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Create and Manage an SMS or MMS Message

Create an SMS or MMS message for your marketing campaigns and reach your customers directly on their mobile devices. For example, use SMS messaging to promote something new or follow up on an ongoing transaction. MMS is supported only in the United States and Canada.

Required Editions

View supported editions.

User Permissions Needed
To create or edit content:

Marketing Cloud Manager permission set

AND

any CMS workspace contributor role
To publish or unpublish content:

Marketing Cloud Manager permission set

AND

a CMS workspace contributor role of content admin or content manager

Before you begin, review information about message length and required opt-out keywords. See SMS Message Length and Opt-Out Keywords.

Create an SMS or MMS Message

The SMS preview updates on the canvas while you're working. If you exceed the maximum length for a single message, the number of messages increases. Many carriers support concatenation, which combines multiple messages into a single message. Other carriers send the messages separately.

  1. From your marketing workspace, create or open an SMS message.
  2. Give your message a title for internal use.
  3. Set the Message Purpose to Promotional for marketing content.
    The transactional message purpose is intended for one-to-one messages, such as password resets and order confirmations.
  4. In the Message field, enter your message content.
  5. To personalize your message, click Add Merge Field.

    • To insert a value from the recipient’s unified profile, select Unified Individual.

    • To select event data, such as a subscription confirmation or a product from a confirmed order, click Select Event.

    • To select from a curated list of values, such as products purchased, select Data Graph Attribute.

    • If saved expressions are available, select a saved expression, which includes pre-saved criteria for selecting a data graph attribute.

  6. To add media to your message, turn on MMS.
    1. Select the preferred media type, such as images, audio, video, or contact cards. See MMS Guidelines.
    2. Select from your CMS workspace, add a URL or use a merge field. Maximum file size is 500 KB.
  7. To build a URL with UTM and custom tracking parameters, click Add UTM Link.
    1. Enter a destination URL that begins with http:// or https://.
    2. Turn on UTM Parameters, and then select the UTM parameters that you want to add to the URL.
    3. Enter the values for the selected parameters or select merge fields.
    4. To append custom parameters to your URL, click Add Row, and then enter the custom parameter details.
    5. Preview the final URL and click Add.
  8. In the message body, add clear opt-out instructions and an opt-out keyword.
  9. Save your work.

Now you can preview and test your SMS message.

Preview an SMS or MMS Message Variation

Use a sample recipient to verify an SMS or MMS message variation’s content, images, personalization, language, and links before sending it. You can preview an SMS or MMS message in any status. Save your changes so that the preview includes your latest edits.

  1. Publish at least one segment.
  2. In the message editor, click Preview.
  3. For Preview Source, select Segment (Unified Individual), and select a published segment and a sample recipient.
  4. To provide preview data, complete the field that appears for your message.
    Field Action
    Content Variables Enter the values to use in the preview.
    • To edit the values as JSON, click View JSON.
    • To return to the standard fields, click View Editor.
    Apex Input Edit the JSON to provide values for the Apex inputs used in the message.
    Event Enter values for the event data used in the message.
  5. To preview the message in another language, select a language.
  6. Click Preview.

To preview another variation, change the sample recipient and values.

Test an SMS or MMS Message

Send an SMS or MMS message to up to five test recipients to verify its merge fields, media, links, and opt-out experience. You can test an SMS or MMS message in any status. Test sends count toward message credits.

  1. In the preview window, go to the Test tab.
  2. In Test Send Mobile Number, enter up to five mobile numbers that you can access.
  3. Click Send.
  4. For each recipient, verify that the message appears as expected and test the links and buttons.
  5. When the message is ready to use in a campaign, click Publish Now or click Schedule Publish.

Unpublish an SMS Message

To prevent a message from sending in a campaign, unpublish the SMS or MMS message.

  1. From your marketing workspace, open the SMS message that you want to unpublish.
    • When you’re editing your message, from the main toolbar, click Unpublish.
    • From the content detail page, click Unpublish.
  2. Review the list of related flows and content and determine if any other changes are required.
  3. Unpublish the message.
    • To unpublish the message immediately, click Unpublish Now.
    • To unpublish the message later, click Schedule Unpublish, and schedule a date and time to unpublish it.

After you unpublish, the message is no longer available to campaign flows and can't be sent. You can make any necessary edits and republish it, or delete it.

See Also