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Setting up SMS

This article describes how to set up your Iterable project to send SMS. It reviews setting up your SMS senders, message channels and types, opt-out instructions, contact phone number, and more.

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Setting up your SMS services

First, you need an account with an SMS service provider set up with at least one messaging service or messaging profile.

You can use Iterable SMS, or you can bring your own Telnyx or Twilio account.

For help with setting up your SMS services before integrating them with your Iterable project, talk with your Iterable customer success manager.

Adding message channels and message types

Once you have connected your SMS provider as a sending platform in Iterable, set up message channels and types (used for sending campaigns and managing subscriptions). You should set these up before adding each of your SMS senders to Iterable if you want to create message type binding (optional) for more granular opt-out management.

To set up message channels and message types for SMS, you need to:

  • Add a subscription channel for each SMS subscription group (message channel) you want to create. Each subscription channel associates with either marketing or transactional message content.

  • Add the message type(s) for each subscription channel and set their subscription policies (opt-out, opt-in, or double opt-in).

  • If you're using double opt-in, you need to also set up the SMS Double Opt-In flow with a web form that triggers the double opt-in API.

To learn more about setting up message types, read Message Channels and Message Types Overview.

Adding your SMS sender to Iterable

Add each SMS sender in Iterable. Typically your SMS provider calls these messaging services (Twilio) or messaging profiles (Telnyx).

If you're using Iterable SMS, your Iterable customer success manager will help you with this step.

If you're bringing your own account, read instructions for your SMS provider here:

Optional: Opting out users by message type

When adding an SMS sender, you can select a message type binding. This links your SMS sender to a specific message type. This creates flexibility, for example, when users may want to unsubscribe from marketing and still receive transactional content.

To learn more, read Managing SMS Opt-Outs by Message Type.

Setting up user phone numbers

After adding an SMS sender to your project and creating at least one SMS message channel and message type, you can start sending SMS messages to users who have phone numbers.

Phone number profile field

To send SMS to a user, you need to add a phoneNumber field to their user profile.

You must use a field name of phoneNumber. Another field name, such as cellPhone or phone_number doesn't work to send SMS.

To learn more about this field and its requirements, read User Profile Fields Used by Iterable.

Setting a phone number field using Iterable's API

To set a phone number on a user profile, call POST /api/users/update. In dataFields, specify a phoneNumber that meets Iterable's field requirements.

Example calls to POST /api/users/update:

{
   "email": "user@example.com",
   "dataFields": {
      "phoneNumber": "+14155550132"
   }
}

{
   "userId": "67b4567b-6382-41fa-92f5-77a5e99ca33a",
   "dataFields": {
      "phoneNumber": "+498999998000"
   }
}

Including up opt-out instructions

When sending SMS messages, it's important to include opt-out instructions, because:

  • This reduces carrier filtering and improves your SMS deliverability. To learn more about how to prevent filtering, read How do I prevent my Twilio messages from being filtered? (Twilio).
  • It's an industry best practice to regularly including opt-out instructions in your messages so that your users know how they can stop receiving unwanted content. For more information, take a look at the CTIA's guide, Messaging Principles & Best Practices.
  • There's a reduced likelihood of users marking your SMS as spam because they know how to unsubscribe.

In the Settings > Project Settings page, you can specify when Iterable includes opt-out instructions with your SMS campaigns, and you can customize the text of your opt-out messages. Options vary depending on your project and the countries you send SMS to.

To learn more about opt-out instructions and how you can update them, read Global SMS Settings.

Next steps

Now that you've set up your project to send SMS, you can create a SMS template and send yourself a test message.

Want to learn more?

For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out this Iterable Academy course. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!

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