Creating an SMS message

In this article

 

Over 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery. It's one of the most engaging ways to connect with your customers.

 

 

Types of SMS in E-goi

SMS message

A standard SMS, just the same as a message you text people.

SmartSMS message

A special E-goi SMS that can display a landing page and track the contact's journey across your site.

SmartSMS messages bring you added benefits for the same cost as a standard SMS. See how to create a SmartSMS.

 

 

Requirements for sending SMS

  • An E-goi account with a plan that allows you to send SMS.
  • A contact list (the contacts' mobile numbers) imported into E-goi.
  • sender for your SmartSMS message, previously validated in E-goi.

 

 

Sending costs

Each SMS you send has a cost, which depends on the specific features of your E-goi plan.

For Base or Pro plans

For GoSend plans

Top up your account with enough funds to cover your SMS messages. Each SMS sent will be deducted from your account balance.

SMS messages unsent due to invalid or non-existent numbers will have their cost refunded back to your account.

 

 

Before sending

 

Sender

A sender lets your contacts know who texted them.

It can be:

  • A mobile number: You can choose any number you want. E-goi will text a code to that number. Once you enter code in E-goi, the number will be ready to use as a sender.
  • The name of your company or brand: You will need to provide us with a digital document proving you own that name.
Important! Some countries restrict senders and may replace your sender for a fixed local number.

 

 

SMS encoding

Encoding sets which characters the SMS can display.

 
  • GSM: Standard character set, supporting all English language chars.
    ! " # $ % ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ _ ¡ £ ¥ ¿ &  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Ä Å Æ  É Ñ Ø ø Ü ß Ö à ä å æ è é ì ñ ò ö ù ü
    
  • GSM Extended: All the characters of GSM plus the euro sign and the chars and symbols below:
    Ç|^€{}[~]\¤
    
  • Unicode: All characters from any language, including emojis, but the SMS is reduced in length.
Important! For countries with sending restrictions, some characters may not be displayed even if you use Unicode. Be sure to always test your SMS for all networks you intend to send it to.

 

 

SMS parts

If your text is too long for the SMS, use the Fit into how many SMS? option to split it into parts.

If you set your message as a two-part SMS, you can type in twice as much copy. This means you'll actually be concatenating two SMS as one (your contacts will see your message as a single extra-long SMS).

You can extend your message along a maximum of seven parts. Each part will be charged separately (ie, a seven-part message will cost you seven SMS).

 

 

Unsubscription link

Although not mandatory, you should include an opt-out link in your SMS so contacts can unsubscribe if needed.

Inserting the !remove code in the text of your SMS will generate a 35-character link at that point. Contacts tapping it will be unsubscribed and won't receive any more messages from you via E-goi.

 

 

Sending the campaign

 

Creating the SMS campaign

1) Hit the Engage menu, hover the mouse pointer over SMS, and click Create.

2) Select the contact list to send the SMS to, choose whether to send it once or make it recurrent and hit Next.

3) You can create the SMS From scratch, from E-goi templates or from templates you've saved. Name the campaign (it won't be seen by your contacts) and proceed.

4) The SMS editor will appear. Choose the message sender (if you don't have one yet, hit the "+" button to add it).

5) Type int the text of your SMS message. To test it, click Test delivery.

6) When you're doneclick Next and follow the steps shown to send the campaign.

 

 

Viewing the campaign report

1) Click the Engage menu, go to SMS, and click View all.

2 Click on the campaign's Report button.

 

 

Best practices for sending SMS messages

 

 

Transactional SMS

To have your online store auto-send transactional SMS messages (purchase confirmation, delivery notification, etc.), see our transactional offering.

 

 

FAQ

 

My campaign report shows some SMS pending at the operator

E-goi will always process your SMS messages so they reach the contact's handset. If your campaign report shows messages "delivered to operator" for several hours:

  • The SMS reached the contact's handset, but the network operator didn't send us a delivery confirmation.
  • The SMS got blocked at the network operator.
Important! Operators from countries with sending restrictions (especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America) aren't required to confirm delivery and may even block messages without warning.

 

 

I'm using merge codes. Will this make my SMS exceed the char limit?

E-goi's merge codes automatically plug contact data into your message. If their data, which is unique for each contact, extend the SMS text past the character limit, it'll become truncated for those contacts.

Example: Suppose your text is 4 chars left and you've introed it with "Hi !fname". E-goi will auto-replace !fname with your contacts' first name. Bo will get an SMS with "Hi Bo" - his text won't be over the limit. Veronica will see "Hi Veronica" - here text will push past the char limit and get truncated at the end.

To prevent this, leave some wiggle room in your SMS copy to ensure any data inserted by merge codes will always fit. If you can't reduce it, use the Fit into how many SMS? option to increase the number of SMS parts in your message.

 

 

Which encoding should I choose for non-English SMS?

If your text doesn't require acccentuated characters, you should be good to go with GSM or GSM Extended.

Alternatively, Unicode displays all characters plus emojis (at the cost of about half the SMS length), but network operators in some countries may not fully support Unicode messages.

Be sure to always test your SMS across the operators you'll be sending your campaign to.

 

 

The countries I'll be running my SMS campaign on have too many character restrictions. Any alternatives?

Consider:

  • SmartSMS message with an intro text linking to a landing page with the rest of your content (plus images and videos).
  • push message, as it accepts any and all characters.

 

 

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