If you have the SMS add-on, you can draft, create, and send relevant, timely SMS messages to your contacts, helping you boost engagement and drive your business. The SMS campaign builder in ActiveCampaign lets you personalize the content, create shortened links, insert images, and schedule your messages.
Take note
- To use the SMS editor in ActiveCampaign, you must have a registered UK or USA number to send broadcast SMS messages
- You must have explicit consent to send SMS messages to your contacts, and those contacts must subscribe to an SMS list
- If you intend to send SMS messages to recipients in the USA, you are required to register for A2P 10DLC
- MMS is only supported in the USA. The UK does not support sending MMS messages
Create a broadcast SMS message
- Click the SMS icon on the left menu.
- Click the “New Message” button.
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Complete the following fields on the right pane:
- (Optional) Use AI to create a broadcast SMS message
- Message name - Not visible to your contacts
- Sender name - This is who you are/who the message is from
- Content - Type the message you want to send. Note that you can add personalization and an image. The bottom left of the message box shows you how many characters you can use
- Automatically shorten and track links - Clicking this box shortens URLs in your message so you can stay within your character count. In addition, this will track link clicks
- Attach image - You can attach an image here. Doing so turns your SMS message into an MMS message. When clicked, the Content Manager modal will open, and you can upload and/or select your image. Note that you can also remove and replace the image. This option is not available if you have a registered UK number
- Select your list - Contacts who opted into receiving SMS messages from you
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Schedule - Send the message at a later date and time. Note that you can skip this part and click the “Send now” button at the top of the builder to send the message immediately
- When selecting a time to send, make sure to avoid quiet hours
As you complete the SMS message fields, the pane to the left will show you a preview of how the message will look when sent to your contacts.
Use AI to create a broadcast SMS message
- Click Campaigns > SMS on the left menu.
- From the SMS Campaigns page you can either:
- Provide a prompt in the field below “Generate a campaign in seconds,” then click the “Generate a campaign button”
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Click the “New message” button or open an existing SMS campaign. Next, provide a prompt in the “What is this sms message about” field, then click “Generate with AI”
When creating a prompt, the more specific you can be, the better the results you’ll receive. For example, you can type, "A flash sale happening this Tuesday. Link flash sale code: TACOTUESDAY.”
- If the suggestion is not what you are looking for, you can create a new prompt with the following steps:
- Click “Make changes”
- Provide another prompt
- (optional) Select a tone from the dropdown
- Click “Generate with AI”
- Finish creating your SMS message by completing the required fields.
How to show or hide AI
To show or hide the option to use AI in your SMS messages, click SMS > Campaigns on the left menu, then click the “Show AI Create” toggle to either green (on) or grey (off).
This will remove AI from the SMS Campaigns page and in the SMS Campaign Builder.
SMS Campaign data on the SMS Overview page
Once you send an SMS campaign, the following real-time data will show to the right of the campaign on the SMS Overview page:
- Sent to #
- Delivered
- Clicks
In order to track click engagement, the “Automatically shorten and track links” checkbox must be enabled.
Difference between SMS and MMS
An SMS message is a text message that contains up to 160 characters without an image.
An MMS message is similar to an SMS message, except it includes an image and text. It can contain up to 1600 characters. Only customers with a USA number can send MMS messages. If you are in the UK and attach an image or GIF to your message, the MMS is converted to SMS with an embedded URL.
For best MMS message delivery and quality, we recommend keeping files under 600KB. Carriers may resize or block larger files
The file types you can use in MMS messages are PNG, JPEG, and GIF.
Credit consumption
SMS:
- USA - 1 credit/160 characters
- UK - 5 credits/160 characters
MMS:
- USA - 3 credits/1600 characters
- UK - N/A - this will convert to an SMS if the message contains a file
Segmentation
With this feature comes two new segment conditions. These segment conditions are supported by broadcast SMS sending only.
Has clicked on a link - Looks for contacts who clicked a link in your broadcast SMS message. With this, you can select “SMS” as a channel, a specific or any SMS message, and a specific or any SMS link.
Has not clicked - Looks for contacts who did not click a link in your broadcast SMS message. With this, you can select “SMS” as a channel, a specific or any SMS message, and a specific or any SMS link.