Text one contact or the whole list
Switched off until an operator turns it on
Write an SMS to one contact, or one message to your contact list, once SMS is connected for your organisation.
Where to find it
Campaigns › Prospects (Easy mode: Essentials › Phone book)
Open this screen
Steps
- For one contact: open the contact and press “Send SMS” (Easy mode: the “SMS” button on the row).
- For the list: on Prospects or Phone book press “Bulk SMS” (owners, admins and managers only). It first shows how many clients are on the list, how many can receive it and how many are skipped.
- Read the line at the top. If it says “SMS cannot be sent yet”, the reason follows and Send stays off.
- Write the “Message” (up to 1,600 characters). For Bulk SMS, tick “Everyone on this list agreed to receive messages from us.”
- Press “Send” (or “Send to {n} clients”). The most the screen reports is that Twilio accepted the message; delivery to the phone is not confirmed there.
Settings on this screen
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Message | The text, with a live character count. | — |
| Everyone on this list agreed to receive messages from us. | Required for Bulk SMS: you confirm the list consented. | — |
| Skipped | The contacts left out and why (no number, unusable number, do-not-call, same number twice). | — |
Troubleshooting
It says “SMS cannot be sent yet”.
Your organisation is not connected for SMS yet (for example the service runs in simulator mode, no Twilio account is saved, or there is no SMS-capable number of your own). An operator sets this up. See “SMS cannot be sent”.
Bulk SMS refuses with a message about SMS campaigns not being switched on.
Bulk SMS also waits for the operator's SMS switch and for SMS to be enabled for your organisation. Until then nothing is sent; the check of the list still works.
Tips
- Bulk SMS reaches at most 200 clients at a time; a bigger list is refused before anything is sent.
Good to know
- SMS sending is off until an operator turns it on for your organisation. Nothing refused is recorded as sent.
- Contacts at the stage Do not call or on the do-not-call list are always skipped.
Related how-tos
- Prospects (phone book) See everyone your team calls in one list or pipeline board, find a contact, move them between stages and open their record.
- SMS cannot be sent Switched off until an operator turns it on Understand each reason the Send SMS and Bulk SMS dialogs give, and who can fix it.
- Message campaigns Message the people who have already talked to your organisation on a chat channel, and keep your call campaigns, templates and unsubscribes in one place.
- Do-not-call & rules Keep the numbers that must never be called, see what the calling rules refused, check a number and its consent, and block unwanted callers.