Creating an SMS Campaign
A campaign sends one SMS to everyone in an address book at a date and time you choose. You need at least one address book to create a campaign.
Navigate: Campaign > Create New
Create a campaign
Step 1: Go to Campaign > Create New.
Step 2: Enter a Campaign Name. This is for your own lists and reports; the people you send to don't see it.
Step 3: Choose the Start Date and Time. It must be at least 15 minutes from now, and it uses your account's time zone.
Step 4: Choose the Sender: the mobile number or brand name people will see the message from.
Step 5: Choose the Address Book to send to.
Step 6: Choose the Campaign Type: Marketing or Transactional (see below).
Step 7: Type your Message. Under the box you'll see how many characters it uses, a badge showing how many SMS each person gets, and a preview of exactly what they will receive. For a Marketing campaign the badge turns red if the message needs more than 6 SMS parts, and it can't be scheduled until you shorten it.
Step 8: Select Schedule Campaign. The line beside the button shows who it sends to and when, for example "Sends to Clinic patients on Fri 23 Oct 2026, 9:00 AM". You're taken to Scheduled Campaign, with a message such as "Campaign "Spring promo" is scheduled for Sun 15 Dec 2030, 6:45 pm."
Marketing or Transactional
3 of 3 rows
| Use it for | Offers, promotions and newsletters | Service messages such as reminders, alerts and account notices |
| Opt-out link | Added on its own last line, with a link unique to each person | Not added |
| Numbers on your Opt-outs list | Skipped | Still sent |
Under the Spam Act 2003, commercial messages must give people a way to unsubscribe. Choose Marketing for anything promotional.
Personalise the message
Add a field code to the message and each person gets their own details from the address book:
$_first_name, $_last_name, $_company, and $_custom_1 to $_custom_4. If your account has message templates, the Insert customer field buttons under the message add these for you.For example, Hi $_first_name, see you at $_custom_1 is sent as "Hi Ann, see you at 2:30pm".
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Check the contact details first. If a field is empty for a contact, it is left out, so "Hi $_first_name," becomes "Hi ," for someone with no first name. Fields also change each person's message length, so a long name can add an extra SMS part.
How the SMS count works
- Standard characters (letters, numbers, common punctuation): up to 160 characters for 1 SMS, then 153 for each extra part.
- Any emoji or special character: up to 70 characters for 1 SMS, then 67 for each extra part.
For Marketing campaigns, the count already includes the opt-out line (about 34 characters), so the number you see is what each message costs.