The CRM allows marketers to engage with their audience in real-time. Marketers can use SMS to send quick reminders, shipment updates, and other transactional messages via SMS directly from the CRM and reach their prospects and customers on their mobile phones.

Setting up the SMS on Freshmarketer

Note: If you are connecting to SMS as a part of the Shopify integration, be sure to also check out the articles on email and WhatsApp integration.

To enable the SMS capability on your Freshmarketer account,

  1. Click on Admin settings icon in the left navigation bar and search for SMS

  2. Select the SMS settings and connect your Twilio or Gupshup account


  3. Click Save to finish the configuration and set up the SMS channel successfully. 

Setting up Message Templates for SMS Campaigns

To initiate a message with your customers via SMS, Message Templates are used. These help you send proactive notifications and messages to your customers.

Guidelines for Creating Message Templates

Content: You can use SMS only to send updates, alerts, and transactional messages. 

Template Name: Provide a relevant template name for the one that you want to create. It can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters and underscores ( _ ). 

Example: account_registration

Template Content: Message Templates are limited to 1024 characters. Your template can use numbered placeholders '{{#}}' for every variable in your message. Each variable can be replaced with text that contains letters, digits, special characters, or spaces.

 

Here is an example of an SMS template with three variables:

Hi {{1}}, your order no. {{2}} has been placed. To track your order, please visit {{3}}. 


The formatting of the variable is important. The numbering must start from 1, be in ascending order, and have two curly braces on both sides.

Example: Hi {{1}}! Thanks for subscribing to our Loyalty Rewards program. We’ll send you a {{2}} update with your new schedule. You can log in online using your rewards ID {{3}}. Happy Shopping!

 

Create up to 250 templates for your business use cases.

Formatting

Description

Symbol

Example

Italic Text

Add an underscore on both sides of the text

_example_

Welcome to _Acme_

Bold Text

Add an Asterix on both sides of the text

*example*

Your order number is *OD123*


Strikethrough

Add a tilde on both sides of your text

~example~

This is ~better~ best!

Monospace text/code

Add three backticks on both sides of your text

```example```

```print'Hi there';```

 

Creating SMS Campaigns

  1. Locate SMS Campaigns under Customer Journeys

  2. Click on Create SMS Campaign and give your campaign a name.

  3. Next, configure your campaign with the necessary details. Select your SMS number, select the sender name, and the message type.

  4. Add text to your message and personalize it with placeholders.


    Preview your message on the right.

  5. You can choose to save your messages as a draft, send a test message, and then publish your message.

You can also choose not to send a message if any or all of your intended placeholder values are empty during runtime.

Using SMS in Journeys

  1. Click Customer journeys and create a new Journey or go to your existing Journey.

  2. Build your Journey based on your requirements. Use the SMS Message action block in your Journey to send automated SMSes.

  3. Select the Campaign that you want to automate. 

  4. You can also choose to create your campaign from within the marketing journey. Once this is created, you can go ahead and start the journey.


Responding to SMS replies

When a customer receives a campaign message from your CRM on SMS, they will have the ability to respond to it just like any other conversation. All such responses will be sent back to your CRM and can be accessed from the Team Inbox where your support agents can respond to queries and address issues.

You can view all SMS Campaign related activities of your contacts under the Contact Activity Timeline.

You can also view all related metrics with the View Metrics listed under individual SMS templates.


Note: 
If you have purchased a number from Freshsales (Freshcaller In-built), you won't be able to connect this number for your SMS campaigns as SMS is not supported on these numbers. Kindly connect your external Twilio account with CRM to use SMS functionality.