Before you start
You need an account, a balance and a list. The account is an email address. The balance is a deposit in one of seven coins; a modest first top-up is enough for a first campaign to a few hundred people. The list is a file with one phone number per row, ideally with a name column so the message can greet people.
Prepare the file
CSV, TXT or XLSX. Put numbers in international format if you can; if not, tell the importer the default country and it converts them. Keep the columns you will use in the text and drop the rest. Do not clean duplicates by hand: the importer merges them and tells you how many.
Compose
Write the message as you would say it. Put your brand in the first words, because some countries show a number rather than your name. Use {first_name} or any other column in braces. Watch the counter: it shows the encoding, the segment count and the longest rendered row, which is the one that decides the cost.
Read the cost preview
The preview splits the campaign per destination at the public rate. Check three things: that the countries are the ones you expect, that invalid rows were removed for a reason you understand, and that the segment count is one unless you meant otherwise. Nothing has been charged at this point.
Send or schedule
Send now for transactional notices. For anything promotional, schedule by local time: choose a window, for example 10:00 to 18:00, and the campaign opens in each country when its clock gets there. Add a pace if replies land on a small team.
The first report
Statuses arrive live. Give it an hour, then read the report in this order: rejected, failed by reason, pending, delivered per destination. Remove unknown numbers with one click. You now have a cleaner list than the one you uploaded, which is the real result of a first campaign.
Something unclear or out of date? Write to [email protected]; corrections are folded back into the guide and the update date changes.