Want to send text messages to some or all of your contacts on Démocratik? In this article, we’ll show you how to launch your campaign.
1. On the Démocratik website, click “Operations” in the left-hand sidebar, then “SMS Operations" twice. Click “Create a sms operation” to begin creating.
2. Choose SMS Broadcast to send messages, then click "Next step".
3. Enter the operation title, description (which is optional). Choose if you want your messages to go out Now, or at a Scheduled date. If you pick the later, enter the starting date and hour. In either option, the messages will not send as soon as your finish setting your operation, do not panic. For now, click next step.
4. Click “Create a new contact list with your filter/Query” or “Create a new elector list with your filter/Query” to create your list of phone numbers to text. You must choose whether you want to select a list of voters/electors or contacts.
Another tab will open. You’ll need to set up a filter to see only the people you want to text; To refresh your knowledge on voter filters, click here, and for contact filters, click here.
5. Once your list is set up as you want it, you’ll see the bar at the bottom that says “Send to operation (name of your campaign)” to move on to the next step.
6. You’ll see a report of your list: the number of contacts (here, 51), how many valid cell phone numbers there are, with contact permission, without duplicates... Here, only 9. This will give you the total number of contacts to send to your operation. If this seems great to you, click "Import". If you want to rework your filter, click "Cancel".
7. You will see “Success; The liste is added to the operation” once the import is complete.
8. You can close this tab to return to your SMS operation tab.
You will see the list you just imported. If you click the small “i” icon, you can review the import report/"funnel". Click next step if everything looks good.
9. At this step, you need to set up the initial message that will be sent to your list.
You can choose a pre-saved template or enter a name for a new message.
If you create a new one, you must name it; it will be saved in your templates so you can find it later. *The templates you create are for your use only, unless you share them.
You can then type your message. You can choose between: Standard Text Message, Text Message with Unicode, or MMS.
Good to know: there are three types of text.
For a standard text message (the most simple and popular), you can enter up to 160 characters, BUT if you use a circumflex accent (“^”), you’ll have to switch to SMS with Unicode; you’ll then have only 70 characters.
If the text message is too long or if you’re sending a photo, you’ll need to switch to MMS. In this case, you have 1,400 characters, but billing is different and the delivery report is less comprehensive.
The site will notify you based on your character count.
10. Type your message, using variables (such as the recipient’s name, if you have it), if you wish. To use variable, click the (x) button.
11. You can test out your text by clicking on "Test it out", and sending it to a particular number or contact you can find. Click "Test with selected contact" to send it.
Once you close this window, have sent a test, click "Next step" to move forward.
12. You can then set up automatic replies. Here, for example, we want a reply to someone who answers “YES”; in the drop-down menu, you must choose between an exact match or, as shown here, “(~) Like”.
Enter your automatic reply here. The same rules apply for different message types (standard, non-Unicode, MMS).
Click “Save Auto Response” when everything looks good.
13. You can enter as many auto responses as you wish. You'll see all of them at the bottom of the page. When you're ready, click "Next step".
14. Then, you need to select the phone number(s) that will send your text messages.
Good to know!
It’s important to know that a single number can send 200 text messages per day. If you want to send texts to 400 people, you would therefore need (for example!) 3 numbers (2 to send 400 texts, and a third for replies). You must therefore select the number of numbers needed to ensure your text campaign runs smoothly. If you send too many text messages from a single number, that number could be blocked by phone service providers.
Here, a single number is enough (since I only have 9 contacts to reach), but I can add more by clicking “Add a number to the pool.”
If the number available for my campaign is already associated with another campaign, the system will notify me and offer to “Unlink from the campaign.” You must do this to ensure you don’t exceed the limit of 200 texts per day per number.
Click "Next step" once you have enough numbers linked to your operation.
15. Just before finalizing your campaign, double-check the information to make sure everything looks good. Then, click “Activate.” Note that the text message(s) will not be sent at this point, as you read before.
16. When you return to the list of all your campaigns, you’ll need to click “Send sms” to send the texts, when you're ready! You'll also be able to render inactive, edit, clone, delete your campaign, or view the contacts or the chats.
17. You’re done! Congratulations!
