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Broadcasts 2.0

Follow this step by step guide to create and send a broadcast message.

David Stupek avatar
Written by David Stupek
Updated over a week ago

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What is a Broadcast?

A Broadcast is a bulk message that allows you to send the same text to multiple contacts at a time. This is great for promotions, appointments or if you want to send the same text to a group of contacts.


How to Send a Broadcast

  1. In your account, locate your Broadcasts icon on the left side column and select New Broadcast in the upper right to get started.

  2. Broadcast Name: Give your Broadcast a unique name so you can identify it or refer back to it at a later time.

  3. SMS or Ringless: Type out your message or upload a Ringless Voicemail (more info on Ringless here).

  4. Send from: Select the Inbox and number that you want the message to be sent from.

    1. individual phone (if only 1 number is in the inbox)

    2. Scaler option (broadcast will be sent randomly either from local or toll-free numbers)

    3. Local presence (broadcast will be sent from local number only)

  5. Contacts: Use the filter in the contacts section to choose who you're messaging.

  6. Schedule: You can choose to send your message immediately by selecting Send Immediately, or you can also schedule an outgoing message with our Send Later option.

    1. If you choose to send your message later, remember to activate your message to send it out at the scheduled time.​


Broadcasts AI Texting Assistant

With the AI feature in Broadcasts you can now leverage generative AI to optimize your broadcast texts, helping you craft the most effective messages to achieve your goals.

Abilities of the AI Texting Assistant

  • Rephrase: Adjust your message with different wording while keeping the same meaning.

  • More Friendly: Make the tone of your message warmer and more personable.

  • More Formal: Shift the tone to be more professional and polished.

  • Expand: Lengthen your message by adding more detail or context.

  • Shorten: Condense your message while retaining the key points.

If no text is entered in the message body, the AI icon will be disabled. Hovering over the icon will display the message: "Please enter text to enable AI." This ensures that AI options are available only when there is content to enhance.


Sending media

It is also possible to attach images, videos, GIFs, documents or audio files to your broadcasts. Click the + button, and you'll see a dropdown where u can upload files, images, record audio/video, and use recently sent files.


Filters

This is how you target your specific audience. You can enroll contacts to broadcast and view them on the "Contacts" tab

  • Via creating a new set of filters based on names, custom fields, emails, and HubSpot lists.

  • By searching for contacts by utilizing their shared tag.

  • By adding segments.

  • By adding individual contacts.


Advanced Scheduling

You can now reach out to any number of contacts with our Advanced Scheduling feature! πŸŽ‰ No need to worry about sending a mass text and trying to keep up. Just set it up to fire off your Broadcast to up to 2000 recipients a day, and conversation management should be a breeze.

Send based on Contact's time zone

You can make sure that the contact receives your SMS at the allocated time that you scheduled, even if they are in a different timezone. Just turn on the toggle beside "Use customer timezone".


Recurring Broadcasts

Recurring Broadcasts are a simple way to keep your audience engaged without the extra work! You can set up messages that will be sent continuously on interval of your choosing. All your Recurring Broadcasts will be nicely grouped in a new tab.


Navigating the Broadcast page

Once you've sent lots of broadcasts, there will be more of them on the page to review, clone, and reference. You can filter your Broadcast page to show you only Broadcasts by their status: Draft, Scheduled, In Progress, sent Sent and Failed.

Broadcasts Report Page

Broadcasts have a report page that provides a wealth of information on the performance of each message. The report page contains data on the number of delivered and undelivered messages, as well as the number of clicks, replies, and revenue generated. This information is available for both regular and recurring broadcasts, making it easy to monitor the success of your communication efforts.

For Stopped and Paused broadcasts, this section will show the total number of Contacts who received your message, as well as those who were skipped. In the case of Failed broadcasts, you will find a detailed reason for the failure.

You can access detailed information about the recipients who replied or clicked on the link in your broadcast by simply clicking on the respective replies and clicks.

The Broadcast Report page also allows you to quickly duplicate any of your existing Broadcasts. Simply click the 3 dots and chose the "Duplicate" option. This will create a new Broadcast with the same set of Contacts, sent from the same Inbox and with the same content. Your short URL will be regenerated automatically for convenient tracking.


Bulk Actions for Contacts

You can add tags to your contacts via Bulk Actions or Individually on the Detailed Broadcast page. Using bulk actions, you can simply manage tags (add new or remove existing one), validate contacts' numbers via PhoneCheckr, delete or enroll in new broadcast.


Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when I schedule a broadcast without enough credits?

If your account does not have enough credits, you will get a prompt to purchase more credits available in bulk.

What are some best practices for bulk messaging?

Can I use a Short Code number to send a broadcast?

We offer two types of Short Codes. A Dedicated Short Code is a 5-6 digit number that you can acquire ahead of your shortcode application. A Shared Short Code is a number provided by Salesmsg that is used for one-way texting (7900). You can send mass messages to up to 1000 tagged contacts per broadcast using a shortcode.Β 

How many characters is one complete text?

Keep in mind that 160 characters complete one full-text message and if you send a broadcast with a larger character count, it will cost an additional message credit.

How do I use tags?

Because the Broadcast feature is designed to pull contacts from your tags list, you'll have to add a unique tag to the contacts you want to include in your bulk message first. From there, you can insert the tag under Β "Send To" and the message will be sent to the contacts with that specific tag.Β 

I've reached my broadcast message limit, what does that mean?

If you selected tagged contacts for your broadcast that go over your plan limit, we can not guarantee it will go to all of your contacts. Your broadcast will be sent out to the maximum amount of contacts based on your subscription. We suggest cloning your broadcast with a unique tag for any additional messages or upgrading to a plan to fit your broadcasting needs.


​What timezone are my messages sent and received in?


Your timezone is dictated by the timezone you selected in your Personal settings. If you've never configured this, the default is the timezone that your web browser is set to.


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Contact us on live chat or send an email to us at [email protected].

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