New SMS Feature on Civi DemTool

We’re excited to share the launch of a new SMS feature on the Civi DemTool!

The SMS conversation features allow you to automate discussions with your target audience while building the strength of your Civi database. You can start your conversations by sending out SMS to your existing contacts (for example “Are you interested in supporting our campaign?”) and let their responses (perhaps “yes”, “no” or “maybe”) trigger further questions and responses. You can also let anyone outside of your existing contact list trigger a conversation by texting a given number. For instance, “text ‘Join’ to 2027285555 to show your support”. This number could then be advertised on radio, social media or elsewhere to help not only generate support and awareness, but also grow your list of contacts and supporters directly within Civi!

Some key features of SMS conversation for the Civi DemTool include:

• Record answers directly in core and custom contact fields (like Name, Age, Areas of Interest, etc.): Helps eliminate the burden of manually collecting and entering data

• Add contacts to groups based on how they answer a question: Allows for instant message targeting and follow-up

• Validate answers: Helps to guide your contacts through a conversation so that they provide you with meaningful, actionable answers

• Branch the conversation and ask different questions depending on the answer to previous questions: Allows you to customize and target your messaging and personalize the interaction

• Use inbound text messages to start conversations (e.g. text 'join' to 800225 to answer a few questions and join our party): Gives you the ability to more easily grow your database ​

​Read more about the SMS conversations feature here!