is the onboarding video about Creating SMS Campaigns:
Campaign settings
Here you add the General Settings and the Source Settings.
You must fill in the following mandatory fields:
- Name - This will be the name of your campaign.
-
Recipient source - Select the type of recipients. These are the following:
- Using a segment - use a predefined segment.
- Using a contact list - use a predefined contact list.
- Using an Automation Center program - use the participants of an AC program.
In case you need an inbound number for reply SMS messages, please contact Emarsys Support.
- Segment/Contact List: This changes dynamically based on your selection.
Note that if you select Using an Automation Center program, the Scheduling step of the wizard is disabled as this step is handled within the program.
SMS Ignore opt-in
When you select Automation Center programs as a recipient source, the Ignore Opt-in setting becomes available. When this is checked, your SMS will be sent without taking into consideration the opt-in status of your contacts.
If the Ignore Opt-in checkbox is not visible for you by SMS campaigns with Automation Center program recipients, contact Emarsys Support so they can enable the feature for you.
Content creation
In this step, you can set the following:
- Preview pane
- SMS Basics tab
- Personalization tab
Preview
In the Preview pane you will add the From name of the sender and you add the message content here as well.
The From name can be:
- If you are sending over a long or short code, use that inbound number in the From name.
- A word, such as your company or brand. This is supported by GSM 7 only and must be between 3 and 7 alphanumeric characters long; no special characters or spaces are allowed (as these are not supported by all operators).
- A valid mobile number, if you wish to be able to receive replies. This can be up to 15 digits long.
In some cases it is required to send the SMS from a Short Code, which has to be the From Name. In this case, Emarsys does this automatically, according to the Provider's requirements.
You can still enter alternative text in the From Name, and this will be used for any other SMSes that are not required to be sent from the respective Short Code.
Also, to some destinations it is mandatory to have a sender ID, otherwise the whole SMS campaign may be soft bounced. It is best practice to always set the sender ID/from for your campaigns.
When changing the From Name, you could trigger spam filters. Therefore, always ensure to test your SMS campaigns thoroughly, after changing your From Name.
Message - This is the standard SMS text content. The character count shown above the text box is an approximation, as the final total depends on the encryption standard used to send the SMS.
- GSM 7 allows for a maximum of 160 characters.
- Other encodings (e.g. for Chinese characters) allow for a maximum of 70 characters.
If you exceed the maximum, the SMS will be sent in multiple parts and you will be charged accordingly
Highlight editable content - Use the button to highlight all editable message content.
Sending test messages - To send a test message, enter the destination number in the field provided.
This must be a full international number but without the leading 00 or +. To send test messages to more than one number, separate the numbers using a semi-colon (;). Please note the following if you send a test SMS:
- This does not reference the Emarsys database, therefore personalization will not work.
- Unsubscribe links will open the landing page that you have defined, but will not function as an unsubscribe.
- Test messages are billed at the normal rate and are also included in the Dashboard's Usage reports screen.
SMS Basics
Here you can add an unsubscribe link to your message.
Click Edit Unsubscribe Page to add the relevant settings.
Emarsys uses a short URL to add the unsubscribe link, and reduces the character count by 23. In addition to adding the unsubscribe link to the SMS, here you can define the following:
Unsubscribe title - The title displayed at the top of the unsubscribe page.
Unsubscribe text - The message displayed below the unsubscribe title.
Unsubscribe button text - The text displayed on the unsubscribe button.
Unsubscribe confirmation text - The text that will be displayed after clicking the unsubscribe button.
Click Save when you are done.
Personalization
Select this tab to personalize your message.
The tab lists your previously created tokens, in the following categories:
- General
- Personal
- Company
- Other
Select the type of token and add it to your message with the drag-and-drop method.
To further edit the token, you can click on it and make the necessary changes.
For more information, see Omnichannel personalization - Creating use cases and tokens.
These variables are estimated as seven characters when they are added but will of course affect the final character count according to the length of the value of the field in question, so bear this in mind when using them. If you are concerned that using variables will generate too many multi-part messages, you can always check the campaign summary before launch.
Scheduling
Campaign summary
This section is one of the biggest advantages of Emarsys SMS. Not only can you calculate the exact cost of your campaign before you launch, but you can also get an instant overview of the launch list in terms of how many contacts are actually eligible to receive text messages.
Important note: If the total campaign cost exceeds your current balance, Emarsys will not launch the campaign, giving you the time to top up the balance and ensuring that no messages are sent that cannot be delivered.
Launching an SMS campaign
Once your SMS campaign is ready to launch, you can choose from the following options:
- Launch Now - The campaign will be launched now. When you click this button, you will be taken to the Campaigns tab. You can check your campaign's status on the Reporting tab.
- Schedule - The campaign is scheduled for launch and its status on the Campaigns tab changes from Draft batch to Sent batch.
Sending SMS using an Automation Center program
Triggering SMS messages from the Automation Center lets you benefit from the combination of multiple features, including cross-channel notifications and other, more complex marketing activities.
You can trigger time-critical SMS messages by selecting External Event as the entry point and linking the external event to the API call that triggers the message.
To add an SMS campaign to an Automation Center program, select this option in the Recipient source drop-down menu.
In your Automation Center program, add the SMS node wherever you want it.
After adding the SMS, double-click it to select the message content from the drop-down.
Once the program is active, all contacts who are eligible to receive SMS campaigns will receive the selected message when they reach this node.
