SMS

Text messages remain a powerful marketing channel for a simple reason – they reach your clients anywhere, with or without internet access.

What makes SMS so effective? They rarely get lost in spam folders and typically enjoy higher open rates than emails. Their brief, concise nature helps your audience quickly grasp your message without wading through lengthy paragraphs. This increases the chances they’ll read the entire message and click your links, bringing them one step closer to conversion.

Ready to create and send SMS newsletters through the ExpertSender CDP platform? Let’s walk through the process.

Requirements

Before diving into SMS creation, you’ll need to:

• Set up an SMSAPI account and configure your service – including gateway version and sender details (phone numbers or names). Currently, our platform only integrates with SMSAPI. If you use another provider, the SMS service won’t function in our platform.
• Configure this service by navigating to Settings > SMS > Gateways and following the SMS instructions: SMS gateway integration and setting up short domains for links.

SMS – dashboard

To access your SMS dashboard, select Campaigns > SMS. Here you’ll find all your SMS messages organized by status:

• All – your complete collection of SMS messages in one place.
• In progress – messages currently being delivered (with pause options).
• Draft – messages you’re working on, including those auto-saved when moving from Content to Recipients, and those manually saved as drafts.
• Scheduled – messages set for future delivery.
• Sent – previously delivered messages (viewable and duplicable, but not editable).
• Paused – messages you’ve temporarily stopped sending (with resume options).
• Deleted – removed messages (view-only access).

The dashboard tables include these helpful columns:

• Status – current message state.
• ID – message identification number.
• Name – the title you assigned when creating the SMS.
• Send date – when the message was sent.
• Recipients – number of people receiving the message.
• Sent – count of messages dispatched from the platform.
• Delivered – number of messages that successfully reached recipients.
• Clicked – total clicks on links within your SMS.
• Bounced – messages that failed delivery (often due to invalid numbers).
• Unsubscribed – people who opted out from your SMS communications.

You can sort the data in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column names.

You can easily sort any column by clicking its name. The quick search box above each table helps you find specific messages, with additional filters to narrow results by criteria like required consent or segment. Below the table, you’ll find pagination controls and row display settings.

Now, let’s create your first SMS message.

Creating SMS messages in the editor

To design and send an SMS message, go to Campaigns > SMS and click the Create SMS button in the top-right corner.

At the top, you’ll see a progress bar showing your creation stages. Your current stage is highlighted with a colored underline. You can navigate between stages by clicking on their headers – no need to follow a strict sequence.

When you reach the Summary stage, you might notice dots next to previous stages – these indicate sections that need attention before sending.

Basic settings

Start by entering essential information about your SMS:

1. Give your message a descriptive name that will help you identify it in your dashboard.
2. Select your message sender from the dropdown list.
3. Configure Tracking options to monitor campaign performance:
   • Link tracking enables click monitoring for your SMS links. If you’ve set up a short domain for SMS links, we’ll apply it automatically. Without a short domain, we’ll use your default email domain. If tracking is disabled, links appear in their full form. A custom short domain not only looks more professional and builds trust, but also saves valuable character space in your message.
   • Google Analytics – Add UTM tags to identify traffic from this campaign in your analytics. Standard tags include source, medium, content, campaign, and term. Custom parameters let you add unique tracking identifiers or incorporate dynamic content tags for personalization.

Content

Now for the fun part – crafting your message in our user–friendly editor:

1. Enter your message content, incorporating emoticons and dynamic content for personalization. You can also:
   • Click Reuse to repurpose a previous message
   • Send a Test message to check appearance before full delivery
2. The Preview section shows how your SMS will look on recipients’ phones across different operating systems (iOS or Android) and even on locked screens. The preview updates in real–time as you edit. For more realistic previews, generate a message preview with actual customer data:
   • Choose customer to choose specific customer data.
   • Select randomly to populate with random customer information.

Character count in an SMS message

Understanding character limits is crucial for SMS planning. A single SMS can contain:

• Up to 160 characters without special characters
• Only 70 characters when special characters are included

Special characters are those not supported by the standard SMS encoding (GSM 03.38). Polish letters, for example, count as special characters and reduce your limit to 70. Some characters count double: ^ { } [ ] ~ \ | € and line breaks.

How link characters are counted

We apply link masking regardless of domain type. Here’s how it works:

• Before masking: ts.pl/odziez/kobiety/promocja–lato
• After masking: ts.pl/xx/XyZ

The components break down as:

• “xx/” identifies your business unit in the campaign.
• “XyZ” is a unique character combination that varies by recipient.

The masked link length changes based on your audience size:

For large campaigns, consider this impact on character count and messaging costs.

Example:
For the message “Check out our new collection here: ts.pl/xx/XyZ”:

• Text length: 34 characters
• Link length: 12 characters
• Total: 46 characters (fits in one SMS)

If your recipient list exceeds 238,328 people, your link grows by one character.

Domain shortening in SMS messages

We replace standard domains with short versions only when all three conditions are met:

1. Link tracking is enabled in the SMS editor
2. Our system recognizes the link in your content
3. Your short domain’s CNAME record shows as “Verified”

Domain usage follows these rules:

Message length and multi–part SMS

When your message exceeds the single SMS character limit, it splits into multiple parts:

Recipients

Time to define who receives your message:

1. In the Send to field, choose between sending to all customers or a selected segment. Click Select segments to browse existing segments or create a new one.
2. Add any Required consents needed for regulatory compliance.
3. Specify what happens to a customer’s consent settings After unsubscription from your SMS communications.

Delivery

Now decide when your message goes out:

• Schedule to send your SMS on a selected day and time – simply click the cSchedule for future delivery at a specific date and time.
• Send now for immediate delivery.

For special cases, check Advanced settings where you’ll find the Ignore local blocklist option to bypass certain anti–spam restrictions.

Summary

This final stage presents a complete overview of your SMS campaign. You’ll see a checklist of all stages with color–coded statuses:

• Green: Correctly completed.
• Red: Requires attention (click the pencil icon to fix).
• Orange: Optional improvements suggested.

The left side displays a preview of your message with iOS/Android and Locked screen toggle options.

At the bottom, you’ll find:

• Save and close to preserve your work as a draft.
• Send to launch your SMS campaign.

With these steps complete, your SMS message is ready to connect with your audience!