With Privy Text, you can send a text message to all or a specific segment of your contacts at once. These broadcast texts, sometimes called bulk SMS or mass texts, are perfect for product launches, sale announcements, or special occasions and benefit from exceptionally high open rates compared to other marketing channels.

Things to know

Before attempting to create and send broadcast texts, please review the following:

• You must subscribe to Privy Text. 
• A contact's phone number must be collected through a Privy form with the phone field, the contact must have checked the text opt-in checkbox, and the contact must have confirmed their desire to receive messages via double opt-in to receive texts from Privy. 

Create a text

To create a broadcast text:

• Select the Campaigns (1) option in the main navigation and click the New text message (2) button.

• On the subsequent screen, update the text's default name with the Edit()  button. 

Message content

• Customize your text by adding to or completely replacing the default placeholder content. Use the Personalize dropdown menu to populate the message with known attributes, such as the contact's first name. Check out the example message below: 

Hey {{ contact.first_name }}! The Surprise Savings Event is here, and you can save big on your favorites. This offer ends tomorrow, so the time to act is now. {{ short_url }}

Note: Personalization based on a contact's information (e.g., First Name) is only recommended if you are confident that the information has already been collected. For example, a display that collects text subscribers may only appear to your existing contacts.

• Review the {{short_url}} settings of your text message. The default URL included in your messages is determined by the Website URL field in your Business Information settings. If you'd like to change the URL for this message, such as pointing to a specific product or website page, select the Edit short link() option. If you don't see a {{short_url}} merge tag, use the Add short link () option to manually insert a link to your desired page instead. 

Note: A shortened link ensures that any revenue generated by the text is tracked. The link will appear in the preview as the {{short_url}} merge tag but will appear as a standard URL to recipients.

• Once you finish customizing your text message, scroll the page down and click Save changes. It's important to note that your business name and the "STOP" instructions cannot be removed from the message. These elements are included for transparency and compliance reasons. 

Audience settings

• Next, scroll down and locate the "Send broadcast text to" section. This option allows you to send your text to all textable contacts or to a segment. Learn more about smart and custom segments.
• For Custom Segments, select from the "Choose existing segment" dropdown menu or to start fresh, select Create New Segment.

• For Smart Segments, select the dropdown and choose from the available options. 

• Finally, select the Save changes button at the bottom right of the card.  

Coupon settings (optional)

• To offer a discount in your message, select an existing coupon code from the dropdown menu. If none are available, create one by following these steps. 
• Once you finish selecting your coupon, click Save changes.

• With a coupon selected and saved, return to your message and insert the Coupon Code merge tag with the Personalize dropdown menu. The tag auto-populates with the selected code when the message is sent to recipients. Take a look at the example below: 

Hey {{ contact.first_name }}! The Surprise Savings Event is here, and you can save big on your favorites for the next 24 hours. Even better - save an extra 10% with code {{ coupon_code }} at checkout. {{ short_url }} 

Send or schedule a text

• Once your message is ready and your segment determined, select the Send or Schedule button at the top-right of the editor. The Send option will send to all eligible contacts immediately, while the Schedule option will allow you to select a future date and time. 

Note: Quiet hours are enforced between 8 pm to 9 am in the recipient's timezone for all messages. No messages will be sent during that time and will be queued to send after 9 am. 

You can confirm the status of sent and scheduled messages on the Campaigns dashboard. Quickly locate text messages using the Channels dropdown menu next to the page's search bar. 

To unscheduled a message, select the Unschedule()  button next to the message's information.

Review a text's performance

After a broadcast text is sent, its performance is tracked on the Campaigns dashboard, and a delivery report for the individual message. The report shows how many messages reached their intended recipient along with the message's unsubscribe rate. To review this information:

• In your Privy account, click the Campaigns option in the main navigation.
• Use the dashboard's search bar and filters to locate the text message you'd like to review. The message's overall performance metrics are listed on the dashboard. Select a message to open the message's delivery report.

• By default, a text's delivery report metrics display using percentages. To reveal the exact number that the percentages represent, hover over the bars in the chart.