Give the message one clear purpose
An order update, an appointment reminder and an offer ask different things of the reader. Decide what this campaign needs to do, then write the message around that one purpose.
Include enough context for the recipient to recognise the message. An order reference, a useful time or the next action can be more valuable than a long introduction. Read the text as someone opening it on a small phone screen.
Get the sender and audience ready
Request a sender name in the dashboard before you plan the send. It must be approved before it can be used. The status is visible under Sender names, and the SMS gateway FAQ covers the naming rules.
Use a contact group for a list you will use again, or paste numbers directly for a one-off send. Local and international Sri Lankan number formats are accepted. The portal normalises the list and removes duplicates within a send.
- Confirm that the sender name is approved.
- Check which contact group or pasted list you are using.
- Remove numbers that should no longer receive the message.
- Review invalid numbers reported by the preview instead of assuming every entry is usable.
Review the final cost and timing
Paste the exact message into the composer and check its encoding, segment count and total credits. Sinhala and Tamil text use Unicode, and longer messages may use several credits for each recipient.
For a scheduled send, check the selected date and time carefully. Scheduling uses Sri Lanka time. Credits are reserved when the campaign is scheduled, so the account needs enough balance at that point.
For an initial campaign, send a small test to a number you control. Check the wording and sender name on the phone before using the full list. A test through the SMS gateway Sri Lanka costs the same as one message to a customer, so it is the cheapest check you can make.
Follow the message after it leaves
A queued status means the request has entered the sending process; it is not a delivery receipt. The message log keeps the status for each recipient, so you can distinguish messages still in flight from delivered or failed messages.
Use the status filters to review a campaign and export the results to CSV when you need to reconcile them with your own records. Keep that review part of the campaign, rather than treating the send button as the final step.
