Text-Connect

To get the most from your Text-Connect account you should upload your contact list(s) and mobile numbers.

To save typing them all in ‘long hand’ you can upload your numbers to Text-Connect via a .CSV text file. I’ve provided some brief notes below on how to do this. In addition, clicking ‘help’ on the relevant screens will give you extra guidance.

Text-Connect gives you 2 options for storing names and mobile numbers:

‘Contacts’

Contacts are people who you expect to text on an adhoc, regular basis, i.e. work colleagues and regular customers.

‘Lists’

Lists are larger collections of names and numbers that you might expect to message in a single bulk message shot. For example a list of all your customers or a list of all the parents for a school.

These instructions are for importing a ‘List’, but broadly applies to uploading ‘Contacts’ – see the on screen notes and help for more specific ‘Contacts’ information.

MAKE AND IMPORT A ‘LIST’.

First, create a ‘List’.  Click:

‘Lists‘
‘Create‘
Give the list a name, i.e. put ‘my_list’ in the name box.

You have the option of importing extra fields which can be named here. The first three data fields are fixed and in your list should be in the following order:

• Mobile Number
• Name
• Email

Extra fields may follow after these.  If you have extra fields name them in the boxes available – ie. next to “Mail Merge Key Field 1: ”

Click ‘save‘ then click ‘continue‘.

Now click ‘V‘ for view next to your new list –  ‘my_list‘

Now click the ‘Import‘ button. A pop-up will appear asking you to select your file to import and giving a reminder of the file layout needed. The file you import should have ‘valid’ mobile numbers (no spaces) and be in .CSV format. A .CSV file can be created by clicking ‘Save As’ from your spreadsheet program and selecting .csv text from the options. An example file is noted at the bottom of these instructions.

If your mobile numbers are in 07 style, the system will convert them automatically to the required international format, just enter 44 in the box provided.

Click ‘Import‘
In the pop up window, browse to the file containing the numbers, click ‘Import‘.

It will quickly say how many have been imported and gives details of any errors.

Close the ‘pop-up’ and your numbers should be displayed on-screen. There should be 1 number per line.

TO SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR ‘LIST’:

From the ‘Send‘ menu you can then select the distribution list from the drop down.

To double check all is OK, schedule your messages to leave a year in advance, you can then view the messages in the outbox. These can be deleted and resent when you are happy that the format has worked.

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Example csv / text file data layout:

“07974600005”,”My Name”,”myname@text-connect.co.uk”,”123″,”456″
“07779600004”,”Your Name”,”myname@text-connect.co.uk”,”customer”,”Bed”
“07866400003”,”Their Name”,”myname@text-connect.co.uk”,”345″,”mattress”

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Trouble shooting:

If your import fails, open the file in a text editor (Windows Notepad) and check the content matches the above layout.

If so you can try renaming the file from xxxxx.csv to xxxxx.txt and try again