Sending bulk text messages using Upshot data and ClickSend
SMS messaging is not currently available directly within Upshot for sending text messages to your attendees.
However, there are a number of tools dedicated to sending mass text messages which work well with Upshot data. One such tool is ClickSend. This guide explains how ClickSend can be used with Upshot data to send mass text messages to attendees or other people within your Upshot account.
NOTE: Upshot is not affiliated with ClickSend and there are additional charges for using this service outside of your Upshot licence.
- Creating a ClickSend account
- Creating a Contact List
- Sending messages to your contact lists
- Consent to receive Text Messages
- Key Terms
Creating a ClickSend account
Users will first need to create an account for ClickSend.
Users can choose to create an account here, or find out more about ClickSend, including their own quick start guide here. Upshot is not affiliated with ClickSend and there are costs involved with using the service.
Creating a Contact List
Within ClickSend, text messages can then be sent in bulk to a Contact List. For example, you may want to contact all attendees from a particular geographic region, who attend a particular activity, or have a particular option selected within their attendee details.
In order to create a new Contact List, within ClickSend, you can navigate to the Contacts page on the left-hand side.
You will then see all of your existing Contact Lists, as well as the option to create a new List. All users need to do here is name the List so that you can send a bulk text message to the appropriate group of attendees.
Adding attendees to a Contact List
Once a list has been created, there are then three ways to add attendees to the list: manually adding attendee details, importing contacts from a CSV or Excel file, or syncing contacts from another piece of software.
There is not currently the ability to sync contacts directly from Upshot. However, do contact us if you are using ClickSend and would like us to explore developing this functionality.
Preparing your import file
The best way to currently add attendees to a Contact List is through the Import Contacts option. Here, users can upload a file with the details of those they want to add to the Contact List. An exported People Report from Upshot will provide the basis of the import file, with the necessary details relevant to the attendees.
To export the People Report, navigate to Reports > People and use the filters in the report to select the relevant attendees for your Contact List. For example, you could select every attendee who has participated in a specific activity on your account, such as Football.
Once you are happy with your selection, click on the Go button at the bottom of the report. The report will display the number of attendees who match your criteria, as well as list the names of these attendees. Click on the Download option to generate an export of these attendees and their details in Excel.
It may also be worth saving a Report Template at this stage. This will allow you to run an identical selection for your Contact List in the future without having to reapply the filters you have selected manually.
Once downloaded, the People Report export will be able to be opened in Excel or a similar programme. Each attendee will be on a separate row, with columns providing information about the attendee. You may collect more than one contact number for attendees, such as a mobile number, emergency contact number, or other phone number. The Upshot default field of Mobile Phone will be within column AC.
Users will need manipulate the file before uploading it to ClickSend. First, users need to delete the first three rows of the People Report, so that the headers of the columns are in row 1.
ClickSend will also only allow uploads containing a maximum of 50 columns. It is highly likely that all organisations will have a People Report with greater than 50 columns. It is therefore necessary to delete any information that isn't needed for your contact list within ClickSend.
For example, you may wish to just upload the attendee names and mobile number. It might also be useful however to include some columns that you want to either filter with while in ClickSend - such as only sending a message to those within a particular geographic area - or that you wish to use within the body of text messages themselves, such as asking attendees to confirm that you hold the correct data about them for a particular field. In the example below, the file is ready to be uploaded with the attendee names and mobile phone numbers, as well as their district and email address.
Uploading your contacts
Once your file is ready for upload, save the file and navigate back to the Contacts page within ClickSend. Click on the Contact List you wish to update and then on the icon to start adding attendees to your list.
Choose the Import Contacts option and select the file that you have prepared to upload. Once it has processed, there will be a message displayed to note that the file is ready and to click on Import to proceed.
Users will be asked to toggle on those columns that they wish to upload, as well as match the columns to ClickSend's columns. There are a number of named columns, such as first name, last name, email, phone, and address line options, as well as 4 custom columns for those columns you are uploading which don't fit into one of ClickSend's built in columns. Once you've made your selection, click on Confirm to upload the attendees.
ClickSend will upload contacts with valid phone numbers, and you may need to clean your phone number data at this point if you do not see your attendees in the Contact List. For help with which attendees are imported into ClickSend, please refer to their own guides here.
Sending messages to your contact lists
Once you have imported your contacts there are several ways to send a message to them. For sending messages to a Contact List, ClickSend recommends sending messages via an SMS campaign. An SMS campaign can be sent to up to 20,000 recipients.
First, select the Contact List you wish to send to. From here, there is an option to Clean Up the list, which can remove those who have opted out of receive messages from ClickSend, or be used to remove duplicates from the list.
On the left-hand side, choose the option to Send to All. This option will take users to the SMS Campaign page.
From here, you are able to write the message to be sent to the contacts selected. Placeholders can be used to insert fields from the data uploaded. In the example below, First Name and Email Address have been added as placeholders from the imported Upshot data. A preview on the right-hand side will show how this looks for one of the recipients within your data. There are further options to include opt-out functionality in the message, an unsubscribe link, as well as different options for the number which messages are sent from.
Once happy with the message, it can be sent immediately, or scheduled for a later point in time.
For more details on sending a message to your Contacts, please see a guide from ClickSend here.
Consent to receive Text Messages
Upshot has three built-in consent fields to collect permissions from attendees: to use photos or other media of them, receive surveys via Upshot and receive emails via Upshot. These fields interact with other functions of the account. For example, it is not possible to send an email to an attendee through Upshot if they do not have the relevant consent field confirmed.
Because SMS functionality is not available within Upshot, there is not a consent option to receive text messages from the system. However, if users would like to create a custom consent field to collect permission from their attendee's to receive text messages, this can be done by System Admin users by adding a new attendee data field and choosing to create the field as a tickbox.
Key Terms
Activities:
Activities are the different aspects delivered within each project such as classes, workshops, events, forums, groups, etc. Activities are specific to Projects, therefore, to add an activity you must first select the project the activity will run within.
Attendee Data Fields:
Attendee Data Fields are the custom fields that your organisation uses to collect information about your participants. These will be presented on either your registration form for attendees or as additional fields on your headcount register. Changes can be made to these by a System Administrator.
People Report:
The People Report can be used to report against the attendees on your account using a variety of filters including demographic details, attendance, timeline events, custom fields and more. It can then be used to export attendee details, including any phone number fields you collect.