SMS

SMS channel in Synerise allow you to send text messages to all customers who gave you their phone number and gave you permission to communicate with them using this channel.

Business profits

You can send personalized SMS to a specific group of customers in the right moment (for example after making a specific action by them), this way it is much easier to reach customers with the right content.

An easy-to-use text message builder allows you to save time and set up the moment of sending your messages automatically. It means that it can be a part of your sales/communication cycle and it can be sent only to people who met specific conditions.

Analyses of text messages let you compare and analyze results achieved in every message in real time, collect information about the number of sent text messages, and so on.

Requirements

Before you start sending SMS, you must configure SMS gateway ( Settings >  Apps & Integrations > Apps & Services). You can use the following SMS gateways:

• SMSAPI
• Twilio
• Materna
• Infobip
• TideMobile

Configuring SMS gateway

An SMS gateway lets you send and receive SMS messages by providing a relay between your system and a telecom network. Synerise, thanks to the possibility of integration with SMS applications, can help you organize and effectively manage SMS communication.

1. Go to Settings >  Apps & Integrations > Apps & Services
2. Find the SMS gateway you want to configure and next to the name of the gateway, switch the toggle button on.
3. Enter the credentials of the gateway (available on your gateway account).
4. Confirm by clicking Save.
5. Go to Settings > Configuration > SMS > Add SMS account
6. In the Account name field, enter the name of the account. It will display on the list of SMS accounts.
7. In the From name/number field, enter the name or number that will be visible for the recipient of the text message (make sure the gateway plan covers this feature).
8. From the SMS provider list, select the SMS gateway.
9. Confirm by clicking Save.
   Result: The new account is visible on the list in Settings > Configuration > SMS.

SMS dashboard

In order to see a message overview, go to Communication > SMS.

The SMS dashboard includes a list of all messages. Each message entry on the list contains basic information, such as the date of sending or modification, the number of text messages sent, or the message author.

1. In the Filters section, you can filter the messages by the following conditions:

   • All - see the list of all messages
   • Recent - see the list of most recently sent messages
   • Draft - see the list of drafts
   • Scheduled - see the list of scheduled messages
   • Finished - see the list of all finished messages

2. In Templates section, you can find templates which you can use in your text messages.

3. The Folder section allows you to add folders to group and organize messages.

1. To add a message to folder, select the message.
2. Click Move to, and choose the folder.

Basic statistics

Check the status of messages (how many of them are active/scheduled/paused), and see how many messages have been sent the last 24 hours. It’s an opportunity for comprehensive observation and interpretation of results from every message. Thanks to this, you can determine the optimal time for your shipments, analyze the behavioral, demographic and transactional data about the users, and personalize the content of your messages.

SMS template

You can create SMS templates which can be used further. This way you will not have to create messages from scratch.

In order to create a new template, go to Communication > SMS.

Creating SMS template

In Synerise template builder you can create your SMS message.

1. Go to Communication > SMS.

2. In the menu on the left, click Templates.

3. Click Create new.

4. Click Text editor. The text editor and SMS preview open.

5. In the text box on the right, enter the contents of your message.

   

6. When your message is ready, choose one of the options:

   • If you want to save the template for later use, click Save the template.
   • If you want to use the template immediately, click Use in communication.

Creating from template

To use templates prepared previously:

1. Go to Communication > SMS.
2. In the menu on the left, click Templates.
3. Select the Templates option.
4. Choose the template you want to use.

If there are a lot of them, you can sort them by the name or the date of creation for easier browsing.

Modifying SMS templates

If you want to modify a template, you need to copy it and modify the duplicated version.

1. Go to Communication > SMS > Templates.
2. Select From templates.
3. Select the template you want to modify and click the three-button icon to expand the context menu.
4. Click the Duplicate button.

Short links in SMS

If you send links in text messages, you can use a jinjava code to shorten the URL addresses to make the text message look professional and the link more reliable.

The Jinjava code

1. In this version, the clicks in the link are not collected.

   {% shorturl %}{% endshorturl %}

2. In this version, the clicks in the link are collected, so this event can be used in analyses.

   {% shorturl %}{% preparelink %}{% endpreparelink %}{% endshorturl %}

Instruction

Place the URL between the opening and closing tag of the jinjava code as in the example below.

Example

{% shorturl %}{% preparelink %}https://example.com/season-discounts/?utm_source=examplecom&utm_medium=slider&utm_content=examplecom&utm_term=discount-amazon-perf-2_W3&utm_campaign=Campaign-OnGoing{% endpreparelink %}{% endshorturl %}

As an outcome, the customer will receive a message with the link:

SMS communication

There a couple of ways to send text messages in Synerise. In this part we will show you the methods available, including:

• Manually
• Automatically

Send manually

1. Go to Communication > SMS.
2. To create a new SMS, click the Create new button.

1. Type the name of the message.
2. Additionally, you can add the description below. This way you let other users know what kind of content this message includes without going into the message details.

Configure the message in 4 steps:

• In the Audience section, choose the recipients.
• In the Content section, create the text of your SMS.
• In the Schedule section, set the time when your message will be sent.
• In the Test section, check the message before you send it.

Audience

Define the recipients.

You can choose one of three options:

1. Everyone - Everyone who has your mobile app and gave consent for mobile marketing will receive your message. The estimated reach takes into account the number of customers who have given marketing consent to mobile push notifications.
2. Segment - You can send the message to one or more existing segments in the system.
3. New Audience - Create new segments and specify the conditions which the target must meet.
4. Advanced options - You can use these additional options for your message.
   Advanced options - explanation

   • Batch delivery - It prevents sending push to all recipients at once. When to use it? When there is a risk that sending a whole batch of push notifications at once will result in excessive website-crashing clicks in the link included in the push notification.
   • Enable control group - It creates a subgroup of the recipients who won’t receive any push variant. When to use it? When you send one or several variants of a push notification (A/B/x testing). When a customer is assigned to a control group, the information is available in their Profiles card as an event.
   • Include audience changes - Available only for scheduled push notifications. It recalculates the number of recipients right before sending the push notification. By default, the size of the customer segment chosen for the push is the same as in the moment of sending, even if the number of customers in the chosen segment changed between scheduling the push and sending. When to use it? When the size of the segments of customers selected as the audience of the push notification can change dynamically.
   • Ignore limits - If you want to make sure that this message is sent to a customer, even if it exceeds the global limit of this type of messages for a single customer per day (more information is available here), enable the Ignore limits toggle. You may apply it to system messages such as a transaction confirmation, notifications about order delays, and so on.

5. To save your changes, Click the Apply button below.

Content

At this stage, you can choose the template which will be sent or create an A/B test to check the effectiveness of every version of your message.

1. From the dropdown list, choose the Sender name. This is the list of the SMS accounts described in the Configuring SMS gateway step.
2. Create the content of your message. You can choose a ready-made template or create a new one. Even when you add the template, you can always modify it when you click Duplicate and edit the copied version, or delete when you click Remove.

1. To add another version click the plus button on the upper part of the content box.
2. Add Sender name. This is the list of the SMS accounts described in the Configuring SMS gateway step.
3. Add another template in the same way like before and make your changes.
4. Use Customer allocation and choose the audience size for each version.
5. To complete the process, click the Apply button.

Schedule

This is where you can set the date of sending your message.

1. You can choose between two options:

   • To send your message after clicking the Send button on the upper right corner, use the Immediately option.

   • To plan a message to be sent at a future date, use the Scheduled option. Set the start time and the time zone.

     WARNING: Synerise is a system that performs the best while operating on the real time data that is why the users can plan a message 10 days forward from the current date.

     To select the best time of sending the message, take a look at the suggestion from the AI engine that calculates the best time (for all recipients). If time optimization is disabled, click here to learn more how to enable it and use it.

     Important: When you schedule the date of sending on a particular date, the Send button saves the settings and the message is sent at the chosen date.

2. To complete the process, click the Send button.

Set up time restrictions for sending SMS

To disable sending out messages at a specific time during the day, in the Silence Hours in the Schedule section, select one of the following options:

• Without silence hours - Message can be processed and sent out to the recipients at any time during the day.
• Include silence hours - In the selected time, the messages won’t be sent out to the recipients. The duration of silence hours can’t exceed 12 hours. If the sending process overlaps with silence hours, the unsent part of the messages will be rejected. In such case, the sms.skipped event will be generated.
  WARNING: If a message is scheduled for sending just before silence hours (for example, silence hours start at 22:00 and sending is scheduled at 21:59:59), the message may be processed, sent, and logged in the events a short time after the silence hours start.

Test

Test your message to check whether the message displays correctly.

1. Add phone number to which the test message will be sent.
2. You can add as many phone numbers as you want by clicking Add phone number button.
3. If you want to use the same list to test all your messages in the future, click Save list. The list will be visible in the Saved list.
4. To complete the process, click the Send test button.

If you have received a test message and it meets your expectations, then you can proceed to further configuration of the message.

Perform one of the following actions:

1. If you want to save your message without sending and finish your work later, click Finish later.
2. If you completed the configuration and want to launch it (now or at the scheduled time), click Send.

Send automatically

You can send text messages automatically as an effect of the automation process. Your message will be sent to all customers who met the specified conditions in described order.

In order to use automation for SMS, go to Automation > Workflows > New workflow.

You can create an automation process in which you can include the SMS launch as one of the activities.