Table of Contents:


Introduction

Using a separate List for your SMS contacts 

SMS Vendor Setup

  1. Go to Vendors Settings → My Connections and in the Actions column click on the 'ESP Setup' icon. Depending on the vendor you select, there are typically 2 things to set up when connecting to an SMS vendor: “From Name” and “API credentials” to connect to the respective Vendor. The latter two might be different based on the vendor selected.

  2. From Name: This name will be the Sender Name used to send the sms. The From Name to use normally is provided by SMS Vendor selected. It is recommended to verify the “From Name” from the respective Vendor before using the same in Ongage.
    Note: If you’re using SMS vendor “CM.”, you’ll need to make sure that the “From Name” contain less than 11 characters (this is a limitation of CM. ONLY)
  3. API Credentials:  Enter the required API credentials on Vendor setup page so that Ongage can connect to the vendor via the API in order to send out the SMS text messages from your Ongage campaigns. For more details about SMS Vendor Setup see our online documentation about Vendor Setup Tutorials.

SMS Field Setup

Go to: List Settings → Fields Setup

Create / Edit SMS Message 

  1. Go to Content -> SMS Messages.
  2. Click 'New SMS'.
  3. Type in your SMS text message.


  4. Mobile numbers must contain a country code. If the mobile numbers in your list db contain a country code e.g., 1-212-555-5555 then there's no need to indicate a prefix on the page above. If on the other hand your numbers don't contain the country code, then you can add it here, by clicking on the 'Prefix' checkbox, and typing in the country code prefix number (e.g., 1 for North America, 44 for UK, etc.) to be prepended to all mobile numbers in this campaign.
  5. (warning) Note: SMS messages are limited to 160 characters. If you exceed that length, then the message will get split into 2 messages when sent. by vendor. In such a case the vendor may charge you for 2 messages, though Ongage will only charge you for 1.
    1. Besides our SMS editor which provides a character count, you can use the following tool to check for the length of your SMS messages: http://chadselph.github.io/smssplit/
    2. Special characters may get counted as more than one, please consult with your SMS vendor.
    3. (info) Note: Ongage's short link, detailed below, takes up 19 characters.
  6. When done editing, the next 2 steps are exactly the same as for setting up an email campaign, i.e., 'Campaign Configuration' and 'Schedule'.

About Short Links in SMS Messages

About Open and Click Stats in SMS Campaigns

About SMS Messages and the Ongage Unsub Link

Example of how to use an Ongage Unsubscribe Link in your SMS Message:

To unsubscribe click: {{ocx_unsubscribe_link}}
Or if you want to be short and concise then simply
Unsubscribe: {{ocx_unsubscribe_link}}

Sample Ongage Unsub Link in SMS text message

Using the above Ongage unsubscribe link, below is an illustration of how it will appear in an SMS text message.


And here's the message that will get displayed after you click on it.

Managing SMS unsubscribes and bounces 

Dynamic content and SMS campaigns

  1. First of all you can always use dynamic fields like you would in any email message, for example:

    Hi {{first_name}}!
Click here for today's 24 hour special! 
http://ourdailyspecial.com/?user={{email}}

    This way each user gets a personalized message. And moreover based on the dynamic parameters you append to the link, they can also arrive at a personalized landing page!
    Businesses in eCommerce, travel and jobs space, often use such a setup (i.e., with a link to a personalized landing page), though it is applicable for any vertical.

  2. You can use a static feed in an SMS text message – but there are two major caveats: (1) The feed must return text (and not XML or HTML, as many feeds do) and (2) Keep in mind you only have a max of 160 characters available!!
    For this purpose you can use Ongage static feed: {{ocx_feed_html{url=... }}}, though the syntax says html, make sure the response from the feed is text.

  3. Similarly you can use the dynamic feed syntax {{ocx_feed_dynamic_html}} for dynamic content per contact. Again you'll need to make sure that feed returns text for populating your SMS text message.

(warning) Content feeds such as Jobs (e.g., Indeed) cannot be used in an SMS text message as they return XML data that is rendered into HTML and not text, and thus not appropriate for SMS text message content. Any other 3rd party content feed that returns text data can be used, so long as you keep in mind, that you want the content to be limited to 160 characters.

SMS Deliverability Best Practices

  1. Ongage comes up with oc.gg as Default tracking domain for SMS campaigns. However, for improved delivery it is recommended to setup your own branded Short URL with your own tracking domain for SMS campaigns. You can visit our online documentation about setting up Branded Short URL in the SMS Campaigns page and see there About Short Links in SMS Messages.
  2. By Default Ongage tracking links are http. As of 2021 it is recommended to configure HTTPS/SSL for your Custom Short URL domain(s). For that you will need to purchase an SSL certificate, and Ongage will apply that SSL certificate to your short URL. If you need more than 1 domain to use SSL/HTTPS, you'll need to acquire a Multi-Domain Wildcard SSL certificate.

  3. Make sure there is no issue with DNS propagations/Authentication.

  4. Look into Bounce reason as that can uncover some known issue with sending. "Contacts Activity report" have Bounce reason column that can show the reason for Bounce. You can also check Bounce reason at Vendor side. To know more about the contacts with bounce reasons you can refer to our online documentation of Analytics and see there How to know the contacts that are bounced with respective bounce reasons.