Text campaigns are a direct and effective way to connect with your target audience through SMS messages. Since most people are likely to read text messages within minutes, this method has a higher probability of engagement compared to email or social media. Text campaigns can improve response rates, boost event turnout, and make fundraising efforts timelier and more impactful.
How do I get to the create campaign page?
Hover the cursor over to Texting in the left pane and click New Campaign. Clicking Texting will open the Inbox by default, while users can view all existing campaigns by clicking All Campaigns, right below New Campaign.
Here is how the main page window looks like:
Naming a campaign
The first step is to give your campaign a name. Although a campaign name is not visible to the recipients, it’s a good idea to use easily recognizable names. This can help you stay organized and switch between campaigns easily, especially when managing multiple campaigns.
A good campaign name should ideally be short, clear, and easy to remember. Use keywords that reflect the purpose or audience of the message e.g. “EventReminder_April” or “RenewalPush_Q2.” It’s better to avoid unclear titles like “Campaign1” or “Test,” as they can cause confusion later. A consistent naming format—like including the date, goal, or segment—can make it easier to track performance and refer back to past campaigns when needed.
Enter a name in the Campaign Name field and click Save Draft. The campaign will become visible in the All Campaigns page. Other fields including To, From, Body, Send time and Review and Send are inactive and not editable until you save the draft.
Add recipients or target a specific audience
Click the Edit Audience button to open a window that allows targeting a specific audience or selecting recipients as required. If you want to add all contacts to the campaign, simply click the blue Save Target Audience button or Cancel to return to the previous window.
The blue Filter button makes it easier to narrow down records. Contacts can be filtered based on a variety of parameters or filters including:
By name (Full, First, Middle, Last, Suffix, Title)
Email
Phone number including active, textable and Do Not Contact phone numbers
By Employer
By Occupation
Address
Tags
Pledges
Interactions
And a lot more options
The results can be further narrowed down based on different criteria, just like any other table filter in the application. Select your query to filter records. The table below will show the filtered contacts. You can also add multiple filters, which allows adding, narrowing or removing records from your query in a new filter step.
The contacts table below the filter fields shows important information about contacts. Each row is a contact, while columns provide important information about each contact. Once you have filtered all the right contacts, click the blue Save Target Audience to add them to the campaign.
Select a sender
Raise More allows setting up multiple Caller IDs. The From field in text campaigns provides the option to select the desired Caller ID that you want your texting campaign to appear to come from. Select the desired Caller ID and click the blue Save Draft & Next button to continue.
Enter the body of the text message
Click Edit Text Message to create the message. The Merge Fields button below the text field allows inputting different objects by automatically pulling information from the system. Users can populate a variety of fields automatically in the text message, including:
{firstName}
{lastName}
{nickNameOrFirstName}
{fullName}
{totalUnfulfilledPledgesAmount}
{lastUnfulfilledPledgeAmount}
Click the blue Save Draft & Next button to save the text.
Choose when to schedule a text campaign
The Send time field allows users to select when to send a text campaign. Clicking the blue Save Draft button without making any changes means the text campaign is set to send immediately. Select the required time and date if you want to send the campaign later and click Save Draft.
Review, finalize, and send
The final step involves reviewing and sending the text campaign. But it’s always a good idea to preview the message before sending it to the target audience. The Preview button at the top right allows users to preview the message.
The Review and Send section provides a summary of the text campaign and shows important information including:
Price per SMS segment
The number of characters used in the text message
The number of segments in a SMS
Current audience / the number of contacts to who the SMS will be sent
Total cost
Once you have reviewed the information, you can click the red Send button to send the message to all recipients. However, it’s better to first send the text message to the currently active user by clicking the Send Test Text button. This provides a chance to preview the message in real-world before sending the campaign to the target audience.