The Batch SMS function allows you to send a message to multiple individual contacts at once. Your bulk message can be generic, or you can personalise it to each recipient using merge fields, you can also schedule your message to send at a later time, as well as set it to send at recurring intervals.
Before we dive in, we need to talk about your message recipients. To send a Batch SMS, the contact records will need to be selected from a Saved Search list, so you'll need to have the list (saved search) prepared before we can get started.
To navigate to the Batch SMS feature, hover over the MessageMedia SMS option in the banner menu, then go to Batch SMS and click on New Batch SMS:
The first thing we need to do is add your message recipients, and you'll select them from your pre-prepared Saved Search list. There's two ways to locate your list:
1. Just drop your curser into the search field and start typing the name of your list and it should come up below.
2. Click on the double down arrows, then click on List and select from the list of saved searches.
To add the recipients, just click the Select All checkbox to send to every contact on the list, or you can select specific contacts by holding down the CTRL key (if using a PC) or Command key (if using a Mac) and clicking on the desired contacts:
Once you have selected the relevant contacts, follow these steps:
1) If you'd like to send your message from a specific Sender ID, select it from the dropdown menu here, otherwise leave this blank and the system will just use the default Sender ID.
2) If you have a pre-saved message template you wish to use, select it from the drop-down menu here, otherwise leave this blank.
3) If you'd like to add merge fields to your message (e.g. data saved in designated fields in the contact profile like a billing address or account number), then select them from the drop-down menu here as you type your message.
4) Compose your message.
5) Click the Preview SMS button to see how your message will appear (this is especially useful when adding merge fields to your message). You can also check the character and credit count for your message here.
6) To track the delivery of your message (this is vital for reporting on sent messages), tick this box.
7) When you're ready to send, click Send SMS.
Scheduled and Recurring Batch SMS
For instructions on how to schedule Batch SMS sends and make a Batch SMS recurring, please read this article.
SMS Credential Prioritisation
When sending SMS via the API, SMS credentials are prioritised in the following order:
1. Individual credentials
2. Global credentials