Creating your ThruText Campaign


This guide will describe how to create and launch a campaign in ThruText.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Start a New Campaign

To create a new campaign, click the "Create New Campaign" button:


Setting up a new campaign

Details

When creating a ThruText campaign, you'll start by specifying several parameters.

Screenshot of the first step of campaign creation, with multiple text entry and calendar entry fields.

  • Name - This is the name of your campaign. Message senders will see it as their assignment name. We recommend using a consistent naming convention across campaigns for easy tracking.
  • Description -The description is visible to message senders and can be used to provide brief instructions or guidance. This is also a great place to let your senders know who to contact if they have assignment questions.
  • Dates and Times - The start date and end date control when initial messages can be sent on a campaign. There are important considerations to make when setting the initial message sending window, so we recommend reading our guide for further details about this: Initial Message Sending Window.  
    • Start Date 
      • Message senders can view assignments before the start date, but cannot send initial messages until the date arrives.
      • Messages can be sent before the start date from the admin messenger, but they will not leave our system until the start date. Users with access to the admin messenger include account owners, admins, and moderators.
      • After launching a campaign, the start date can only be edited to a future date.
    • End Date 
      • Message senders can still view assignments after the end date, but only replies or followups can be sent.
      • Any messages that were queued due to a rate limit will fail if they have not been sent by the end date. Rate limits are only applicable to US campaigns.
      • The end date can be edited after campaign launch.
  • Time Zone - The time zone determines the local time for both the initial message sending window and daily send hours. We recommend setting this to where your campaign targets are located, as it will determine when the campaign is open for messaging.
  • Daily Open and Close Time - Messages can only be sent in between the daily open and close time each day. For more details about daily open and close times, read our guide: Daily Open and Close Times.
  • Tags - Tags can be added to a campaign to help categorize the campaign with certain attributes. This allows admins to create tag reports that contain message and segment totals, grouped by tags. Tags can be added before and after launching a campaign. For more information about tag reports, see our guide: Tag Reports.


Targeting

On the targeting page, you'll create a universe of contacts you'll send texts to and choose a sending phone number.


Due to different regulatory frameworks, the "Targeting" page will appear differently depending on the account's country. If you're creating a campaign in a Canadian or UK account, please review the following guides, and then skip to the next section for the "Initial Message".

Screenshot of the Targeting step of campaign creation, which is indicated by the teal bubble in the navigation menu at the top of the page.

  • Segments - Add groups or past campaigns to build your contact list. Segments can't be edited or added after a campaign has been launched. There are advanced targeting methods for including or excluding segments, which you can read more about here: Campaign Targeting in ThruText. 
  • Phone Number- This is the sending phone number for your campaign and will be what recipients see when they receive a text from your campaign. Your number will become associated with your campaign upon launching, and will be removed when the campaign is archived. You will only be able to move past this step if you have completed Brand Registration and Use Case Registration and your use case is approved.
    • Dedicated - These numbers are associated with your account and can be used on multiple campaigns. They go through provisioning before they are available to use on a campaign, so they allow admins to launch campaigns without a provisioning delay. For more information about dedicated numbers, check out our guides: Dedicated Phone Numbers for US Accounts and Dedicated Numbers vs. Single Use Numbers.
    • Single Use - When you select single use, two dropdown menus will appear for the Use Case and Regions. The use case dropdown will show approved use cases that you can choose from to associate with your campaign. The region menu shows which area codes you can purchase a phone number for.
      Screenshot of the Single Use number drop-down menus of dark grey text on a white background.

NOTE - If contacts are texted from multiple campaigns that use a dedicated number, any replies from the contact will be routed to the most recently launched campaign.


Initial Message

Create your initial message for your campaign and see what the initial message will look like when it is sent.

Screenshot of the Initial message step of campaign creation. At the top of the page, the navigation menu shows a teal bubble on that step.

  • Organization ID - Put your organization name here to identify your organization to your recipient. This is one of the required variables that must be present in every initial message. The value that you input into the freeform will populate when you click "Org Name" or add %OrgName% to the Message Text. For more information, see our guide here: Organization Display Name and Opt Out Language.
  • Opt Out Language - This required variable lets your recipient know how to opt out and must be present in every message. This value will populate when you click "Opt Out" or add %OptOut% to the Message Text.
  • Required Variables - Clicking these buttons will add the variable placeholder to the Message Text. They will turn green once added, and are required to launch a campaign.
  • Optional Variables - These variables can be added to a message to populate custom data unique to the recipient. Optional variables include name variables as well as any custom variables added by mapping Custom Fields to a group. If every segment in the campaign contains the same custom field, it will be available as an optional variable. See our guide on Using ThruText Custom Fields for more information.
  • Media - Click this to select media to add to your initial message to change it to an MMS message. You must submit sample media for your use case before this is available.
  • Message Text - This is where you can compose your initial message. See our guide for best practices on composing an initial message: SMS Best Practices.
  • Total Segments - This indicates how many segments your text message will be. This is an approximate number because variables in your initial message can make your message longer or shorter, depending on the length of the variables. For more information, see our guide here: Text Message Segments.
  • Characters remaining in current segment - This indicates approximately how many characters you have remaining in your message. Initial messages can be a maximum of 1,600 characters, but the best initial messages are short and invite conversation!
  • Character set - This displays the message encoding of the text message based on the message text. Some special characters can change the encoding of the message and increase the segment count of your message. ThruText automatically substitutes some special characters to maintain the industry standard encoding, minimizing segment counts to reduce costs and maximize rate limits. For more information, please read our guide on Text Message Encoding.
  • Message Preview - This preview shows you what your text will look like when it's sent out with variables populated. 


Senders

Select the users who will be sending texts in your campaign.

  • Choose Senders - These are users on your account that can be added as senders to your campaign. Message Senders can be added by clicking their name. Users must join your account to be available in the list of Chosen Senders. If you don't see the sender you're looking for, send an invitation.
  • Chosen Senders - Once you've clicked on a sender from the "Choose Senders" list, their name will appear in "Chosen Senders". Upon launching the campaign, these senders will receive an e-mail notifying them that they have a new assignment, and conversations will be evenly distributed to all senders.
  • Add Via Emails - Senders can be added to a campaign by e-mail. Use a comma separated list to add multiple senders at once. Senders added by e-mail will be added after you click "Save & Next". Senders can be reviewed in the Review page or by navigating back to the Senders page.
  • Self Assignment - Use this feature to set a batch size of conversations and let users assign themselves a batch of conversations upon joining the campaign or when they conclude their current batch. For more information, you can read more about this here: Setting Up Self Assignment. Enabling this feature will display the following additional settings:
    Screenshot of the "Self Assignment", "Campaign Sender Invite Link", and "QuickSend" next to the checkboxes, which are each filled in.
    • Campaign Sender Invite Link - This link can be enabled or disabled before or after launching. When used, the campaign sender invite link adds the user as a sender to a campaign. It will only work for users who have already joined your account. The invite link URL will appear after launching the campaign. For more information, see our guide on Campaign Links in ThruText.
  • QuickSend - QuickSend is enabled by default when this feature is available. Read more about this here: QuickSend Information for Admins.


Create recommended replies to help senders reply to common inquiries quickly, efficiently, and consistently.

Screenshot of the Recommended Replies page. The teal bubble is now above the word "Replies" in the navigation at the top of the page.

  • Create New Reply - These are pre-written responses that admins can create to help reply to your contacts. Read more about Recommended Replies here: Recommended & Saved Replies.
  • Add A New Recommended Reply - Create a title and message text for your recommended reply, and add any variables to your message to personalize it. See our guide for best practices: Tips and Tricks for Recommended Replies.
  • See the Initial Message section above for more information about total segments, characters remaining in the current segment, character set, or message preview.  


Survey Questions

Survey questions are the data points your texters collect during conversations. Please see our survey questions guide for additional details.

Screenshot of the Survey step of ThruText campaign creation, shown with the teal bubble at the top of the page. One survey has been added.

  • Create New Question - Click this to add a new survey question to your campaign
  • New Question - Add a new survey question that will be unique to your campaign
  • Global - Global survey questions are created for your account, and can be added to any campaigns quickly and easily.
  • Survey Type - Specify the question type for your survey. Pick from Yes/No, Multiple Choice, FreeForm, or Checkbox questions.
  • VAN and ActionKit Survey Questions - You can import questions from VAN or ActionKit if you have an active integration and you've mapped the appropriate fields in your group.


Review

Review your campaign details before launching

Long screenshot of the Review page showing information from each of the previous steps. The steps are represented on a single white card each, floating on a beige background.

During the review stage of campaign creation, you should double-check the details of the campaign. If you need to make a change, you can go back to that step by clicking on the step in the navigation menu at the top. After editing, be sure to click the "Save" or "Next" button at the bottom of the page before moving on. Once your campaign review is complete, scroll to the bottom of the Review page and click "Launch Campaign". At the top of the page, you will see the status of your campaign change from "Draft" to "Launching" and then to "Active."


If the campaign is created using a single-use number, the campaign will remain in the "Launching" state until it has finished provisioning.


When a campaign becomes "Active", the system will notify any senders added during the "Senders" step via email that they now have an assignment. This will also make their assignment visible when they log into ThruText.


If you encounter an error that says "Not enough phone number errors", it means there weren't enough available phone number available in the regions you selected, and you will need to select different regions to launch your campaign. You can read the following guide for more information about this error: Getting a Phone Number Error at Launch.


If your team is interested in setting up campaigns that target contacts outside of your account's country (US, UK, or CA), connect with us at support@getthru.io.


For a walk-through of launching a ThruText campaign, please check out our video How to Launch a Campaign.