What MXT, our Online SMS Platform, can do for you [Part Two]
Optimise your communications by adding SMS, the most direct and easy-to-use channel, to your strategy. Our MXT web SMS gateway is the perfect solution to scale up and grow with your business.
We covered SMS contact lists, dedicated virtual numbers, Sender IDs, and Merge Fields in Part One. Following on with Part Two of our web SMS platform series, we will cover the ins and outs of sending campaigns, two-way text messaging, and SMS reporting with MXT.
- Curate and schedule SMS campaigns
- Implement two-way SMS
- Personalise bulk text messages
- Create SMS message templates
- Optimise MXT processes for efficiency
- Utilise MXT reporting
- And more!
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1. Schedule, stagger and send SMS on MXT
Learn how to get the most out of our online SMS platform, starting with the basics: sending an SMS. It may seem extremely simple—because it is—but there are a couple of things to consider before you start sending.
Who are you sending to?
Consider whether you will send SMS to a contact list or send text messages to an individual contact. In part one, we covered contact lists and Upload Send for your convenience.
Once you know who you are sending to, something else to consider is whether you would like to receive replies from recipients. Suppose you would like contacts to respond to your message. In that case, you'll need to send from a Sender ID that has two-way SMS messaging enabled, such as a dedicated virtual number.
What are you sending?
Depending on the type of message you are sending, you may have a pre-written text message template you'd like to use. Or you might be replying to a contact with more specific and customised SMS content.
Personalise bulk or automated SMS by utilising Merge Fields to pull existing data from contact lists, such as a contact's first name. You can also save message templates to use at a future date for easy access.
When are you sending your SMS?
After choosing your message type and to whom you are sending SMS, you can also select when you want to send. MXT provides multiple options for when you can schedule your SMS:
- Send now
- Schedule SMS to send at a specific date and time
- Stagger campaigns to send SMS in batches
- Set recurring text messages
If you send a bulk SMS campaign, you may want to send it right away or schedule and stagger communication over a specific period. Once you've curated your SMS, tick the 'Schedule this message' box. Then, enter your preferred date and time you'd like the text message to send, and hit the 'Schedule Message' button.
Related article: How to schedule a message in MXT
Stagger campaigns by sending SMS in batches. This feature allows you to set up a campaign to gradually deliver SMS to recipients over specific time intervals.
You can manage expected responses by staggering your campaign. Ensuring your customer support and sales teams can take on any SMS replies and calls resulting from the campaign and are not inundated with requests.
Related article: Campaign Staggering
Related article: How to edit campaigns in MXT
2. Trigger SMS to send regularly with Recurring Text Messages
Set up Recurring Messages to send out SMS regularly. Choose from sending text messages daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
To create a Recurring Message, there are a few extra details you'll need to include:
- Recurring pattern: this refers to the frequency of the recurring message, i.e. daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
- Range of recurrence: this refers to the start and end date/time of the recurring message, i.e. after three occurrences or a specific date and time that the recurring message is scheduled to end.
Once the recurring message is saved, you can view its progression, such as the next delivery date and how many occurrences have been completed.
Related article: How do I send a Recurring Message?
3. Two-way SMS and MXT's Conversation Window
It can be challenging to track replies and ongoing conversations when it comes to two-way text messaging. MXT's SMS Conversation Window allows you to view the back-and-forth between an individual contact and your virtual number.
View past conversation history with an individual contact in one window. To turn on the Conversation feature, navigate to 'Virtual Numbers' in MXT and switch Conversation 'ON' for your selected virtual mobile number.
Easily access the SMS Conversation Window in three places on MXT:
- Send Message > Contact Lists
- Reports > Outgoing
- Reports > Incoming
Conversation Window: Contact list
- Navigate to Contact Lists in MXT.
- Open the contact list and find the contact you'd like to view.
- Next to the contact's details, click the speech bubble icon in the Action column.
Conversation Window: Outgoing SMS reports
- Navigate to Outgoing reports in MXT.
- Find the contact you'd like to view.
- Next to the contact's details, click the speech bubble icon in the Destination column.
Conversation Window: Incoming SMS reports
- Navigate to Incoming reports in MXT.
- Find the contact you'd like to view.
- Next to the contact's details, click the speech bubble icon in the Origin column.
Related article: How do I enable the SMS Conversation feature?
4. Personalise bulk SMS with MXT message templates
Create your own SMS and MMS templates on MXT for consistent and efficient messaging. You can create new templates when writing a new message. Just hit 'Save as Template' before moving on to the next step.
Another way to create a template is to navigate to 'Templates' in MXT's 'Send Message' menu, and click 'Create a Template'.
SMSGlobal's SMS template library also provides a variety of templates you can use instantly.
Our text message template inventory illustrates how effective SMS is across all industries, use cases and integration solutions. Gain some inspiration from our tried and tested SMS examples.
Related article: Using a Template for SMS/MMS
Utilise our SMS templates for your industry
5. Merge Send for bulk customisation of SMS messages
Merge Fields are mentioned frequently throughout this series—and for good reason. SMS personalisation is a powerful tool that enhances the Customer Experience (CX) and buyer’s journey.
Streamline the process by adding default and custom Merge Fields when you format your contact lists (mentioned in Part One of this series). When it comes to curating your message, you can utilise these Merge Fields to personalise content with specific contact data, like first name and email address.
Make the most out of MXT by using the Merge Send feature. Utilise Merge Fields in your saved message templates and when completing an Upload Send.
Related article: What are the differences between sending a 'Simple Send', a 'Merge Send' and an 'Upload Send'?
6. What are Unicode characters and messages?
Your average SMS contains a 160-character limit, but the characters only cover the GSM alphabet (i.e. all Latin characters, digits and a few special symbols) to make up an SMS.
It's essential to understand the difference between standard GSM and Unicode characters to ensure you get the most out of your SMS character limit.
Unicode Standard refers to a type of character encoding system able to handle a large set of letters and symbols outside the standard GSM alphabet. For example, in languages such as Chinese and Thai, picture characters like emojis and technical symbols are classed as Unicode characters.
A Unicode Message refers to a message encoded with Unicode Standard (i.e. any message that includes at least one Unicode character). Due to the encoding process, Unicode Messages are reduced to only 70 characters, as opposed to the original 160-character limit.
Related article: Understanding Unicode Characters and Messages
Related article: Turn Unicode Messaging On/Off - MXT ONLY
7. Robust SMS reporting and campaign tracking in MXT
MXT utilises sophisticated SMS reporting capabilities to ensure you can access up-to-date data in real-time.
- Track incoming, outgoing and scheduled SMS on MXT reports
- View individual contact history with the Conversation Window
- Reporting for SMS message status by campaign, sub-account or country
Related article: What does my message status mean?
Related article: How to view campaign reports in MXT
8. Filter SMS reports by country, status and campaign
Access the data you are looking for with ease on MXT. You can filter MXT reporting so you get the information you need in one report.
Generate reports based on message status, including delivered, sent, no credit, invalid number, undelivered, expired, rejected, and all statuses. Select from a global list of destination countries, or filter by your account's SMS campaigns.
In MXT, select the type of report you'd like to view (Outgoing, Incoming or Scheduled). Click the account or sub-account to report on, then choose from the filter options:
- Message status
- Destination country
- Campaign
Navigate the associated drop-down menus to find the filter you are looking for and hit 'Auto-Refresh' to update the report with selected filters.
If you have multiple sub-accounts attached to the parent account, you can access reporting specific to each account. Simply select the sub-account you'd like to view in the drop-down menu at the top of the Reports page.
Related article: Report Filtering - Status, Country, Campaign
Related article: View reports for a sub-account
What MXT, our Online SMS Platform, can do for you [Part Three] will cover some new MXT features and SMS integrations:
- SMSGlobal’s new Voice solution on MXT
- MXT custom branding and white-labelling
- Enable MXT’s URL shortener
- Track campaign CTR and report on shortened URLs
- Access API keys with MXT
- Set up and send Email to SMS
- SOAP API 2-way SMS function
- Simulate REST API solutions
- Encoding for MMS API and HTTP API
Sign up with MXT today and receive 25 free SMS test credits!
