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3. How to send an SMS
3.1. Send a message to an individual (one contact)
3.2. Send a message to a group (many contacts)
3.3. Send a personalised message
3.4. Send a scheduled message
3.5. Send messages from an uploaded file
3.6. Save a message
3.7. Retrieve a saved message
3.8. Delete a saved message
3.9. Create a message template
3.9.1. Create and send a Standard message template
3.9.2. Create and send a personalized message template
3.1. Send a message to an individual (one contact)
Step 1: Click ‘New’ on the BulkSMS Text Messenger Toolbar.
Step 2: Click ‘SMS Text Message’
Step 3: Enter the mobile phone number of the contact (country code and number with no spaces or leading zero, e.g. 27820010001) that you would like to send the SMS text message to.
If the contact has been saved into the BulkSMS Text Messenger contacts, you can enter the first few letter(s) of the contacts name. Click 'Check' to confirm the individual’s name – you may need to select the individual from a drop down list that may appear (if for example you are sending a message to Shaun, and there are five Shaun’s listed, you will need to choose which Shaun you would like to send the message to).
If the characters are not recognised when the 'Check' button is clicked, the option to create a New Contact is offered. Accepting this option opens the Contact Properties window, where the new contact can be added to your contact list and this newly inserted contact will now appear in the ‘To’ field. See Adding a New Contact
Step 4: Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available (in this case, 111 characters are still available). The number of characters left will automatically update as the message is typed.
Should you wish to save this message in order to send it at a later stage, Click ‘Save’.
If you would like to send a message longer than 160 characters, click ‘Enable long messages’ to find out how. You can send a message of up to 918 characters using the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 5: Click 'Send’ to send the message.
3.2. Send a message to a group (many contacts)
Step 1: Click ‘New’ on the BulkSMS Text Messenger Toolbar.
Step 2: Click ‘SMS Text Message’
Step 3: Enter the Group name that you would like to send the SMS message to, alternatively, click on ‘Group’ or ‘Check’ to add the group that you would like to send the SMS text message to.
Step 4: Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available (in this case, 116 characters are still available). The number of characters left will automatically update as the message is typed.
Should you wish to save this message in order to send it at a later stage, Click ‘Save’.
If you would like to send a message longer than 160 characters, click ‘Enable long messages’ to find out how. You can send a message of up to 918 characters using the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 5: Click 'Send’ to send the message.
3.3. Send a personalised message
Personalised Messages allows you to send bulk SMS text messages with unique information for each contact in your database. A single personalised message can be sent to all your contacts by selecting customized information from the Token Field menu (This unique contact data is automatically added to the message, for example, first name, account balance, date).
Step 1: Click ‘New’ on the BulkSMS Text Messenger Toolbar.
Step 2: Click ‘Personalised Text Message’
Step 3: Enter the Group name that you would like to send the personalized SMS text message to, alternatively, click on ‘Group’ to select the group that you would like to send the SMS text message to. If you would like to add a new group, please see ‘Add Group contacts’.
Step 4: If you would like to personalize your SMS text message, you can Click ‘Insert Token Field’, which will bring up a list of fields that can be added to your message in order to personalize it.
If, for example, you select ‘{First Name}’, for each contact the message is sent to the system will insert up to 11 characters of the corresponding first name (this means that only the first 11 characters of the first name will be included).
Step 5: Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available (in this case, 7 characters are still available). The number of characters left will automatically update as the message is typed.
Step 6: Click ‘Preview’ in order to see the various messages that will be populated with the personalized fields.
Step 7: View the personalized messages that will be sent. The preview shows you how the messages will appear in the recipients inbox.
If an “X” appears next to a previewed message, this means that not all the data you requested is available for that particular message.
Step 8: Click ‘Send’ to send the message.
3.4. Send a scheduled message
Step 1: Click ‘New’ on the BulkSMS Text Messenger Toolbar.
Step 2: Click ‘SMS Text Message’
Step 3: Enter the contact details of either the group or individual contacts that you would like to send the SMS text message to.
Step 4: Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available (in this case, 145 characters are still available). The number of characters left will automatically update as the message is typed.
Should you wish to save this message in order to send it at a later stage, Click ‘Save’.
If you would like to send a message longer than 160 characters, click ‘Enable long messages’ to find out how. You can send a message of up to 918 characters using the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 5: Click ‘Schedule…’ to schedule the message
Step 6: Ensure the block stating ‘This is a Scheduled Message’ is ticked
Step 7: Choose the date that you would like the message to be sent on
Step 8: Choose the time that you would like the message to be sent at
Step 9: Click ‘Ok’
Step 10: Click ‘Send’ to send the message. The message will now be stored on the BulkSMS server ready for sending at the scheduled time.
This message can be viewed in the sent items box. To cancel a sent message, please send an email to support giving the details of the message that you would like to cancel. You will need to give BulkSMS 24 hours notice when cancelling a scheduled message.
3.5. Send various messages from an uploaded file
You can send many different messages to many different individuals through a single file upload. You will need to link the BulkSMS Text Messenger to the file, and then send a ‘Personalised Text Message’ in order to send the various messages out.
Step 1: Create an Excel spreadsheet. This should contain the relevant mobile phone number and each unique message. If you are not sending unique messages to the various individuals then you should rather use 'Send messages to a group'.
Your spreadsheet must be in the format: mobile phone number and in the new column the message. There should have only one record per line. It is best to enter mobile phone numbers with a country code. (If the number starts with zero, not a country code, the default country code can be added during the upload).
Note: When typing the message in the file, please note that only the first 160 characters (excluding the mobile phone number that the message will be sent to) of the message will be uploaded. The recipient will not receive anything more than 160 characters.
Open your BulkSMS Text Messenger and;
Step 2: Click ‘Add a link to an external datasource’
Step 3: Enter a Connection name i.e. the name of the External Contact connection.
Step 4: Click ‘Select File…’ in order to choose the file that you would like to upload.
Step 5: Select the location of the Excel Spreadsheet
Step 6: Select the Excel Spreadsheet
Step 7: Click ‘Open’ to import the Spreadsheet
Step 8: Select the worksheet that you would like the BulkSMS Text Messenger to link to.
Step 9: Click on each of the various fields (i.e. the mobile phone number column and the message column) that you would like to import into the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 10: Select which field relates to which column so that they may be intelligently imported (i.e. so that the BulkSMS Text Messenger can insert the relevant information into each contact field). The message column can be inserted as a Custom field (in this case it is imported as ‘Custom 5’).
Step 11: Click ‘OK’ when you have mapped all the relevant fields.
Step 12: Click ‘OK’ to import the file in the selected format (i.e. Column one is Mobile Number and Column 2 is, in this example, ‘Custom 5’, the field that contains the message).
Once you have imported the message file, you will then need to send the various messages.
Step 13: Click ‘New’ on the BulkSMS Text Messenger Toolbar.
Step 14: Click ‘Personalised Text Message’
Step 15: Click on ‘Group’ to add the group that you would like to send the SMS text message to. This will be the name of the external database that you have just linked to the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 16: Select the group that you would like to send the message to – you will select the file that you added as an external contact.
Step 17: Click ‘>’ in order to add the chosen group to the Selected Groups column.
Step 18: Once you have selected the uploaded file, click ‘OK’.
Step 19: In order to insert the message that was typed in the MS Excel spreadsheet, you need to choose the relevant token (custom) field. This field is the actual message saved in the file you uploaded. In this case, ‘Custom 5’ was the field that we saved the message under.
Step 20: Click ‘Preview’ in order to see the various messages as they appear in the imported spreadsheet.
Step 21: View the personalized messages that will be sent. The preview shows you how the messages will appear in the recipients inbox.
Step 22: Click ‘Send’ to send the various messages.
3.6. Save a message
This section shows you how to save a message that you would like to send at a later stage.
Step 1: Click ‘New’ on the BulkSMS Text Messenger Toolbar.
Step 2: Click ‘SMS Text Message’
Step 3: Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available (in this case, 122 characters are still available). The number of characters available will automatically update as the message is typed.
Step 4: Click the save icon on the tool bar.
Step 5: Click ‘OK’. Your message will now be saved in the drafts folder.
3.7. Retrieve a saved message
Step 1: To access your saved messages, click ‘Drafts’ on the side menu of the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 2: Double click the message that you would like to send in order to open and edit it.
Step 3: Enter all the relevant details as per “Send messages to an individual” or “Send messages to a group”.
Step 4: Click ‘Send’ to send the message to the relevant recipients
3.8. Delete a saved message
This section shows you how to delete a previously saved message.
Step 1: To access your saved messages, click ‘Drafts’ on the side menu of the BulkSMS Text Messenger.
Step 2: Select the message that you would like to delete.
Step 3: Right click your mouse and select ‘Delete message’.
The message will now be deleted out of your drafts folder
3.9. Create a message template
This section shows you how to create a message template that you can reuse for sending further messages.
3.9.1. Create a standard message template
Step 1: Click ‘New’.
Step 2: Select ‘Message Template’
Step 3: Select ‘Standard Message Template’
Step 4: Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available. The number of characters available will automatically update as the message is typed.
Step 5: Click ‘Save’ to save this as a template message.
In order to send this message, select Templates from the menu on the left hand side of the application, select the message, enter the contact details that you would like to send the message to. See “Send messages to an individual” or “Send messages to a group”.
3.9.2. Create a personalized message template
Step 1: Click ‘New’.
Step 2: Select ‘Message Template’
Step 3: Select ‘Personalised Message’
Step 4: Enter the message that you would like to send. If you would like to personalize your SMS text message, you can Click ‘Insert Token Field’, which will bring up a list of fields that can be added to your message in order to personalize it.
If, for example, you select ‘{First Name}’, for each contact the message is sent to, the system will insert up to 11 characters of the corresponding first name (this means that only the first 11 characters of the first name will be included).
Type up to 160 characters in the 'Message' box. The bottom left will show how many characters are still available. The number of characters left will automatically update as the message is typed.
Step 5: Click ‘Save’ to save this as a template message
In order to send this message, select Templates from the menu on the left hand side of the application, select the message, enter the contact numbers that you would like to send the message to. See ‘Send a personalized message’