SMS and MMS Messaging

SMS and MMS messaging is the channel clients get the fastest answers on and the one most likely to get them into trouble. The platform sends and receives text and picture messages from the account's own numbers, threads them in the unified inbox, exposes them as workflow actions and triggers, and keeps a per-contact record of what was sent, what was delivered and who asked you to stop.

The mental model worth holding is that a text is an interruption you have been given permission to make. The technical act of sending is trivial; the hard parts are consent, timing, identity and the carrier's opinion of you. A message is only useful if the recipient agreed to hear from you, recognizes who it is from, receives it at a reasonable hour, and can reply to a human.

The second thing to understand is that delivery is not in the platform's gift. Carriers and the number registration regime decide whether a message arrives, is silently dropped, or gets the whole number filtered. Content, link style, volume and sender registration all feed that judgment, which is why the configuration work around texting matters more than the message editor itself.

Sending identity

• Which account number sends, per user, per workflow and per campaign
• Separate numbers for transactional messages and marketing messages, so a filtered marketing number does not take appointment reminders down with it
• Sender registration and brand or campaign verification with the carriers, including the sample messages and opt-in description they require
• Short codes or alphanumeric sender identities where the country supports them
• Country-specific rules the account must honor, including whether replies are even possible on the sender type chosen

Message composition

• Plain text with merge fields for contact, appointment, opportunity and custom values, each with a fallback
• Character counting and segment awareness, including the effect of accented characters and emoji on message length
• MMS with images, and the file size and type each carrier will actually deliver
• Saved templates and snippets, shared across the team and reusable in workflows
• Trigger links that fire automation when tapped, and tracked links that record the click against the contact
• Link shortening with the account's own branded domain rather than a generic shortener
• Drafting assistance from the AI content assistant, with length and tone constraints

Sending modes

• One-to-one from the inbox or the contact record
• Workflow actions, including immediate sends, waits and business-hours windows
• Bulk sends to a list or smart list, with batching and throttling so volume is spread rather than dumped
• Scheduled sends at a chosen date and time, and timezone-aware sending per contact
• Drip cadences and chase sequences, with exit conditions on reply

Consent and compliance

• Opt-in capture on forms, booking pages and funnels, with the wording stored as evidence
• Automatic opt-out keyword handling, and the keywords the account recognizes
• Per-contact do-not-contact flags, honoured separately from email consent
• Quiet-hours and business-hours restrictions applied to automated sends
• Required disclosure text in marketing messages, such as who is sending and how to stop
• Suppression of duplicate sends to the same number held on more than one contact

Delivery and reporting

• Per-message status: queued, sent, delivered, undelivered, failed, with the carrier error where one is returned
• Reply rates, click rates on tracked links, and opt-out rates per send
• Delivery reporting by number, so a degrading sender is visible before it is blocked
• Workflow triggers on inbound message, reply received, link clicked and opt-out

1. Establish how the client collects consent before you send anything. Find the form, the booking page or the paper intake that carries the opt-in wording, and if it does not exist, build it first.
2. Decide the number plan. At minimum separate the number that sends reminders and replies from the number that sends marketing, so a filtering problem on one does not silence the other.
3. Complete sender registration with the carriers using honest answers: the real business name, the real website, the real opt-in wording and sample messages that match what you will actually send.
4. Wait for registration to be approved before you build volume. Sending at scale from an unregistered number is the fastest way to get a number blocked permanently.
5. Set up a branded link domain and use it for every shortened link. Generic shorteners are a strong spam signal and look like a scam to the recipient.
6. Write the templates the business needs every day (confirmation, reminder, missed call, chase, review request) and in each one identify the business in the first few words.
7. Add merge fields with fallbacks, then deliberately test a contact with those fields empty. A message that opens with a blank space tells the recipient it was machine-sent.
8. Configure quiet hours and business-hours windows on every automated send. Nothing damages a client's reputation faster than a 3am reminder.
9. Set the opt-out behavior and test it from a real handset: send a stop keyword, confirm the contact is flagged, confirm further automated sends are suppressed, and confirm the team can see the flag in the inbox.
10. Add the stop instruction to marketing templates, and keep transactional templates clean of it where that is permitted, so the two message types stay distinguishable.
11. Build the chase sequences with an exit condition on any inbound reply, so a human conversation stops the robot immediately.
12. Throttle every bulk send. Spread a large list over hours rather than minutes, and sequence the first send of a new number as a slow ramp rather than a full blast.
13. Send a seed test to your own handsets on more than one carrier before any bulk send, and read the message on a phone rather than in the editor.
14. Check the delivery report after the first real send and look at undelivered and failed counts by carrier, not just the headline delivered number.
15. Agree who watches replies and how quickly. A text invites an answer within minutes; a channel nobody monitors is worse than no channel.
16. Review opt-out rate per send as the standing quality measure. A rising opt-out rate is the business telling you the cadence or the targeting is wrong, long before the carriers do.

Texting is the connective tissue of most builds. Workflows send it, the inbox receives it, calendars depend on it for reminders, the phone system uses it to recover missed calls, reputation uses it to ask for reviews, and payments use it to chase an unpaid invoice. It is also the channel where consent state from forms and funnels actually gets enforced, which is why contact data quality shows up here first.

Speed-to-lead

A form submission triggers an immediate text from the number the client advertises, asking one specific question rather than announcing receipt. The reply lands in the inbox and the chase sequence exits on that reply. Two further texts follow at increasing intervals if nothing comes back, and the final step creates a task for a human call instead of a fourth message.

Appointment attendance

A booking fires a confirmation text with the reschedule link, then reminders at the intervals the client's audience actually responds to. A reply of anything other than a confirmation is routed to the front desk. No-show status starts a short recovery sequence with a booking link, sent from the same number so the thread reads as one conversation.

Reactivation of a dormant list

A smart list of contacts with consent and no activity for a period is sent a throttled offer, spread across a day and restricted to business hours. Replies are classified, opt-outs are honoured instantly, the interested are tagged and assigned, and the rest are returned to a longer nurture cadence with a future revisit date.

• Unregistered senders get filtered, not warned. Messages can show as sent inside the platform and never reach a handset. If delivery looks fine but nobody replies, suspect registration before you suspect the copy.
• Marketing volume can poison a transactional number. One aggressive campaign is enough to degrade a number that also carries appointment reminders. Separate the numbers before you need to.
• Opt-out is permanent and must be treated that way. Re-importing a list, or a staff member texting manually from the inbox, can breach a stop request the platform recorded correctly.
• Consent does not travel with a contact. A purchased, scraped or inherited list has no opt-in, whatever the client says. Ask to see where the permission was captured.
• Emoji and accented characters shorten the message. A single emoji can switch the encoding and split one message into several, changing cost and sometimes breaking formatting.
• MMS delivery is inconsistent. Carriers vary in what they accept and will sometimes convert a picture message to a link. Never rely on an image to carry essential information.
• Links are the main spam trigger. Bare URLs, generic shorteners, and multiple links in a short message all raise the chance of filtering. One branded link is the safe pattern.
• Timezone errors send messages overnight. The contact's timezone, the account's timezone and the workflow's business-hours window must agree, or a reminder arrives at an indefensible hour.
• Bulk sends from a new number look like an attack. Carriers judge sudden volume harshly. Ramp new numbers over days.
• Two contacts with the same mobile receive the message twice. Duplicates are a texting problem as much as a reporting one, and the recipient reads it as carelessness.
• Replies to an automated send have to go somewhere. If nobody owns the inbox, a text campaign generates conversations that are answered days later, which is worse than not sending.
• Chase sequences without a reply exit are the most common complaint. Texting someone four times after they already answered is the fastest way to lose them.
• Message length and content rules differ by country. Some regions prohibit marketing texts outright, restrict sender types, or forbid replies to the sender identity you chose. Check before promising a client a two-way channel.
• Messages consume account usage. Segments, media and failed retries all count, and a long merge field can quietly turn one message into three.
• Deleting a number does not delete the history, but it does break the thread. Future replies to that number go nowhere and nothing reports it.