UpChannels
SMS Campaigns

Targeted SMS marketing
for the list you already have

UpChannels SMS Campaigns text your own customer list from your store's own number. Filter by what people bought, write one message with merge fields, send it now or schedule it, and see what went out to whom. Included on the Pro and Premium plans.

Audience filters built from your own order history
Sends from your store's own number, replies land in your inbox
Per-recipient send record and a monthly usage meter

Create SMS Campaign

Target Audience
Select the customer groups for this campaign
Marketing Opt-in
Opted-in
Product Keywords
HVACTune-upAC service
Purchase Value ($)
100
2500
Recent Purchase (date range)
07/01/2024
09/30/2024
Estimated reach: 1,248 customers
Selected Groups
Repeat Customers
High-Value Buyers
Recent Service
Warranty Leads
Use this filtered audience
1,248 customers
SMS Content
Compose your SMS message (max 160 characters)
Promotional
Reminder
Review Request
Welcome
Follow-up
Thank You + Referral
Service Reminder
Appointment Follow-up
Re-engagement
Message Content
Insert Variable
Hi {firstName}! πŸŽ‰ Exclusive offer just for you: Get 20% off your next order. Use code SAVE20. Valid until Sunday!
Reach the customers you already have

Text your own customer list, from your store's own number

Most small stores are sitting on a customer list they never text. UpChannels turns that list into an audience you can filter by purchase history, and sends to it from the number your customers already have for you.

✍️Campaign Creation

Pick who gets the text,
down to what they bought.

The audience is built from your own sales records, not an uploaded list. Match a keyword against the descriptions and SKUs on past orders, bound it by order total and order date, or start from a customer group you tagged β€” then write one message and send or schedule it. Estimated reach updates as you narrow the filters.

Filter by product keyword, order total, order date or customer group
Three merge fields: first name, last name, your store name
Send now, or pick a date and time to send
Attach one photo and send it as an MMS
Campaign Builder
Message Preview
Segment A
Segment B
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🎯
πŸš€
Recipients
Sent
Sent
Failed
This month's messages
412 / 500
Used on the Pro allowance
88
Left before your next send
πŸ“ŠDelivery & usage

Every send is recorded,
and counted against your plan.

A campaign keeps its own recipient list: who it went to, whether each message was sent or failed, and the carrier error when one fails. Your month-to-date message count is metered against the plan allowance, and UpChannels checks it before a send rather than letting a campaign die halfway through.

Sent or failed per recipient, with the carrier error
Quota checked before the campaign goes out
Month-to-date usage against your plan allowance
Scheduled sends dispatched in batches, never twice

Templates, consent, and your own number

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Nine starter templates

Promotional, reminder, review request, welcome, follow-up, thank-you and referral, service reminder, appointment follow-up and win-back. The review request drops in your own Google review link.

🚫

Consent built into the audience

Only customers marked SMS- and marketing-opted-in are pulled into a campaign, partner records are excluded, and you are asked to confirm before anyone unmarked is added.

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Your store's own number

Each store sends from its own messaging number rather than a pooled short code, so replies come back into your Communication Hub inbox instead of disappearing.

Common questions

SMS campaign questions, answered

Is SMS included in every UpChannels plan?
No β€” SMS campaigns are on the Pro and Premium plans, not Basic. Pro includes 500 outbound messages per store per month and Premium includes 2,000; replies you receive are free and do not count against that. If you run out mid-month you can buy a message-credit add-on from the send screen, or ask us to size a higher-volume plan. See plans and pricing.
Can I text only the customers who bought a certain product?
Yes. The audience builder filters your own customer list by what was actually on past orders β€” a keyword is matched against order line descriptions and SKUs β€” and you can bound it by order total, by order date range, or by a customer group you tagged. So "everyone who bought a mattress in the last 90 days and spent over $500" is a filter, not an export-and-spreadsheet job. The estimated reach updates as you change the filters, before anything sends.
Does the text come from my store number or a shared marketing number?
Your own number. Each store is provisioned with its own Twilio subaccount and sending number rather than a pooled short code, so customers see a number that belongs to you and can reply to it. Our team helps with the setup, including forwarding calls placed to that number to your existing store line. Campaigns cannot send until that number is configured for your organization.
What happens when a customer texts back?
The reply lands in your Communication Hub inbox as a normal two-way conversation attached to that customer, not in a dead-end marketing queue. Anyone on your team with access can answer from the same thread with the customer record beside it. Inbound messages are free β€” only outbound messages count against the monthly allowance.
How do you stop me from texting someone who never opted in?
Consent is enforced in the query that builds the audience, not as a warning at the end: a campaign audience only includes customers marked SMS-opted-in and marketing-opted-in, and partner records are excluded outright. If your selection contains customers with a textable number who are not marked opted in, UpChannels pauses and asks you to confirm those customers actually consented before it will include them, and STOP replies are handled by the messaging provider at the account level. UpChannels does not give legal advice or guarantee compliance β€” whether a consent record is valid is your judgment to make.
Can I schedule a campaign for Saturday morning instead of sending now?
Yes. Choose send immediately or pick a date and time. A scheduled campaign locks in its recipient list and each recipient’s personalized message at the moment you schedule it, then a background dispatcher works through them in batches every minute until the list is done. A long list drains across several runs rather than timing out, and each run claims its campaign exclusively so nobody is texted twice.
What can I see after a campaign goes out?
Per recipient: sent or failed, the provider error when one fails, and the number it went to β€” plus campaign status (scheduled, sending, sent), audience size and totals on the campaign list. What you will not find is click or conversion tracking: UpChannels does not shorten or instrument the links inside your message today, so per-campaign clicks and revenue attribution are not reported. Sales that follow show up in your normal sales reporting rather than being tied back to the text.

SMS Campaigns is one part of UpChannels

UpChannels SMS Campaigns let a small retail or service business β€” a gift, clothing or furniture store, a cleaning, plumbing or lawn-care company β€” text its own customer list from the store's own number, with the audience filtered by real purchase history: what someone bought, how much they spent, and when. Messages carry merge fields, send immediately or on a schedule, and record per recipient whether they were sent or failed. SMS is included on the Pro and Premium plans, and replies come back into the same Communication Hub inbox the rest of the team already works from.

UpChannels is an all-in-one platform for small retailers and service businesses β€” sales, inventory, customers, scheduling, delivery, payments and finance in one system β€” and a real team that builds your website, runs your ads, and automates the busywork. Every capability below is included in the same subscription, with no integration to wire up between them.

The product moves faster than this page. UpChannels ships updates most weeks, so a description here can lag what is already in the software. Where the two disagree, the running product is the current version β€” tell us if you find one and we will correct the page.

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