Navigating and Managing Campaigns FAQs

Modified on Tue, 27 Aug at 10:33 AM

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Navigating and Managing Campaigns FAQs

This section of the user guide is focused on FAQs related to navigating and managing campaigns. To help you navigate the article we have broken it down into the following sections:

Messages
Contacts
- Can I add contacts to a campaign after it's been launched?
Archiving a campaign
- Why should I archive a campaign?
- What happens if a student responds to a campaign that has been archived?
Monitoring a campaign
Archiving a campaign
- What happens if I archive a campaign before all messages are sent?
- I didn't respond to all messages before archiving a campaign, can I re-open the same campaign to respond?

Messages

Can I receive unwanted messages through campaigns?

Campaign phone numbers are like any other phone number. They can receive unwanted calls or messages. Even though campaigns do have a level of spam filtering, there are times when an unwanted message can still get through the system.

Unsolicited messages are identifiable currently via the “+” sign next to the phone number in the activity pane for a given campaign.

These phone numbers may be spam, or they could be a message directed to a reusable number.

How do I know when a message has come in within a campaign that I need to address?

The yellow "Needs Attention" flag will display alongside the message on the Campaigns page, on the Active tab as shown below:

If you are linked to the embedded virtual assistant from a campaign message, what client webpage does it take you to?

You are not linked to a school-hosted page, but rather to a virtual assistant that is embedded on a secure page hosted by Ocelot specifically for campaigns.

What are the standard phrases or keywords for a student to opt out?

The following are the standard phrases that a Two-Way Messaging end user may use to opt out of a campaign or 1:1 Two-Way Message:

do not message
do not text
quit
stop
take me off your list
Unsubscribe

Can end users see the suggested content (links) on a campaign conversation?

Two-Way Messaging end users will be directed to a web-based virtual assistant experience, that is non-SMS compatible. They will be able to link out to the virtual assistant experience and then the Explore feature with suggested content links will be available. The end user will need to authenticate by entering the last 4 digits of their phone number:

The end user will then experience a mobile version of the virtual assistant with access to suggested content, videos, and links.

If a campaign is set to be managed by the virtual assistant, will live assistant be offered for the appropriate offices (when someone is online) instead of the normal Communication Opportunities response?

No. Conversations starting with campaigns do not have the option to go directly to live assistant.

Contacts

Can I add contacts to a campaign after it's been launched?

No. To send the campaign to additional contacts, you will need to clone the campaign and send it to the new contact list.

Archiving a campaign

Why should I archive a campaign?

Campaigns require a timeframe to be auto-archived. You can schedule a campaign to be auto-archived 1 - 180 days after the campaign has been launched.

Archiving a campaign is important to stop incoming messages from users, help streamline staff focus on most current campaigns, as well as to manage actively provisioned phone numbers and messaging.
Ocelot recommends setting your campaign to archive after 7 days, however, consideration should to be taken for the audience and content of the campaign.
Campaigns can be archived while there are still some messages "Pending", "Scheduled", or "Still in Queue". While these messages will try to resend while the campaign is active, in most cases, these messages may remain trying to resend indefinitely.
If a launched campaign has some messages that are in "Pending", "Scheduled", or "Still in Queue" status (meaning some messages on the campaign have not yet been delivered, but the campaign is still trying to send those messages), it is reasonable to wait 24 hours and see if those initially-undelivered messages can re-try the send. After 24 hours, it is recommended to manually archive the campaign, as the undelivered messages will try to resend the campaign message indefinitely.
Actions such as opt-out, and preview are still available for contacts/messages while the campaign is archived.

What happens if a student responds to a campaign that has been archived?

If the campaign has been archived, and a provisioned phone number is not set up as a reusable number, an incoming message w be delivered.

If the phone number is set up as a reusable number, and not associated with an active campaign, it will follow the unsolicited message settings behavior set up for the reusable number.

Monitoring a campaign

Can I view the progress of my campaign in real time?

Campaign users can see campaign progress in real-time as it moves through the queue. This feature is accessible through the Analytics tab of an individual campaign, and has the following information:

The total number of contacts in the original contact list is reported for reference
The graphic breaks out successfully delivered, pending, and failed by color
Hover over the graphic for totals within each category

How do I view the message delivery status of a campaign?

There are two ways to view the delivery status of a campaign message.

On the activity tab of the Active tab, messages will display their sent status on the conversation selection panel and in the conversation panel.
- Sent - The green checkmark icon represents that the message has been sent and received by Twilio. A double checkmark means the message has been sent and delivered.
- Pending - The blue circle arrow icon represents that the message has been sent to Twilio but it has not been accepted yet.
- Undelivered - The red circle icon represents that the message cannot be delivered. If you hover over the icon it will indicate the reason why.
On the Contact tab of an active campaign, the Delivered column will indicate the message delivery status.
- Delivered - The green checkmark icon indicates the message has been delivered successfully to the client.
  - Actions such as Opt-Out and Preview are still available on these contacts.
- Pending - The yellow clock icon indicates the message is attempting to resend the message. It did not send the message on the first attempt.
  - The message will remain in a pending status while the message tries again to be delivered.
  - If the message is successfully sent on the next attempt, the message status will change to a delivered status.
  - If the message is not successfully sent on the next attempt, it will continue attempts to deliver, but if not successful, the contact will be assigned a "Failed" status.
    - Contacts in the campaign may remain in the pending status while the campaign tries to resend the message to these contacts. This is referred to as a 'soft bounce', and the campaign will continue to try to resend indefinitely.
      - Schools are advised to manually close a campaign if/when the school decides any remaining pending contacts no longer need to receive the message.
    - Once all the contact messages in a campaign have a Delivered status of delivered or failed, the campaign status will change to complete.
    - If the campaign is archived before all messages are delivered, the message status will remain as-is.
      - If the message was pending before the campaign was archived, it will remain in the pending status even after the campaign is archived.
  - Actions such as Opt-Out and Preview are still available on these contacts.
- Scheduled - If our third-party service provider, Twilio, is unable to immediately send the message due to a bandwidth delay, a clock icon will indicate the message is scheduled. The status icon will update accordingly upon resolution of the bandwidth delay.
- Failed to send - The red exclamation mark flag indicates the message failed to deliver. In the Failed Reason column, there will be a description of why the message failed.
  - Schools are advised to not try and resend any campaign contacts who have an unreachable number reason. These contacts will not successfully deliver if attempting to resend.
  - Actions such as Opt-Out and Preview are still available on these contacts.

How long will it take to deliver campaign messages to all my contacts?

Twilio, our service provider will send the message as soon as they are able. There may be periodic delays depending on the bandwidth of the service. For example, in a large Campaign, Twilio may process the messages in about 5-8 minutes after the launch.
Keep in mind the following when sending a message:
- It takes one second to send one simple 160-character message to a student, meaning a 1600-character message will take 10 seconds to send to one student.
- Each special character used in the message (i.e. @, &, $, etc.) has the potential to add additional seconds.

Why do I see opt-out contacts immediately after launching?

If a student previously opted out of a campaign and they are included in your new campaign contact list, the student will be immediately opted out of the new campaign and will not receive a message. You will see the number of contact opt-outs on Two-Way Messaging > Campaigns > Active > View then select the Analytics tab. The Engagement box will display the number of contacts that have opted out.

Under the Contacts tab, you can view the phone numbers the message was delivered to as well as the phone numbers that have opted out.

To verify that a contact previously opted out, view the Contact Management > Opt-outs menu and cross reference an opt-out contact number from the new campaign. You will be able to see a date stamp of when that phone number opted out.

Archiving a campaign

What happens if I archive a campaign before all messages are sent?

If you attempt to archive a campaign before it completes delivering messages to all of the contacts, you will receive a warning message letting you know that not all contacts have been sent.

You can confirm that you would like to continue with archiving the campaign which will result in permanent failure of all remaining undelivered messages; or,
You can abort the archiving request and allow the campaign to continue to run through all queued messages
Please note that stopping/archiving a campaign due to an error with the campaign will not stop most messages from being sent. Please be sure to double-check your campaign for accuracy before launching!

If a campaign is archived before it finishes delivering its queue of messages, undelivered messages in the queue may or may not be delivered. Additional details will be displayed on the Analytics dashboard.

Messages still in the queue at the time of archiving may still be delivered! There is a point, quickly after a campaign is launched, where once the messages that are queued to send, stopping/archiving the campaign will not pull the messages out of the queue.
Messages that can be pulled back when a campaign is stopped/archived before all messages have finished sending will be permanently reported as “pending” in analytics (not as failed).
A warning message will show on the campaign’s analytics dashboard that pending messages are a result of a campaign being archived too early

If a launched campaign has some contacts who are in a "Still in Queue" status (meaning some contacts in the campaign have not yet been delivered, but the campaign is still trying to send those messages), it is reasonable to wait 24 hours and see if those initial undelivered contacts can retry to send. After 24 hours, it is recommended to manually archive the campaign, as the undelivered contacts will likely try to resend the campaign message indefinitely.

I didn't respond to all messages before archiving a campaign, can I re-open the same campaign to respond?

Once a campaign has been made inactive, agents are no longer able to reply to any texts that have already come in.

If the campaign is using a reusable phone number that has been configured to receive unsolicited messages as agent-backed, all existing messages that Needs Attention and new messages from the archived campaign will be directed to the inbox assigned in the unsolicited message settings for that phone number.