Building a New Text Broadcast (Step-by-Step Guide)

Updated by Alexis Salcedo

Drafting your first text broadcast with us and don't know where to start? This quick guide will walk you through the basics of drafting a text broadcast with Switchboard.

Once you navigate to Broadcasts from your messaging home screen, click New Broadcast in the top right corner. Name your broadcast in the next window and click Create Broadcast.

  1. Choose what kind of data you want to use for your broadcast in the Phone Audience section. For more about what these list types mean and how to use them, check out our Targeting help docs.
  2. If needed, you can create a new shortlink by clicking +Shortlink and putting in your slug and destination url.
  3. You can choose to either upload new media (gif, jpeg, png, mp4) or choose from your existing media library. For more guidance on uploading media.
  4. Now, time to write your text! Click Edit Broadcast Message. This will bring up a new window where you can type in your broadcast message. This is where you can add a shortlink with tracking and make any customizations using our custom and reusable fields.
    1. You will see the approximate character count below your message — this will allow you to help predict the cost of your message.
  5. Once you are done drafting your message, click save and review the example message preview. In the preview you will see:
    1. A random name from your list and/or random variable(s) that for other custom fields.
    2. “Text STOP to quit” - Switchboard adds this for you. If you would like to use different opt out language you can uncheck the box next to “Automatically add opt out language to the end of messages” and type your own opt out message in your message text.
      1. Note - “Text Stop to Quit” is the automatic default because it is what we believe to be the most compliant opt-out language.
    3. The number of characters and whether or not the message is an SMS or MMS message.
  6. Once your message is ready, you can send a test message.
  7. Once your broadcast is ready to go, you can either Send Broadcast now, Set Automatic Pause (if Broadcast is above 5k texts), or Schedule Broadcast for Later.
  8. To send your broadcast now, click Send Broadcast.

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