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The standard functions & usageof the Text Marketer software

and links to advanced functions

We Deliver. You Save.

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In the initial pages, we’ll take you through the most standard of uses of the system which will enable you to send a text campaign out, receive replies and how to build a list by text.

After this, we’ll look at some of the administration functions of the system such as account settings, purchasing and billing.

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to get a free account setup at the site.

Text Marketer’s online SMS software is built to be very easy to use, whether you are a technical person or not. This instruction booklet covers the standard functions of the system.

Introduction

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If you prefer videos to text then visit our videos page which has a whole range of

instructional and informative videos .....

4 EASY SECTIONSTO GET USED TO

YOUR SYSTEM

“LET’s GET A TEST CAMPAIGN OUT, LOOK AT A DELIVERY REPORT, UNDERSTAND OUR UNSUBSCRIBE SYSTEM & CHANGE OUR ACCOUNT SETTINGS”

- Send a ‘Quick’ Campaign & get replies- Using the Address Book feature (& synchronising with Google Contacts)- Using your free keyword and our 88802 shortcode to build a list- SMS Activity Log- Getting delivery reports- Account Settings- Automated unsubscribe system

“LET’s HAVE A LOOK AT BUYING CREDITS & THE FINANCIALS PART OF THE SYSTEM”

- Buying Credits / Invoices

“LET’s HAVE A LOOK AT UPLOADING DATA, USING THE MESSAGE LIBRARY AND SENDING TO GROUPS”

- Creating Groups and uploading data- Using the Message Library- Sending to uploaded Group data

“LINKS TO MORE ADVANCED FUNCTIONS OF THE SYSTEM”

- See last page of this manual

Additional links to more advanced functions of the system and other commonly asked questions such as merge sending, international sending, email to SMS, incoming SMS and much more can be found at our HELP CENTRE by visiting

and on the last page of this manual.

http://www.textmarketer.co.uk/help/

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This is the first screen you are taken to when you log in to your account. If you’re somewhere else, then simply go to SEND SMS | QUICK SEND.

SEND A QUICK CAMPAIGN

(A) The numbers boxSimply enter the mobile number/s in the numbers box (if more than one, simply enter as a single column of numbers or comma separated). You can also copy & paste numbers straight from Excel or other documents here. There is no practical limit to how many you can put here.

(B) The message boxType in your text message. It is 1 credit per 160 characters (up to a maximum of 612 characters - the credit counter (C) will change as you type so you can see how many characters/credits you’ll use). Do not copy & paste messages into here. Other applications can carry through invisible characters that are not accepted by the mobile networks.

(D) Use a ‘message library’ messageAlternatively to (B) above, if you have messages in your message library, you can drop down this box and use one. This is useful if your messages are often the same. The chosen message will then be populated in (B) for you to use or make any amendments.

(E) Set the Sender ID or use your Free Reply NumberThis is what appears in the recipient’s inbox as the sender. It can be letters (up to 11 max including spaces - many people use their company name) or a mobile number (which people can reply to, e.g. 07888999888). If you tick ‘Use Reply Number’ then people will be able

to reply to messages you send them and these replies will be forwarded to your default email address (this is a free service). Unitcking it will allow you to enter alphanumerics.Tip: Go to SETTINGS | DEFAULT SENDER ID to sender your preferred default.

(F) The Campaign IDThis is simply a tracking reference. For example, your delivery report for this campaign will be called this. It defaults to a long unique number but should you wish you can give this a more meaningful label so you can more easily locate your delivery report later.

(G) Set the date & time or Just SendThis defaults to send the campaign as soon as possible but you can also queue the campaign to go at any date or time in the future by selecting the radio button and selecting your chosen date & time.

(H) The Submit buttonThis is the common place throughout the system for the button to execute what you’ve done. It’s like a ‘save’ command. Click this to submit your campaign.

Unless there are any errors (which will be notified to you), you will now be taken to your SMS Activity log which will show the campaign is queued to go. The system checks for new campaigns to send every 60 seconds. This means you have a chance to abort the campaign if you notice a problem.

Sending a Campaign & Replies

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To see this screen simply go to GROUPS | MANAGE ADDRESS BOOK.

To view all your contacts, click Show All at the top of the screen.

(A) The Search and Edit fieldYou can search for contacts by any of the fields. Simply enter the search term and click the green search icon.

(B) The Add One fieldsThis simply allows you to add contacts one at a time by typing in their details and clicking the green + icon.

(C) The Add Many box This allows you to add multiple contacts quickly by pasting in a CSV formatted file with the fields in the same order as they are shown on the Manage Address Book screen.

Here’s an example of a CSV file with 3 contact records in. You would copy and paste only the records (last 3 lines), not the column headers;

Mobile,First,Surname,Company,Email,Free Text44777123456,Rich,Smith,XYZ Ltd,test@test.com,nothing44777123457,Jon,Smythe,XYZ Ltd,test@test.com,nothing44777123458,George,Jones,XYZ Ltd,test@test.com,nothing

If you’re unsure about this, try copy and pasting the last 3 lines of the above into the Add Many box and press the + button. You’ll see 3 new contacts added (which you can delete at your leisure).

If you are unsure how to export contacts from your software as a CSV file then ask your IT department or developer of your software – it will be a 2 minute job for them.

To send a message to contacts in your Address Book, go to SEND SMS | SEND TO ADDRESS BOOK.

Simply individually select the contacts you wish to send to (or use the Select All link) and complete all the campaign information in the normal way as per the Quick Send screen, then hit Submit.

You can also use the filter search tool to filter contacts by any of the data fields such as company name or the free text field - great for quickly selecting groups of contacts.

You can also synchronise your address book with your Google Contacts.

Using the Address Book feature

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This screen is designed so you can manage an address book of contacts with additional information attached to the record.

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Your free keyword lets you receive messages from people to join your text list - simply by texting YOURKEYWORD to our 88802 number - in this example the keyword is ABC9639.

This will capture the person’s mobile number and automatically add it to a new group in your account. You can also, optionally, autorespond a text message and/or an email (if they include their email address in the text they send in).

To change the settings, simply go to INCOMING SMS | CHANGE REPLY SETTINGS then click CONFIGURE next to your keyword at the top of that page. You’ll then see the screen above.

CONFIGURE YOUR FREE KEYWORD

(A) The text message autoresponseSimply enter a text message here and it will be autoresponded to anyone who texts your keyword. Leave blank for no autoresponse.

(B) The autoresponse Sender IDThis will be the Sender ID of your text autoresponse.

(C) API & Email address settingsUnless you are an advanced user, leave the API box empty. The email address box is the email address that incoming texts will be forwarded to - leave blank to disable email forwarding. You can also have all responses forwarded by SMS.

(D) Optional Email autoresponderIf you want to optionally autorespond an email (if people also add their email address to the incoming message, after the keyword), set this to Y for active.

(E) The body of the EmailEnter the body of the email here. You can simply type it in in plain text or you could enter a full HTML format email.

(F) Set the Subject, Sender Name & Reply to for the emailThese 3 boxes simply allow you to set the subject and the name and reply-to email address the email comes from.

(G) The Submit buttonThis is the common place throughout the system for the button to execute what you’ve done. It’s like a ‘save’ command. Click this to save your settings changes.

Test your free keywordOnce you’ve set it up, now send a text message to 88802 starting with your keyword then a space and then your email address (if you have also enable autoresponse by email). In this example we would text “ABC9639 info@mycom.com" to 88802. Depending on how you’ve set it up, you’ll now receive whichever autoresponses you’ve selected.

Also, if you go to INCOMING SMS | REPLY DATA you will see that captured numbers have gone up 1 and also you can export and view the data. Additionally, a new group will have been created in your account so you can easily send a message to everyone who has text in by going to SEND SMS | SEND TO GROUP.

Free keyword on our 88802 No.

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To get to this screen, simply go to REPORTS | SENT SMS.

WHAT’s IN THE SMS ACTIVITY LOG

(A) A campaign queuingIf a campaign is shown in red this means it is queuing and ready to go. You will see the date, time, campaign id, message, sender id and volume. Above, you can see the pizza campaign we have submitted waiting to go, with an Abort option.

(B) The abort buttonThe system runs every 60 seconds and sends out campaigns ready to go. This gives you a chance to quickly review the campaign when you’ve submitted it and check the details. If you notice a problem, hit the Abort link to cancel this campaign.

(C) The logAll sent campaigns are shown in grey. Every campaign sent through your system will be kept in this log so you have an accurate record of what has been sent.

The SMS Activity Log

This screen keeps all your activity in one place, showing campaigns sent and waiting to go.

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To get to this screen, simply go to REPORTS | DELIVERY REPORTS.

Delivery reports are generated here immediately after the campaign has been sent, using the Campaign ID you entered on the send screen (or the system generated unique number.

The important thing to remember is that reports are constantly updated over time. For example, if you sent a campaign in the morning but a person has their phone off all day, the message will not be delivered until later that day when their phone is switched on.

Reports are updated for up to 48 hours after the campaign is sent so to be sure of a full and final report, don’t download it until then (you’ll see when it was last updated in the column of that name). To export a report, choose a date range option, format and click export.

Below shows an example delivery report. There are 3 possible outcomes, DELIVERED, PENDING or FAILED.

What these mean;DELIVERED – The phone received the message and a delivery receipt was collected.FAILED - The message was not delivered. There could be hundreds of reasons why but here are some common ones;- The number that you sent to is incorrectly formatted or an incomplete number (e.g – 0791134454 – one digit missing).- The number is inactive and is not recognised by the UK networks as being a live number.- The number being sent to has a text forwarding service activated.- Some handsets (including I-phones) have a feature that will only allow messages to be delivered with a numeric sender ID. Messages sent

with your company name as the sender name for example, will not be delivered to hand sets with this feature active.

- Some smart phones have a function that will only allow the delivery of messages from known numbers.PENDING - The phone is switched off or out of range and the message is waiting to be delivered. The message will be delivered when the phone is switched on again. The delivery report will automatically update the outcome when the message is delivered (unless it is not delivered within 48 hours in which case it will stay in ‘pending’ status).

Please note the following.

We do not charge for delivery reports and we are completely reliant on the networks to supply them to us. The networks will not provide any sort of guarantee on the provision of delivery reports.

Delivery Reporting

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This screen holds all your delivery reports. Every message sent through your system will get an outcome, whether delivered or not.

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To see this screen, simply go to SETTINGS | ACCOUNT SETTINGS.

UPDATING YOUR ACCOUNT SETTINGS

Tip: Always remember to click Submit after you’ve changed anything.

(A) Account DetailsHere you can change your username, password, alert email address & mobile number. The alert email/mobile details are used to send warnings of low credits and notifications of payments (if switched on).

(B) Account numberThis is your account number. It is useful to know this when contacting Text Marketer.

(C) Low Credit Warning levelIt is useful to know when your account is running low on credits so you can top up. Enter the value here for us to warn you your credits are low. You will be sent an email and an SMS (if completed) - in this example - when this account reaches 230 credits.

(D) Switch off alertsYou may not wish to receive any alerts. In which case you can simply click Change next to one or both to enable or disable them.

(E) Email to SMS - Domain AuthenticationYou can also set your system to authenticate on the domain of your email sender address instead of username and password.

(F) The Submit buttonThis is the common place throughout the system for the button to execute what you’ve done. It’s like a ‘save’ command. Click this to submit your campaign.

Your Account Settings

This screen gives you control over the main settings of your account and your alerts.

Great for setting a more memorable username and password!

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To see this screen, simply go to INCOMING SMS | REPLY DATA.

USING & MANAGING YOUR STOP LIST

(A) Your STOP codeThis is where your unique STOP code is shown. It will be a 4 character code (and have ‘about unsubscribe keywords’ after it). This is what people have to text to 88802 to be added to your STOP list. In this example it is FMWT.

Anyone who texts your STOP code in to 88802 will be added to your STOP list and the system will not send any further messages to any number on the list. A text to 88802 simply costs 1 text at the sender’s standard network rate - it is not a premium rate system.

It is important you text in your STOP code yourself to activate the system. Do this from your mobile now. It will take about 10 minutes to automatically activate (and you’ll then see 1 in the volume of unsubscribers). On the next page we will then show you how to remove yourself from the STOP list so you can receive texts from your system.

What’s best way of wording the unsubscription option in the outbound text? There are 2 options here.

Option 1 – Set the sender ID as 88802. Then at the end of your texts add “Reply [stop code] to cancel.” (use your STOP code.)

Option 2 - If you wish to keep your sender name as it is, you need to give fuller instructions on how to unsubscribe. E.g “Text [stop code] to 88802 to cancel.”Keywords are not case sensitive.

ATTENTION:

How can I see the list of people that have unsubscribed from my list?

To view your unsubscribers, go to INCOMING SMS | REPLY DATA. Here you will see your unsubscribe keycode (with ‘about unsubscribe keywords’ next to it), along with the toal number of users that have unsubscribed. To downoad an excel spreadsheet or .csv file, cick on either the ‘download to CSV’ or ‘download to Excel’ link on the right hand side.

The Unsubscribe System (1 of 2)

Every Text Marketer account comes with a free automated unsubscribe system & stop list to allow people to opt out of your texts.

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To see this screen, simply go to GROUPS | UPLOAD NUMBERS TO A GROUP.

USING & MANAGING YOUR STOP LIST MANUALLY

ADDING NUMBERS

(A) Your STOP code’s group nameAbout 10 minutes after you’ve activated your STOP code (see previous page), your STOP list Group Name will appear in this drop down. It will be formatted like “Short_[your stop code]”. Pull down this menu and select your STOP code group’s name.

(B) Enter the numbers to add to your STOP groupSimply enter 1 or many mobile numbers into this box by typing or copy and pasting a single column list of mobile numbers.

(C) Press SUBMIT to add the numbers to the group. You will see the group’s volume of numbers increase. These numbers will no longer receive texts from your system.

REMOVING NUMBERS

To see this screen, simply go to GROUPS | GROUP MAINTENANCE.Let’s now remove your number from the STOP list which you sent in to activate your unsubscribe system.

(D) Enter the number/s

Simply enter 1 or many mobile numbers into this box by typing or copy and pasting a single column list of mobile numbers. Enter yours here for now.(E) Delete from the STOP groupEnsure the “Also remove from stop list” box is ticked and then click the Delete button and the number/s will be removed from the STOP list.

The Unsubscribe System (2 of 2)

You can manually add or remove numbers from your STOP list as well as people texting your STOP code in.

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You can either click the blue Buy Credits button in the top right or simply go to FINANCIAL | BUY CREDITS.

(A) Calculate the value of your orderEnter the number of credits you wish to buy or the order value you wish to spend and click calculate to display your order value or credits value.

(B) Your tariffThe more credits you buy in advance, the lower the per message rate is. This section shows your price tariff and the volume breaks at which you can achieve a discount.

(C) Proceed to order confirmation choosing your payment methodClick proceed to confirm your order value and choose your payment method.

Buying Credits / Financials (1 of 2)

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(A) Your orderThis is simply a confirmation of the number of credits in your order and the value of the order.

(B) Pay by cardClick here if you wish to pay by debit or credit card. This will take you to our Google Checkout system to ask for the normal card and supporting details (please ensure you enter the cardholder’s details, not your business’s details - if different). Credits will be added automatically as soon as your payment authorises and you will be emailed a VAT invoice on completion as well as an invoice being held in your account.

(C) Generate an invoice to pay by BACS/CHAPSIf you order is more than £10 plus VAT, you also have the option of generating a pro-forma invoice to pass to your accounts department to pay by BACS/CHAPS/FASTPAY. Please note the credits will not be added to your account until the money has credited our account.

When you have made your purchase using either moethod, you will be returned to your Invoice History screen (to go to this in your account select FINANCIAL | INVOICES). This lists all your transactions to date and you can also print off additional copies of invoices here.

Note: There is also a facility to automatically generate invoices when your credits hit a certain level so you’re always topped up.

Buying Credits / Financials (2 of 2)

Buying credits is straightforward. You can pay by card or generate an invoice to pay by BACS.

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To see this screen, simply go to GROUPS | UPLOAD NUMBERS TO A GROUP.

Note: to create a group simply go to GROUPS | CREATE A GROUP. Enter a name (leave the merge box unticked) and press Submit. You will be returned to the screen above.

ADDING NUMBERS TO A GROUP(A) Choose the group name

Choose the group name you want to add numbers to.

(B) Upload a TXT, CSV or Excel file of the numbers

This is optional (see (C) below). If you do not wish to copy & paste the numbers in, you can use this option to upload a file. TXT or CSV files should be formatted with all the numbers in a single column, separated with a new line or in the case of Excel, as shown here in column A.

(C) Copy & Paste your numbersBy far the easiest way is to simply copy and paste all the numbers into this box in a single column, separated with a new line or commas.

(D) The group counter

You will see your group name in the list. In this example our group, “New Fishing Group” has 14 numbers in already.

A big benefit of using groups is that when you upload new mobile numbers to it, it will automatically de-duplicate your list so you will never have any one number appearing twice on the list.

(E) Press Submit to upload your numbersThe system will then report back to you how many numbers have been uploaded, how many numbers could not be uploaded due to bad data and any numbers that weren’t uploaded because they already existed in the group.

REMOVING NUMBERSTo see this screen, simply go to GROUPS | GROUP MAINTENANCE.

Simply enter 1 or many mobile numbers into this box by typing or copy and pasting a single column list of mobile numbers. (Don’t tick the ‘Also remove from stop list’ box) and then click Find if you want to check if the number exists (but not delete it) or click Delete if you want to remove the number from your system altogether.Note: Clicking Delete will remove the number from all groups on your system, except the stop group (unless you have ticked ‘Also remove from stop group).

Uploading Data & Groups

You can have as many Groups (databases) in your system as you like. Useful for managing different databases of mobile numbers.

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To see this screen, simply go to MESSAGES | MESSAGE LIBRARY. You will see a list of all your messages which you either Edit or Delete.

Note: to create a message simply go to MESSAGES | CREATE NEW MESSAGE. Enter a message and press Submit.

WHY IS THE MESSAGE LIBRARY USEFUL?

If you regularly use the same message or style of messages with small alterations then having them in the message library can speed up the sending process.

For example, let’s say we regularly send a reminder message to all our clients the day before their hair appointments, such as “Hi, please don’t forget your appointment tomorrow, Wed 14th Aug. If you have any problems with this, please let us know as soon as possible. Regards. www.haircut.com. 01234 567890.”

We’ll want to change the date each time but the rest of the message will always be the same.

If we add the message to the message library then when we go to the Quick Send screen and pull down that message from the library, the full message will populate in the main message field and we can simply edit the date and submit the campaign - much quicker each day!

See the example screen above:

(A) Drop down the ‘Use a Message’ menu and select the message.

(B) You will see the full message populated in the Message Text box where we can quickly just amend the date each day and Submit our campaign.

Of course, if you use exactly the same message/s each time with no amendments, it is even quicker to have library messages.

The Message Library

If you regularly use the same message/s, even if they have slight personalisation such as Hi Mr Smith, add them to the library for quick usage on the send screens.

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To get to this screen, simply go to SEND SMS | SEND TO GROUP.

SENDING TO GROUP/S

(A) The Groups boxSimply select the Group you wish to send to. If you want to send to more than 1 group, hold down the CTRL button on your keyword and select multiple groups.

(B) The message boxType in your text message. It is 1 credit per 160 characters (up to a maximum of 612 characters - the credit counter (C) will change as you type so you can see how many characters/credits you’ll use). Do not copy & paste messages into here. Other applications can carry through invisible characters that are not accepted by the mobile networks.

(D) Use a ‘message library’ messageAlternatively to (B) above, if you have messages in your message library, you can drop down this box and use one. This is useful if your messages are often the same. The chosen message will then be populated in (B) for you to use or make any amendments.

(E) Set the Sender IDThis is what appears in the recipient’s inbox as the sender. It can be letters (up to 11 max including spaces - many people use their company name) or a full number (which people can reply to, e.g. 07888999888). If you have a txtUs reply number in your account, it will automatically default to that which can be changed by unticking the box.Tip: Go to SETTINGS | DEFAULT SENDER ID to sender your preferred default.

(F) The Campaign IDThis is simply a tracking reference. For example, your delivery report for this campaign will be called this. It defaults to a long unique number but should you wish you can give this a more meaningful label so you can more easily locate your delivery report later.

(G) Set the date & time or send ASAPThis defaults to send the campaign as soon as possible but you can also queue the campaign to go at any date or time in the future by selecting the radio button and selecting your chosen date & time.

(H) Set an end time for the campaign (optional)If you would like to send a campaign out gradually over a period of time (for example, to even out the responses), tick the box and set an end time here. The campaign will be sent out evenly between the start time in (G) and end time in (H).

(I) The Submit buttonThis is the common place throughout the system for the button to execute what you’ve done. It’s like a ‘save’ command. Click this to submit your campaign.

Unless there are any errors (which will be notified to you), you will now be taken to your SMS Activity log which will show the campaign is queued to go. The system checks for new campaigns to send every 60 seconds. This means you have a chance to abort the campaign if you notice a problem.

Send a Campaign to a Group

Sending a Campaign to a Group is much like Quick Send but you must have uploaded the data first. You can also use the ‘gradual send’ facility here.

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Other advanced tools and functions on the Text Marketer system.

OTHER SENDING FUNCTIONS

SEND TO A MERGE GROUPSearch “merge” at the site.This allows you to send personalised text messages using up to 4 additional fields of data. E.g. you can personalise the name in the message.

SEND USING THE EMAIL TO SMS FEATURESearch “email-to-sms” at the siteYou can set up your favourite email program to send out text messages via your account.

SEND TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND LINE NUMBERSSearch “landline” at the siteYou can also send texts to land line numbers with your system, following a couple of simple rules.

RECEIVING TEXTS / TEXT CONVERSATIONS

SETTING UP & USING A TXTUS VIRTUAL MOBILE NUMBERSearch “txtus” at the siteAdding a virtual mobile number to your account allows people to text enquiries to you, respond to texts you send them and have an email-to-sms conversation with people (video available).

SETTING UP & USING A KEYWORD ON OUR 88802 SHORT CODE NUMBERSearch “text response system” at the siteAdding a keyword to your account allows people to respond to advertising, such as, “text ENQUIRE to 88802 and we’ll call you back”. You receive all the enquiries and also the system will capture all the mobile numbers (video available).

CANCELLING A TXTUS OR KEYWORD SUBSCRIPTIONSearch “cancel” at the siteThere are no long term contracts with txtUs or keywords. You can cancel them at any time, easily in your account.

MANAGING / CONTROLLING MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS

SETTING UP & MANAGING SUB ACCOUNTS WHEN YOU HAVE AN ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNTSearch “administrator” at the siteThis functionality is great if you are a reseller or a large company and want to have multiple accounts, possibly for admin/financial reasons. You can bulk purchase through your administrator account (achieving lower costs per message) and transfer credits to sub accounts.

RESELLING TEXT MARKETER ACCOUNTSSearch “reseller” at the siteA great way to build a long term business is to resell our services. You grow your client base and received commission for the life of the account.

SMS GATEWAY FOR DEVELOPERS

USING THE SMS GATEWAYWe have a huge range of tools available for developers to integrate both outgoing and incoming texts. We also include example code at our developers area.

Other Functions & Topics

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