Input warnings
Avoid using special characters (such as an apostrophe) as they aren't supported by SMS messages.
Add an empty space after URL placeholders, otherwise the handsets will consider the text which immediately follows the URL as part of that URL, resulting in the URL being invalid.
Placeholders
SMS Messages support placeholders. The placeholders are replaced with contact-specific information. There are two types of placeholders (bold text means mandatory part, italic text means user input)
Text placeholders [PlaceholderName] as in [FirstName]
URL placeholders [url=http(s)://someurl.co.uk] as in [url=http://force24.co.uk].
Text placeholders are replaced with contact information while the URLs are rewritten to a URL similar to http://sm5.co/XXXXX to save message characters and enable tracking. Also, before rewriting, the original URLs will have the Force24 contact id added for tracking purposes.
E.G. [url=http://force24.co.uk] will become http://force24.co.uk?p_id=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx and then http://sm5.co/yyyyyy
Opt out via a link
You may place an opt out link in your SMS by using the placeholder [OptOut]. This will provide an sm5.co shortened link to the users contact preference centre. Please also remember to prefix this placeholder with some copy to denote what the link is for.
E.G. "Stop [OptOut]" will become "Stop http://sm5.co/xxxxx" or "opt out [OptOut]" will become opt out http://sm5.co/xxxxx
You can instead use the 'Add Opt Out Link' button a the top of the SMS editor to include this:
Opt out via a word
If you'd like to rent a word to use as an unsubscribe token please contact your CSM. E.G "to opt out reply STOPNOW". This word must be rented for you to use and will be unique to your Force24 account.
The cost of renting this word is £99 per month for a minimum of three months.
Should you no longer wish to use this word (I.e deleted or made inactive) you do run the risk of losing ownership and will need to rent a new word.
Preview
The preview provides an as-you-type view of the final SMS message, replacing the placeholders with sample, static data. It also tries to approximate the number of characters the final SMS message will have. The character count is however, based on sample data only, specific contact information may have different lengths, thus changing the length of each individual SMS Message.
Maximum message length for an SMS Message is 160 characters. Multiple messages will be sent for greater lengths (using more credits)