To create a SMS campaign directly within the Campaign flows, follow these steps:

Access Campaign Flows:
Navigate to the Campaign flows section in your account.
Click on the "New" Button:
In the upper right corner of the page, you’ll see a New button. Click on it to start creating your campaign.
Select Campaign Type:
A pop-up window will appear, prompting you to choose the type of campaign:
- One-Time Campaign: For a single, non-recurring campaign.
- Recurring Campaign: For a campaign that will run periodically according to a predefined schedule.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate campaign type, you can proceed with setting up the rest of your SMS campaign.

One-Time Campaign

Settings

Campaign Info

In this section, you’ll provide essential details for your SMS campaign:

Name: Enter a unique name for your campaign. This name will help you easily identify the campaign in your folders and reports.
Folder: Select a folder to organize your campaign by clicking the "Change Folder" button. Using folders helps streamline organization and makes it easier to find your campaign later.
Tags: Add relevant tags to categorize your campaign. Tags make it easier to filter and search for specific campaigns based on the labels you assign.

Schedule Options

In the Scheduling Options section, you determine when your one-time campaign will be sent. You have two choices:

Now: Select this option to send the campaign immediately after finalizing the setup.
Scheduled: If you prefer to send the campaign at a specific time, choose the Scheduled option. You will then be prompted to select a date and time using the calendar and time picker below. Simply choose the desired start date and hour for your SMS campaign.

This allows for flexibility in timing your SMS delivery, either immediately or at a future date.

Campaign Workflow

Audience

In the Campaign Workflow screen, you can define the target audience for your SMS campaign by following these steps:

Double-Click on Audience:
On the workflow screen, locate the Audience section. Double-click on it to open the Target Audience screen.
Target Audience Screen Options:
In this screen, you will find several options to specify your audience:
- Segment: Select a custom segment based on specific criteria.
- Predefined Segment: Choose from segments that have already been created.
- Table: Use data stored in specific tables to target your audience.
- Remote Segment: Connect with external data sources to define your audience.
- Tag: Target contacts using predefined tags for segmentation.
Additional Tools:
- Exclude: This tool allows you to exclude certain groups or individuals from your target audience.
- Control Group: Set aside a portion of your audience as a control group for campaign performance evaluation.

Once your target audience is set, you can continue with your campaign setup.

Schedule

On the Campaign Workflow page, the Schedule option appears automatically when you click on it. You will be presented with two options under the section titled "Select when this campaign will be sent":

Now – This option will send the campaign immediately.
Scheduled – This allows you to choose a specific date and time for the campaign to be sent later.

Content Selection

On the Campaign Workflow screen, there are several actions available. Among them is the SMS Node, which you can drag and drop onto the left side of the campaign creation page. Once you place it there, its name will automatically change to SMS Send. When you double-click on the SMS Send node, you'll be able to select the SMS content for your campaign.

To find the specific content you need, utilize the search function provided in the components listed below:

Search Bar: Allows you to quickly find specific SMS Contents by entering a keyword related to the SMS Content's name.
Filter: Allows you to filter the lists below by last update & creation date. The dropdown box allows you navigate between the date types.

Upon selecting your content, it will appear on the right side of the screen. This allows you to review your SMS design in detail. If you need to make any modifications, you can easily return to the content section to implement the necessary changes.

Optional Settings

Remove Duplicate Phone Numbers: When checked, this option ensures that duplicate phone numbers are removed from the send list, preventing multiple SMS from being sent to the same contact.
Ignore Frequency Capping: This setting allows the SMS to be sent to contacts regardless of any frequency limits that might have been reached for that day, week, or month.
Ignore Google Analytics: Selecting this will exclude Google Analytics tracking parameters from the SMS, which means that the sent SMS will not be tracked for analytics by Google.

Contact Extension

The Contact Extension feature allows you to manage multiple Email and SMS addresses for an individual contact, streamlining your multi-channel communication strategies. For a comprehensive guide on configuring this feature, please visit the Configuring Contact Extensions for Enhanced Campaign Reach page.

Send to Default: This radio button, when selected, indicates that the default phone number will be used for sending the SMS.
Use Contact Extension: Selecting this option enables you to utilize an expanded list of contact addresses, providing the flexibility to engage with contacts through various addresses.

Choose the Use contact extension option to manage multiple contact addresses for a single contact.

Upon selection, a list of contact address fields will be displayed. You can select or deselect these addresses by checking or unchecking the boxes next to each entry. Checked boxes mean the address will be included when sending the SMS.

Setting Priority for Address Usage:

Send to first available: The system will send the SMS to the first available contact address from the checked list.

Send to all: The system will dispatch the SMS to all the selected contact addresses.

Wait

Maximize the effectiveness of your campaign by introducing deliberate pauses between actions with the Wait feature. This function is particularly useful when you want to create a specific time delay between campaign nodes, such as after a send action, to ensure your messages are timed perfectly to enhance engagement.

The Wait node comes with two configuration options:

Duration: This setting allows you to specify a wait period. Use the dropdown menu to select the unit of time—minutes, hours, or days— and input the duration of the wait. This creates a controlled pause within the journey flow, giving your audience time to interact with the initial message before proceeding to the next step.
Wait Until: For more precise scheduling, you can choose to wait until a specific calendar date. This ensures that the next step in your campaign aligns with particular events or milestones.

End

When creating a campaign on the Workflow page, it's important to properly conclude certain actions by adding an "End"node:

For Anonymous Contacts:
After dragging and dropping the SMS node, add an "End" node for anonymous contacts since they don't have a phone number, and no further action can be taken.
For SMS Send:
Similarly add an "End" node after SMSl Send to close out the flow for those contacts.

Configuring AI Flow Elements

Dive into the realm of strategic automation with this section, where you'll learn to leverage artificial intelligence to maximize the impact of your campaign's journey flow. The AI encompasses a suite of tools designed to optimize timing and channel selection, as well as to conduct A/B testing for ongoing campaigns.

Optimize Time

Optimize Time is an advanced feature that determines the most effective time to reach each individual in your audience. By leveraging historical interaction data, this feature schedules campaign actions—such as email, mobile push, web push, or SMS—at times when users are most likely to engage. ⚠️ Please note that Optimize Time is exclusively available for One-Time Campaigns.

Select time: Choose the time frames you wish to target for optimized sends. This could be morning, midday, evening, or night..

Important Consideration

The time frames for this feature can be fine-tuned in the Settings under Optimize Time and Channel. Here you can establish specific intervals that define each time slot throughout the day.

Add Channel(s): Include the channels you want to use for time optimization within your one-time campaign.
Select Content: Assign specific content for each channel that has been added to the optimization strategy.
Confirm Settings: Click Save to lock in your configuration.

Upon approval, the system will generate output nodes corresponding to each Selected Time multiplied by the Selected Channels.

Tips:

Wait nodes within this context are not editable since Optimize Time automatically configures the wait durations.
Should you need to revisit your time optimization choices, you can re-enter the configuration by double-clicking on the Optimize Time node.

Ready to Initiate SMS Send

Having meticulously completed the configurations detailed previously, you are now fully prepared to launch your SMS campaign within the journey flow.

Reminder: Always perform a test of your campaign send to ensure everything is functioning as expected before finalizing with a Save.

Recurring Campaign

Settings

Campaign Info

In this section, you’ll provide essential details for your SMS campaign:

Name: Enter a unique name for your campaign. This name will help you easily identify the campaign in your folders and reports.
Folder: Select a folder to organize your campaign by clicking the "Change Folder" button. Using folders helps streamline organization and makes it easier to find your campaign later.
Description:Provide a brief summary or explanation of your campaign’s purpose and goals.
Tags: Add relevant tags to categorize your campaign. Tags make it easier to filter and search for specific campaigns based on the labels you assign.

Schedule Options

In the Schedule Options section for a recurring campaign, you can choose how to initiate your campaign with the following options:

Trigger Periodically:

Start Date: You can set the start date for the campaign as:

Now: This option starts the campaign immediately.

Select: Choose this option to specify a custom start date and time.

End Date: You have two options for the end date:

Never: Select this option if you want the campaign to run indefinitely.

Select: Use this option to specify a custom end date and time.

Recurring Periods: Click the Add button to define the recurring periods for this trigger. You will see the message "Please add a recurring period."

When you click on Add, you will be directed to the Recurring Settings screen where you can define the recurrence period for this trigger:

Frequency: Select from the dropdown options (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly).

Daily Frequency: Here, you can define how often the campaign occurs:

Occurs once at: Specify a single occurrence.
Occurs every: Define the interval for the recurring campaign.

Trigger Externally:
This campaign can be triggered from automation by using the "Fire Campaign" action.

Campaign Workflow

Audience

In the campaign workflow screen you can choose your target audience. You can define who will receive your SMS campaign by selecting from various audience options:

Target Audience (Table or Segment / External Audience)

Extra Columns

If your audience data includes extra columns beyond the default information, you can specify those columns to use them in your SMS campaign.

To add extra columns:

Click the + Add button.
A new row will appear where you can enter the Column Name and define the data type for that column.
- Column Name: Enter the name of the extra column you want to use from your audience data.
Next to the Column Name, there is a dropdown where you need to select the Data Type of the column. Available options include:
- Text: For alphanumeric data.
- Integer: For whole numbers.
- Decimal: For numbers with decimal places.
- Email: For email addresses.
- Phone: For phone numbers.
- Date: For dates in a specific format.
- Date Time: For date and time values.
- Boolean: For true/false values.

Once you've specified the column name and data type, the extra column will be available for use in your campaign. You can leverage this data to further personalize your SMS messages, enhancing targeting and customization.

Segment

Select a custom segment of your audience based on specific criteria, such as behavior or user data. These segments help you target specific users.

Predefined Segment

Choose from a variety of Predefined Segments, which are already configured based on common scenarios and criteria. These segments allow for quick and efficient audience targeting. Below are the available predefined SMS segments:

SMS

Clickers on SMS (30 days)

Contacts not sent any SMS (30 days)

Contacts not sent any SMS (All time)

SMS Reachable Contacts

SMS Unreachable Contacts

Table

Select your audience from a specific table in the database, containing audience details like gsm or additional contact information.

Here, you can select your audience from various available tables in the system. Two tables, master_contact and master_device, are pinned for easy access as they contain critical audience data:

master_contact:This table includes audience-related information, such as contact details, preferences, and associated attributes.

master_device:This table stores device-related data, such as mobile devices or browsers associated with your audience.

While these two tables are pinned for quick selection, you can also choose other tables based on your needs.

To filter your target audience within any table, after choosing your table click on the "Manage Filters" button. This filtering tool allows you to refine your audience by:

Column: Choose the data column you wish to filter.
Operator: Define the condition using operators (e.g., equals, contains, greater than).
Value: Enter the value to complete your filter criteria.

This functionality enables precise targeting based on your specific filter conditions.

Remote Segment

Choose a remote segment if your audience data is stored externally, integrating with external databases or platforms to retrieve the target audience.

Tag

Use tags to select your audience. Select the appropriate tags to filter your target audience.

Additional Tools:

Exclude: This tool allows you to exclude certain groups or individuals from your target audience.

Entry Capping: This tool allows you to control how often contacts can re-enter the campaign. There is a toggle to enable or disable this feature, and once enabled, you can set limits using options such as hour, day, and month.

Once your target audience is set, you can continue with your campaign setup.

Recurring

On the Campaign Workflow page, the Recurring option appears automatically. Under the section titled "Select how this campaign will be triggered," you have the following options:

Trigger Periodically: This allows the campaign to be triggered on a regular schedule. You can define the Recurring Periods by clicking Add and specifying the frequency, such as "Every day" or "Occurs once at 14:00."
Trigger Externally: This option allows the campaign to be triggered by an external event, specifically this campaign can be triggered from an automation flow using the "Fire Campaign" action.

You can customize the recurring campaign setup to match your desired timing and frequency for triggering the campaign.

Content Selection

To find the specific content you need, utilize the search function provided in the components listed below:

Search Bar: Allows you to quickly find specific SMS Contents by entering a keyword related to the SMS Content's name.
Filter: Allows you to filter the lists below by last update & creation date. The dropdown box allows you navigate between the date types.

Optional Settings

Remove Duplicate Phone Numbers: When checked, this option ensures that duplicate phone numbers are removed from the send list, preventing multiple SMS from being sent to the same contact.
Ignore Frequency Capping: This setting allows the SMS to be sent to contacts regardless of any frequency limits that might have been reached for that day, week, or month.
Ignore Google Analytics: Selecting this will exclude Google Analytics tracking parameters from the SMS, which means that the sent SMS will not be tracked for analytics by Google.

Contact Extension

Send to Default: This radio button, when selected, indicates that the default phone number will be used for sending the SMS.
Use Contact Extension: Selecting this option enables you to utilize an expanded list of contact addresses, providing the flexibility to engage with contacts through various addresses.

Choose the Use contact extension option to manage multiple contact addresses for a single contact.

Setting Priority for Address Usage:

Send to first available: The system will send the SMS to the first available contact address from the checked list.

Send to all: The system will dispatch the SMS to all the selected contact addresses.

Wait

The Wait node comes with two configuration options:

Duration: This setting allows you to specify a wait period. Use the dropdown menu to select the unit of time—minutes, hours, or days— and input the duration of the wait. This creates a controlled pause within the journey flow, giving your audience time to interact with the initial message before proceeding to the next step.
Wait Until: For more precise scheduling, you can choose to wait until a specific calendar date. This ensures that the next step in your campaign aligns with particular events or milestones.

End

When creating a campaign on the Workflow page, it's important to properly conclude certain actions by adding an "End"node:

For Anonymous Contacts:
After dragging and dropping the SMS node, add an "End" node for anonymous contacts since they don't have a phone number, and no further action can be taken.

For SMS Send:
Similarly add an "End" node after SMS Send to close out the flow for those contacts.

Ready to Initiate SMS Send

Having meticulously completed the configurations detailed previously, you are now fully prepared to launch your SMS campaign within the journey flow.

Always perform a test of your campaign send to ensure everything is functioning as expected before finalizing with a Save.