Using Campaigns, you can send text, a.k.a. SMS, messages to employees by using our integration with the messaging platform Twilio. Send SMS messages to supplement regular Beekeeper Campaigns and:

• Communicate with employees who do not own a smartphone but have a device with SMS capabilities
• Ensure all employees see urgent announcements, e.g. a location is closed due to weather
• Communicate with employees out in the field in areas without reliable internet access
• Send custom onboarding messages and remind employees to download the Beekeeper app

If you are interested in adding the SMS Campaigns integration, please reach out to your Beekeeper Customer Success contact or see this Help Center article for more information.

Step 1 - Target

Add a new Campaign. After selecting a Targeted Location and/or Targeted Group, select one of the following Targeted Segments. When either of these Targeted Segments are selected, your Campaign message will be sent via SMS, not via Beekeeper Chat.

• "Never logged in users (contactable by SMS)" - This segment will target only the employees within your Targeted Location/Group who have never logged in and who have a mobile phone number in their user profile.
• "All users with mobile phone (contactable by SMS)"- This segment will target all employees within your Targeted Location/Group who have a mobile phone number in their user profile, regardless of if they have logged in before or not.

Step 2 - Build

Title

Name your Campaign by entering a title.  Please note that the title is only used to name the Campaign in your Beekeeper dashboard and will not be included in the actual SMS message.

Sender

The sender will automatically be your Beekeeper company account.  Similar to the title of the Campaign, the company account will only show in your Beekeeper dashboard.  When users receive the SMS message, the sender will display as the mobile number purchased during the Twilio registration.

Message

The message body pre-populates with a message directing people to download the Beekeeper app for a better user experience.  You can easily add to, modify, or remove this message.

Messaging Requirements/Guidelines

When crafting your SMS Campaign message, you must follow these guidelines below.  If your message does not adhere to these conditions, your message will likely be filtered out or dropped by mobile carriers and can jeopardize your ability to send SMS messages.

• Consent - Prior to sending your first SMS message with Twilio, get agreement from employees/recipients to communicate with them via text, and keep it on record.  Consent needs to be received at least once every 18 months. Agreement does not need to be obtained through an SMS message.  You might consider asking for consent in your Fairplay Rules.
• Identify yourself (the party that obtained agreement/consent) as the sender within the message.
• Include opt-out language within the message that utilizes a one-word response, e.g. "Reply STOP to unsubscribe", at least once a month.
• Content guidelines as advised by Twilio and mobile phone carriers to avoid your message being detected as spam:
  • Don't use shortened links, like TinyUrl or Bitly.
  • Only send URLs of domains that you control, e.g. a link to a Beekeeper post or your website.
  • Don't use emojis, unnecessary special characters, or unnecessary capitalization.
  • Use proper grammar and spelling

An example message that meets these guidelines:

"From: Company X. Due to a power outage, Location A is closed for the day. We'll send an update when it's reopened. For more info, see https://companyx.beekeeper.io/posts/1234567. Reply STOP to unsubscribe."

Step 3 - Schedule & Step 4 - Confirm

Choose your schedule options, and review and confirm your SMS Campaign the same as you would with a regular Campaign.

FAQs

Does Beekeeper support messaging services other than Twilio?

At this time, we are only integrated with Twilio.  If you use another messaging service, please inform your Beekeeper Customer Success contact.

Can employees respond to the SMS messages?

Allowing incoming responses and replying to those responses can be configured within Twilio.  Please reach out to your Beekeeper Customer Success contact for more information.

The SMS character limit is 160 characters.  What happens if the message is longer than that?

The message will be sent as multiple SMS message segments to end users.  Please note that Twilio charges by the segment.

Can the {{firstname}} placeholder and other placeholders be used in an SMS Campaign, like they can in a regular Campaign?

At this time, placeholders are not recognized.