To send SMS through Dotdigital, you must:
Set up a Dotdigital SMS messaging channel.
Create a layout for your SMS messages.
Configure a trigger program to send the messages.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
Your Dotdigital account must be enabled for SMS sending. Contact your Dotdigital Customer Success representative if you need help with this.
You need your Dotdigital API username and password. Also, make a note of the API endpoint.
This is the region of your Dotdigital account. Learn more in Create an API user.
You must verify whether an opt-out message needs to be included in the SMS message. This should be added to the Fresh Relevance cart layout specified in the trigger program.
Learn more in Unsubscribe and resubscribe to SMS campaigns.
1. SMS channel setup
In Fresh Relevance, expand the User menu and go to Settings > Triggers and Messaging integrations.
Select Messaging Provider(s).
Expand the Select a messaging provider drop-down menu and select Dotdigital SMS.
Select NEXT.
Expand the API Region drop-down menu and select your region.
Enter your Dotdigital API username and API password.
Optionally, enter a Channel Name and Catch-All mobile number.
The Channel Name is a friendly name that helps you recognize the channel in the messaging channels list. If this field is left blank, it defaults to the messaging provider name: Dotdigital SMS.
You can enter a Catch-All mobile number to receive all SMS messages instead of your customers during testing. After you have finished testing, this number must be removed.
For Max length, enter the maximum length in characters for each SMS message.
Learn more in the section SMS message length below.Select NEXT.
2. Create a layout for SMS messages
When you create a layout for SMS, you must select the SMS-specific template in Fresh Relevance to ensure that your content is supported for sending.
Go to Content > Cart Layout
Select NEW CART LAYOUT.
Enter a name for the layout.
Select the SMS template.
In the Edit the Cart Layout field, find the body text for the SMS, for example, Did you forget about these?
Body text is the text not surrounded by curly brackets.
Replace the example text with your message content.
Select SAVE.
SMS message length
SMS messages are made up of segments, which must be a maximum of 160 characters, or 70 characters if you're using a non-Latin alphabet/character set. If you use more characters, your message takes a second SMS segment, and is charged accordingly.
When you create your SMS messaging channel, you can set a max number of characters to use per message to help protect your SMS spend. Any message over the maximum you set is truncated at the specified limit.
Learn more in SMS message length and Unicode.
Keep your text brief and to-the-point. You could also consider decreasing the number of products that are included in the message.
You can reduce it to one product by changing the following line in the layout:
{%- set max_products_to_show = 1 %}
Link tracking
It's possible to add Google Analytics tracking to the links in the SMS message.
If you want to change the populated values for the UTM tags, you can do this in the layout in the code section which begins {{product.u | set_ga_tracking….
Preview your SMS
Learn how in Preview and test cart layouts.
3. Create a trigger program
Go to Triggers in the left side menu then select the Trigger programs tab.
Select CREATE TRIGGER PROGRAM.
Expand the drop-down menu and select the trigger type you want to use.
Choose from:Cart abandon
Browse abandon
Purchase complete
Price drop
Back in stock
Low stock
Custom (Code or segment).
Select CREATE for the program template you want to use. You must select a template which references an SMS provider.
Enter a name for your program.
For Wait (In minutes) enter the number of minutes after the signal is raised that you want to send the message.
Expand the Action channel drop-down menu and select your Dotdigital SMS messaging channel.
Expand the Cart layout drop-down menu and select the SMS layout you created in Step 2.
Template ID can be left blank for SMS message sends.Configure any Advanced features you want to set for the program.
Learn more in Create a trigger program.Select SAVE.