SMS Data Collection

Table of Contents

    1. What is the message flow of SMS data collection?
    2. Where do I store the collected data?
    3. How can I use the data that is collected?
  1. SMS Messaging
    1. Create an SMS Data Collection Question
  2. Send an SMS Data Collection Message

SMS data collection allows you to collect data from your subscribers through 2-way SMS. By creating questions, you can collect data in the SMS replies to those questions.

What is the message flow of SMS data collection? #

Subscribers will receive an SMS question in the form of an automatic response or scheduled message from your messaging campaign. Once they receive the message, they will respond back with their answers via SMS. Then, you can trigger a message response or a campaign opt-in.

Example

Where do I store the collected data? #

When subscribers respond to an SMS data collection question, we save their answers as subscriber data under the ‘View Data’ column of the campaign’s Audience Manager page. Note that the subscriber data is only available within the campaign that a subscriber has responded to. If a subscriber opted into multiple campaigns within the same account, their other campaigns will not receive the collected data.

How can I use the data that is collected? #

Use the collected data in future messages as dynamic merge tags within the text. Also, you can use the collected email addresses to subscribe to an email campaign. Moreover, you can export the collected data and use it for your own analysis or segmentation.

SMS Messaging #

Create an SMS Data Collection Question #

To begin creating your data collection question, go to the SMS Data Collection page and click the ‘Add Data Collection Question’ button.

Question
SettingDescription
NameThe internal name of the data collection question. You will see the list of names when selecting a data collection question to include within your messages.
QuestionThe question that you send to your subscribers. When you select an SMS data collection question to put into an SMS message, this question text will be in the SMS body. Note that the question text will not appear when put into an MMS message.
Answer TypeSet the answer type to multiple-choice, open-ended, or PIN code.

Multiple Choice Questions: Send subscribers a question with up to five answers to choose from. For each option, you must include a key as well as a definition. When you select a multiple-choice question to put into an SMS message, the question text, as well as the keys and definitions, will be within the SMS body. The subscribers will see the keys and definitions in the format of ‘Text KEY1 for definition1, KEY2 for definition2, …’ For example, if you want to ask ‘What is your occupation?’ with the choices A) Professional B) Student or C) Retired, then you would enter A, B, and C as the keys, and ‘Professional’, ‘Student’, and ‘Retired’ as the corresponding definitions.

Key: Choices that the subscribers reply back to answer the question. Only the keys that you have assigned in the multiple-choice question will be valid responses. If subscribers reply back with an unassigned key, it will not collect the data. Also, the key must be an alphanumeric phrase that is up to 8 characters in length. Moreover, it cannot include spaces. Certain words, such as HELP, STOP, and YES, are unavailable as they are reserved keywords.

Definition: A definition is an answer that the key represents. If a subscriber replies back with an assigned key, then the definition for that key is stored in the subscriber data for that subscriber. Note that the subscriber must reply back with the key and not the definition itself. Definitions can include spaces. While there is no character cap on definitions, please be aware that SMS messages exceeding 160 characters will be delivered as a concatenated message or in some cases multiple messages.

Open-Ended Questions: Send subscribers a question with an open-ended answer. Open-ended questions allow subscribers to respond with their own individual answers. The full answer is stored in the subscriber data for each audience member. Validation rules can be configured to ensure that subscriber response is within set parameters.

There are five validation rules:
Any Text (No Validation): All responses will be valid. Also, it accepts the space character.

Only Alpha-numeric Text: Responses containing only alphanumeric text that are within the set character length constrictions will be valid. Responses that do not follow these rules or contain a space character will be invalid.

Only Numeric Text: Responses containing only numeric text that are within the set character length constrictions will be valid. Responses that do not follow these rules or contain a space character will be invalid.

Only Alphabet Text: Responses containing only alphabet text that are within the set character length constrictions will be valid. Responses that do not follow these rules or contain a space character will be invalid.

An Email Address: Responses consisting only of a properly formatted email address and are within the set character length constrictions will be valid. Responses that do not follow these rules or contain a space character will be invalid.

Pin Code: Send subscribers a question with a PIN code as an answer. The PIN code will be validated against a database of personalized images. If a subscriber enters a valid PIN code, it collects the reply and stores the phone with the personalized image associated with the valid PIN code. Then, you may send a personalized image to the subscriber.
ActionsPreset automatic events following a subscriber’s valid response. Some actions are available regardless of the settings above, while other actions are only available in response to specific settings.

Store the response into the subscriber’s data with the following variable name: You are required to provide a variable name for SMS data collection profiles. The variable name is for internal use only and is used to store the subscriber data.

There are two types of subscriber data: personal data and additional data. First, to collect personal data, set up your tags. Secondly, set the variable name to the name of your tag. Otherwise, data collected with a variable name other than the name of your tag will be an ‘additional data’. Also, variable names can only contain alphanumeric characters, dashes (-), and underscores (_).

Reply back with another SMS or MMS: Send a follow-up reply. This reply can be an SMS/MMS message or another data collection question. You can create this daisy chain by constructing a string of questions that lead to another. This allows account holders to collect multiple pieces of data. For multiple choice questions, individually set a reply for each response.

Subscribe a phone number to a campaign: This setting is only available for multiple choice questions. Set multiple choice answers to subscribe those who respond into different SMS/MMS campaigns. Here, you do not need to have an additional opt-in.

Send an SMS Data Collection Message #

You can send the SMS Data Collection messages as an automatic response or as a scheduled message. Also, you can select an SMS Data Collection question. Then, it will add the question text into the SMS body. Also, you can adjust the SMS text before submitting it without interfering with the collection process.

Auto-response

Did this article help?