SMS Campaigns

With Twilio Engage, you can send email and SMS campaigns to users who have opted in to receive your marketing materials. On this page, you’ll learn how to create and send an SMS campaign.

Some knowledge of the Journeys product will benefit you as you read through this guide. If you’re new to Journeys, the Journeys documentation will bring you up to speed.

How Engage campaigns work

Twilio Engage uses Journeys to send email and SMS campaigns. With Journeys, you add conditions and steps that trigger actions like sending an email or an SMS.

You’ll build and then send your campaign in three stages:

1. Create a Journey.
2. Add a Journey condition.
3. Create, test, and send your SMS campaign.

Create a Journey

Because Engage campaigns exist within Journeys, begin by creating a Journey:

1. In Engage, select Journeys, then click New Journey.
2. Name your Journey and select its entry settings.
3. Click Build Journey to create the Journey.

Add a Journey condition

With your Journey created, you’ll now create a condition that will trigger your SMS campaign:

1. Within the Journey builder, click + Add Entry Condition.
2. In the Add Entry Condition pane, give the step a name.
3. Click + Add Condition, select your desired condition, then click Save.

With your entry condition added, you’re now ready to create your SMS campaign.

Create, test, and publish your SMS campaign

Follow these steps to create an SMS campaign:

1. Within the Journey builder, click the + node below your new condition.
2. From the Select a Step window, click Send an SMS.
3. In the Send SMS window, select Build a new SMS or Use a template to choose an existing SMS template.
4. Enter your campaign content into the Body field.
5. Add a STOP/unsubscribe line to the end of your SMS.

Test your SMS campaign

At this point, you can send a test SMS before publishing your campaign. Testing the SMS confirms that your content and merge tags appear as expected.

As part of your test send, you can enter custom values to populate the profile traits in your SMS message.

Follow these steps to test your campaign:

1. In the Send an SMS pane, click Test SMS.
2. If your template has profile traits, enter a trait value for the test SMS. This ensures that your merge tags work as expected.
   • To test a default value, leave the profile traits field blank. Default values must be assigned in your merge tags. For example, loyal customer would be the default for the following merge tag: {{profile.traits.first_name | default: "loyal customer"}}.
3. In the Recipients field, enter the phone number(s) that will receive your test SMS.
4. Click Send test SMS.

Publish your SMS campaign

With your SMS created and tested, you’re now ready to save the campaign and publish your Journey with the following steps:

1. Verify that all Send SMS fields are correct.
2. Click Save.
3. In the Journey builder, click Publish.

Your SMS campaign is now live. Users who trigger the SMS step’s parent Journey condition will receive your SMS campaign.

SMS campaign fields

The following table contains descriptions of the three fields in the Journeys Send SMS builder. All SMS fields are required.

Next steps

Using Journeys, you can create multi-channel customer engagement with both email and SMS campaigns. Having published an SMS, learn how Engage email campaigns can help you market to customers through email.