Several grids such as the Constituent, Events, Event Attendance, P2P Dashboard and Auction allow for you to send out text messages to any constituents with a mobile phone number on file. Once on the grid you are able to filter for the desired constituents and Select Actions>Send Text Message. Please note that there is a limit of 2000 direct text messages per day. Direct text messages are those initiated by you. The daily limit does not include the automated messages, auction bidding messages, or incoming text messages.
The dropdown menu at the top of the text message window will allow you to select mail merge field value(s) into the text message in the Text box. The merge field will insert wherever the mouse cursor is in the message.
You can also record a video using your computer’s camera and microphone. Toggle Include Video Recording to YES and you can click the green Start button to start the recording. Please note you may have to approve access for your web browser to user your devices camera and microphone if you haven’t already done so. Also please note that MMS videos are restricted to only 5MiB which limits the length and quality of the video to several seconds.
After you are finished recording click the red STOP button. The software will then render the video and notify you once it is ready to send. Once the rendering is complete you can send or schedule the video to go out like any other Text Message.
To send your message at a later time/date, toggle Schedule Text Message to YES. Using the calendar and clock icons under Schedule Text Message Delivery On you can choose when the text message will be sent. The message is usually delivered soon after the selected time and date, however the messaging provider service determines when the message is actually delivered, so there is no guarantee it will arrive in the constituent's mailbox at exactly that time. Be sure to leave some margin for messages that must be delivered prior to a specific time.
Whether sending right away or scheduling the send, you must check the box to confirm you are not engaging in spam and then you can click Send Text Message or Schedule Text Message. Click Cancel to cancel the text.
After your text message is sent, if you send additional messages the same day, you will see a count of the total number of messages available in the top right corner. In the example below, 1000 text messages were already sent, so there are 1000 messages remaining. You cannot have more constituents showing on your grid than the number remaining messages. The software will not send the message if your list includes more constituents than the number of remaining daily messages.
For texts that are scheduled to be sent, you can see the the status in the Reports > Text Messaging Queue grid. Clicking on the link in the View column will show you the constituents that were included in the message.
