Getting Started
At the heart of every text campaign is an initial message: the message you want to send in bulk to every contact in the campaign. See examples of initial messages here.
| Note: Initial messages must identify your organization as the message sender and include standard opt-out language such as "Reply stop to opt out" or "Stop = End". Read more about these carrier requirements here. |
To add your initial message to a text campaign, you’ll first need to create a campaign. Next, click on the “Script” section.
The “Script” section of the campaign is where you’ll add your initial message.
This will open up a box with a field to add your scripted message.
Image of the box where you add the initial message(s) of your campaign.
Add Your Initial Message
To add your initial message, click on the Script field.
Image displaying where to click to add your script.
This will open a pop-up. Type in your initial message into the box.
Image displaying the pop-up to add your script.
In the sample initial message shown above, "Hi {firstName}! It's {texterAliasOrFirstName} ...", some words are contained in brackets. These are dynamic fields. You can read more about dynamic fields here.
Dynamic fields can be used to pull data from your contact list into your messages. For each contact you message, the data pulled will reflect what you uploaded in your list.
Most initial messages contain the dynamic fields {firstName} and {texterAliasOrFirstName}. {firstName} populates each message with the first name of the contact. {texterAliasOrFirstName} populates each message with the first name of the person texting.
We also strongly recommend adding more than one initial message to your campaigns. Read more about how to add script variants here.
Pre-Scripted Replies: An Overview
In addition to your initial message, you may wish to add scripted responses to your campaign for subsequent exchanges with your contacts.
You can set up scripted replies in your campaigns as branched scripts or as canned responses, or as a mix of both.
Branched scripts are can sync your data with an external service like VAN and can be exported as a spreadsheet. Canned responses can be attached to tags, which can be mapped to VAN and appear in your campaign exports. Read more about the two approaches here.
Examples of data you can collect include support IDs, volunteer confirms, event RSVPs, yard sign requests, and donation contributions.
There are two ways to upload scripted replies to a text campaign. You can write your replies directly in Spoke. Or you can upload your script as a formatted Google Doc.
Learn how to add branched scripts to your campaign here, and how to add canned responses to your campaign here.