Index:

1. Audience file settings
2. Message Template without Variables
3. Message Template with Buttons
4. Message Template with Text Variable
5. Message Template with Media
6.  Message Template with Media and Text Variable
7. Message Template with Button Variable
8. Message Template with Media, Button Variable, and Text Variable
9. Audience File Loading Errors

 

 

Audience file settings

To send mass notifications, you will need to set you message template’s variables and your audience. We are going to teach you how to do it properly.

Firstly, you need to load a .csv file with your contact list (your audience) to Blip. Be attentive, because only files separated by comma will be accepted. If you try to do it with semicolons, the files will not be accepted and you will see an error message.

 

In this file, the contacts must be added in the first column and, if there are any variables in the message template, you will need to add a column for each existing variable with their respective values for each contact of the list.

 

The replacement of the variable’s values must respect the following order:

1. media variable,
2. button variable,
3. text variable.

So, your file’s columns, with the variable values, must follow this order, from left to right.

The order of the header’s variables has priority over all others. For that reason, the priority order—not obligatorily though, since not all of these variables will always be present in the Message Template—is: telephone,button,urllink,extra1,extra2,extra3,etc.

Notice that, in our examples, some types of variables have priority over others, even if they are in a different order in the message template of choice. You need not to worry though: Blip will always tell you which value will be replaced in the variables!

 

 

Message Template without Variables

In this example, your contact spreadsheet(?) will not have any variable. Therefore, it will have only a column with the contact numbers in the “Area Code+number” format.

 

Message Template with Buttons

An example of an audience file for both of the cases above:

 

Message Template with Text Variable

 

An example of an audience file for the case above:

 

Message Template with Media

An example of an audience file for the case above:

 

  Message Template with Media and Text Variable

 

 

An example of an audience file for the case above:

 

Message Template with Button Variable

An example of an audience file for the case above:

 

Message Template with Media, Button Variable, and Text Variable

An example of an audience file for the case above:

:

Audience File Loading Errors

Invalid Format File (UTF-8):

The file must be in the UTF-8 format to be considered valid. UTF-8 is the format used for universal character identification. It is widely used in emails, web pages, and in other places where characters are stored. For more information, click on the link:UTF-8.

If you try to send a file incompatible with this format, an error message will be displayed and will not be able to proceed to the next step of the message delivery process.

 

Example:

Step 1 – While loading the file in the “Load Audience” field, as seen in the picture below:

Step 2 – While selecting a CSV of invalid format. In this case, we are selecting an Audience File in the ASCII or UTF-16 format, as seen in the pictures below:

 

ASCII picture:

UTF-16 picture:

Reasons:

 

Perhaps, when you tried to save an Audience File, it may have inadvertently changed its format, resulting in an invalid one. The picture below shows you how the format may be accidentally changed:

 

The picture below presents the valid encoding for the “CSV” Audience File:

The picture below presents the encoding lists available for the “CSV” Audience File:

The picture below shows a “CSV” Audience File encoding change, which makes it invalid for Bulk Messaging, taking you to Step 3:

Step 3 – After selecting some of the Audience Files, as explained in the pictures above, an “Invalid File Format” error will be displayed, as seen in the picture below:

Limit of Permitted Lines:

An audience file allows you to deliver a message to 10,000 contact lines. If you send a file that exceeds this contact limit, an error message will be displayed and will not be able to proceed to the next step of the message delivery process.

 

Example:

Step 1 – While loading the file in the “Load Audience” field, as seen in the picture below:

Step 2 – While selecting a CSV with Line Limit Exceeded. In this case, we are selecting an Audience File that exceeds this limit, as seen in the pictures below:

Step 3 – After selecting the file, as seen in the picture above, a “Line Limit Exceeded” error will be displayed, as seen in the picture below:

Duplicate Fields:

The audience file cannot have duplicate fields. If you try to send a file that has duplicate fields, an error message will be displayed and will not be able to proceed to the next step of the message delivery process.

 

Example:

Step 1 – While loading the file in the “Load Audience” field, as seen in the picture below:

Step 2 – While selecting a CSV with Duplicate Fields. In this case, we are selecting an Audience File with duplicate fields, as seen in the pictures below:

Notice: The “CSV” Audience File’s header has duplicate fields, as seen in the picture below:

 

Step 3 – After selecting the file, as seen in the picture above, a message error that reads “The header has duplicate fields” will be displayed, as seen in the picture below:

For more information, access the discussion about this topic inour community or watchour channel’s videos. 😊