Sending targeted additional messages on an active campaign


Followup messages are optional additional admin-initiated messages sent to some or all of the recipients in a campaign. For example, if your campaign involved inviting recipients to an event, you might send a Followup Message to those who said "Yes, I can come" to remind them about the event time and location.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Why use Followups?

You can also use Followup Messages to initiate a new phase of a conversation. If your campaign began with an invitation to an event, you might send a Followup Message 2 weeks later inviting recipients to a subsequent event. Or you could send a Followup Message asking recipients to take an entirely different action.


Followup Messages are easy to create and come from the same phone number as your initial messages. Keeping the same outgoing phone number helps your recipients feel like they are participating in an ongoing conversation -- which they are!

For help troubleshooting a follow up issue, check out our guide Troubleshooting Followup Messages.


Steps for creating your Followup

Step 1: Press "Create Followup" from within the Campaign


Screenshot of a blue lined button with blue text on a white background with the words. "Create Followup". The button is above an empty list of Followups


Step 2: Make Sure the End date and time is in the future

Just like initial messages, Followup Messages have end dates. This allows you to put a time limit on when Followups can be sent. For example, you wouldn't want an event reminder to be sent out after the event has taken place. The corollary is that you must ensure the end date is in the future -- otherwise, the Followup message won't show up after you launch it. 


Green text and an arrow call attention to the ending date and time in this screenshot.


Step 3: Write the Message

Writing a Followup Message is just like writing an initial message. You can insert any of the custom fields from the target group into the Followup Message.


Screenshot of Followup message input and preview, which is shown as a illustrated phone.


NOTE - Opt Out Language and Organization Display Name are not required for Followup Messages.


After writing your Followup Message, click the "Save and Build Target List" button at the bottom of the page.


Step 4: Target your Followup Message

Once you write your Followup, you decide who it should go to by using the filter options. If you choose no filter options, the Followup Message will go to everyone in the campaign target group.


You may also target a message based on a subset of the existing campaign. You may remove contacts from the Followup Message based on campaign survey responses, reply status, or a different group of contacts. This functionality is very similar to the campaign creation advanced targeting, without the ability to add new contacts/conversations. 


You can filter Followups based on survey responses. In the example below, the Followup will only go to recipients who were recorded as "No" for the survey question.

 Screenshot of grey text on a white drop-down. The word "No" has been selected.


You can also filter Followups by reply status. In the example below, the Followup will only go to those who did not reply to the initial message.

 Screenshot of grey text on a white drop-down. "Only contacts who did not reply" has been selected.


You can also remove contacts using a filter based on an independent group:


A screenshot showing two grey rectangles with black text on a white background. The top rectangle indicates the campaign name, while the bottom rectangle indicates the removal of a groupd titled "Matt."


Click "Save Followup" ("Update Followup" if you are editing). This will return you to your Campaign Details page. 


If you want to save your draft Followup and finish building it later, you can navigate away from the Followup creation page. To continue creating your Followup, return to the Campaign Details page, click the three vertical dots, and select "Edit." The "Edit" button will return you to the Follow creation page.


You cannot add contacts to a followup campaign that were not part of the original campaign. If you need to reach out to new contacts, you can clone the campaign to maintain the original campaign's parameters. If a dedicated number was utilized for the original campaign, you could use that dedicated number in the clone to have the messages sent from the same number.


Step 5: Save or launch your Followup

Once admins have built their target list, they can choose to save their Followup as a draft or launch it. 


Screenshot of two buttons. On the left is a blue link on the white background, "Save as Draft". On the right is a magenta button with white text, "Launch Followup"


If the campaign was saved as a draft, to launch your campaign, on the campaign's details page, click the three vertical dots to the right of the Followup and select "Launch":


Screenshot of a unlaunched Followup. The blue vertical dot menu at the right end of the line is expanded. "Launch" is the top option.


After launching a Followup

Once the Followup is launched, you will see its status change from "Draft" to "Active." Clicking the Followup "Launch" button makes the Followup Messages available to the message senders. As with initial messages, pressing "Launch" does NOT automatically send the message to recipients. Instead, launching queues up the text for your users to send out through the Messenger.


Followup scripts will appear in the user's sending screens just like an initial script message. (If the Followup Messages are not immediately visible, have your users refresh their page.) Users can always "Skip" a contact or modify the script for a Followup to a specific contact to better fit the flow of the conversation history during the sending process. The conversations will appear with a pink indicator when a Followup is active:


Screenshot of a name in white text on a dark blue background. To the left of the name is a dark magenta dot denoting an active Followup message.


In the Admin Messenger, unsent Followups are located in the assigned message sender's Followup tab.


Followup messages are meant to be run in sequence rather than concurrently. If you need to create two Followup campaigns, create your first campaign and then send all the messages. Then, you can create your second Followup Message.