Connection and configuration of messenger marketing (bulk messages)

Connection instructions
Setup Instructions

Create and send bulk messages to your customer base in WhatsApp, Telegram and Integrilla SMS with no limit on the number of messages per paid period.

Cost: 40€ per month with monthly payment

Connection instructions

1. Open the ALTEGIO → Integrations → Notifications section from your computer/tablet/phone. Select Integrilla from the list of integrations. On the opened page, click the Settings tab.

2. Go to the Billing section and in the block labeled Bulk payment click on the Pay bulk module for 1 month button. If you want to pay by invoice, please contact support.

3. After payment, go back to the Integrilla app in Altegio, click on the Bulk tab and you can start creating your bulk messages.

Setup Instructions

On the page that opens, in the upper left corner you will see the tariff payment deadline. Click on the Create bulk + button and a form with parameters will appear.

We recommend using a phone number that has been registered in WhatsApp and/or Telegram for at least 14 days and from which dialogs with users have been conducted. Otherwise, the number may be blocked.

In the Bulk title field, enter a name that will be visible only to you and will allow you to identify the bulk. For example:

Valentine's day with promocode

Next, in the Source of contacts field you should choose how the database will be uploaded.

For bulk can be used as a file with the client base in xlss, xls, csv, txt formats, as well as a written text database. It is also possible to unload the database from google sheets and CRM ALTEGIO.

Text base bulk

Select Text in the Source of contacts for distribution item;
Spell out the phone numbers, starting with the international country ID without punctuation, followed by the name through semicolon (";") without a space. On the next line indicate the next recipient. For example, for recipients from Italy, the text base would look as follows:
```
398887777666;Paola
39777666655;Dante
```

Database bulk

Select File under Source of contacts for distribution;
Click on the File field that appears and upload a file with the phone database;
In the Column with phone is item, select the column with phone numbers (if mailing from ALTEGIO database, select column "B"), otherwise the system will not be able to send the mailing.

Google Sheets bulk

Select Google Sheets under Source of contacts for distribution;
Specify the desired value in the Column with phone is field;
Go to google table → Access settings → Sharing and select the All who have a link, Viewer role option and click Finish;
Copy the link to the desired google table (https://docs.google.com/...) from the browser bar;
Paste the copied link into the box below.
If the phone numbers are not in the first column, you need to add text in the first cell of the first column, otherwise the phone numbers will not pull up in the bulk module.
```
For example, if the phone numbers are in column B, then there must be some text (like a headline) in cell A1.
```

Bulk by uploaded base from ALTEGIO

Select ALTEGIO under Source of contacts;
Click the Load all clients from the ALTEGIO base button;
In the field Column with phones is the value will be pulled up automatically.

Under Sending time, select the time interval for sending messages and set the desired time zone to prevent customers from receiving messages at night.

Then select the days on which to send messages.

Then under Delay between messages, select one of the available options:

Slow 10-30 min;
Normal 8-12 min;
Fast 1-5 min;
Very fast 1-2 min;
1 minute 1 min.

For the first time, we recommend to select the 'slow' value, after some time you can set a different value. Over time, it can be reduced to avoid blocking by WhatsApp.

Next, in the field under the heading Message to send, write the text to be sent out. In the text, you can use data from the uploaded database. For example, in the column "A" of the downloaded table you have the names of recipients, i.e. to personalize messages you can write %A% (English layout) and then the text. If Load from ALTEGIO base is selected under Contact Source, the column with names will be %B% (English layout).

Additionally, we recommend using text randomization (randomly substituting one of the options to send) of the message in the format: {text1|text2}, where there can be several options. To do this, open a curly bracket and write text through the vertical line, then close the curly bracket, e.g.:

{Good afternoon|Hello, %A%!|Aloha, our favorite guest|Hi❤}.

Variables, spaces, line breaks, punctuation, etc. are supported.

If you would like to attach an attachment to your message, press Select under File to send. The supported file formats are jpeg, png, gif, pdf, doc(x), xls(x).

Check Clear duplicates to avoid duplicate messages to the same recipient.

The item Only existing chats will allow you to write to those with whom you have already interacted in WhatsApp (for example, to create a mailing only to old clients).

In the Cascade field, if necessary, you can customize the order of sending by adding Telegram and/or Integrilla SMS (other SMS aggregators are not supported). In this case, messages that were not sent in one channel will be sent to the recipient in another messenger or SMS.

Telegram connection instructions: link.

Integrilla SMS connection instructions (available for Android only): link.

When the settings are complete, click the Save bulk button. The entered settings will be saved and a table will be displayed on the page:

The first column displays the date and time of the mailing creation;
In the second column: the status of the mailing, as well as the Start/Stop button;
In the third column: information specified when setting up the mailing (name, order of sending, day of the week, interval and time of sending);
In the fourth: recipients, as well as a button to view statistics;
In the fifth: Change settings and Delete buttons.

To start sending messages, click the Start button in the second column.

Different statuses can be displayed in the first column:

Started - the bulk is started and messages are being sent;
Stopped - the bulk is temporarily stopped on the user's initiative;
Executed - the bulk is completed;
Paused - the bulk is suspended due to technical reasons.

Sending can be suspended due to settings (for example, suspended due to late sending time or on weekends, provided that the parameters are set to send only on weekdays), as well as the lack of binding to WhatsApp WEB (in this case, you need to check the qr-code and rescan if necessary).

At the moment, the ability to edit the message is not available, but you can change the days and time of sending, as well as the interval of sending.

To track the sending, click on the button in the fourth column that displays the number of recipients. This will open a page with a table showing the date and time of sending, recipient's phone number and sending status.