Use the Dotdigital SMS campaign editor to compose your message, choose a sender, and set your campaign options. Including whether to send as a broadcast or triggered campaign.
SMS messages are made up of segments. Each segment is a maximum of 160 characters, or 70 characters if you're using a non-Latin character set. Adding personalisation or links can increase your character count, so you can also set a maximum number of segments per message to manage your SMS spend.
Before you start
SMS must be enabled on your Dotdigital account.
You must have a sender name or number configured.
Create an SMS campaign
1. Set up your SMS
Go to Campaigns and select the quick-create (+) icon for SMS.
Enter a name for your campaign in the field at the top of the editor.
Select the check icon.
For Message type, select SMS.
Under Campaign details expand the Sender drop-down menu and select the From name or number you want to send the SMS from.
Expand the Max SMS segments drop-down menu to select the maximum number of segments per message you want to set.
Messages exceeding this number of segments are not sent. Learn more in Set max SMS segments.Select CAMPAIGN OPTIONS to:
Choose your Send type from BROADCAST or TRIGGERED.
Broadcast campaigns are sent either immediately or at a scheduled time to one or more lists, segments or marketing preferences, and allow split testing.
Triggered campaigns are used for SMS auto-responders or sends through automated programs and don't allow split testing.
If you choose to send a Broadcast SMS, to enable or disable split testing, toggle the Split test switch.
Split testing is unavailable for triggered campaigns. Learn more in Create a split test SMS campaign.
For Links, select Shorten or Do not shorten.
Link shortening saves character counts and allows us to track SMS interaction. Learn more in Use link shortening and tracking in an SMS campaign.
When you’ve finished selecting your campaign options, select SAVE in the side panel.
2. Create your message
In the Message field, enter your SMS message text.
To add personalisation to an SMS campaign, select the personalisation icon in the bottom left of the Message field.
Learn more in Personalisation for SMS and MMS.
To insert a link to a survey, page or form into your SMS campaign, select the link icon in the bottom left of the Message field. In the side panel, select the survey, page, or form you want to link to.
When you’re happy with your campaign, select SAVE & CONTINUE or SAVE.
Test your SMS campaign
You can access the test send function for SMS in two places:
The SMS campaign editing screen
On the SMS campaigns screen, in the Test send column.
To test send:
Select TEST SEND.
In the Test send side panel, select SELECT TEST NUMBER to choose contacts
from your Test list, holding Ctrl to select multiple, or select
NEW TEST NUMBER to add a new contact.
You can't add suppressed mobile numbers to your Test list. If you see an
Errors found message when adding a new number, this is likely why.
Select TEST SEND to confirm the send.
When you're finished with testing and ready to send, select SAVE & CONTINUE.
If you're not ready to send, select SAVE, exit the editor, and return to your
campaign later.
Edit an SMS campaign
If you created an SMS campaign without sending it, you can return to make changes.
Go to Campaigns > SMS.
Select the SMS campaign you want to edit.
Make any changes you want to your campaign.
Select SAVE & CONTINUE.
See also