About HubSpot's SMS Feature for Maricopa Colleges
HubSpot’s SMS feature can significantly enhance communication strategies across Maricopa colleges, allowing teams to send critical updates and personalized messages at the right time. This tool can be especially effective in student recruitment, engagement, and retention efforts.
🥇 SMS Best Practices
Use a Compliant SMS Consent Process
Utilize opt-in terminology. Contacts can opt-in using the three words START, UNSTOP, or SUBSCRIBE. Every SMS message must include a clear opt-out option. Prioritize giving your contacts the option to opt out of receiving messages.
Test, monitor, and analyze campaign performance regularly
Check delivery rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes to monitor campaign performance. Use your campaign results to help you craft better text messages for future campaigns. Watch which texts achieve a high rate of clicks and which text messages cause unsubscribes, then tweak and test text messages to see what drives better results.
Coordinate your texts around your email marketing and social media.
Scheduling texts in conjunction with your email and social media posts is a solid way to make sure your messages are seen and stick in your customers’ minds. The more times someone sees a message, the more likely they are to take action.
Leverage Brezze AI Copilot
Breeze Copilot is a conversational AI tool. Use Copilot as a virtual assistant to support your sales, marketing, and service goals. Copilot can help you prospect companies, generate content, complete routine tasks, and more. To personalize your experience with Copilot, you can control Copilot's access to your HubSpot account.
💻 Watch Video on SMS Marketing Video
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✅ 📄 Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating and Managing SMS
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title | 1. Identify Your SMS Use Case |
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Effective planning is the key to achieving success with SMS marketing and outreach. As you prepare to launch an SMS campaign, it is essential to have a clear idea of your message's use case.
Consider these common SMS Use Cases.
Informative | Promotional |
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Student Services | Enrollment/Admissions |
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2. Set Clear Goals
When creating an SMS marketing campaign for a college, it’s essential to establish clear objectives. What are you expecting from your SMS marketing campaign? Increase event attendance? Increase student engagement? By setting clear goals, colleges can tailor their SMS campaigns to meet specific outcomes, ensuring a successful campaign.
3. Create an Attention-Grabbing SMS Campaign
Write Actionable SMS Copy
Know your character count. While HubSpot allows a 300-character limit SMS messages max out at 160 characters—if you exceed the 160 count, your text message will be sent as two separate texts. Get to the point quickly, and use links (and link shorteners) to fill out the details of your message.
Say hello! Send a welcome message to any new contact. Clearly state who you are and why you're messaging to provide valuable context.
Get to the point: By keeping messages brief, recipients can easily read and act on the information on smartphones, watches, and digital assistants like Siri.
Don’t overdo it: SMS is a high-cost communication channel. Reserve SMS for use cases that are deeply personalized and/or express urgency.
Be transparent: Consistently reintroduce your brand, purpose, and message frequency.Opt out: Every message should include the option to opt-out.
Personalize your copy: Tailor SMS communication using personalization tokens to automatically insert relevant details like a student’s name, program interest, or other preferences, creating a more meaningful connection.
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How to Use Personalization Tokens
Add personalization to your message by clicking Personalize.
Click the Type dropdown menu, then select the type of personalization token to insert.
Click the Property dropdown menu to select which property value to pull into the message body.
Enter a default value that can be used for any contact without a value populated for the property, then click Insert.
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For more details on how to use personalization tokens this, you can explore the Create and Send SMS Messages in HubSpot resource guide.
Good SMS Examples
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4. Send a Test SMS Message
Testing SMS messages is crucial to ensure that the content such as personalization tokens display correctly, review for proper formatting and test that links in the SMS work. Testing helps you avoid errors and improve engagement. For more details, you can visit HubSpot's guide: Send Test SMS Messages.
Open the Editor: While drafting your SMS, go to the top right corner of the editor and click on Send test message.
Choose Recipients: In the right panel, click the Choose one or more numbers dropdown menu. Select phone numbers of team members who have added their number to HubSpot. If needed, you can enter a phone number manually by typing the full number including the country code.
6. Send or schedule your message
When you're ready to send or schedule your message, click the Send or schedule tab.
Configure your recipients
Click the Send to dropdown menu and choose lists or individual contacts to include in your recipient list. Only contacts set as Marketing Contacts will be eligible to receive SMS messages.
Manually Set Contacts as Marketing:
| Automatically Set Contacts as Marketing Using Workflows
|
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Review your SMS scheduling options
By default, you can only send SMS messages from 8 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. in contacts' local time zones. This applies to individual SMS campaigns as well as sending an SMS message via a workflow. If you attempt to send or schedule a message outside of this period, HubSpot will defer sending your message until waking hours begin in the subscribers' timezone.
Send now: Your message will be sent immediately.
Schedule for later: You can schedule your SMS to be sent at a specific date and time.
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title | 2. Set Clear Goals |
---|
When creating an SMS marketing campaign for a college, it’s essential to establish clear objectives. What are you expecting from your SMS marketing campaign? Increase event attendance? Increase student engagement? By setting clear goals, colleges can tailor their SMS campaigns to meet specific outcomes, ensuring a successful campaign.
3. Create an Attention-Grabbing SMS Campaign
Write Actionable SMS Copy
Know your character count. While HubSpot allows a 300-character limit SMS messages max out at 160 characters—if you exceed the 160 count, your text message will be sent as two separate texts. Get to the point quickly, and use links (and link shorteners) to fill out the details of your message.
Say hello! Send a welcome message to any new contact. Clearly state who you are and why you're messaging to provide valuable context.
Get to the point: By keeping messages brief, recipients can easily read and act on the information on smartphones, watches, and digital assistants like Siri.
Don’t overdo it: SMS is a high-cost communication channel. Reserve SMS for use cases that are deeply personalized and/or express urgency.
Be transparent: Consistently reintroduce your brand, purpose, and message frequency.Opt out: Every message should include the option to opt-out.
Personalize your copy: Tailor SMS communication using personalization tokens to automatically insert relevant details like a student’s name, program interest, or other preferences, creating a more meaningful connection.
...
How to Use Personalization Tokens
Add personalization to your message by clicking Personalize.
Click the Type dropdown menu, then select the type of personalization token to insert.
Click the Property dropdown menu to select which property value to pull into the message body.
Enter a default value that can be used for any contact without a value populated for the property, then click Insert.
...
For more details on how to use personalization tokens this, you can explore the Create and Send SMS Messages in HubSpot resource guide.
Good SMS Examples
...
4. Send a Test SMS Message
Testing SMS messages is crucial to ensure that the content such as personalization tokens display correctly, review for proper formatting and test that links in the SMS work. Testing helps you avoid errors and improve engagement. For more details, you can visit HubSpot's guide: Send Test SMS Messages.
Open the Editor: While drafting your SMS, go to the top right corner of the editor and click on Send test message.
Choose Recipients: In the right panel, click the Choose one or more numbers dropdown menu. Select phone numbers of team members who have added their number to HubSpot. If needed, you can enter a phone number manually by typing the full number including the country code.
6. Send or schedule your message
When you're ready to send or schedule your message, click the Send or schedule tab.
Configure your recipients
Click the Send to dropdown menu and choose lists or individual contacts to include in your recipient list. Only contacts set as Marketing Contacts will be eligible to receive SMS messages.
Manually Set Contacts as Marketing:
| Automatically Set Contacts as Marketing Using Workflows
|
---|
Review your SMS scheduling options
By default, you can only send SMS messages from 8 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. in contacts' local time zones. This applies to individual SMS campaigns as well as sending an SMS message via a workflow. If you attempt to send or schedule a message outside of this period, HubSpot will defer sending your message until waking hours begin in the subscribers' timezone.
Send now: Your message will be sent immediately.
Schedule for later: You can schedule your SMS to be sent at a specific date and time.
...
title | 3. Create an Attention-Grabbing SMS Campaign |
---|
Write Actionable SMS Copy
Know your character count. While HubSpot allows a 300-character limit SMS messages max out at 160 characters—if you exceed the 160 count, your text message will be sent as two separate texts. Get to the point quickly, and use links (and link shorteners) to fill out the details of your message.
Say hello! Send a welcome message to any new contact. Clearly state who you are and why you're messaging to provide valuable context.
Get to the point: By keeping messages brief, recipients can easily read and act on the information on smartphones, watches, and digital assistants like Siri.
Don’t overdo it: SMS is a high-cost communication channel. Reserve SMS for use cases that are deeply personalized and/or express urgency.
Be transparent: Consistently reintroduce your brand, purpose, and message frequency.Opt out: Every message should include the option to opt-out.
Personalize your copy: Tailor SMS communication using personalization tokens to automatically insert relevant details like a student’s name, program interest, or other preferences, creating a more meaningful connection.
...
How to Use Personalization Tokens
Add personalization to your message by clicking Personalize.
Click the Type dropdown menu, then select the type of personalization token to insert.
Click the Property dropdown menu to select which property value to pull into the message body.
Enter a default value that can be used for any contact without a value populated for the property, then click Insert.
...
For more details on how to use personalization tokens this, you can explore the Create and Send SMS Messages in HubSpot resource guide.
Good SMS Examples
...
4. Send a Test SMS Message
Testing SMS messages is crucial to ensure that the content such as personalization tokens display correctly, review for proper formatting and test that links in the SMS work. Testing helps you avoid errors and improve engagement. For more details, you can visit HubSpot's guide: Send Test SMS Messages.
Open the Editor: While drafting your SMS, go to the top right corner of the editor and click on Send test message.
Choose Recipients: In the right panel, click the Choose one or more numbers dropdown menu. Select phone numbers of team members who have added their number to HubSpot. If needed, you can enter a phone number manually by typing the full number including the country code.
6. Send or schedule your message
When you're ready to send or schedule your message, click the Send or schedule tab.
Configure your recipients
Click the Send to dropdown menu and choose lists or individual contacts to include in your recipient list. Only contacts set as Marketing Contacts will be eligible to receive SMS messages.
Manually Set Contacts as Marketing:
| Automatically Set Contacts as Marketing Using Workflows
|
---|
Review your SMS scheduling options
By default, you can only send SMS messages from 8 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. in contacts' local time zones. This applies to individual SMS campaigns as well as sending an SMS message via a workflow. If you attempt to send or schedule a message outside of this period, HubSpot will defer sending your message until waking hours begin in the subscribers' timezone.
Send now: Your message will be sent immediately.
Schedule for later: You can schedule your SMS to be sent at a specific date and time.
Expand | ||
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Testing SMS messages is crucial to ensure that the content such as personalization tokens display correctly, review for proper formatting and test that links in the SMS work. Testing helps you avoid errors and improve engagement. For more details, you can visit HubSpot's guide: Send Test SMS Messages.
6. Send or schedule your messageWhen you're ready to send or schedule your message, click the Send or schedule tab.
By default, you can only send SMS messages from 8 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. in contacts' local time zones. This applies to individual SMS campaigns as well as sending an SMS message via a workflow. If you attempt to send or schedule a message outside of this period, HubSpot will defer sending your message until waking hours begin in the subscribers' timezone.
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About HubSpot SMS
HubSpot’s SMS feature can significantly enhance communication strategies across Maricopa Community Colleges, allowing teams to send critical updates and personalized messages at the right time. This tool can be especially effective in student recruitment, engagement, and retention efforts.
Each college has a monthly limit of 25,000 SMS segments, shared among Recruitment, Marketing, and Student Affairs. When sending SMS campaigns, messages are divided into segments, each charged individually, so understanding message segmentation is essential to managing costs.
Note |
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Additional SMS pricing is $15.00 for every 1,000 additional segments per month. |
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🗨️ SMS Segmentation
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In SMS campaigns, messages are divided into segments, each incurring a charge. Each college has a shared monthly limit of 25,000 segments among the Recruitment, Marketing, and Student Affairs teams. If this limit is exceeded, the college is responsible for additional costs. Phone carriers use segments to batch and bill text message deliveries. SMS (Short Messaging Service) restricts message length based on the encoding type:
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SMS messages have a basic limit of 160 characters using GSM-7 encoding or 70 characters with UCS-2 encoding. When these limits are exceeded, phones can still send longer messages by breaking them into smaller segments. Note: Replying to messages in the SMS Inbox does not count toward the segment total (messages sent).
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🥇 Best Practices
Use a Compliant SMS Consent Process
Utilize opt-in terminology. Contacts can opt-in using the three words: START, UNSTOP, or SUBSCRIBE. Every SMS message must include a clear opt-out option. Prioritize giving your contacts the option to opt out of receiving messages.
Test, Monitor, and Analyze SMS Performance
Check delivery rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes to monitor your SMS performance. Use these results to help you craft better text messages for future campaigns. Watch which texts achieve a high rate of clicks and which text messages cause unsubscribes, then tweak and test text messages to see what drives better results.
Coordinate Texts Around Emails and Social Media
Scheduling texts in conjunction with your email and social media posts is a solid way to make sure your messages are seen and stick in your customers’ minds. The more times someone sees a message, the more likely they are to take action.
Be Careful with SMS Segmentmetation
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Track your college’s segment usage, with the SMS Segments Available by Business Unit Dashboard in HubSpot. |
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💻 Watch Our Video on SMS
Info |
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Coming soon… |
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📄 Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating and Managing SMS
Expand | ||||||||
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Effective planning is the key to achieving success with SMS marketing and outreach. As you prepare to launch an SMS campaign, it is essential to have a clear idea of your message's use case. When creating an SMS marketing campaign for a college, it’s essential to establish clear objectives. What are you expecting from your SMS marketing campaign? Increase event attendance? Increase student engagement? By setting clear goals, colleges can tailor their SMS campaigns to meet specific outcomes, ensuring a successful campaign. Consider these common SMS Use Cases.
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Write Actionable SMS Copy
Good SMS Examples |
Expand | ||
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Testing SMS messages is crucial to ensure that the content such as personalization tokens display correctly, review for proper formatting and test that links in the SMS work. Testing helps you avoid errors and improve engagement. For more details, you can visit HubSpot's guide: Send Test SMS Messages.
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To configure your SMS recipients in HubSpot:
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When you're ready to send or schedule your message, click the Send or Schedule tab.
By default, you can only send SMS messages from 8 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. in contacts' local time zones. This applies to individual SMS campaigns as well as sending an SMS message via a workflow. If you attempt to send or schedule a message outside of this period, HubSpot will defer sending your message until waking hours begin in the subscribers' timezone.
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How to Manage and Reply to Marketing SMS Messages
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Access the Conversations Inbox
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Viewing SMS Conversations
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Reply to Messages
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Track Conversations
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For a detailed guide, |
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see the full resource on HubSpot’s Knowledge Base: Use the Conversations Inbox. |
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For additional instructions on creating and managing SMS messages, view all HubSpot SMS articles. |