Setting up your Account

How to set up an account and campaign.

MRT avatar
Written by MRT
Updated over a week ago

Table of Contents

  • Configuration Settings

  • Purchasing Phone Numbers

  • Call Routes / Groups 

  • Loading a List

  • Scheduling an SMS Campaign 

  • Messenger 

  • Creating Audio & IVR

  • Setting up a Voicemail Drop Campaign 

  • Using the Keyword Manager 

  • Suppression

  1. Configuration settings 

-Set Business hours. 

-Set your time zone

-Set up a forward number. (This will activate call forwarding. You will need to place your forward number in a call/route group to receive inbound calls from your messages)

-Tokens (These are your data mapping fields to merge data into messages) 

-Blacklist Integration (Can sign up for service or use pay as you go)

-DNC SAN’S Number (Used to prevent sending calls/SMS on the DNC list)

-Stop word list (Words that will opt out of SMS. Will add to suppression. Exact match. Not case sensitive) 

-Suppression Post URL (Post suppressions to 3rd party systems)

-Auto renew phone numbers (Will automatically renew your phone number monthly subscription)

2) Purchasing Phone Numbers

-Under Phone Management – Purchase Numbers 

-Area Code (Look up for your desired area code) if no numbers are available in the area code you specified, the system will show you available numbers around that area or you can try a different area code. 

-Under Phone Management - Show numbers – See the numbers purchased (Can release numbers from the system here as well)

-You will need to assign the new numbers to a Call Route / Group in order to capture inbound calls from the messages you send. 

3) Call Routes / Groups

-Under Phone Management – Call Routes / Groups

-New call route group 

-Name it and place forward number or route to IVR. You can only have one or the other. Not both. If using a forward number make sure you have a 1 in front of the area code. No spaces or special characters.  

-Un-Routed numbers – All numbers that are available to use for the group routing 

-Routed numbers – Numbers that will be used in routing for the group. You can drag numbers from un-routed to routed and visa versa.

-Text to voice – Will be used after business hours when nobody is around to answer calls

-Inbound SMS Folder – Used to forward SMS replies to a specific folder (Can give folder access to specific individuals to manage)

-Call status URL (Used to send status update to a 3rd party system)

-Active box (checked will activate the call route/group) 

4) Loading a List

-List Management – View Lists 

-Drag and drop a list into box OR click box to search computer for list upload. File must be in CSV format. 

-Once list is added – Click edit button

-Field Mapping – Map the fields that are in your data list (Left side are the merge fields available. Right side are the merge fields available from your data list. Phone is the only required field to map. All other fields are what you want to merge into a message.)

-Use the description to give yourself a quick look at what was mapped as a reference (This will help when creating an SMS message and you want to know what fields are available for inserting text into the message)

-Always save as a CSV file for uploading a list

-Check your list by sorting a column. Get rid of blank fields and columns that are not needed. Keep your lists organized and clean. 

5) Scheduling an SMS Campaign

-Campaigns – New Campaign – SMS 

-Name your campaign for organization

-Assign a user. This is the user that will see the campaign. Admin will always see all campaigns.

-Select your start date at time. Your campaign will automatically start at the date and time you designate.

- Select your list to use 

-Phone Numbers – Select the phone numbers you want to use for the campaign. You can do this by clicking on the phone number to highlight it or clicking on your call/route group to select all the numbers in your group.

-Message1 – Build your message using merge fields if applicable. *Always type your message out, do not copy and paste.

-You are allowed 160 characters per message. If you exceed 160 characters it will become 2 messages. 

-Be conscious of the merge field length. Once merged, it can add characters to your count. 

-If you plan or think you will go over 160 characters, use Message2 so you do not get cut off like some carriers will do with SMS messages 

-If using a phone number in your message, the best format is 555-555-5555. (Do not use () or periods) 

-Weekdays Only – Check if you do not want to send on weekends. 

-Pick the time frame to deliver. The system will not deliver messages outside the run from and run until times you designate.

-Set the throttle for sending speed. It will make the calculation of messages sent per hour for you based on the number of phone numbers selected. If you want to send more messages per hour, you will need to add more phone numbers. 

-Area code matching – Will match the area code to the person receiving the call. If you do not have a phone number that matches the area code, the message will not be sent.  

-Wireless Verification – Check to send to wireless phones only 

-State Suppression / Carrier Suppression – Can select states or carriers to not message to. To de-select, hold “Ctrl” or “command” and click.  

-Blacklist Alliance – Check to have each record scrubbed by the blacklist database. 

-Callback URL – 3rd party stats update

-The homepage will show the campaign. Can pause from there. Can click into the campaign from there as well. 

-Go to Campaigns – Show Campaigns – to see the campaign that just finished with results of sends breakdown.

6) Messenger  

-Checking reply texts (Two different places) 

-1 – Top right envelope icon – See all 

-2 – Messaging – Messenger 

-Can create folders in the folders menu option under Messaging 

-Can put web hooks to post to a 3rd party platform

-Can assign folder access to specific users 

-Messages will by default go into the inbox. You can specify messages to go into specific folders with call groups/routes. You can also drag and drop messages into folders.

-Can suppress a message manually by clicking the icon that has an O with a slash through it. 

-You can download a CSV file and export of all the SMS responses by clicking the Export Messages icon at the top. 

7) Creating Audio & IVR

-Audio Library – Media Manager 

-New Audio - Record button to record a message from your computer (headset recommended for clean audio quality) 

-Name it then save it

-New Text to Speech – Label it and type out the text you would like to have spoken on the message and save. 

-Can add multiple recordings 

-You can upload a pre-recorded recording from your computer as well. Must be in MP3 or WAV format.

-Building an IVR – (Audio Library – IVR’s) 

-New IVR Menu – Name it – Select if it will be the first menu they hear 

-Select your menu audio file

-Enter in the digit options you have in your audio file separated by a comma. (Ex. 1,2,3)

-Under Actions click on middle button (Looks like 3 horizontal lines) 

-Select the action to be taken on each menu option. Forward numbers must have a 1 in front of the area code. No spaces or special characters. 

-Web Hook URL – can post info to 3rd party system.

-Text Value – A string that is defined within the source code (Advanced)

-Can use the IVR for call routing / group selections

-Can use IVR for voice broadcast 

8) Setting up a Voicemail Drop Campaign 

-Campaigns – New Campaign – Voicemail Drop

-Name the campaign 

-Assign a user to the campaign 

-Set the start date 

-Select the list you want to use 

-Select the phone numbers you want to use for the campaign to dial out with

-Select the audio file you want to use (You will have to record an audio file first for it to be available. Audio files should be 30-60 sec long)

-You can create an SMS message to be sent upon a successfully delivered voicemail and for a failed delivery. 

-Check weekdays only box if you do not want to run on weekends.

-Set the run from and until times. 

-Set the throttle for amount of messages to send per hour 

-Use area code matching for matching the area code of the recipient 

-Suppress by state or carrier by selecting associated states and/or carrier

-Select Blacklist checkbox to scrub each number against the Blacklist database. 

-Use callback URL to post info to 3rd party system

-Select schedule to deploy campaign. 

9) Using the Keyword Manager

-Campaigns – Keyword Manager – Create 

-Create the keyword you want to use (Use an asterisk before and/or after the word as a wild card to allow characters before and/or after the keyword. Do not use an asterisk to make the keyword an exact match to trigger the reply. Not case sensitive)

-Give a description of the Keyword function

-Assign the keyword to a call group/route 

-Place the text of the message to be delivered upon triggering the keyword. You must use this format for the message – [respond:{Insert Message Here}]; – Post your message in the “Insert Message Here section”. 

-Place status URL to post to a 3rd party system

-Check Active and save 

-The message you created will be sent upon a text reply with that specific keyword. 

10) Suppression 

-Suppression – Number lookup – You can look up numbers in your suppression file. You can query a date range and download your suppression list as well. 

-Suppression – Add Number – You can add a number to your suppression file 

-Suppression – Suppression Lists – You can add your own suppression lists here to suppress against the data lists you upload for campaigns. Must be in CSV format.

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