First, open your Dashboard and head to Engage in the sidebar. If you don't have access to Engage yet, visit the " Engage " tab in your Dashboard and click the Request Access button for consideration.
Once approved, you'll see "SMS Numbers" appear in your Engage Settings.
Have a look at this detailed guide on claiming a phone number to send SMS messages - you'll need a number before you can create a message!
Okay, I've claimed a phone number! ✅
Click "New Message" in the top right, then select "Text Message".
Note: We have a separate guide on creating an email message in Engage!
The first screen you'll see is the list of Contacts you want the SMS to be sent to. (If you don't have Contacts in your account yet, you'll need to import these before you're able to proceed.)
Step 1: Filtering your Contacts 📙
By default, all your Contacts will be included. To narrow this down, create a new Filter to include a targeted group of Contacts.
You can create Filters to create targeted groups based on a variety of different criteria, such as:
Presets: A selection of preset options, including one-time donors
Campaigns: Donors who have given to a specific campaign
Contact: Donors who have given a certain amount, recurring donors, Contacts since a certain date, or by Tags
Team Member: Team Members on campaigns based on how much they've raised, the date they registered, or the number of supporters
Transactions: Donors who have a Transaction meeting the criteria set, ie. credited to a specific Team Member, over a certain amount, or by date
Tickets: Ticket holders of a specific Ticket Type, status (ie. checked in), or by number of tickets purchased
Recurring Plan: Donors with recurring plans by start date, amount, frequency (ie. monthly donors), or payment method
DonorSearch: Criteria set by DonorSearch such as rating or annual gift likelihood
These are cumulative Filters, so you can select multiple criteria. Tags are a great way to designate a specific group of Donors if you aren't sure how to get started!
You can also Filter Contacts by clicking the dropdown arrow to the right side of the Filter button. This will give you the options of Segments (saved Filter groups) and Presets.
Subscription status ❌
If a Contact has this red icon next to it, this Contact is unsubscribed:
Unsubscribed Contacts will not be sent an SMS, even if they are displayed in your filtered list of Contacts.
If there are just a few, there's no action required on your end, and you can proceed to the next step. If all of your Contacts are unsubscribed, you'll need to bulk subscribe your Contacts.
Step 2: Drafting your SMS message ✏️
After finishing up your Contact list, you'll head to the message composer! It's formatted a little like an email composer, with a preview of what it'll look like on a mobile device. In the top section, you'll see:
the number of Contacts it'll be sent to (and any excluded Contacts)
your claimed "sender" phone number
how many characters you've used (out of 450 total)
a place to type your SMS message
any file attachments you'd like to add
First, name your SMS message - this will help keep you organized later on! You can do this by clicking the pencil icon next to the title, which will be a Draft number by default. (You can also do this after an SMS is sent.)
Click "Message..." to type your message. You can also add Emojis! 💛
This is limited to 450 characters
You can input customized contact variables (also known as dynamic variables) by clicking this icon:
You can then add attachments to include in your SMS.
Up to 1MB of attachments are supported
PNG, JPEG, and GIF files are supported
While you draft your SMS, you'll see the preview in the display on the right side update! Please note, you cannot remove the "opt out" message at the end of the message.
Send a test SMS message
Once you're happy with your SMS, you can send a test by clicking "Send a test" in the upper right corner of the composer. You can send a test SMS to multiple people if you like.
Step 3: Scheduling and Preview 👀
Next, you'll need to decide when you want your Engage SMS to go out! The options are:
Send now
Schedule for later (set a date and time)
Note: The time zone shown for scheduled messages is based on the time zone selected in your Account settings. To change it, head to Account > About > Organization Profile > General Details.
Below the "Schedule" section, you'll see a Preview of your SMS message. If you didn't send a test SMS to yourself, this is where you'll see a sample!
Click the "Send SMS" or "Schedule SMS" button in the bottom right when you're done.
Your message will now appear under the Sent or Scheduled tabs in Engage.
Once it's sent, a look at your outbound message statistics to see how many people have opened your message!
FAQ 🤔