Looking to send another round of texts to contacts you’ve reached out to before? The Follow-Up Campaign feature allows you to directly add contacts from previous campaigns to a new campaign in Spoke. You can even target specific contacts from other campaigns based on their contact status, tags, and survey responses, or because they did not receive texts in a previous campaign due to filtering from the mobile carriers.

How to create a follow-up campaign

Step 1: Create a new campaign

To target people in other campaigns using the Follow-Up Campaign feature, you’ll need to create a new campaign. You cannot use the Follow-Up Campaign feature in a campaign that has already been started.

Step 2: Go to the “Contacts” section of your campaign

Next, go to the “Contacts” section of your new campaign. From the contact upload type dropdown, select “Follow-Up Campaign”.

Select "Follow-Up Campaign" from the dropdown list in "Contacts".

Step 3: Select campaigns with contacts you want to text

After selecting “Follow-Up Campaign” in the dropdown, you can select the targeting for your contacts. Begin by typing in the name of at least one campaign with contacts you’d like to text again. 

1. Type into the field to bring up campaigns. 2. Select the campaign with contacts you want to target from the dropdown list.

Then, select the campaign from the dropdown list.

To add contacts from additional campaigns, click the green “+ Add a Campaign” button, then type in the name of the campaign and select it from the dropdown. You can add up to a limit of 250,000 contacts from as many campaigns as you like.

1. Click “+Add a Campaign” to access a field where you can type in the name of another campaign. 2. Type in the name of the additional campaign with contacts you want to add.

Step 4: Target specific contacts

Once you’ve selected a campaign to target, you have the option of texting all contacts from the campaign or to customize your targeting based on tags, survey responses, or contact status (e.g. the contact received your first message but never responded, etc.). 

You may select whether or not you want your targets to fit ALL of the filters you apply or ANY of the filters you apply. You also have the option of targeting contacts our records indicate were previously filtered by mobile carriers.

 Dropdown of the different contact filters that can be applied to your follow up campaigns. 

Here are definitions of the different filters:

• Use all contacts from this campaign: Text everyone from the previous campaign, regardless of their contact message status, tag, or answer to a survey response. 

• Use contacts matching ALL of these filters: Text anyone who matches all of the criteria you select. So if you select individuals with a “needs texter response” contact message status, “moved” tag, plus anyone who responded with a “yes support” survey answer, you will only text individuals who matched all three criteria.

• Use contacts matching ANY of these filters: This option is less restrictive, and will ensure you text everyone matching any of criteria you select. In the example provided above, you’d target anyone who matched the “needs texter response” message status, OR had a “moved” tag, OR who was marked as a “yes support” survey answer. 

• Use contacts where the initial message was likely filtered: Choosing this filter allows you to text everyone on a previous campaign who our records indicate likely didn’t receive your initial message due to mobile carrier filtering. 

Note: if you are targeting contacts because of filtering, it’s extremely important to troubleshoot why a campaign was filtered and address any issues before texting them. The biggest cause of increased filtering is including a link in your initial message, especially an ActBlue, tinyurl, or bitly link. You'll also want to make sure to vary the phrasing of your scripts in the new follow-up campaign. Check out this article for tips on crafting initial messages.

After selecting your initial contact filter, you have the option to apply additional filters based on contact statuses, tags, or survey answers. 

Example of additional filters you can apply to target your contacts.

Filter by Contact Message Status: Apply a filter based on the message status of a previous contact.

Image of the dropdown list where you can apply contact status filters. You can select as many contact statuses as you like.

• First Message Sent: You’ve sent this contact an initial message, but they have not yet replied. 

• Needs Texter Response: If a contact has responded, but you haven’t replied back or closed the conversation, this contact will be in a “needs texter response” status. 

• Needs First Message: This is any contact who hasn’t been sent an initial message. If you launched a campaign but didn’t send out the initial message, your contacts will be in a “Needs First Message” status. 

• Active Conversation: This is any conversation where the contact has responded at least once, but you were the last person to respond to the contact.

• Closed: This is any conversation that has been closed by a texter. 

Filter by Tags: Target anyone marked with a particular tag on a campaign. To do this, select the “tags” filter. You can define whether the filter should include ALL or just ANY of the tags you select.

Image of the dropdown list to select whether “all” or “any” of the tags you choose will be applied as filters.

Then, click on the tags in the list you’d like included in your targeting. You can select more than one tag.

Example of a dropdown list with tags to be applied as filters.

Filter by Survey Answer: Finally, if a campaign included scripted answers grouped around questions, you also have the option of targeting contacts based on their answers to questions. To do this, first select the question that holds the answers you want to target.

            Select a survey question to see the corresponding survey answers.

After selecting the question, you’ll be able to see the corresponding answers. Select survey answers from the dropdown list.

            Select survey answers from the dropdown to apply them as filters.

Step 5: Save your selection

After you have finished targeting your follow-up campaign, make sure to hit the “Save and Go to Next Section” button.

      Hit the “Save and Go to Next Section” button to add the targeted contacts to your campaign.

Frequently asked questions

What happens If I texted someone previously and it was a bad number or the message was blocked? 

By default, this feature will automatically remove anyone you previously texted with a bad number or were unable to reach due to carrier filtering, unless you specifically select the “use contacts where the initial message was filtered” contact status. We do this to ensure continuity of messaging. 

Will follow-up campaigns come from the same number? 

If you’re using 10DLC or a registered toll-free number, your follow-up campaign will be sent from the same number. If you're using unregistered (MMS friendly) local phone numbers, your follow-up campaigns will come from different phone numbers. Considering this, it’s always important to include full context in your follow up text. 

What is the maximum number of campaigns I can include?

You can target as many campaigns as you like, so long as you don’t exceed 250,000 contacts.

Do you have any examples?

Read about a sample volunteer recruitment follow-up campaign here, and a sample second pass here.