In this article, you'll learn how to create and send RCS campaigns.
Important things to know:
- RCS is available for all post-paid customers in specific countries (United Kingdom & Germany).
- To be able to send RCS campaigns, you need to connect your RCS sender first.
- If you have already connected your sender and it has been approved by at least one carrier, per default the RCS sending experience will be loaded, so you don't need to decide between RCS or SMS sending.
- If the recipient can't receive RCS they will receive an SMS fallback
- For now we support just text messages (rich content will come soon)
How to create an RCS campaign
- In the side menu click on Messaging > SMS Messaging > New Message
- The RCS sending experience will be loaded. Note that the sender is set to your brand name.
-
Next, you can define what will be the SMS fallback sender among the sender IDs you've already configured in your account. If the recipient doesn't have RCS enabled on their mobile phone we will send them an SMS instead.
-
To add recipients, you've got a few options:
A) Manual Entry: start typing the name of a saved contact and select them from the resulting list, or just enter a mobile number. You can also copy and paste a list of numbers from another source, like a spreadsheet, directly into the recipient field.
B) Contacts: select individual contacts from your master contact list by clicking Search contacts and ticking the ones you want to send to. You can also select all contacts from this option too.
C) Contact Lists: if you've already got contact lists saved, you can select them by clicking Search contact lists and ticking the ones you want to send to. Use the arrow to expand the contact group and uncheck the name of anyone in the group you'd like to exclude from the send.
D) Contact Segments - similar to lists, a contact segment is a group of contacts that are categorised based on shared characteristics or behaviors. If you've already got contact segments saved, you can select them by clicking Search contact segments and ticking the ones you want to send to. Again, you can use the arrow to expand the segment and uncheck the name of anyone you'd like to exclude from the send
E) Import from File - if your contact lists are saved on a separate database, like an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file, you can click this option to import it.
Composing RCS campaign content
Now you can compose your message in the Message Content field. You'll see that as you type, the RCS message preview on the right will update in real-time. Note that your brand name and logo appear as the sender, along with the verified badge, generating more trust with your audience. Feel free to use templates, add personalization, links and emojis. For now only text is supported (media, buttons and other types of messages coming soon). Our built-in AI Assistant can also help you generate engaging content.
When you're happy with your message, choose if you want to the Send now or Schedule your campaign. For recipients who have RCS enabled on their mobile phones, an RCS message will be delivered. For those who do not have RCS enabled, an SMS will be sent using the fallback sender ID selected during campaign setup.
Note: It is not possible to know in advance which users in your audience will receive RCS or SMS; only after the sending is done can this be checked by reviewing the channel column in the campaign report.
Reporting on RCS Campaigns
Once the campaign has been sent you can track its delivery using Campaign Reports or Detailed Reports in the same way as an SMS campaign, but with one difference: with RCS it is possible to see if the user read the message: