Creating a Multi-Message Campaign

Goals and Outcomes

Multi-message campaigns let you automate SMS, RCS, and email messages over time or in response to subscriber actions. You can personalize the journey based on clicks or purchases from previous messages. The drag-and-drop builder simplifies campaign creation, saves time, and offers flexibility for better engagement. You can also use this tool to create single-message campaigns. After launching, robust analytics help you track and optimize performance at every step.

In this article, you’ll learn how to set up and send a multi-message campaign in Yotpo SMS & Email.

Multi-Message Campaign Overview

With multi-message campaigns, you can easily create multi-step, multi-channel campaigns by adding, duplicating, and moving steps in just a few clicks. To reach the right customers, you can segment audiences and set conditions based on:

• Whether customers clicked a message from the campaign

• Whether customers opened an email from the campaign

• Whether customers made a purchase from the campaign

• Whether customers belong to a specific segment (e.g., Loyalty members vs. non-members)

For maximum flexibility, you can duplicate an entire campaign. When you open the duplicate, a message will prompt you to update the send time before launching.

Creating a Multi-Message Campaign

To create a multi-message campaign:

1. On the Yotpo SMS & Email home page, click Create campaign in the header.

2. Select Multi-message and click Create campaign. You’ll be taken to the Templates Library, where you can choose an existing template or click Create from scratch. Refer to Creating a Multi-message Campaign from a Template for more info.

Adding an Audience

Select the audience for the first message in the sequence. You’ll be able to narrow down this audience for messages sent later, but you won’t be able to add new audience members. For this reason, this initial audience should include everyone you want to receive a message at some point during the campaign.

To add an audience:

1. Select the audience for the first message. You can send it to:

• All subscribers

• A predefined audience (lists and segments). To learn how to create an audience, see Lists & Segments in Yotpo SMS & Email.

  Tip

  In the updated version of the dropdown, you can also access links to edit or create new segments directly.

  

2. (Optional) Select audiences to exclude from the campaign.

   Note

   To improve your email deliverability, customers who soft-bounced in the last 3 months will be skipped by default. You can adjust this period to 7 days or turn off the feature by unchecking the checkbox. This option is visible only if you have sent email campaigns or multi-message campaigns that include emails.

3. To remove subscribers who have made a purchase attributed to this campaign, check the checkbox.

4. Click Apply.

After selecting an audience, you can rename the campaign by clicking the pencil (edit) icon next to its automatically assigned name to make searching and filtering easier later.

Adding a Message

To create the first message in the sequence:

1. In the campaign builder, click the + icon and then click Add message.

2. Choose if you want this message to be an RCS,  SMS, or Email, and click Next.

   Important

   Currently, RCS messaging is offered only in the US and the UK. It is available to selected merchants. To learn more about the registration process, see Registering for RCS Messaging.

3. In the drawer that will open on the right side of the screen, you can:

   • Change the name of the step

     We strongly recommend using meaningful names for each step to streamline campaign management and make reviewing easier in the Customer Timeline after sending. Simply click the pencil (edit) icon in the drawer’s header.

   • Edit the content of your message

     You can also add a discount to your message. See Adding Discounts to Email or SMS Campaign Messages for details.

   • Set the send time

     • Specific date and time: Select the exact date and time when the message will be sent.

     • Relative timing (available only from the second message onward): Set the message to be sent a specified number of days or hours after the previous one.

4. After you finish creating your message, click Save.

Tip

To duplicate a step, send a test message, or delete a step, click the 3-dot menu in the step’s header and select an action.

Editing Message Content

After selecting the type of message you want to add, you can customize its content in the drawer. To learn more, see the articles below:

• Creating an RCS Message

• Creating an SMS Campaign

• Customizing Emails with the Email Editor

Splitting the Audience

At any point in your multi-message campaign, you can split your audience into segments and target each group with a different, personalized message. For example, you can split it into Loyalty tiers such as Gold, Silver, and Bronze and then send each segment different discount codes.

To split the audience:

1. In the campaign builder, click the + icon and then click Split by audience.

2. Choose the audiences you want to send a message to.

3. Optionally, select the audiences you want to exclude.

4. Click Save.

Your audience will be split into two branches:

• Left branch: Shows the audiences you selected to include and exclude

• Right branch: All others, meaning all subscribers who are not included in the left branch segments

If you want to refine the audience within that split further, click Add branch in the Split by audience drawer. This will add more branches to the left. You can have up to 6 branches in addition to the All others branch.

Note

Subscribers who belong to more than one of the selected audiences will be included only in the first audience on the far left to avoid sending them multiple messages.

To remove a split, click the 3-dot menu in the Split by audience card and select Remove split. If the split has more than 2 branches, you can also remove a branch by clicking the bin (remove) icon in its section in the Split by audience drawer. Keep in mind that if there are messages within the branch or split you want to remove, they will also be removed.

Tip

If you want to keep the message, simply drag and drop it outside the branch or split.

Adding Conditions

You can define which audience members will receive your messages, based on how they interact with your campaign. For example, you might want to send your second message only to recipients who did not interact with your first message.

To add a condition:

1. After you’ve created your first message, click the + icon and select Split by condition.

2. Choose the condition you want to add:

   • Clicked previous message: Recipients who clicked a link in the previous message in the sequence.

   • Purchased from previous message: Recipients who purchased a product by clicking a link in the previous message in the sequence.

   • Opened last email (available only after an email step): Recipients who opened the previous email in the sequence.

Your campaign will now be split into two branches: the “Yes” branch, for recipients who met the condition, and the “No” branch, for recipients who did not meet the condition. Put simply, if you've selected "Clicked previous message", your audience will be divided into subscribers who clicked the previous message (“Yes”) and those who received it but did not click it (“No”).

Tip

For highly targeted remarketing, you can combine “Remove purchasers” from the initial audience settings with a Split by condition (e.g., Clicked previous message). This way, if you place a message under the “Yes” branch, it will go to subscribers who clicked but didn’t purchase — a segment with strong intent to buy.

Configuring Your Settings

Configure the general settings for your multi-message campaign, including Smart Sending, your sender details, and the amount you’re willing to spend on this campaign.

To access your general settings, click the Settings icon in the top-right corner.

Smart Sending

Smart Sending prevents you from bombarding your subscribers with messages. When turned on, any contacts who recently received a message from your brand (not including this campaign) will be skipped. You can enable Smart Sending to work only for text messages, only for emails, or for both.

To change the number of hours that should pass before sending another message, click Update Smart Sending timeframe.

Sender Details

Update the sender name, sender email, and reply-to email for this campaign.

Tip

If you want to use a sender email that’s not on the list, click Manage email addresses to open your Email Settings and add a new address. To learn more, see Adding and Verifying Store Emails.

Sending Time Zone

By default, email and SMS campaigns are scheduled based on your store’s time zone. To schedule messages based on the recipient’s local time, toggle on “Send in subscriber’s time zone.” This ensures your messages reach customers at optimal times, no matter their location.

/h4Campaign Spend Limit

You can cap the amount of money you’re willing to spend on this campaign. After you reach this limit, no further messages will be sent.

Note

Your spending limit must exceed the cost of sending the first message in the sequence. The exact cost will be determined once you’ve set up your campaign. If you don't have enough balance to cover it, we'll notify you to top up.

Sending a Test Message

We recommend you send a test for each of your RCS, SMS, and email messages to make sure everything looks good before sending it out to customers.

You can send a test message from the campaign builder or the message drawer:

1. Click the 3-dot menu:

   • In the campaign builder, find it on the message card.

   • In the message drawer, find it in the top-right corner. For email messages, this option is available in the 3-dot menu at the top of the drawer.

2. Select Send test (for RCS and SMS) or Send test email (for email).

3. Enter the relevant mobile number or email address, then click Send.

Launching Your Campaign

When you’ve finished building and testing your campaign, click Launch campaign. You'll see a summary of the campaign's setup, including the expected cost of the first message. If you don’t have enough funds in your balance to cover it, a notification will tell you how much more money you need to be able to launch the campaign. Click Add funds & launch to add money to your balance. If you plan to top up your balance later, click Schedule anyway.

Note

After you launch, you’ll be notified if you have enough funds to send the campaign. To avoid running out of credits while a campaign is in progress, we recommend enabling Auto Reload.

Editing a Scheduled Campaign

Once you have scheduled a campaign, you can edit the campaign if you have changes. Simply click the Pause & edit button. This will open a popup where you can confirm you want to pause the campaign by clicking Pause & edit campaign.

Pausing campaigns will prevent any scheduled messages within the campaign from going out. Paused campaigns will reflect the paused status in the campaigns dashboard.

You can now edit the content, timing, and structure of any unsent messages. After you are finished with your changes, click the Update & Relaunch button to resume the campaign.

Note

Only unsent messages can be edited. Messages that have already been sent will not reflect any of your changes.

Editing Timeframes:

The timeframe for editing messages depends on how they are scheduled. See the breakdown below:

• Regular SMS or Email: editable up to 1 minute before send time.

• Messages scheduled using subscriber's local time zone: editable up to 24 hours before the scheduled time.

• SMS with subscriber's timezone: editable up to 24 hours before send time.

• Messages using relative delays (e.g., “Send 1 day after previous step”): editable at any time until their scheduled delay begins.

Duplicating a Campaign

To duplicate a campaign:

1. In your Yotpo SMS & Email main menu, go to Campaigns > My Campaigns.

2. Find the campaign you want to duplicate in the campaign list, click the 3-dot menu at the end of the row, and select Duplicate.

3. (Optional) Click Update start date to set a new start date and time. All message send times will adjust accordingly while maintaining the original campaign’s intervals.

Analyzing Your Campaign

After you’ve sent your campaign, you can view its progress and performance:

1. In your Yotpo SMS & Email main menu, go to Campaigns > My Campaigns.

2. Find your campaign in the campaign list and click See analytics. You’ll be directed to your Campaign Analytics page:

   • To the left, you’ll find a diagram of your campaign with a summary of the performance per step. Click on any step to access detailed analytics and preview the message content.

   • To the right, you have the Campaign overview.  To open a drawer with all the metrics, click View aggregated analytics. There you can analyze the performance per channel by selecting SMS or Email from the Channel drop-down menu in the top-right corner.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where can I see the full cost of my multi-message campaign?

A: Because multi-message campaigns target dynamic audience segments, the final number of recipients who will receive each message is only calculated when you send the campaign. For this reason, we can only estimate the cost of the first step.

Q: If I set up a campaign that includes both email subscribers and SMS subscribers, will subscribers who are not on both lists still receive both text messages and emails?

A: Each subscriber will receive messages only from the channel(s) that they are registered to.

Q: Are there any limitations?

A: New functionalities are constantly being added, but some are still not available, including:

• Sending the campaign to specific customers

• A/B testing

• (For SMS steps) AI copy assistant, SMS templates picker, virtual contact card, and suggested sending time