What is Broadcast?
smrtCast or Broadcast, offered by smrtPhone is smrtPhone's add-on tool for FCC and TCPA-compliant text message marketing.Broadcast allows you to obtain and track opt-in consent for sending large volumes of templated text messages - and then sort and filter those lists to send targeted messages.
Some examples of use cases include: marketing properties to potential buyers for real estate investors, sending out limited time discounts to your list of clients, or sharing important event registration information with interested audiences. But, when you have proper consent and follow the FCC guidelines, the business cases for our Broadcast tool are endless.
Through the setup process, you declare who you/your business are and what kinds of messages you will send. Then, you obtain consent for texting from your audiences and that consent is stored inside of smrtPhone.
There are three important parts to Broadcast:
Pulling or pushing in contact sources and tracking which individuals have given consent.
Customized landing pages for giving that consent (which is, importantly, stored inside of smrtPhone)
Creating and sending a Broadcast to a targeted text list.
What is a Broadcast?
A broadcast is a templated text message that is sent to your desired filtered list of contacts who have opted-in. You can filter your contact sources who have given consent to create texting lists, write a specific text message, and send it to all contacts at once. This helps you reach more people in a shorter period of time.
Customizing the Broadcast Setup
Having a functional broadcast setting requires some previous customization and basic steps to be fulfilled:
Reach out for early access to broadcast, currently in a limited beta release
Where is Broadcast inside of smrtPhone?
You can easily find our product by accessing your smrtPhone web Dashboard, the Admin Panel, and then, clicking the Broadcast icon 📡 in the left.
Due to its early beta stage, Broadcast does not require a special subscription.
However, you need an approved Trust Center Business Profile and a Broadcast specific A2P 10DLC Campaign approved.
Trust Center Business Profile Verification
A verified Trust Center Business Profile is mandatory for accessing Broadcast. Ensure your Business Profile is certified before trying to customize the setup.
If you're already set with an approved profile, you'll see that some of the information from your profile automatically translates to the Broadcast Setup page, including Company Name, EIN, and Address.
A2P 10DLC Campaign
Once you know that you have an approved business profile, you can move on to creating an A2P 10DLC Campaign. A2P 10DLC is a form of verified business texting that follows guidelines of the major U.S. Mobile carriers, through the creation and approval of campaigns. You must have a campaign that is dedicated to Broadcast.
This A2P Campaign will be created from the Broadcast Setup page and not from Trust Center. However, the setup is the same, and you can later find it in the Trust Center and edit it if necessary.
The Broadcast A2P Campaign should be assigned its own unique set of phone numbers that are later to be used while sending Broadcasts.
Broadcast Setup
Head to smrtPhone Dashboard > Broadcast > Setup and complete the fields with the required information. To comply with FCC regulations, your contacts must know the identity of your business to give consent to receive your messages.
The first part of the setup is automatically imported from the Trust Center. If you missed that step, you cannot go further until it is completed.
Company Name (automatically imported from Trust Center)
EIN (Employer Identification Number - automatically imported)
Registered Company Address (automatically imported)
Company Logo - Add a clear picture that will represent your business or your brand, as the company logo (can be modified later)
Also Known As (Optional) - Alternative name that you have for your business for your clients to recognize you (can be modified later). For example, our legal name is smrtStudio Global, Inc. but our go-to-market brand is smrtPhone. For us, our Company Name is smrtStudio Global and our Also Known As is smrtPhone.
Website Link - Your business's website, something representative of your business.
Company Representative(s) - Choose people that represent the business, and give their names and positions within the company. The second representative is optional, but can be helpful.
Click Submit to save the progress, and you can move on with the settings.
Broadcast Contact Sources
Sources are your contacts inside of Broadcast. They can be brought in multiple ways - through pulling from your CRM, uploading a list, or by webhook.
Uploading a source does not mean you have consent.
It is the first step toward getting consent. Once you have a source, it will be assigned a consent link that you can send to the contacts separately to gain their explicit consent.
Broadcast Texting Lists
Once you have various Broadcast Sources, you can clean, filter, and combine them into custom Texting Lists that can be used in sending Broadcasts.
For example, you can create a Texting List that will pull every contact within a specific geographic region, regardless of how they were imported into Broadcast.
Broadcast Pricing
Currently, Broadcast subscriptions are free of charge for Beta users.
However, you will be responsible for any usage charges. This includes the costs associated with setting up and maintaining your A2P 10DLC campaign, as well as the message and data rates that apply to the text messages you send. There is no discount for the volume of text messages.
