This article explains basic information about our SMS feature and addresses some frequently asked questions.

Ⓘ Available to Emma Essentials, Teams, & Corporate accounts

Emma SMS is now available to Emma Essentials, Emma for Teams, and Emma Corporate customers! If you’re interested in adding our SMS feature to your account, click on the Get Support icon in the bottom right corner of your screen and enter “account upgrade” as your topic.

We’re focused on continually improving our SMS feature and do our best to keep our support articles as up-to-date as possible. However, there may be variations between the information here and the most current version of SMS due to the rapidly changing nature of its development. All information, screenshots, and UX design are subject to change.

For more information about SMS, check out our collection of SMS articles. They have everything you need to get the most out of our SMS feature.

Frequently asked questions about SMS

What does SMS stand for?

SMS or “Short Messaging Service” is the official name of what we commonly refer to as texting.

Is SMS available to all Emma accounts?

SMS is only available when you sign up for an Emma Essentials, Teams, or Corporate contracted plan. If you’d like more information about your contract and what adding SMS would look like, click on the Get Support icon in the bottom right corner and enter “account upgrade” as your topic.

Will I be able to send images in my SMS messages?

Yes, you can! Messages sent with images and text will count as more than one message, so you’ll want to keep an eye on your estimated send cost when building out your messages. More on this to come.

Do my contacts need to opt in before I can send them an SMS message?

Yes. Like email, SMS is permission-based; this means that your contacts must provide consent for you to communicate with them through this channel. Providing a phone number through a form in the past does not satisfy the SMS consent requirement.

How do my contacts opt out of receiving SMS?

Contacts who have opted in can revoke their consent at any time by replying “STOP” to the SMS thread. Doing so will unsubscribe the contact from all SMS lists. In order to make it clear and easy for customers to unsubscribe, it is best to always include information about how they can opt out with your SMS communications.

How can I gather SMS opt ins from my contacts?

Because SMS is permission-based, you won’t be able to immediately use your email marketing lists for SMS. However, there are still ways that you can use your existing contact list in Emma to get your SMS marketing off to a great start.

For example, you can ask contacts for their phone numbers and consent by including the request and a signup form in an email campaign. Including a value exchange with the ask may help improve your opt-in rate; for example, “By giving us your phone number you’ll receive [a discount, exclusive content, etc.]”

We’ve released two new features that will make growing an engaged and compliant SMS list easy. You can now capture US-based mobile numbers with our new signup forms and contact fields. See Emma's new signup forms in action in this quick demo video.

Can a contact reply to an SMS message sent through Emma?

No, SMS is a one-way service. This means that if a contact tries to reply to an SMS, there will be no way to see that in Emma.

Will I be able to import SMS numbers?

Yes, you can! During the import process, if you map data to an SMS field, you will be prompted to confirm the consent status for those contacts for either marketing or transactional sends. Just like with your email list, you’ll need to be sure to adhere to our Anti-Spam Policy before importing SMS numbers.

If you plan to move an existing SMS contact list to Emma from another platform, you can choose to opt these contacts into SMS in bulk, or opt contacts out of SMS in bulk. However, when you use the SMS bulk opt-in feature, you must also be able to confirm that all contacts on your list have actively consented to receive SMS communication from you.

What are promotional and transactional messages?

A promotional message aims to create brand awareness, promote a product or service, or generate sales; for example: coupons, discounts, special offers, contests, etc. Promotional messages require prior express consent and are included in our SMS feature.

Whereas, a transactional message is an informational update about a contact’s ongoing transactions, such as appointment reminders or order confirmations. Transactional messages require implied or express consent and are not currently included in our SMS feature, but we do plan to include them in the future.

To align with TCPA (Telecommunications Protection Act) regulations, you must obtain consent for transactional and promotional messages separately. Capturing consent cannot be tied to a single checkbox. The text must also contain explicit language around the use case that the consent is tied to (e.g. “I would like to receive marketing messages.” or “I would like to receive updates.”)

What types of SMS messages can I send to my contacts?

You can use SMS messages for a variety of different purposes, however, we will only be featuring promotional messages at this time. Some of the common use cases for SMS are found in the chart below.

Message type	Promotional	Transactional
Exclusive offers	✔️
Appointment reminders		❌
Announcements	✔️
Early access to products or promotions	✔️
Order confirmations		❌
Coupons and deals	✔️
Discounts	✔️

How does SMS consent work?

• Contacts are required to opt in to SMS separately; consenting to receive emails does not mean that someone consents to receive SMS messages.
• Contacts must have opted in to email in order to be eligible to subscribe to SMS messages. This means that if a contact opts out of email communications, they will also be opted out of SMS.

Can multiple contacts have the same phone number?

No, each phone number can only be used once. If you try to add a contact with a duplicate phone number, you will receive an error message.

Can I add an SMS option to a signup form that I created with the API or through an integration?

If you create a custom form with our API, then yes, there is a way to include an SMS option. Both the POST /members/add and POST /members/signup calls now have an optional parameter called sms. This parameter is a dictionary that contains three strings: phone_number, promotional_status, and transactional_status. Please note that whil the documentation for this parameter is only listed under the POST /members/add call, it will work with the POST /members/signup call as well.

When using the sms parameter, it is vital that you also include the group_ids parameter with at least one valid group. Please note: The group_ids parameter for the POST /members/add call must be an array of integers, even if you're only including one group. Meanwhile, the group_ids parameter for the POST /members/signup call must be an array of strings, even if you're only including one group. The syntax requirements for an array of integers is slightly different from those required for an array of strings; using incorrect syntax can prevent your form from working correctly, so please test it thoroughly.

So far, none of the third party signup form integrations are using the sms parameter, so it is currently not possible to add an SMS option to a form created through an integration.

Can parent-level users see a breakdown of each subaccounts' SMS credit usage?

Yes, parent-level users can find this information by following these steps:

1. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen.
2. Select Billing from the dropdown menu.
3. Click on the Plan & usage tab.
4. Click on the Subaccount SMS usage section.

Are there additional resources for Emma's SMS feature that I can check out?

Yes, you can learn more about SMS here or you can check out our collection of SMS articles. We also have multiple blog posts about SMS and you can receive more information about SMS by filling out our expression of interest form.