Text messages (SMS)
CampaignHQ can text your contacts as part of an automation — a welcome text when someone joins, a reminder a day after they grab your lead magnet, and so on.
Give contacts a phone number
SMS steps only reach contacts that have a phone number:
- Add contact on the Contacts page now has an optional Phone field.
- CSV imports accept a
phonecolumn (email,first_name,last_name,phone). A row with a bad phone still imports — the contact just has no number. - Funnel forms collect email only for now.
Numbers are stored in international format. US numbers can be typed naturally —
(555) 010-2030 becomes +15550102030. Other countries need the + country code.
Send a text from an automation
- Open your automation and choose the Send SMS step type.
- Write the message —
{{firstName}}and{{lastName}}are replaced per contact. - Add the step. It runs in order with your other steps, so a common pattern is: Send email → Wait 1440 minutes → Send SMS.
Two things happen automatically on every text:
- "Reply STOP to opt out" is appended — this keeps you compliant with carrier rules and can't be removed.
- Contacts without a phone number are skipped — the automation simply continues with the next step. Skips never mark the run as failed.
Opt-outs (STOP / START)
When someone replies STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT) their number is added to the do-not-text list and CampaignHQ will not text it again — from any workspace, since texts share a sending number. Replying START or YES opts back in. This all happens automatically; there is nothing to configure.
Opting out of texts is separate from unsubscribing from email — a contact can keep one and drop the other.
Notes
- Message limit is 480 characters (about 3 SMS segments) plus the opt-out notice.
- Delivery requires the platform's SMS provider (Twilio) to be configured by your administrator; in development, messages are recorded but not sent.