Estimated reading time: 7 minutes | Target users: Everyone

Bulk text messaging is an effective mobile-technology based marketing tool that will help you reach a wide range of potential customers. With VCC Live’s bulk text messaging feature you can reach thousands of contacts using a single SMS template, allowing you to communicate up-to-date notifications, promotions, order confirmations and more about your business.

With bulk text messaging you can make sure that your messages reach your target audience, and what you have to say won’t get lost in your potential customers’ inbox spam folder. SMS’s short format lets you get to the point in just a few words and highlight the most important part of your message.

In this lesson you will learn how to:

• Create an SMS Template
• Select your Bulk Text Messages Recipients
• Review All Sent Text Messages
• Set an Automatic Disposition Allocation for Bulk Text Messages

1. Create an SMS Template

To use VCC Live’s bulk messaging system, you firstly have to create an SMS template. In order to do that, simply follow the steps below:

1. Select a project from the project list, then select Channels > SMS.
2. Press Add new SMS template.
3. Enter the name of the template in the Template name text field.
4. Select a database field in the Email drop-down list to set the recipient.
5. Select a phone number from the Sender drop-down list. This number is displayed as the sender to the recipient.
6. Set when you want your text message to be sent in the Send date text field. You can schedule your message to be sent later by adding a reference to a date database field, or select Immediately to send the message immediately.
7. If it is not marked, mark the Active checkbox.
8. Select the Message tab, then enter the desired message.
9. Press Save.

Tip: It is possible to send SMS using an alphanumeric sender ID to present a message as sent by a company or brand. If you wish to do this in VCC Live, please contact us firstly, as this feature is not available in every country. The process to set up an alphanumeric sender ID takes about 2 weeks, and is created to be in line with local telecommunication regulations.

Note: Some telecom providers do not support unique sender IDs. For this reason, it is recommended to include your signature in your messages.

Note: If your message is too long, it can be sent as multiple messages, which will result in higher costs, as the message will be considered as multiple SMS messages.

2. Select your Bulk Text Messages Recipients

After setting up your SMS template, you can select the number of contacts from your database that you wish to send your text message to. Please note that, before you start to use this feature, you need to get in touch with your contact person at VCC Live – the bulk messaging feature needs to be enabled at our end in order to function properly. Once set up, you can access the bulk text messaging function by doing the following:

1. Select a project from the project list, then select Database > Records list.
2. In the General filter parameters, specify the filter settings in order to find the desired range of your contacts. If you want all of your records listed, simply press Search without setting up the filter sections.
3. In the Results pane (on the right), you will see your records listed. If you approve that these are the records you want to send your email to then click on Actions > Bulk SMS.
   Select your email template, and click {base/main:send.button.label}}.

3. Review All Sent Text Messages

You can track and review the status of your sent SMS messages using our SMS log feature. Here you can search, filter and check project-specific logs of your SMS templates used in your bulk text messaging process. A detailed list of available columns for your SMS log can be found here.

To access the SMS log:

1. Select a project from the project list, then select Logs and Statistics > SMS log.
2. Adjust your Date range, Template and Direction filtering options.
3. Press Search.

4. Set an Automatic Disposition Allocation for Bulk Text Messages

Based on the delivery status of your sent bulk text messages (sent/delivered), the system can automatically allocate a disposition to your records. To do this:

1. Select a project from the project list, then select Channels > SMS.
2. Select a template.
3. Select the Disposition settings tab.
4. Select a disposition from the drop-down list for each delivery status. The system will automatically set a disposition for records when sending mass text messages (SMS), depending on the delivery status of each message (sent/delivered/not traceable).
5. Press Save.