# SMS campaigns

> Send a text message campaign to a chosen group of contacts, now or at a scheduled time, and track sends, deliveries and replies.

- Section: Using the app (manual) › SMS & messaging
- Web page: https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/sms-campaigns
- Video: placeholder — "Sending your first SMS campaign" (not yet recorded)

An **SMS campaign** (also called an *SMS blast*) sends one text message to many contacts at once. You choose the message, who gets it and when it goes out. Replies land in your [Inbox](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/inbox.md), and you can let an AI agent answer them for you.

## Before you start

- [Register for 10DLC](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/10dlc-registration.md). US carriers block or filter business texts from numbers that aren't registered.
- Have at least one [phone number](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/phone-numbers.md) that can send texts.
- [Tag your contacts](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/tags.md) so you can pick the right audience.
- Only text people who have agreed to hear from you. See [Compliance overview](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/compliance-overview.md).

## Create a campaign

1. Go to **SMS › Campaigns**.
2. Click the **Create New Campaign** card.

### Choose your options

On **SMS Options**:

1. Optionally choose an **AI Reply Agent**. Contacts who reply to this campaign are answered by that [SMS agent](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/sms-agents.md). Leave it on **No agent** to answer replies yourself.
2. To send a message your carrier has already approved, tick **Use 10DLC Registered Campaign**, choose your campaign in **Select Campaign**, then pick one of its messages under **Select an Approved Sample Message**. Only campaigns with the status **Active** are listed.
3. Click **Next**.

> [Screenshot placeholder: SMS Options step — The SMS Options step with an AI Reply Agent selected, Use 10DLC Registered Campaign ticked, a campaign chosen, and one approved sample message highlighted.]

### Write the message

On **Edit Your Message**:

1. Type your message. Use personalization variables, such as the contact's first name, to make it personal. You can also add emoji and attach an image.
2. If you picked a 10DLC sample message, the text is locked. Go **Back** to choose a different sample.
3. To spread the sends out, tick **Adjust rate of messages per hour** and set **Number of messages** and **Minutes Interval**. Sending slowly helps protect your numbers from being flagged as spam.
4. Click **Next**.

### Choose the audience and send

On **Select Your Audience**:

1. Pick contacts with **Select Tags** (choose **AND** or **OR**) and the **State**, **City**, **Title** and **Company** filters.
2. Tick the box at the top to select everyone who matches, or tick contacts one by one.
3. Read the line under the list, for example *1,200 will be texted · 35 skipped (30 Do Not Text, 5 no textable number)*. Contacts marked Do Not Text are skipped automatically.
4. To avoid texting people twice, tick **Ignore contacts you already texted for** and enter a number of hours.
5. To send now, click **Send**. To send later, click **Schedule**, pick the date and time, and click **Schedule** again. Scheduled SMS times are in US Eastern time.
6. If you have more than one number, choose which numbers to send from.

A confirmation appears when the campaign is created.

Bigly advises not texting the same contact more than once every 12 hours, and skips contacts you try to text more than once within 2 hours, whatever you choose.

## Track results

Back on **SMS › Campaigns**, each card shows the campaign's status, ID, message, number of contacts and date.

- Click a card to open its page. You'll see **Total Contacts**, **Sends**, **Deliveries** and **Replies**, and a list of contacts with each one's **Status** (**Sent** or **Pending**) and **Blasted At** time. Click a contact to open them.
- Click the information button on a card to see the full message, any media and the statistics without leaving the page.

For trends across campaigns, see [SMS statistics](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/sms-statistics.md). To pause, cancel or review scheduled campaigns, use [Scheduled blasts](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/scheduled-blasts.md).

> [Screenshot placeholder: SMS campaign results — An SMS campaign's page with Back to SMS, the campaign name and status, the Total Contacts, Sends, Deliveries and Replies boxes, and the contacts table with Sent and Pending statuses.]

## Troubleshooting

**No approved 10DLC campaigns found.** You need at least one 10DLC campaign with status **Active**. See [10DLC registration](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/10dlc-registration.md).

**This campaign has no sample messages.** Add sample messages to the 10DLC campaign before using it for a blast.

**An identical blast was already submitted.** You sent the same campaign in the last few minutes. Check [Scheduled blasts](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/scheduled-blasts.md) before sending again.

**The tag doesn't exist.** Pick tags from the list instead of typing them.

**Audience is being prepared.** Large campaigns build the contact list in the background. Contacts appear as they're sent.

## Related

- [10DLC registration](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/10dlc-registration.md)
- [SMS agents](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/sms-agents.md)
- [SMS campaign config](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/sms-campaign-config.md)
- [Inbox](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/inbox.md)
- [Scheduled blasts](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/scheduled-blasts.md)

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All documentation pages: https://docs.biglysales.com/llms.txt
