How To Send File SMS

File SMS allows you to send an SMS broadcast by uploading a file with contact details already saved in a file from your laptop or computer.

To send out an SMS campaign by uploading a file, follow the steps below;

1. Click on “Campaign” on the main menu on your dashboard

2. Select “Send Campaign” on the drop down menu

3. Click on the “File SMS” icon

4. Click on the upload icon to upload a file with all your data & contact information. The file can be of type comma-separated values(.csv), excel 2003(.xls), excel 2007 (.xlsx), text file(.txt – with comma separated columns of data)

   For any file type, make sure that all the data are sorted neatly in columns i.e. all mobile numbers are in one column, all first names are in another etc. You can upload a file with as many different columns as desired. The order of the columns does not matter.

5. The uploaded file with contact details will be uploaded and will appear on dashboard

6. Tick the boxes as desired i.e. if you want to use the first row as header and if you want to allow duplicate recipients

7. When you’re done click the “Next” button

8. Select ” Phone Number” column as the recipient column

9. Next, click the “Validate” button

10. Validate if the contacts records if they’re correct i.e. invalid, valid, and duplicate recipients

11. When you’re done click the “Next” button

12. Select a “Sender Name” which is required and will appear as ‘From’ on recipient’s phone

13. Select an “SMS Template” which is optional. Templates are message that you have saved to reuse again. You can select this from the list of saved messages in your template

14. Select your “Placeholder” tag (optional) from the available list of options in the placeholder box i.e. mobile number, first name, gender, city, email, country etc. Placeholders are used to personalize your message i.e. when you add a placeholder tag to a message, it will automatically populate the customer’s message with the relevant information such as ‘First Name’, ‘Last name’ etc to make each SMS unique. A preview message with the placeholder can be seen in the last steps before the messages are sent out.

15. Type in your message in the message box. Be mindful of the message character counter at the bottom left corner of the message box. One SMS has 160 characters, more than that qualifies as two messages

16. To schedule your SMS campaign, click on the “Select Schedule Date” box. Skip this step if you do not want to schedule

17. Click the “Next” button to continue

18. Preview and confirm text message (is the placeholder placed at the right place and appears correctly), sender name, recipients, character count and SMS count in correct for the file  SMS you want to sent

19. Validate the total records of the file SMS, the credit balance and cost for the particular group SMS

20. When done, click the “Send’ button

21. You will receive a notification “Message(s) Sent Successfully”