The Self-service SMS onboarding feature enables you to connect your SMS provider to Emarsys and start using the SMS channel.
Please note that:
- Only the approved and integrated SMS providers are supported by Emarsys. The list of such providers can be found in your SMS product, or on Emarsys Partner Connect. If you wish to add an aggregator not included, please contact support. It is your responsibility to contract with one of these vendors, and fully scope your SMS requirements with the aggregator.
- You cannot set up multiple providers with an Emarsys account, only one SMS provider per Emarsys account is supported.
Prerequisites
- Contract with your chosen provider
- Provider's API credentials
- Inbound number(s) for each country and region (Only if such were provided by the aggregator/provider, otherwise optional.)
Onboarding steps
To start using the SMS channel, first you need to go through the SMS setup.
To do that, proceed as follows:
- Contact your Client Success Manager to enable Self-service SMS onboarding on your account.
- Once enabled, go to Management > SMS Settings.
- Click Start Setup.
For the first time, start with setting your preferred currency, if you have not set up and sent your SMS campaign earlier.
You see this screen only at the first setup.
Your SMS campaigns will be calculated in this currency.
- Select the provider you already have a contract with and fill in the required input fields.
Optionally, you can see the list of available providers.
Input fields are dependent on the provider. If you select one, the input fields specific to that provider will appear. These API credentials can be found at your provider's admin site.
- Connect to Provider - To make sure the connection is working, the provider sends a confirmation message to your account owner's phone number. This might take a few minutes.
If it is unable to connect, check if the API credentials were entered correctly or contact Emarsys support.
- On the Country or Region Setup screen, select your target Country or Region and fill in the following fields:
-
Inbound Number:
- Your dedicated number per country or region (you need to have separate inbound numbers for each country or region).
- Your customers will send messages to this number.
- You need to get your inbound number from your provider.
-
Optional: You can enter your fee if you would like to get a calculated estimate on costs, but you can also leave the zero value here.
Fee per SMS:- The cost of one SMS you agreed on with your provider.
- Add a fee if you would like to make cost calculations in your SMS campaign reports.
-
Test Message Number:
- You can send and confirm test messages to all destination countries or regions and make sure that all connections are working properly.
-
Inbound Number:
Please keep in mind that you will only be able to set up your SMS channel with a verified phone number that is associated/registered with your provider’s account.
Repeat this step for each target country or region.
- On the Summary page you can double-check all the countries or regions, SMS fees, inbound numbers and test message numbers.
When ready, click Finalize SMS Channel Setup.
- On the final screen, copy the Inbound/Delivery report URL and paste it to your provider's admin site for the API to work properly.
- You are set and redirected to the SMS Settings overview page.
- As a final step, you can test your setup by sending test SMS messages. See Test Messages.
SMS Settings page: General tab
On the SMS Settings page under General tab you can see an overview of all important information regarding your SMS setup per country or region. This page displays the following information and functionality:
- Name of your provider.
- Add a new country or region (as described in the Onboarding steps).
- Edit country or region.
- Reset country or region.
Settings tab: Provider Settings
- Select the Settings tab.
- In the API Credentials (SMS) pane set up the necessary credentials to use SMS with the supported providers.
- You can edit the following fields:
- API username
- API key
- Delivery report URL
- Inbound URL
- Once the credentials are entered, click Update Provider Settings.
The MMS pane is only visible in that case, if your account has MMS enabled, else you only see the SMS settings.
Update SMS provider settings
- You can edit the following credentials:
- Service Plan ID
- API Key Credentials
- Base URL - Select it from the drop-down
- Once the credentials are entered, click Save and you are ready to create SMS campaigns.
Test Messages
We recommend testing "end-to-end message sends" by sending out test campaigns within the SMS campaign creation flow. Testing SMS campaigns this way supports all the use cases you need to test. For more information, see Sending test messages under Preview.
Tip: You can create a more consistent brand image across your campaigns with customized URLs. See, Inserting customized URLs in SMS campaigns.