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Create a Broadcast Campaign in 4 steps

How to Import, Create a Group, and Send a Broadcast Message

J
Written by Jonathan G. Duarte
Updated over 4 months ago

There are two ways to create a broadcast message campaign in GoHire. In this article, we're going to dive into the first option "Create a Broadcast Campaign in 4 steps".
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​Option 1 - Create and Send a Campaign in 4 Steps (Best if you need to learn the process.)
* Importing a file of contacts

* Creating a group of contacts
* Creating a template message
* Sending your campaign


​Option 2 - Create and Send a Campaign in 1 Step
(Best if you have an existing group and template message.)
For more info on Option 1 visit Creating and Sending a Campaign in 1 Step.


Step 1. Import a CSV file

Create a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file

  1. The following 3 column headers are required and must be Exact Match "Firstname", "Lastname", "Mobile" (Cut N' Paste these column titles)
    ​Download a sample file here

  2. Before you save an Excel or Google Sheet to the CSV format, remove all existing commas in the file. Commas will corrupt the file.

    Steps to Remove Commas:
    This step will find and delete all commas in your Google Sheet or Excel spreadsheet, so your CSV export file is not corrupted by a stray comma or two.

       In Google Sheets and Excel:
           In the menu bar, Choose Edit>Find and Replace.
           In the "Find" box, enter a single comma ","
           In the "Replace" box do not enter anything.

  3. Then, Save or Export the file to a Comma Separated Value (text CSV) format.

Import the Contacts into GoHire:

  1. Log Into GoHire, and choose Contacts > Import on the left navigation.

  2. Either Drag n Drop your file into the import window, or click the "upload" link in the center of the import window, and choose your file.

  3. If your file is valid, you will see a list of contacts ready to be imported, below.

    Sample import file


Step 2. Create a New Group or Choose an Existing Group:

  1. Choose to either create a new group or choose an existing group that you want the contacts to be added to.

  2. Click Next, to start the import process.

  3. If there are existing contacts in the GoHire database, you will see a message to confirm if you want to "Add/Update" your existing contacts, with this new info, or if you want to just "Add" the existing contacts to this group. Choose the radio button on the top, and then you can choose to import all contacts the same way, view the Choose All, or you can choose individual contacts.

  4. Click Next to Complete the import.

Step 3. Create a Template Message (optional)

Creating a Template Message is really easy to do and something you might want to consider, so you can reuse this template message when texting with contacts 1 to 1.
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This is not a required step to send a broadcast message, because you can create a text message while creating a broadcast message.
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To Create a Template Message:

  1. On the Left Navigation, choose Templates.

  2. Create a name for the template.

  3. Enter the text of the message you want to send to your contacts. (Notice the maximum number of characters is 320, which is 2 text messages merged together.)

  4. Click Save

Step 4. Create and Send a Broadcast Message

In this section we'll show you the basics of creating a broadcast campaign, using the contact group that you created in the previous steps and a template message.

1. In the left side navigation, Click the Broadcast tab.

2. On the Broadcast page, Choose New Broadcast.

3. On the Broadcast entry page, Enter a name for your Broadcast Campaign. It could include the purpose, the date, the name or a group you sending to, etc.

4. Choose when you want to send the Message "Send Now" or choose a time and date. (The default is "Send Now")
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5. Choose if you want to use a Template Message, an Automated Conversation, or Create a Message from scratch. If you want to create a message from scratch, you can use the Mail-Merge fields, to customize the message with the contacts first name, etc. The max character count for a broadcast campaign is 320 characters, which is plenty for a short text message.

6. Once you have the Message set, Choose Next.

7. Choose the Group that you want to send the messages to, or you can import a CSV file at this point. Review the contact names in the bottom half of the page, and then Click Next.
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8. Confirm the Message, Group, and Time to Send the message, and Click Confirm.

9. You'll be redirected to review the campaign status from the main Broadcast Campaign page.

Broadcast Statistics:
Broadcasts run on a schedule, and might take 1-2 minutes to schedule and start the sending.

As the Broadcast is sent out, Go Hire will show interim status updates for each of the outbound text messages. We track ever message sent.

Some carriers do not respond with confirmation received statuses, while others are slow to respond. As a result, depending on the number of messages sent, the "complete" record of what messages were sent, and which were delivered or not will take several minutes.


​What to expect:

From our experience, a broadcast campaign will generally generate 15-30% response rates. The results really rely on how old the contacts are, your message, and your call to action. We've seen clients get over 55% response rates. So, we suggest not sending more than 50 - 100 messages per campaign, so you can manage the candidate responses in a timely manner.

Attachment icon
GoHire Import Contact Sample file - Sample Import.csv
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