Customize SMS and WhatsApp Messages for Your Event Guests

The 'Communications' feature, available on the Professional or Enterprise plan levels, allows you to create campaigns to send Emails and/or SMS and WhatsApp messages to your guests.

Once you have selected a campaign template that includes a SMS/WhatsApp message, you will be able to customize the text and add an attachment or a QR Code to be sent to your guests via the 'Messages' section of your campaign.

In summary, this article will show you how to:

Toggle on the 'SMS/WhatsApp' option from the 'Message' section. Then click on the option to open the SMS composer:
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By default, when you create a new campaign that includes SMS/WhatsApp, only the SMS text message is enabled. If you want to also send your guests a message via WhatsApp, turn the 'WhatsApp' toggle ON from the top right of the screen.
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Keep in mind that enabling WhatsApp does not mean the guest will receive both an SMS text message and a WhatsApp text message.

When the WhatsApp option is enabled, if your guest's phone number is registered with WhatsApp, they will only receive the WhatsApp message.

If the guest's phone number is not registered with WhatsApp, by default the guest will not receive a message.

But you can choose to send guests that are not registered with WhatsApp a SMS message instead by opening the 'Settings' tab and selecting the option 'If phone number is not registered with WhatsApp send regular SMS':
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Please note: it is a WhatsApp requirement that zkipster collects consent from your guests confirming they agree to receive your message before the message is displayed. If the guest opts to not receive the message, you will not be able to message the same phone number via WhatsApp again for 24 hours and the guest will also not receive that message via SMS . You can read more about WhatsApp requirements here.
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Open the 'Settings' tab of your SMS/WhatsApp message composer to define which guests from your event should receive the message.
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From the 'Send To' dropdown menu, select if you want to send the message to one or more guest lists, to individual guests or to guests that are assigned to a specific Session.

If you select to send to a Guest List or to a Session, you have the option to send to all guests part of the list or session by selecting the option 'Send to entire guest list'.
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But if you want to send the message only a segment of guests from the list or session you selected, you can also further filter the guests by status, so only guests with a 'Unconfirmed', 'Confirmed', 'Checked-In' or 'Declined' status part of that Guest List or Session receive the message.

If you are using the Guest Relationships feature, you can choose to send the same message to related guests, independently from the guest list they are part of.
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Tick the checkbox for 'Also send to the following related guests, regardless of their guest list or status' and use the text field below it to insert the type of related guests that should also receive that message:

​Pro Tip: If your campaign has both Email and SMS/WhatsApp enabled, configuring the Settings for the Email or SMS/WhatsApp message does not automatically configure the settings for the other. This is because you might want to send just an email to one guest list and send a text message to another guest list.

Use the 'Composer' tab from the right side of the screen to customize the text of your message.
From the text box, include dynamic tags to personalize your message. Differently from the Email, where it is possible to add a RSVP Button that directs your guests to the Response Form, on the SMS/WhatsApp message you need to include the form tags on the text body. The tags will be delivered as links to your guests, directing them to Response Forms or the Consent Form.

The :campaign_linked_form_url links the form that is part of that campaign, but from the 'Form Tags' dropdown menu you can also include links to forms that are not part of that specific campaign:
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​Please note: Below the text box, you can see the approximate number of characters in your message. One SMS text message can have up to 160 characters - more characters would require that your text is sent in 2 separate messages when sending via SMS and every 1 message consumes 1 credit from your account. Please check this article here for more information on how credits are used when sending SMS and WhatsApp messages.

From the 'Composer' tab, click on the 'Attachment' section and turn the toggle to ON to include an attachment. You will be able to select if you want to send a QR Code, an attachment file (sent as an image file) or a PDF. version of your Email, in case your campaign includes also an Email.

Make sure to include the dynamic tag :attachment_url in your SMS text message, as this is the tag that will turn into the link from where your guests will be able to access the attachment.
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If you are sending the message via WhatsApp, the file will be displayed as an image on the body of the message.
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Please refer to this article here to learn more details about how to send QR Codes and Attachments via SMS/WhatsApp messages.