Build a New Campaign

Building a campaign lets you reach out to your contacts in a systematic and scripted way. Spoke administrators and owners are able to create campaigns from the Spoke administration dashboard.

Note: After you create and start a campaign, you can continue editing all information with the exception of the contact list. To "add" contacts to a campaign, select Copy Campaign from the individual campaign page and load new contacts onto the duplicate campaign.

To build a new campaign, use the following steps:

Step 1: Initiate a new campaign

From the Campaigns page of administrator dashboard, click the plus (+) button. This will pull up a new campaign settings page.

You can also duplicate an existing campaign by selecting Copy Campaign from the individual campaign page. This will often be the more efficient option.

Step 2: Enter campaign information

The first window in the campaign settings page is called Basics and includes fields for basic campaign information. Enter values for the following fields:

Step 3: Set texting hours

To set texting hours:

1. Open the Texting Hours window.
2. Enter a start time. Use a 12-hour time, such as 9 am.
3. Enter an end time. Use a 12-hour time, such as 9 pm.
4. Select a default timezone to apply to contacts without zip codes.
5. Click Save.

Note: All texting should take place between 9am-9pm local time. Spoke will automatically honor the timeframe you set relative to the uploaded zip code of each contact.

For more information, see Texting Hours.

Step 4: Import contacts to the campaign

From the Contacts window, perform the following steps:

To Import a CSV: 

1. Optional — Exclude contacts who also appear as contacts within another campaign. You can also achieve this during Step 4, if preferred.
   1. Start typing the name of the campaign you want to use for filtering.
   2. Click the campaign name in the list.
   3. Repeat until you've finished adding the campaigns you want to exclude.
2. Click Select a File.
3. Locate the contact-list CSV file and click Open.
4. Click Save.
5. Review the upload notifications for processing notes.

For more information on the formatting requirements for your CSV file, see Contact Lists.

To Import a list from VAN: 

(You must already have your VAN integration set up. To do this, see  VAN list loading.)

For VAN lists, you cannot filter out contacts that are also in another campaign.

1. Select Integration from Contact Source menu.
2. Select the integration you wish to use (i.e. Votebuilder / VAN), and click the refresh button at the far right of the screen.

   

3. Browse for the correct list under the Choose a list: menu, then press Save.
4. Review the upload notifications for processing notes.

 Note: Once you start the campaign, you will not be able to modify or add to the contact list.

Step 5: Optional — Filter Landlines

Filtering landlines or otherwise un-textable numbers will cost $.0025 (1/4 cent) per phone number, but as long as more than a third of your phone numbers are likely to be invalid, it will save you money: It's cheaper to look up a phone number and throw it out for 1/4 cent than text that number at 1 cent/segment! If you're pretty sure your phone numbers are valid, feel free to skip this section. 

Note: Phone number lookups are charged only once per contact cell. If a contact existed on a previous campaign and the Filter Landlines feature was used, you will not be charged an additional $.0025 to look up the same cell a second time.

Step 6: Resolve any overlapping contacts with other campaigns

If you have uploaded contacts who also appear as contacts within other campaigns, those campaigns are listed in the Contact Overlap Management window. Perform one of the following:

• Leave the campaign with overlapping contacts in the list.
• Select the overlapping contacts, then click the trash icon to remove those contacts from this new campaign. 

For more information, see Contact Overlap Management.

Step 7: Optional — Assign teams to the campaign

Add teams to the campaign from the Teams window:

1. Enter a team name in the field, and click the team name in the list.
2. Optional — Add additional teams by repeating the previous step.
3. Optional — Entirely restrict conversation assignment to members of the listed teams by toggling the switch on. Left off, assignment will be prioritized for members of those teams but not restricted.

Step 8: Optional — Set the assignment options for texters

Assignment is best done through auto-assignment (see Step 10) or through manual assignment within Message Review. However, you have the option to manually assign a number of contacts to an individual texter while building the campaign. To do so:

1. Search for the name of the texter. The texter must already exist in Spoke.
2. Specify the number of contacts to assign to the texter.
3. Click Save.

Step 9: Create an interaction script for your texters

Step 10: Create canned responses for supplementary FAQ

To add a canned response:

1. Open the Canned Responses window.
2. Click Add new canned response.
3. Enter a title for the canned response.
4. Write a script for the response:
   1. Click the Script field.
   2. Write your canned response.
   3. Click Done.
5. Click Add Response.
6. Optional — Add additional canned responses.
7. Click Save.

For more information, see Canned Responses.

Step 11: Recommended — Set the auto-assignment option

Turning on auto-assignment allows your texters to pick up the assignment automatically from the request form. By default, auto-assignment is turned off.

To turn on auto-assignment:

1. Open the Autoassign Mode window.
2. Turn the toggle on.
3. Click Save.

For more information, see Auto-Assignment.

Step 12: Start the campaign

Before you start the campaign, double-check the previous steps to ensure you have properly entered and saved the campaign details. When you are ready to start the campaign, click the Start this Campaign button in the top right.