With SMS broadcasts, you can reach hundreds of thousands of individuals with a single message.
This guide will walk you through creating and sending effective SMS broadcasts using Hulul's one-way SMS feature.
Benefits of SMS Broadcasts
- Reach a large audience efficiently.
- Facilitate targeted communication with your contacts.
Prerequisites
Before creating SMS broadcasts, ensure you have a connected and configured SMS channel within your Hulul account. Refer to this guide on Connecting and Setting Up SMS for detailed instructions.
Creating Your First SMS Broadcast
1. Access the Broadcast Section
Navigate to the Broadcast section within Hulul's main menu.
Click the "+ Create New Broadcast" button located in the top right corner.
2. Name Your Broadcast
Assign a unique and descriptive name to your broadcast.
Note: The broadcast name must be unique and cannot be duplicated, as duplicate names will prevent proceeding to the next step.
3. Select SMS Channel
From the available channel options, choose "SMS" as your communication method and click "Next".
4. Configuring Delivery Details
Choose the appropriate delivery details for your SMS broadcasts based on your active Sender IDs.
- Destination Country: Select the country where your recipients are located.
- Sender ID Type: Choose between "Local" or "International" based on the destination country.
- Sender ID: Select the specific Sender ID you want to use for sending the SMS messages.
5. Craft Your Message
Keep your message concise and impactful. Consider the following:
- A single SMS typically supports 160 characters.
- Messages with Unicode characters (emoji or Arabic letters) are limited to 70 characters.
- Messages are inclusive of spaces and special characters. URLs are allowed within the message body.
Hulul's platform allows messages up to 918 characters but recommends a limit of 320 characters for optimal SMS deliverability and user experience.
What happens if I exceed the recommended 320 characters per message?
Occasionally sending messages longer than 320 characters will not cause problems. However, the longer your SMS messages are, the harder they are for your recipients to read and digest quickly. In addition, some wireless carriers and devices may behave differently than others when receiving long SMS messages. Regularly sending very long SMS messages may reduce your overall delivery rate.
Lastly, note that the length of an SMS (and whether any special characters, such as emojis, are present) will affect its price, because of a concept called parts.
What are the parts?
When you send an SMS message with more than 160 characters, it gets split into smaller parts for transmission.
For example, a 296-character message will be sent as two messages: one with 153 characters and another with 143 characters. Each part will be sent separately but will appear as a single message on the recipient's device.
Important Note: When sending very long SMS messages (longer than 5 parts with Unicode characters), some mobile carriers may have trouble handling these messages. It's advisable to keep your messages shorter than 5 parts if possible.
Why It Matters
SMS messages are priced based on these parts, with each part typically containing 160 characters.
For example, an 800-character SMS will be charged as 5 Text Messages because 800 divided by 160 equals 5 parts.
To help you keep track of your message length and parts, there's an interactive counter that displays the number of characters and the character limit based on the identified language.
6. Target Your Audience
Hulul offers a convenient CSV template you can download to ensure proper formatting for your contact list.
- Importing Your Contact List
Download the template from Hulul to ensure proper formatting.
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Contact List Requirements
- Each row should include two columns: Name and Mobile Number.
- All phone numbers must have a valid country code prefix (e.g., 20 for Egypt).
- Hulul will automatically validate the country codes for each number.
Please ensure that you set the format of numbers to "Number" in your spreadsheet application before uploading your contact list to avoid any issues with the upload process.
- Upload Results
Simply upload your completed CSV file containing your contact list.
- Once you upload your list, Hulul will display a count of successfully verified numbers.
- If there are invalid records, you'll have the option to ignore invalid records and proceed with the valid ones.
Note: The system will exclude numbers from countries that don't match your chosen Sender ID Destination Country.
- For example, if your Sender ID targets Egypt, Saudi Arabian numbers won't be included.
7. Estimate Your Campaign Costs
Once you've targeted your audience, Hulul will provide an estimated cost for your SMS campaign.
This estimation will consider:
- The countries of your recipient's phone numbers.
- The maximum operator cost for SMS in each country.
- The number of parts required for your messages.
Please note that the cost of an SMS broadcast will be deducted from your Hulul wallet balance.
8. Confirm and Launch (or Recharge Your Wallet)
Before confirming your broadcast, you'll see the estimated total cost.
- If your wallet balance has sufficient funds to cover the cost, confirm and launch the broadcast.
- If your wallet balance is insufficient, recharge your wallet before proceeding.
- Click the "Launch" button to initiate your SMS broadcast immediately. (Scheduling functionality is not currently available)
Where can I see my statistics?
To view statistics on a particular SMS broadcast in Hulul, follow these steps:
- Go to the "Broadcast" section in the main menu.
- Click on the "History" tab to see all the broadcasts you have sent.
- You can filter the broadcasts by channel to see only SMS broadcasts.
- Review the broadcast details, including the target audience size and the number of messages successfully sent.
Additional Notes
- Incomplete broadcasts with content are automatically saved as drafts in the "Draft" tab for later editing.
- You can resend a previously sent broadcast message if needed.
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