Migrating your SMS marketing program

Migrating your SMS marketing program to Blueshift involves a couple of steps. The following information will help you to understand the migration process and to ease your migration to Blueshift.

The time required to migrate to Blueshift depends on whether you are keeping your current phone number (sender ID) and wireless carrier, your current SMS provider, and the complexity of migrating your customer data to Blueshift.

The following sections walk you through migrating your SMS program to Blueshift.

Your SMS sender type and sender ID

When migrating to a new marketing program, keeping the same SMS sender ID will ensure a smoother transition for your customers. There will be no change for customers as you move your marketing program, and they will recognize the number as being from your brand.

Acquiring a new sender ID

If you are acquiring a new sender ID, consider the following points:

• If you currently have a 10-digit long code (10 DLC) or toll-free number, consider using a short code. Short Codes improve deliverability, have the highest throughput, and offer speed and scalability.
• Shared short codes will be phased out by wireless carriers in the near future. If you are using a shared short code, this might be a good time to acquire a new short code or another alternative sender ID.
• If you change your wireless carrier, you cannot port shared short codes or branded sender IDs.

If you are opting for Blueshift’s full-service SMS offering, Blueshift will help you migrate your Sender ID and provision a new sender type.

For more information, see Sender types.

Your SMS provider

Blueshift natively supports integration with several SMS providers. Whether you are keeping your current SMS provider or moving to a different SMS provider, you will have to set up integration with the SMS provider in Blueshift.

Blueshift also has a  full-service SMS offering for your end-to-end SMS requirements. 

Migrating customer data

You must upload customer data to Blueshift before you can send messages to any customers from your campaigns. You might have the data available or you might have to extract the data from your current marketing program provider.

Customer contact data

In order to send SMS messages, you must upload the following information for your customers: 

• A customer identifier. This can be a standard customer identifier (either a customer ID or an email address) or can be a custom identifier. For more information, see Unified 360 customer profiles.
• Phone numbers in E.164 standard format.
• SMS Opt-in status.
• Country code or Country information (optional).

Before uploading the data, ensure that it is formatted correctly. For more information, see Customer attributes to import and Customer Attributes and Types. You can use any of the following methods to upload customer data into Blueshift:

• From Amazon S3
• From Snowflake
• From the UI

Other customer data

Along with customer attributes , we recommend that you also upload customer activity or event data, for example, orders, bookings, and so on, so that Blueshift can build a better profile of your customers. For more information, see Historical Data.

Send a final message from your current Sender ID

Some wireless carriers require you to send a final message to your customers as part of the formal migration process when moving your SMS program to a new Sender ID. For example, if you have acquired a new long code, toll-free number, or short code or ported your current short code, you must send a final message from the existing Sender ID.

The first message that you send on the existing Sender ID must include the following information:

• The name or brand name of your organization.
• The new Sender ID that you are migrating to.
• Customer Support contact information.
• A way for customers to opt-out from receiving messages.

For example:
Your Org Name: Hey <FirstName>! We are getting a new number. Our next message will be from 12345. Contact support@mycompany.com for any questions. Reply STOP to opt-out.

Important: Remember to upload opt-out data to Blueshift.

Send a message from your new Sender ID

If you ported a short code or changed Sender IDs, your first campaign in Blueshift should send a follow-up message to the last message from your previous Sender ID. It must include the following information:

• How often you will be messaging them.
• The purpose of these messages.
• And that messages and data rates may apply.
• A way for customers to opt-out from receiving messages.
• Customer Support contact information.

For example:
Your Org Name: Hey <FirstName> from our new number. Watch out for msgs about your orders and offers. Msg and data rates may apply. Contact support@mycompany.com for any questions. Reply STOP to opt-out.

Create a segment in Blueshift

Create a segment of SMS users that have opted-in to receive your messages. You can use this segment in a campaign to send an introductory message to your customers.

Additional Information

Since SMS is a highly regulated communication channel, you should familiarize yourself with the different types of sender IDs and the corresponding laws and regulations you need to comply with. 

Check out Blueshift’s SMS studio and learn more about design SMS, MMS, and 2 way SMS messages.