When you set up your project, you can add one or more SMS senders in Iterable. Each Iterable SMS sender is associated with a single messaging service or messaging profile, in a one-to-one ratio. Setting up more than one sender in Iterable is particularly beneficial when considering how you want to manage SMS opt-outs.
When adding an SMS sender, you can optionally include a message type binding. This links your SMS sender to a specific message type (marketing or transactional) so that the sender can't send messages of the other type. This creates flexibility when users may want to unsubscribe from marketing and still receive transactional content.
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Message type binding
Message type binding must be done when you're first creating the sender in Iterable. You cannot change this setting later.
Binding a message type to your SMS sender causes the following changes:
When building a campaign, you can select the SMS sender for that message type only. On the Edit Template page, select the message type and then select the sender. When the message type doesn't match the sender's message type, you can't select it.
When a user texts an opt-out keyword in reply to that sender, they're unsubscribed only from that message type.
The following examples demonstrate how binding an SMS sender to a message type impacts opt-out behavior.
Default: SMS sender(s) not bound to a message type
When a user sends an unsubscribe keyword to any of your SMS senders:
- They're unsubscribed from the messaging service or messaging profile with your SMS provider.
- They're unsubscribed from the Iterable project's entire SMS channel (all SMS message types and all SMS senders) until they resubscribe.
Two senders, each bound to a different message type
In this scenario, your project has two SMS senders. One SMS sender is bound to send marketing messages, while the other is bound to send transactional messages. You have two messaging services or messaging profiles set up with your SMS provider - one service for sending SMS marketing messages (Sender A), and another for sending SMS transactional messages (Sender B).
When a user sends an unsubscribe keyword in reply to Sender A:
- They're unsubscribed from Sender A's messaging service or messaging profile with your SMS provider.
- They're unsubscribed from the marketing SMS message type in your Iterable project until they resubscribe.
- They're still subscribed to Sender B's transactional SMS messages.
Similarly, if a user unsubscribes to Sender B, they still receive messages from Sender A. Subscription status is governed by the message type that the user unsubscribed from.
Two senders, one bound to a message type and another that isn't
In this scenario, you have two messaging services set up with your SMS provider. Accordingly, your project has two SMS senders. One SMS sender is bound to send transactional messages and can only send transactional SMS campaigns (Sender A). The other sender is not bound to any message type and can send both types (Sender B).
When a user sends an unsubscribe keyword in reply to Sender A:
- They're unsubscribed from Sender A's messaging service or messaging profile with your SMS provider.
- They're unsubscribed from transactional SMS messages from any SMS sender until they reply an opt-in keyword to Sender A.
- They're still subscribed to marketing messages from Sender B.
However, when a user replies with an opt-out keyword to any SMS from Sender B:
- They're unsubscribed from Sender B's messaging service or messaging profile with your SMS provider.
- They're unsubscribed from the entire SMS channel in your Iterable project until they resubscribe by replying an opt-in keyword to Sender B.
Instructions
Step 1: Set up SMS message channels and message types
This step must be done before you add your SMS messaging service or profile.
To set up message channels and message type for SMS, you need to:
- Add a subscription channel for each SMS subscription group you want to create.
- Add the message type(s) for each subscription channel and set their subscription policies (opt-out or opt-in).
To learn more and for complete instructions, read Message Channels and Message Types Overview.
Step 2: Add SMS sender with a message type binding
For Iterable SMS, ask your Iterable customer success manager for assistance.
If you're bringing your own account, select a message type binding when you're adding your messaging service or messaging profile. Read the instructions for your SMS provider here:
Want to learn more?
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