Email to SMS
- Last updated on August 31, 2022 at 4:22 PM
This guide is aimed at those who are interested in setting up and using the VOODOO Email to SMS function. This will give you a step by step guide on the set up and sending of your first Email to SMS. Once in the Dashboard, navigate to Send SMS > Email to SMS:
When you have selected Email to SMS you will be taken to the Email to SMS page, here we will begin the setup process:
The first thing required is to enable Email to SMS, this is done by changing the highlighted box to ‘Enabled’. We will then need to add our Email address, this is done by selecting ‘+Email’. When the user has selected ‘+Email’ they will be presented with a pop-up, they will need to input the email address they wish to use and also a name which can be used as a reference.
There is the option to ‘Show Advanced Features’ which gives 8 additional options, these are explained below:
- Default Country Code - Enable this setting so that you do not have to include the country code in the number.
- Quiet Times - Set certain times that you cannot send an email to SMS, i.e. unsociable hours.
- Truncate Sender ID - If the sender ID is too long, cut off any characters after 11 characters so that the message still sends.
- Replace Sender ID - Set a specific sender ID for any email to SMS that is sent, regardless what is typed in. For example, if you are a brand and you want your team members to remain consistent in branding you can set the sender ID.
- Alternative Failure Email - Set up a specific email address to receive failure notifications to that is monitored.
- End of SMS Marker - Set a marker to use when you come to the end of the SMS body to prevent sending things like email signatures accidentally.
- Truncate Body - This feature will allow you to control the length of the SMS body. 'Allow any length' will accept SMS up to 960 characters, 'Send first 160 characters' will send the first 160 characters of the email body and discard the rest, or 'Reject is more than 160 characters' will only accept emails with 160 characters or less.
- Auto Remove Invalid Characters - This feature will allow the Portal to remove any special characters which are not permitted to be sent from any SMS sent via the Email. This is switched on by default.
Once the email address is added it will show in the list below, if you have made a mistake you can edit or delete the email address by using the two highlighted symbols:
When this stage is complete, we need to head over to our email client. You are able to use ANY email client, whether you are using Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, etc.; even your own website or CRM can generate the email that then sends you or your customers an SMS.
Composing and Sending a Message
Now we are going to compose a message. Once in the email client we need to send a new email, see below:
- Be aware that if you have a signature set up in your email client, it is advised to activate the ‘End of SMS Marker’ in the advanced features. It is pre-set to ‘##’ but can be amended to whatever the user would like. Any text supplied after this marker will be ignored by the VOODOO platform.
- The message is sent to: (insert mobile number)@emailtosms.net
- If the ‘Default Country Code’ option in Advanced Features is not amended you will need to include the country code i.e. UK is 44
- If you want to send the same message to multiple recipients then simply separate the details by a comma as you would in a conventional email.
- The subject is the Sender ID, so this demo will show as being sent from SenderID on the recipient's phone.
- The body of the email will be sent to number as the message. Below is how the message is displayed on the recipient's phone:
The highlighted SenderID at the top of the message is the subject line from the email and the highlighted ‘This is a Email to SMS test.’ is the body of the email that was sent.
Sending to a Contact List
It is also possible to send an Email to SMS to an entire contact list. Each contact list has a unique ID that is linked to an individual account this can be found in Contacts > Contact Lists on the left hand menu. Once you have found the contact list you want to send to, click on the little blue arrow which will drop down more information about the contact list, here you will find the ID:
To send to this list, we would create an Email to SMS as done in the previous steps except instead of sending to a mobile number we would want to send it to:
c(contact list ID)@emailtosms.net - In this example we would be sending to c31889@emailtosms.net
If you have any further questions about using Email to SMS please get in touch and one of the team will be happy to help.