Create an SMS Campaign

SMS campaigns allow you to send targeted messages directly to your contacts' mobile phones, making it easy to reach customers quickly and efficiently. This topic describes how to create a message campaign for an SMS channel.

Requirements

  • Firmware: Version 84.20.0.21 or later
  • Plan: Enterprise Plan (EP) or Ultimate Plan (UP)

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that the following resources are ready for a message campaign:

Item Description
Message Channel Set up and configure an SMS channel.
Note: Ensure your account with the selected service provider has sufficient credits or quota to support your planned bulk messaging volume.
Contact List Prepare a list of contacts with phone numbers for the campaign.
Note: Each campaign supports up to 1,000 contacts.
You can associate a contact list with a campaign using one of the following methods:
  • Manually add contact numbers.
  • Import a CSV file containing contacts' phone numbers.
    Note: To use this method, ensure your file meets the following requirements:
    • Format: UTF-8 .CSV
    • Size: Less than 50 MB
    • File name: Less than 127 characters
    • Import parameters: Use a Number field to provide phone numbers in E.164 format (e.g. +1xxxxxxxxxx), as shown in the figure below.

  • Directly use the existing contacts stored in a PBX phonebook.
    Note: To use this method, ensure that the contact's phone number are stored in E.164 format, as shown in the figure below.
Message Routing Target Optional. If you want the message campaign to automatically create sessions, configure the desired routing target (either an extension or a message queue) in advance.

Procedure

  1. Log in to PBX web portal, go to Messaging > Message Campaign, then click Add.
  2. In the Basic section, complete the basic settings.
    • Name: Enter a name for the campaign to help you identify it.
    • Message Channel: Select the desired SMS channel.
    • Sender: Select the number associated with the selected SMS channel for message sending.
    • Recipient: Specify recipients using one of the following methods.
      Method Instruction
      Manual entry

      Manually add contact numbers in E.164 format (e.g., +1xxxxxxxxxx).

      1. Select Input & Import.
      2. Click Add to manually add phone numbers.
      Import from CSV file

      Import a CSV file containing the contacts’ phone numbers.

      1. Select Input & Import.
      2. Click Import.
      3. In the pop-up window, click Browse to select the desired file.
      4. Click Import.
      Use existing PBX phonebook

      Directly use existing contacts stored in your PBX phonebook.

      1. Select Phonebooks.
      2. In the Phonebooks drop-down list, select the existing phonebook.
      3. In the Number Type drop-down list, select the number type.

        The system will retrieve phone numbers from the specified number types.
  3. In the Message Content section, customize your message content.

    You can send either a text message (SMS) or a multimedia message (MMS) that includes a file.

    Type Instruction
    File
    To send an MMS message that include a file, do as follows:
    Note:
    • Supported file types are determined by the ITSP of the SMS channel.
    • The file size can NOT exceed 100 MB.

    1. Select File.
    2. Click Choose a File, then select a file to upload.
    Text To send an SMS message, do as follows:
    Note:
    • The message length is up to 1600 characters.
    • Emojis are supported.

    1. Select Text.
    2. In the text field, enter the message content and add emojis as needed.
  4. In the Sending Rules section, configure the message send time and the mode.
    1. In the Send Time section, specify when to send the message.
      Option Description
      Send Now The campaign will be sent immediately after saving.
      Schedule Sending The campaign will be sent at a specified date and time.
      Do NOT Send, Save as Draft The campaign will be saved as a draft. You can edit or send it later.
    2. In the Send Mode section, set whether to create sessions accordingly.
      Option Description
      Create session and send message The system automatically create a session for each contact number when sending the campaign messages, and the sessions will be assigned to a selected target (either an extension or a message queue).
      Note: If an active session already exists for a contact number, the campaign message will be sent to the existing session instead of creating and assigning a new session to the specified target.
      Send messages directly without creating session

      No session will be created when sending a message. And the message will not be displayed in External Chat Logs.
  5. Click Save.

Result

  • A campaign is created successfully and displayed in the campaign list.
    • If you choose to send messages immediately, the campaign status will display as Executing, and messages will be sent to the specified phone numbers right away.

    • If you scheduled the campaign, the campaign status will display as Scheduled, and messages will be sent automatically at the specified time.

  • When a campaign is marked as Completed, you can check its results from the campaign list.
    Note:
    • If there are any failed messages, you can click to retry sending.
    • To create a similar campaign, click to duplicate the campaign.
    • For a quick overview, check the Result and Response Rate columns.

    • To see detailed sending information, click .