Overview:
SMSWiser offers a variety of placeholders that you can use to customise and personalise your SMS messages. These placeholders are dynamically replaced with specific data from your lead list, making your messages more engaging and relevant to the recipients. Understanding the available placeholders and their constraints is crucial for effective SMS marketing.
Available Placeholders and Their Lengths:
1. Basic Placeholders:
- %link% – 25 characters (Shortening URL)
- %first_name% – 8 characters
- %last_name% – 8 characters
- %dob% – 10 characters (Date of Birth)
- %phone% – 11 characters
- %email% – 25 characters
- %address% – 16 characters
- %city% – 8 characters
- %state% – 5 characters
- %zip_code% – 7 characters
- %optoutlink% – 25 characters (Opt-out link)
2. Date and Time Placeholders:
- %dd%-%mm%-%yyyy% – 10 characters (Today’s date)
- %random_timestamp_hours% – 2 characters (Random hours)
- %random_timestamp_minutes% – 2 characters (Random minutes)
3. Rotators and Randomisers:
- %offer_name% – 12 characters
- %hello_rotator_english% – 7 characters
- %random_number% – 1 character
- %item_rotator_english% – 8 characters (Item, Parcel, Box)
- %cta_rotator_english% – 8 characters (Confirm, Proceed, etc.)
- %random_letter% – 1 character
4. Word Spinners:
- {{word1|word2|word3}} – 5 characters
Important Considerations:
1. SMS Length Limitation:
- Each SMS message is limited to 160 characters. This includes all placeholders and any static text in the message. If the resulting SMS text exceeds 160 characters after replacing placeholders, the message will be marked as a length error and will not be sent.
2. Encoding and Allowed Symbols:
- For more details on encoding and allowed symbols, please refer to the SMSWiser Encoding Guide.
3. Required Placeholder:
- The %link% placeholder is required by default in SMSWiser messages. If you want to send SMS without this placeholder, please contact SMSWiser support.
Pros and Cons of Using Placeholders:
Pros:
- Personalisation: Placeholders allow you to personalise messages for each recipient, increasing engagement and response rates.
- Efficiency: Using placeholders saves time as you can send bulk messages with individualised information without manual customisation.
- Dynamic Content: Placeholders enable the use of dynamic content, making each message unique and more relevant to the recipient.
Cons:
- Length Constraints: Managing the total character count can be challenging, especially when using multiple placeholders.
- Complexity: Setting up and correctly using placeholders requires careful attention to detail to avoid errors.
- Dependencies: Some placeholders depend on specific data being available in your lead list. Missing data can lead to incomplete messages or errors.
General Tips:
- Plan Your Message: Before sending, draft your message and calculate the character count with placeholders to ensure it does not exceed 160 characters.
- Test Messages: Always test messages with placeholders to verify that the dynamic content is populated correctly and the total message length is within the limit.
- Monitor and Adjust: Regularly monitor your campaigns for length errors and adjust your messages or data sources accordingly.
By effectively utilising placeholders in SMSWiser, you can enhance the personalisation and relevance of your SMS campaigns, leading to better engagement and higher conversion rates.