Once you've imported a few lists into your account and are ready to start marketing, SMS (texting) within BatchLeads is a great place to start! Before you can start sending messages, you'll need to do a few things first!
1. Integrate your account with your chosen third-party vendor
Please review the provider requirements here (Twilio, Plivo, Signalwire, etc.)
This is REQUIRED and must be completed first. Please follow the entire guide of the integration you choose to ensure you've done it properly.
How to Integrate Twilio with BatchLeads
How to Integrate Plivo with BatchLeads
How to integrate Signalwire with BatchLeads
How to Integrate Flowroute with BatchLeads
How to Integrate Telnyx with BatchLeads
After successfully activating the integration of your choice, you'll need to return to your BatchLeads account to purchase phone numbers to text with (under "SMS Settings"). You will be charged for any phone numbers you purchase, texts you send / receive through your integration but you will retrieve them from the BatchLeads platform. You will only be charged in Batch for your subscription, skip tracing and mail costs.
It is VERY important that you followed the complete guide for the integration you chose to connect with BatchLeads when it comes to purchasing phone numbers to text with. You will not be getting your phone numbers straight from any of the third parties. Depending on the integration you chose, you may need to go back and forth to make sure the phone numbers you purchased have been connected properly. See the Integration guides for more information.
2. Request a Market
To purchase phone numbers, you'll need to start by requesting a market under SMS settings. To get there, click on the profile icon in the top right hand corner to open "My Profile". Click on "SMS settings" in the menu on the left, then select "Markets" near the top right. Click "ADD NEW". (Order of buttons to select are shown in the image below)
After clicking "ADD NEW" you'll select a state, market (city) within that state and add a "call forward number".
The call-forwarding number is where calls will be redirected if someone you text from this market calls you.
The market must be approved which will be indicated with a blue check mark (shown in the example images). Once the market is approved, you will be able to purchase phone numbers. 
3. Purchase Phone Numbers
After the market you requested has been approved, go to "phone manager" under SMS settings to purchase phone numbers.
NOTE: *Only do this once your third-party integration is active. When clicking "purchase phone number" through Batch, it will be pulling numbers from the third-party integration you chose i.e. Twilio, Plivo, etc. This is also where you will be charged.
Under "phone manager", click on "purchase phone number" and select the provider you integrated with, the market (which will the determine the area codes of the phone numbers that will populate and the amount of phone numbers you wish to purchase (This is VERY important - make sure you know the limitations on how many phone numbers you can buy through the integration you chose - it should have been specified when you registered for 10DLC). Then click "submit request".
It may take up to 10 minutes for your new purchased phones numbers to appear. You should just keep refreshing your account and if you don't see them populate after over 10 minutes with blue check marks next to them (shown in image below), please reach out to BatchLeads support.
4. Create an SMS Template
Still within "SMS Settings", go to "SMS Templates" and click "add template". In the example image below, the user has already made a template with 10 messages. You can create as many templates ad you'd like that can be used over and over again for different scenarios.
After clicking "ADD TEMPLATE" you'll be redirected to a screen where you can start creating your messages.
You need to compose a minimum of 10 messages in order to save your template, however, we recommend creating 20+ messages per template which will be randomly rotate once sent out.
You can utilize the grey buttons to the right of the message window to reference fields from the database, which will customize your message to the person you are messaging.
For example, if you click the "First Name" button, the text {{first_name}} appears in the template. This text will be replaced by the First Name of the person you are contacting from the database when the message is sent, so the actual message will include the person's first name without having to type it out manually. 
Please consider the important information we have provided at the bottom of the same page to ensure you have excellent deliverability (show in image below)
Things you can do to improve your deliverability:
- Check your numbers and release numbers that have been identified as spam
- Change up your messages as often as possible
- Be creative and don’t send not-recommended keywords (some of these keywords have a higher than normal blockage rate) (complete list in image below)
- Don’t mass message (Identify the hottest leads through list stacking and only send message to those)
- Be Creative with your messages - think outside the box.
- Messages such as, “Hi, (name) are you interested in selling your property at “address” will have an extremely high block rate.
Apart from the keywords that you can already see on the message template edit/create page, we recommend avoiding the following words as well:
Investment, Looking, Not sure, Out of the blue, Person, Property records, Public, Public records, Purchasing, Right, Shot in the dark, Sorry, Mortgage, Loan, Insurance, Debt(s), Lend, Home, House, Property, Buy, Buying, Sell.
The only time you can use any of these words when texting is AFTER the property owner has replied to your first message and you've started a conversation.
6. Create Quick Replies (optional)
Go to "Quick Replies" in SMS Settings and click "ADD QUICK REPLY". This is optional but is a great tool to utilize to be as efficient as possible when texting people back and forth after they've replied to your initial message. You could make note of frequently asked questions you get when texting people so you have a reply ready to be sent with minimal effort. for example, if people often ask you "What's your offer?", you could make a quick reply to ask a question about the property before determining your offer! It is completely up to you.
7. Manage your DNC List / Trigger Words List
Before you start texting you can add contacts or import lists of contacts you do not wish to contact by accident.
At the bottom on "DNC Manager" you'll see an area where you enter your own DNC trigger words. Basically, if a contact texts you back with one of the words on your list, it will automatically place them on your Do not Contact list so you don't send them texts in the future and upset them.
Example DNC trigger words: Stop, End, Quit, Don't text me etc. (there are not case sensitive - but are phrase specific, meaning the contact has to type the exact word you have entered here to be put on your DNC list)
That's it! Once you've completed your SMS Settings set up, its time to start an SMS campaign!! CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO START AN SMS CAMPAIGN