Create SMS Campaign

To create a new SMS campaign select the CREATE drop-down menu at the top of the left sidebar of your TicketReach dashboard and click CAMPAIGN from the drop-down list.

The Create New Campaign dialogue box opens.

Select the radio button in the top right corner of the SMS section to create a new SMS campaign.

Enter an internal name for your campaign (your contacts will not see this) that is 50 or fewer characters in the Campaign Name text box. Next, select the event the campaign is associated with from the Targeted Event drop-down menu. Note that you must create the event in your TicketReach account before you create a campaign or the event will not be available to select in this list.

If the campaign is not related to an event, click to check the box to the left of “I don’t have an event for this”. Finally, select the CREATE CAMPAIGN button.

The SMS Campaign page opens.

The left side of the page displays the fields that make up the final SMS message. You’ll need to set each of these up. The right side of the page displays a preview of the message as it will look to recipients when they receive it. When you make changes to the fields on the left side of the page, the draft message will update on the right.

There are three sections of the SMS message that must be configured before you can send your campaign:

SENDER SECTION

The Sender field is automatically filled in with the Company name in your TicketReach user profile. This cannot be changed.

Click the SAVE & CONTINUE button to move to the next section.

RECIPIENTS SECTION

Choose which contacts in your TicketReach account should receive your SMS campaign in the Recipients section. There are two available fields in this section: Send To and Don’t Send To. The Send To field is required, but the Don’t Send To field is optional.

Click the Send To field, and a new section will open on the page where you can select contacts to send your message to based on events or audience segments that are already set up in your TicketReach account. Type an event name to find a specific event.

To send to a specific audience segment, click the Segments tab. You have three options:

• Search for a specific audience segment by typing a segment name into the search box.
• Select the checkbox to the right of a segment shown in the list of your audience segments.
• Select the checkbox next to All Segments at the top of the list to send your email campaign to all audience segments in your TicketReach account.

You can limit which contacts receive your email campaign further by clicking the Don’t Send To field. A new section opens where you can remove specific events or segments from the campaign.

For example, if you have 30 segments in your TicketReach account and want to send your SMS campaign to all segments except one, you can select All Segments in the Send To field, and then, select the one segment you don’t want to send to in the Don’t Send To field. Sometimes, this is a quicker, easier, and cleaner way to remove events or segments than manually clicking many of them in the Send To field.

MESSAGE SECTION

When you click on the Message section, a text box opens where you can type your SMS message. Click the emoji icon to add emojis to your message from the available library. Make sure your message is no more than 500 characters.

URL SHORTENER BUTTON

Since the number of characters you can send in an SMS message is limited, you may want to shorten any URLs you include in your messages to save character space. Select the URL SHORTENER button in the top left of the SMS Campaign page. A dialogue box opens where you can paste the URL you want to shorten.

Type or copy/paste the URL you want to shorten into the text box. Then, select the SHORTEN button.

A new section of the URL Shortener dialogue box opens that displays your original and shortened URLs and a Copy button.

Select the COPY button to copy the shortened URL to your clipboard. Then, select the UPDATE MESSAGE button in the Message section of the SMS Campaign page, and paste the URL into your SMS message where you want it to appear. You can paste by right-clicking and selecting PASTE from the menu that appears or by selecting CTRL+V on a PC or CMD+V on a Mac.

The shortened URL will automatically appear in the message preview on the right of the page.

SAVING, PREVIEWING, AND SENDING YOUR CAMPAIGN

When you’re done setting up your SMS message, you can select the PREVIEW & TEST button above the inbox preview to see how your message will look to recipients when they receive it. You can also send a test message of the campaign to the phone number of your choice. The preview is sent immediately, so you can review how the message looks on your device as recipients will see it.

When you’re satisfied with your campaign’s content, select the SAVE CAMPAIGN button above the inbox preview to save it as a draft in your TicketReach account. You can visit the CAMPAIGNS page in your account at any time to make additional edits or send it in the future.

If you’re ready to send your message, select the SCHEDULE CAMPAIGN button above the inbox preview. The Schedule Campaign dialogue box opens.

Select the radio button next to Send Now to send your campaign to recipients immediately, or select the radio button next to Schedule for Later to send your campaign in the future. If you choose the radio button to schedule the campaign to send later, use the date and time drop-down menus under the Choose Date & Time heading, to select when you want the campaign to be sent.

If another person needs to approve the campaign before it is sent, select the check box next to Require Campaign Approval and click the approver’s email address in the drop-down menu.

When you’re done scheduling the campaign, select the SCHEDULE CAMPAIGN button. The campaign will now be visible on the All Campaigns page of your TicketReach account with a status of Scheduled.

If you didn’t check the Require Campaign Approval box, the campaign will automatically go out at the scheduled date and time. If you did check the Require Campaign Approval box, the approver will be notified that a campaign is waiting for their approval. The campaign will be sent at the scheduled date and time as long as the approver approves it before that date and time. If the approver doesn’t approve the message before the scheduled date and time, it will not be sent. You’ll need to reschedule it to go out on a date and time in the future.