Composing and sending a bulk SMS.

There are 2 ways of sending a bulk sms.

Option 1

• Search for the contact, group or event you wish to send the bulk sms to in the CRM control panel on the left:

Type the name of the person in the box next to the -All- dropdown, and click "search".

Type the name of the group in the box next to the "group" button,and click "group".

Type the name of the event in the box next to the "event" button, and click "event".

• When the contact or group/event name appears in the main screen, click on the bulk sms icon found on the right hand side .
• NB - to sms the entire group or event - you MUST click on the sms icon by the group name. To send to a single contact, click on the sms icon next to the contacts name.
• This sms will now go to the contact or to all the contacts in that group or event.

Option 2

• At the top of the left hand control panel click on the icon with the sms image on it .
• When the bulk sms layout opens in the main screen, you can select whether to send the sms to Contacts, Groups, Organisations or Event, by clicking on the blue link at the top of the To field.
• A pop up window will appear, type in the name of the group, event or contact you wish to send the sms to, select the check box, and click the "Add" button.

Composing the sms:

• The body of your sms is composed in the box beneath the send options
• The "#firstname#" is a command for the e-mail to automatically fill in the first names of the contacts added to this e-mail, personalising each one. There are list of other fields provided at the bottom of the page, for example #surname# These can just be copied and pasted into the e-mail body where desired. Remember that the fields need to have text in them to appear on the sms - otherwise it will just be blank.
• If you do not want other users to see the sms in the sms logs, heck the Private checkbox to the right of the compose box.

Please remember that sms' cannot be removed from the log.

• Once you have composed your sms click the "Preview" button at the top of the page. On this preview page, and hashes (#) should change to square brackets []. This shows that the system will change the tag (ie #firstname#, #company#) and complete the contacts details into the tag - provided the information is on the database.
• Any contacts who have incorrect mobile numbers, no mobile numbers or that have been unsubscribed from the database will appear in the "Error" box. To see what the error is - go back to the compose screen (click on edit), hover over the contact - and the reason for them being in the error box should appear.
• If you wish to go back to edit the sms click the "edit" button at the top of the page. If you are happy with how the sms looks, click the "send" button.
• Please note the sms message allows maximum 160 characters for 1 sms.
• This 160 total includes:
  1. the greeting (e.g. Hi) plus
  2. the amount of characters for the contact with the longest name in the group being sent
  the sms
  3. And the amount of characters of the message typed.
• If the sms exceeds 160 characters for certain contacts, their name and number will display in the "truncated" or "trunc msg" box and they will not be sent the sms.