FAQ SMSFactor

Promotional SMS: It relates to sending SMS for commercial offers, private sales, gifts, business events… Promotional SMS are only allowed between 8am and 8pm Monday to Saturday and are forbidden on Sundays and public holidays. You have an obligation to offer recipients a way of unsubscribing to this type of SMS because they are commercial offers. If you customize the sender, the STOP sign is automatically added at the end of your message. Because this statement includes 16 characters, 144 characters will remain available. If you decide to not personalize the sender, your client will be able to directly answer STOP to your message: the STOP mention won’t appear, and you’ll benefit from all 160 characters for you text message. SMS Alert: Those are informative SMS for meetings, gatherings, weather alerts, emergencies, financial transactions… Given that they are informative and not commercial text messages, they are not subjected to the same regulation. SMS alerts can be sent every day at any time. However, we advise you not to send messages too late during the evening or the night, to not disturb your recipients. You don’t have to put the STOP sign for SMS alerts because there is no commercial significance behind it. The choice of promotional SMS or SMS alert is yours, be careful to respect the rules we just announced before making your choice, or you’ll be held responsible for the potential consequences of a bad choice. If you’re not sure what option to choose, do not hesitate to contact us, we’ll be glad to help you!

An SMS is made of 160 characters, according to international standards. In those 160 characters are recognized spaces, punctuation, letters, numbers and special characters. However, you are not restricted to those 160 characters, you can send longer messages, but it will be counted this way: 1 SMS every 160 characters. Be careful when you use the SMS merge option –that is the personalization of your SMS with information on your contact file– be careful that the number of characters does not exceed 160 or it will double the price of your professional sms. Example: You can start your message with the name of your client/patient, but beware that if that name is quite long, it may make you exceed 160 characters and therefore count as 2 SMS. But do not worry, the number of SMS will be indicated before the validation of the sending.

A long SMS is an SMS that exceeds the 160 characters of a standard SMS. Past this standard SMS, characters are counted differently, and one SMS becomes equivalent to 146 characters. Therefore: One SMS = 160 characters; Two SMS = 306 characters; Three SMS = 452 characters, and so on… The same rules apply to a standard and a long SMS. If you want to personalize the sender of a marketing SMS, a STOP mention of 14 characters will be added to your message. If you want to add a short-tracked link, count between 16 to 20 characters.

On the platform, you have access to your history and campaigns’ reports. They will indicate if the SMS have been received, with all the status. If no line appears in your history at the moment of the sending, it means the campaign was not sent: you probably forgot to finish the validation of your campaign. If it’s possible to know if your text messages where receive, it’s unfortunately impossible to know if a message was read: it’s not a data we have access to at the current time. However, thanks to surveys we know that approximatively 97 % of the text messages are read.

Received message: the DR indicates the message has been received. Not received message: the DR indicates the message has not been received. Not received messages are detailed as follow: Invalid number: it means the number is no longer assigned; Network error: the recipient did not have any network on his phone when the message was send, it will be send again regularly during 48h hours; Expired: the message could not be send to this recipient for various reason, therefore it expired Other: other reasons explain why the message was not receive DR not available: we did not receive a Delivery Report. This number is final 48h after the sending.

Response in France: The possibility to respond is automatically allowed: your contacts will be able to reply to your messages. You will receive their response directly on the platform or by email. To receive answers in your mailbox you must set this reference in your reply settings on the platform. You can then choose in which mailbox you want to receive those answers. Beware! If you want to receive replies do not personalize the sender and rather choose to identify yourself at the beginning of the message. The SMS answer is not charged. However, it costs the price of an SMS to your clients (unlimited contracts won’t notice it, people using prepaid or locked contracts will have to look for the pricing of their operator. Response in Belgium: The possibility to respond is automatically allowed: your contacts will be able to reply to your messages. You will receive their response directly on the platform or by email. To receive answers in your mailbox you must set this reference in your reply settings on the platform. You can then choose in which mailbox you want to receive those answers. Response in and Switzerland: To this day, in Switzerland and, response is not available for professional SMS.

Unsubscribing to SMS Marketing in France: Unsubscribing mainly concerns marketing campaigns by SMS (advertising and commercial offers). Direct marketing by SMS is not prohibited by law, but it is regulated: only commercials messages expressly and previously granted by the person are authorized. The notion of « STOP » appears here: “The SMS-MT or Short Message Service Mobile Terminated refers to a received SMS by the customer on his mobile terminal. It should contain a statement informing the “mobile user” of the possibility to exercise his right to object and no longer receive such messages.” Example: SMS STOP, STOP SMS to XXXXX Unsc. STOP, STOP SMS text STOP, STOP XXXXX… A confirmation message for unsubscribing will be sent automatically. We remind you that it is prohibited to send promotional SMS between 20:00 and 8:00, Sunday all day and on public holidays. When an SMS is sent with a 5-digit number, the STOP mention is not needed: the client can respond STOP directly to the promotional message. When the SMS’s sender is personalized, the STOP mention is automatically added at the end of the message. This mention is 16 characters long. The rest of the SMS must then be 144 characters long to count as one SMS. From 145 characters, the message will count as 2 or more SMS when sent. People replying by STOP to your message will automatically find themselves in a “blacklist” and won’t receive your next campaigns. This will prevent unhappy customers and SMS charged for nothing. You can find the STOP date in your blacklist, where you can find all the numbers that unsubscribed to your sendings, and in the reports of your campaigns. You can also manually add numbers to the list if needed. Beware, you cannot remove people from this list without them agreeing. When you choose to personalize the sender on the platform, the STOP mention (STOP at XXXXX) is added automatically at the end of your message and you only have 144 characters available for the rest of your message. Therefore, we advise you to write your name or your society’s name in CAPITAL LETTERS at the beginning of your message. Moreover, with smartphones the beginning of your sms will appear when the message is received, and your clients won’t have any problems recognizing you. The fact of responding STOP to a professional SMS is not overtaxed to the client but it does cost the price of an SMS (unlimited contracts won’t notice it, but prepared or blocked contract will have to check the price of an SMS with their operator). Unsubscribing to SMS Alert in France: SMS alert do not have the obligation to have this STOP mention as they do not have a sales purpose. Warning: If you personalize the sender, the 5-digit number won’t appear anymore and will be replaced by your personalization. Your contacts won’t be able to unsubscribe. We recommend to not automatically personalize the sender for alert by SMS, to let the possibility to your clients to unsubscribe. Unsubscribing to SMS marketing in Belgium and Switzerland: SMS answer is not available in those countries, unsubscribing can only be made thanks to a web link (around 15 characters) that we integrate in the SMS.

With SMSFactor Service you cannot send SMS to landline numbers, that’s the reason why these numbers will be removed when you integrate your lists on the platform.

The numbers’ portability assures users they’ll keep their phone number even if they change their operator. In France, the procedure is mandatory and very simple since November 2012: the transfer of a number between two operators must be carried out in 3 days in mainland France! When you send your campaigns to your clients, their number goes through a database that redirects it to the operator they are attached to. The operator then sends your message to your recipients – that also are its clients. If there is a transfer between operators, the database is updated: a number which was previously attached to an operator X becomes attached to an operator Y. Therefore, whatever the operator, when you send your campaigns your message always reaches its destination. However, this update sometimes takes a few more days than the portability itself. If you send a campaign between the number’s portability and the database’s update, the database will send your message to the wrong operator. The operator won’t be able to send your message as your client will no longer be its client. Therefore, it will communicate to our platform that the number is invalid. You won’t be able to know whether the number is really invalid or if it’s a transferred number. That is why we advise you not to delete your invalid numbers after each sending. You should delete them if they are notified as invalid two campaigns in a row: this way, you will be sure that a number is really invalid and is not just a transferred number.

It is possible to have sub-accounts on our platform. You can manage multiple accounts without giving access to all. It is also possible to make a transfer of credits between different accounts. You will also be able to disable some accounts. This service has specifically been created for large companies but also for communication agencies or software vendors who need to manage multiple accounts. The particularity of sub-accounts is that they cannot buy SMS, the main account must supply it.

When you create a sub-account, you have the possibility to configure an unlimited number of credits. This means that all sent SMS will be taken off the main account until it is empty. If you choose the limited option, you will have to manually credit each of your sub-accounts. Once those SMS are used, the sub-account won’t be able to send any message.

This button allows you to reset the credits of a sub-account: all the credits will be added to the main account.

We guarantee complete confidentiality regarding the protection of your numbers. You can read in our terms and conditions that we are prohibited from using your phone numbers. These are stored on our platform but can only be used by you. If you need more guarantees, we can sign with you an exceptional confidentiality clause.

CC: You can pay by credit card on our online platform. PayPal and Stripe: You don’t need a PayPal account to pay with this service, you can make a single payment. Check or bank transfer: We will send you a purchase order that you will have to return signed to us to unlock SMS. Then we will send you an invoice payable by check or bank transfer. Post-paid: You use the number of SMS you need during the month and a statement of your consumption is done at the end of each month. You will then be charged with the choice to pay by bank transfer or direct debit (under conditions).

There is no validity period, your credits are always available. However, you need to send as least one SMS during the year. If during the year you do not send any message, we’ll contact you before erasing the remaining credits. This way, we remind you to use your credits if you still want to.

You can send your campaigns from your phone or tablet, it will only require that your files are already integrated on the platform because you cannot integrate new lists via your phone.

We work with several hundred operators in 150 countries. Do not hesitate to contact us to learn about our availability in the country of your choice.

Yes, you can cancel a programmed SMS campaign in delayed sending, until the sending time of this one. To do that, you must to go in “History and Report” and click on the “cancel” button at the end of the line concerning your campaign. You cannot cancel a campaign that has already been sent or that is currently being sent.

No, you can’t edit an SMS campaign which is already programmed. You must cancel it and do another campaign. To cancel your campaign, go to “history and report” and “cancel” the line concerning your campaign. Do not forget to register your message models to not lose your text.

With SMS, it can be difficult to know the return rate of the campaigns. The only number that we can provide you is the SMS reception rates. Therefore, it is up to you to put in place some indicators of its return. You can simply do it with one of the following techniques: create special SMS promotions, give a code in the SMS to get the promotion or write at the end of your message “upon SMS presentation”, then account for each return.

You can join us by phone on +339 83 66 87 45. You can also contact us by email to the following address: [email protected]. For the people having an SMSFactor account, you can contact us directly from the “contact” tab on our platform. If you have any question on the SMS, do not hesitate to contact us directly from our chat if this one is activated or from the contact page.

An API is an Application Programming Interface. It’s a program that allows a website or a software, for instance, to connect themselves to another website or software. An API works by data exchange: a question is expressed and a respond to the request is given. When you link our API SMS to your website, software or application, you ask our platform, via our API, to automatically send your SMS.

Our API SMS is available in several languages such as: PHP; HTML; JAVA; RUBY; PYTHON; .NET; JS. This list is not exhaustive, SMS sending can be integrated thanks to our API whatever the language you use. Our API uses JSON and XML formats to transfer data.

The integration of our API is simple and quick. We created a detailed online documentation explaining how to send SMS, how to import contacts list or to manage your account once the API is integrated in your software or website. If you need any help to integrate our SMS API, contact our technical support at +334 93 14 60 71 or by email at [email protected]. There are available from Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 5:30pm.

A webhook is a request that allows you to receive and store specific data. Our Webhooks allow you to automatically receive in real time information on the receipt of your messages, their responses and their stops. You can also receive information about the numbers who clicked on your links. You do not have anything to do! To create a webhook, you just have to go on our platform, in the “developer” tab. You can also create them via our API by following the instructions on our online documentation. If you need any help to configure your webhook, do not hesitate to contact our technical support at [email protected].

A Token is a unique login detail to our platform, which replace a user name and a password, to allow you to identify yourself to our API. At each new request, you will need your Token. The creation of a Token guarantees a higher security during authentication. You can create your Token directly on our SMS platform. It is also possible to generate Token for your sub-account and to secure the sessions, even if a password is changed for example.

The balance alert is an option that allows you to be notified when you reach a safe level. The choice is yours to make: what is the threshold to program the alarm? To program this alert, you simply must be logged on the platform, to go to the “My Account” tab, then “configure a balance alert”. Then you can choose to receive this alert by email or SMS by giving your contact information.

When you send your SMS campaigns, you have the possibility to personalize the sender. If you do not personalize the sender, your contacts will be able to respond to your campaigns. However, you may not wish to manage those responses for each of your sendings. In that case, we developed an option that will allow you to automatically send a pre-written message to those people, to let them know that you won’t be able to read the responses they are sending. You can also give them another mean to contact you, a phone number for instance. You will pay the price of a normal SMS for each message sent through our SMS answering option, each time a client respond. Be careful to activate and deactivate it according to your campaigns!

To receive replies to your SMS in your mailbox you must configure your SMSFactor account. To do so you need to go to the “INBOX” tab and in the “SMS settings answer”. You will be able to indicate in which mailbox you want to receive the replies. You do not have to specify the email address of your account.

Customization of the sender in France: The sender can be modified within the limit of 11 characters. This customization must not contain special characters. Be careful: instead of the 5-digit number set automatically by the platform, your personalized name will appear. Therefore, you make it impossible for you contact to respond. (However, he will still be able to unsubscribe thanks to the STOP mention at the end of your message). Customization of the sender in Switzerland: SMS Customization can be done with any characters (numbers, letters, special characters). Customization of the sender in Belgium: SMS customization in Belgium is possible with only one operator and with numbers only. By default, the sender will be a random number beginning with 88. Customization of the sender in another country: You wish to send professional SMS from another country than France, Belgium or Switzerland? Just contact us and we will let you know all the possibilities!

To change your sender, you must go to the “My Account” tab then click on “Manage my information”. At the bottom of the page you have a section reserved for customizing the sender by default. You can change the sender by default at your convenience. Even though you have created a sender by default, you can change this sender when programming your message manually by typing in the box provided to this effect.

Thanks to sms merge, you can personalize your messages with the surname, first name or any other information about your recipients. 4 fields can be personalized. When you write your message, click on the “personalize” button and choose the information you wish to personalize your message with. Beware, know that it’s not possible to personalize a message with the test SMS.

Yes, you can send a file to your recipients by SMS. You just have to import it on our SMS platform. It will transform itself in a short link and your recipients will only have to click on it to see your file. Moreover, we host your file for free on our platform. You just have to import the file you want to send when preparing your professional sms by clicking on the button “file”. Know however that only PNG, GIF, JPEG and PDF files are authorized.

Thanks to the new option, “Short URL” of the platform you can embed a short link to your website, Facebook page or to a mini mobile site in your text message and track your link! With this link, you will have a return rate regarding the percentage of clicks. You’ll also be able to know which numbers clicked on your link, the click’s date and time or even their phones model and OS.

“Test SMS” is a service we provide for free. Before sending each campaign, it is important to send a message on your own phone, it allows you to control the content of the message. You will be able to see your message on a screen, errors and potential problems with special characters. Once the message is sent and verified, you can send your campaign safely. For the test SMS not to be removed from your available credit, you just have to provide your mobile number when you register. You can also add or modify this phone number on your account details on our platform in the tab “personal information”. If you’d rather contact us directly, we are available by phone on +339.83.66.87.45 or by email to [email protected], we will proceed to the modification.

A message template is a message that you have saved to reuse later. To create a template, you need to type your message in the “send sms–write your message”. Then you need to click on “SAVE” and a small window will open where you can name your model. Once the model is saved you can reuse it each time and edit and save it again.

You have several choices when selecting to who send your campaigns: You can select them from a contacts list already saved on our platform; You can select several contacts lists at the same time when preparing your sending; You can write down the phone numbers of your clients by separating them with a coma; You can import a contacts list from your computer (CSV or TXT format only). You will find those options when preparing your campaigns in the “Selection of the recipients” section.

You can import a list from the “Send SMS” page! When you choose your recipients, choose the option “import list”. Beware however, your list must be correctly presented (numbers in international format – +336 for French numbers – in the first column) or your sending won’t work.

On the platform you have the possibility to import contact lists. You can import as many ones as you desire and modify them or even delete them at your convenience. Each list that you have created on the platform is editable, which means you can add and/or delete numbers. Duplicates will also be automatically removed from your list, this way it will prevent you from being billed for duplicated SMS. To learn more, discover our video tutorial.

The blacklist contains all numbers which have replied by STOP to your campaigns. This list therefore includes all numbers to not contact again. This list is automatically generated at the reception of the responses, but you can also manually add numbers to it or import files. If you have a file of clients to not contact again, add it on our platform. Moreover, if a client contacts you to be on your blacklist, you must unsubscribe him of your sendings. You will therefore not pay for an SMS your contact does not want to receive anyway. Beware, numbers in the blacklist can never be contacted again, even if they are in your SMS alert list. They will therefore not receive those messages either. Indeed, this blacklist is joint for all your sending.

This list contains the numbers which are not attributed. This list is constituted automatically when you click on the orange button “Blacklist the invalid numbers” in your sending reports. Blacklist the invalid numbers is important because this allows you to avoid spending SMS unnecessarily. You can also add, manually or by an Excel import, numbers in this list. You can find the date of the invalid numbers in your invalid lists and in the reports of your campaigns.

To successfully create your contact list to integrate it to our platform you must follow some rules: Your file must be in xls. CSV or TXT format; Numbers must be in the first column (you can then put the name, forename, time of visit, address or others); The best format for numbers is the international format (example: 336XXXXXXXX, 337XXXXXXXXX, 41XXXXXXXXXX, 32XXXXXXXXXX). However, our platform is designed to make your life easier, so you can leave your numbers as they are with spaces, dots, dashes or others. The platform will recognize your numbers. However, pay attention and remove the numbers which have less than 10 digits or landline numbers. Once you have imported your file on the platform, click Preview to verify that the platform has recognized your numbers and has converted them in the correct format. Your contacts’ numbers are on your iPhone and you want to know how to import them on Excel to create the file to import on our platform? Click here to discover our tutorial on this subject.

Yes, of course. With our plugin of appointment reminders by SMS we connect your Calendar* with our SMS platform for free. This way you can automate your SMS sending several days before the appointment of your patient/customer for instance (you can choose the numbers of days) in a few clicks. This message can be personalized (time of appointment, answer…)! If you want to learn more about this plugin click here. If you are already convinced and wish to set it up, nothing easier: you just need to follow the procedure in this tutoriel. This plugin is free for the first agenda and you only pay for the SMS you send! * Compatible with several agendas, such as Google or Outlook. Do not hesitate to contact us to know if yours is compatible!

You can rent a targeted SMS opt-in file file so that it matches your needs. For instance, you can choose to target people depending of their age, location or socio-professional category. Depending on your means and your activity sector, you can also acquire the phone numbers of your clients/leads with those few tricks: Ask for a phone number in exchange of a fidelity card; Organize contest on your social media accounts requesting a phone number to participate; Create a survey to obtain the opinion of your clients and offer them to receive more information by SMS, etc.

Renting a mobile database allows you to prospect by targeting customers according to your own criteria. All the numbers in those databases are opt-in (the person gave its explicit agreement to receive publicity by sms), which guarantees an operation of quality. You can make an online counting request from our website page or directly from our online platform in the “Services” and “File rental” tabs.

SMS survey is an sms module allowing you to automate the sending of several sms one after the other following a predefined scenario. Each sms is triggered by the response to the previous message. Once your survey is done, you’ll have access to all your participants’ responses and also charts representing the results of your survey.

The Mail to SMS is a function which allows you to write an email from your mailbox and when you send it, this email is converted in SMS and sent on your recipients’ phone. You just need to open a new email. In the “TO” box, put in the email address we communicated you on your SMSFactor account. As the subject of your email, put the numbers you want to send you message to. And then you just have to type your message in the body of the email. If you want more information you will find in our Mail to SMS tutorial everything you need.

Yes, you can have multiple Outlook accounts linked to our platform. You simply must integrate your Outlook accounts settings. To know more about our SMS Outlook module, click here !

You can improve your customer pathway and simplify your internal management thanks to professional SMS! Thanks to our Prestashop sms module, you can integrate SMS sendings in your ecommerce website. Send promotional campaigns in masse, shopping cart reminder, sms alert to follow-up orders… To know more about our SMS Prestashop Module, click here! If you use another ecommerce solution and wish to integrate sms sendings, you can contact us by telephone at +339 83 66 87 45 or at [email protected].

Zapier is a web service which developed a tool allowing to connect applications and software between them. Thanks to Zapier, you can create “Zaps” which are some succession of actions. Example: When I create an event in my Google Agenda, I want my customers to receive an SMS 24h before the date of the appointment. Zapier is going to put in relation your Google Agenda and our platform to send a reminder by SMS according to your conditions. More information about Zapier and SMSFactor: discover all the software’s linked to SMSFactor thanks to Zapier.