OnlineFundraising supports sending text messages in – also called batches – to recipients with Danish phone numbers. Batches are located in SMS Outbound of the main menu in OnlineFundraising. Batches can be sent out immediately or scheduled. It is possible to create large batches - the way it works is that text messages are queued and sent out continuously.
Before starting: Test sending text messages
It is possible to test sending a text message in the top right corner of SMS Outbound, using Test SMS. One of the use cases could be to review how many text messages the message is actually sent as. Please note that the text message is sent to and received on the phone number you provide, so make sure to use a phone number which is eligible for testing. The (Danish) phone number must be provided without country code.
Link shortening does not apply to test sending a text message. A shortened link does, however, always consist of 24 characters (provided you are using OnlineFundraising's link shortener service) - use the following test link to achieve the correct character count of your test text message: https://kortl.ink/r3eyr7.
Step 1: Click Create a new batch
Click Create a new batch.
Step 2: Provide information about the batch
The next step is to provide information about the batch you intend to send:
- Batch name: This is the name of the batch. This information is only available in OnlineFundraising and will not be available to the recipient.
- Sender alias: We recommend providing your organisation's short code as the sender alias, in order to receive keywords from the recipient. The sender alias can also be a name, for instance your organisation's name, if you are sending out informational text messages.
- Schedule start: Provide that start date and time of the batch. If you plan to send large amounts of text messages, you should consider selecting 'Send the sms between ... and' to ensure that queued text messages are not sent out at an inconvenient point in time. This option is available if you select Advanced settings in the top right corner.
- Create: Once you are done configuring the batch, click Create. It is possible to update a batch after creating it. When the batch is created, it is possible to add the content of the text messages as well as the list of recipients.
Step 3: Upload phone numbers and content
The list of recipients must be composed so it contains the content of the text messages as well. Provide the list as a .csv-file or Excel-file.
3.1 Download template
We recommend downloading the template using Download an example file, which contains five columns (please see example attached in this article):
- msisdn (required): The (Danish) mobile phone number of the recipient including country code in the following format: "45" (i.e. "00" and "+" is omitted).
- text (required): The content of the text message. The file can contain different text messages to different people, for instance if the message is made more personal using first names.
How to shorten a link
If the text message contains a link it is possible to shorten it in order to reduce the number of characters of the content - if this is the case, the following columns are required as well:
- shortLinkDomain: The domain which the shortened link will be hosted on. OnlineFundraising supports kortl.ink and giiv.dk.
- url: The link which should be included in the text message and shortened as well.
- placeholder: A short, unique string of text, placed where the link should be included in the content of the text message. It is important to only include the placeholder once. We recommend using the following placeholder: {{url}}.
Please note that it is only possible to shorten one link per text message. Link that have been included directly in the text message content will not automatically get shortened.
3.2 Upload file
When the list of recipients is ready, please attach by selecting Browse .xlsx or .csv files and locate the file. Then, click Upload.
3.3 Validate phone numbers
Before importing the file, the phone numbers must be validated:
- Select country code to validate. In this example we are using +45.
- Click Validate. This starts the validation proces. Once this is finished you will be allowed to import the file (see next step).
If there are any errors in one or more phone numbers, you will be alerted with the message: Error - and the error details are available in View errors.
Step 4: Import file
Once the file has been validated, click Import. The batch is now registered and ready to be queued.
Step 5: Queue batch
Now that the batch is created and configured, along with a list of recipients, click Queue for [...] to start queueing the text messages. The queue can always be stopped by clicking Stop next to Pending.