How do I send a text campaign?

Write a short text, add one link from your own pages, pick who gets it and check the marketing texts it uses, then send — your first text campaign waits for a quick check by ResoFlow.

You send a text campaign by clicking New text campaign beside New campaign on any Marketing page (on a phone it's the speech-bubble button next to it). It opens as a panel over the Marketing page — the whole screen on a phone — with three steps: Message, Recipients and Review. Text campaigns come with Pro and Complete, and with the paid products that include marketing, when your plan includes texts; they go from your venue's own sender name, so texts must be turned on first — and your sender name approved (usually within 24 hours of turning texts on). Until it is, the panel's first step says where it stands (Checking your business, Being approved or Not approved) and the campaign can't be sent yet; your Automations show the same word beside Also send by text. Only someone who can send campaigns sees the button. There are no text drafts to share with your team: closing the panel keeps your work on this device, and Start afresh clears it.

A text campaign is paid for with marketing texts — their own packs (100 for £10, 250 for £22, 500 for £40 or 1,000 for £70; they never expire), so a campaign never uses the monthly texts your booking messages need. The owner buys them under Top-ups and credits — see How do I buy credits or add-ons?.

• Message — write what the text says (up to 600 characters). Every text starts with your venue's name and ends with its own opt-out link; both are added for you. Under the box a live count shows the room you have — for example "1 text · 132 of 160 characters". A longer message goes as 2 texts to each customer (and uses 2 marketing texts each); a message that would need more than 2 can't be sent. An emoji, a curly quote or a long dash makes every text hold 70 characters instead of 160 — the panel names the character and what it costs, and Make it plain swaps curly quotes and long dashes for plain ones and takes emoji out.
• Still on Message, Add a link if you want one — never type a web address into the message (phone networks block texts that carry one). Pick No link, Book (your booking page), Menu, Order (your order page, while you take collection or delivery orders), Gift cards, Tickets (then pick an event that's on sale) or Offer (then pick a running promotion — the link opens the customer's account with the offer ready to claim) — each one only where your venue has it. The text appears as a phone shows it — beside the steps on a wide screen, under the fields otherwise. A quiet night? Start from Tables free tonight fills in "We've a few tables left tonight." and picks Book — one text each; it says tonight, so send it early (texts only go until 9pm, and your first text campaign waits for a quick check).
• Recipients — pick who gets it, just as for an email campaign: under Send to, Everyone opted in, Haven’t visited in 3+ months (2, 3, 6 or 12 months — your choice), Birthdays this month, Loyalty members (when you run a scheme) or Build my own group; then, if you like, Narrow it down with Spent £100 or more, Held an event ticket or Bought a gift card (see Who receives my campaigns — and who is skipped?). Here the cards show no counts — theirs would be email counts — and the step counts who can get a text instead, saying why the others can't — for example "61 said no to offers · 30 have no UK mobile". A customer can get a campaign text only if they said yes to your marketing, have a UK mobile and haven't switched marketing texts off (or replied STOP from that number), and nobody gets more than one campaign text from you a week. Guests known only by their mobile number are included when they said yes — see phone-only customers. The step also shows how many marketing texts it uses; if you don't have enough, the owner can buy more with Buy marketing texts — the packs open in a small window over the campaign (the same purchase as Account → Top-ups and credits), and once one's paid you're back on the campaign exactly as you left it — or you can send to the first customers your marketing texts cover. Leave it as it is and Send text campaign asks first — "You have 240 marketing texts left — this goes to 1,204 customers." — and you choose: Send to 240 customers now goes to the ones who've been in most recently (the others don't get it), Buy more, then send to everyone buys a pack of marketing texts there and then (the smallest that covers everyone is picked for you; the same purchase as Account → Top-ups and credits) and sends once it's paid, or Send to 240 customers now, the rest when you have more sends the same 240 and the others automatically as soon as you buy more marketing texts — within a week of the send, after which they're dropped and we tell you (Campaigns lists it under "Waiting for more credits." until then, with Cancel the rest). Then the usual SEND confirm.
• Review — check the message, the link, who it goes to and what it uses (a Change link beside each goes back), and read what happens: the texts each customer gets, what's left after it, and roughly how long it takes to reach everyone at your daily limit.
• Click Send text campaign, type SEND to confirm, and — for 10 or more customers — confirm it's you (your password, or a manager's PIN). The panel closes onto the Campaigns tab's Scheduled list with your campaign open.

What happens after you send

• The whole campaign's marketing texts are set aside at once, so a campaign never goes half-sent. A text that can't be sent (someone opted out in the meantime, say) is given back.
• Texts only go between 9am and 9pm at your venue. Your booking texts always go first, and a campaign goes out steadily rather than all at once.
• Your first text campaign waits for a quick check by ResoFlow before it goes — usually the same day. It shows as Waiting for a quick check; if it isn't sent, every marketing text comes back.
• While your texts are new, there is a daily limit that rises as your texts prove themselves: 100 a day in your first week of text campaigns, 500 a day to day 30, then 2,000 a day. A campaign bigger than the day's limit carries on the next day.

What a text campaign shows afterwards

Open it on the Campaigns tab — under Scheduled while texts are still to go, under Sent once it has finished. Besides who it went to and the marketing texts it used, it counts the texts Sent, Delivered (the phone networks report over the next day), Failed and Skipped — and what it brought: how many customers tapped its link (Tapped the link — each customer's text carries their own link, so a tap is counted once per customer), how many Booked and how many Opted out within a week of their text. Each figure appears once its first one arrives, and the list row shows the booked figure beside sent and delivered.

Cancel a text campaign

Open the campaign on the Campaigns tab and click Cancel the send. The pop-up says what stops and how many marketing texts come back; Keep it leaves it alone. You can cancel while it's waiting for its check, waiting for 9am, or part-way through (texts already sent can't be taken back).

Related: How do I send a marketing email? · How do I buy credits or add-ons? · What is the preferences page customers see for emails and texts?