New to dynamic assignment? Read our overview article here.
In the Assignment Management section of your campaign, you have the option to turn on the “Dynamic Assignment for Initials” feature. This creates a self-assignment link: a link that texters click to get added to a campaign and ultimately receive initial messages to send. Basically, the link saves admins the step of having to manually assign initial messages to the texter.
Screenshot of the dynamic assignment for initials setting. The link generated here will end in “initials”.
Customizing the batch size
You can customize the number of initials that texters receive in the “How large should this batch size be?” field. By default, texters will receive 200 initials, but you can increase or decrease the number depending on your needs. For example, if you need to power through a campaign quickly due to a time constraint, you might raise the batch size to 1000 or more. If your campaign is targeting a highly responsive list and you want to promote in-depth conversations, your batch size might be smaller to account for the time needed to handle replies.
Optional: You can also toggle on a setting to ensure that texters can only request additional batches of initials if they have handled all their replies first.
Screenshot of the setting to require texters to finish replies before they can request more texts.
Optional: You also have the ability to cap how many initial messages a specific texter can assign themselves through dynamic assignment. To create a max cap, go to the "Texters" panel. In the "Max Amount" column, type in the max amount that texter should receive next to their name.
Example of a texter with a max amount set for how many initials they can request via dynamic assignment.
What the texter sees
When you share the link generated in the Dynamic Assignment for Initials section with texters, and they click on it, they’ll be brought to the campaign in Spoke. Texters can then click a button called “Send First Texts” to receive a set amount of initial messages to send.
Example of what a texter would see after clicking on a dynamic assignment link for initials. Clicking the button would assign the texter a set number of initials.
After texters have finished sending their first set of initials, they’ll see a popup asking them if they want to request a new batch. If texters click “Request More”, they’ll receive a new set of initials in the number you set for the campaign. If they click “Done For Now”, they’ll be taken back to their Home screen, where they can attend to any replies.
Example of what a texter would see after completing their first batch of initials.
Texters can always request more texts (for as long as initials are available) by clicking the “Request More Texts” button on the campaign.
Screenshot of the button to request more texts after the first batch has been sent.
If the “Request More Texts” button is greyed out, it means all initial messages in the campaign have been claimed. In other words, they’re on some other texter’s account. This does not necessarily mean the messages have been sent - more on this below.
Can I still add texters manually?
You can also add texters to the campaign manually in the Texter section of the campaign editing page - here's an article on how to handle manual assignment. Texters added manually won't need to click the link to be allowed to request initial messages to send.
If Dynamic Assignment for Initials is turned on for a campaign, you will not be able to manually assign texters a specific amount of texts. If you need to manually assign messages, you can briefly turn off dynamic assignment for initials, handle the manual assignment in Texters, then turn Dynamic Assignment for Initials back on.
How can I see if all my initials were sent?
There are a few ways to confirm whether the messages in your campaign were all sent.
Go to the Texter section of the campaign - this will show you a list of your texters and if any messages remain unsent on their accounts
Go to the Campaigns page of the Spoke admin view - if the progress of your campaign is less than 100%, some initials have yet to be sent. Click on the name of the campaign to see detailed stats
Go to the Message Review page of the Spoke admin view and search by “Needs First Message” in the campaign to bring up any unsent initials
Can initial messages be reassigned?
When a texter uses the dynamic assignment link to receive initial messages, another texter cannot simply take them - the initials stick to the texter’s account. Initial messages can be released from a texter’s account in a few ways:
If the “Done for the Day” button is turned on in your Spoke’s settings, texters can click this to release all the contacts assigned to them, including unsent initials
Go to Texters and click the trash can icon in that texter’s row to remove any unsent initials
Go to Message Review, search for the texter plus for messages with the contact status “Needs First Message”, then unassign those messages
When any of these steps are taken, the unsent initials can then be requested using the campaign’s dynamic assignment link.
I got a “Something went wrong” error when clicking the dynamic assignment link - what does that mean?
There are two reasons for this error: 1) your campaign has not yet launched, 2) the toggle to turn on dynamic assignment for initials wasn’t saved. If your campaign has launched and you’re seeing this error, check Assignment Management to ensure that dynamic assignment for initials is turned on. Be sure to click “Save”.