SMS and WhatsApp campaigns
Send an offer, a reminder or news to your lists and customers by SMS or WhatsApp, from your own account, and see who got it, clicked and replied.
Besides email, Email Marketing can send a short message to many people at once by SMS or WhatsApp. Messages go from your own account, so the provider bills you directly and replies come back to you. SMS and WhatsApp campaigns are on Standard and up.
Connect your account first
Open SMS & WhatsApp in the menu, then Accounts (admins only), and click Add SMS or WhatsApp.
- Twilio sends SMS to most countries from your Twilio number or Messaging Service.
- WhatsApp Business (Meta) sends from your own WhatsApp Business number. You need its Phone number ID, WhatsApp Business Account ID and a permanent access token.
Your keys are checked with the provider and kept encrypted. Copy the webhook address shown for the account and paste it at the provider (click Where to paste it). Then delivery reports, replies and STOP come back to Ellibo.
If you also use Marketing Automation, it uses the same accounts. You connect them once.
Write the campaign
- Click New campaign.
- Give it a name and choose SMS or WhatsApp.
Write the message:
- SMS: type the text. Click First name, Company and the other buttons to add personal fields. The counter shows how many characters and SMS parts each message has - providers charge for each part.
- WhatsApp: choose an approved template and fill in its fields, like
{{1}}. WhatsApp lets a business start a chat only with a template Meta approved. Sync your templates on the Accounts page.
- Under Who gets it, add one or more groups - your lists, all contacts, a saved filter, or customers from your other Ellibo apps. Only people with a mobile number are counted, and someone in two groups gets one message.
- Send yourself a test with Send a test to.
Click Opt-out line to add "Reply STOP to opt out." In many countries the law asks for it in marketing SMS.
Send now or later
Check the list under Check and send - anything in red must be fixed first. Then click Send now, or pick a day and time and click Schedule.
Messages start within 5 minutes. They go only inside your send window (9 AM to 8 PM business time unless you change it on the Accounts page), so nobody gets an offer at night. Each account also has a daily limit. Messages over it wait for the next day.
While a campaign is sending you can Pause it, Carry on, or Stop it for good.
Results
Open a sent campaign to see:
- how many messages were sent, delivered and, for WhatsApp, read
- who clicked a link (links are shortened so clicks can be counted - you can switch this off)
- who replied, and who answered STOP
- who was left out and why, for example because they answered STOP earlier
Click a number to see those people.
People who answer STOP
When someone replies STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT), they get no more SMS or WhatsApp campaigns from you. If they reply START, they get messages again. The list is on the Accounts page.