Step 1 — Details
Give the campaign a name and describe its goal in plain language — for example, “Book free appraisals from past-enquiry vendors while spring demand is high.” The goal does real work: it is what the AI uses to draft your message in the Message tab. Then set your reply intents — the outcomes you care about when people text back, such as Appraisal interest, Question, Not interested, or Callback. Every reply to the campaign is classified into one of these so your results are measurable from day one. You can edit the suggested intents or add your own. See Reply Intent Classification for how replies are sorted.Step 2 — Audience
You can build your audience two ways, and you can combine them. A running audience summary stays on screen the whole time, showing exactly how many recipients you will reach: contacts plus file rows, minus any duplicates and exclusions.From your contacts
Pick recipients straight from the contacts already in your organisation. Search by name or phone number and tick the contacts you want. Some contacts are greyed out and cannot be ticked, with a chip telling you why:- No mobile number — the contact has no Australian mobile number on file. Only mobile numbers can receive SMS.
- Do not contact / Opted out — the contact is marked do-not-contact or has previously opted out. They are never messaged.
From a file
Upload a contact file — a past-enquiry export from your CRM, a spreadsheet of appraisal leads, any list with a mobile number column.- CSV or Excel (.xlsx), up to 50,000 rows.
- It must include a column of mobile numbers.
- The detected mobile column, with a confidence note (for example, “auto-detected · High confidence · 12 of 13 rows look like valid Australian mobile numbers”). CRM exports often contain several phone-like columns — landline, fax, office — so Voqo picks the one that looks most like a list of mobiles and tells you how sure it is.
- Merge fields — every other column (first name, suburb, agent) becomes a toggle you can switch on to use as a merge field in your message. Columns that are almost entirely blank are switched off by default.
- The valid, invalid, and duplicate counts — with a link to view the invalid rows. Invalid rows are excluded from the send but never hidden; you always see the count and the reason.
A high invalid count is your early warning. If most of your rows are flagged, check the detected mobile column first — the wrong column is the most common cause.
Syncing a file into your organisation’s contacts
When you import a file, you can switch on “Also add these to your organisation’s contacts”. It is off by default. When it is on, the valid rows from your file are added to your organisation’s contacts as you confirm the audience — so a lead you imported for a one-off campaign becomes a permanent contact you can reach again. Voqo shows you a live result as it runs: how many contacts were created, updated, and skipped, by name. Contacts you picked from the From your contacts list are never re-added — only file rows sync. If the sync runs into a problem, your audience is unaffected — the campaign still launches with the recipients you chose.How mixed audiences are deduped
If the same mobile number appears in both your contacts and your file, Voqo keeps one recipient, not two. Within a file, a number that appears more than once is kept once. The audience summary shows the merged total, so the count you see is the count that sends.Step 3 — Message
You start with 2–3 AI-proposed variants in different styles — warm and personal, direct and brief, curiosity-led — each drafted from your campaign goal. Pick the one closest to what you want and edit it, or ignore them all and write your own from scratch. The variants are drafts only: nothing is ever sent without you launching the campaign, and you control every word. A few things help you get the message right:Using merge fields
Insert like{{first_name}} or {{suburb}} with one click. Each recipient gets their own values — from their contact record or from the file columns you switched on in the Audience tab.
- Character and segment count — SMS messages are billed per segment, so the live counter shows you when your message tips over one segment.
- Resolution preview — see the message exactly as a real recipient will receive it. Where a recipient is missing data for a merge field, the preview shows [Not Available] in its place and flags that recipient, so you can fix the gaps before launch rather than discover them after.
Scheduling and quiet hours
Choose how the campaign sends — Send immediately, spread over a window, or at a fixed rate — and set the daily window in which Voqo may send. Messages that would fall outside that window are held and sent automatically when the window next opens. For the full picture — pacing, held messages, and what every status means — see SMS Campaign Scheduling and Send Status.If the AI service can’t be reached, you’ll see ready-to-edit starter messages instead — you are never blocked from writing your own message and continuing.
Step 4 — Review and launch
The review screen shows the full picture before anything sends: campaign name and goal, your audience (with the sendable count and exclusions noted), the message and its merge fields, your reply intents, the schedule, and the quiet hours window — plus a preview of the message exactly as your first recipient will receive it. When you’re satisfied, click Launch campaign. Before launching, Voqo checks the campaign is genuinely ready. Launch is blocked — with the reason shown — if any of these are missing:- A message body.
- At least one valid recipient.
- A confirmed sending window.
- Enough credits in your workspace for the estimated send.
Troubleshooting
Why is this contact greyed out in the picker? A greyed contact cannot receive your campaign, and the chip next to it tells you why: No mobile number means there is no Australian mobile on file, and Do not contact or Opted out means the contact has been marked do-not-contact or has previously opted out. These contacts are excluded as you select them, so the audience summary is always accurate. Why are so many of my file rows invalid? The most common cause is the wrong mobile column — CRM exports often list a landline or fax column before the mobile column. Click Change column mapping and check the selected column contains mobile numbers. Individual rows are invalid when the cell is empty, the number is too short, or it isn’t a valid Australian mobile format. Why can’t I move past the audience step? You have no valid recipients yet. Tick at least one eligible contact, or select the correct mobile column for your file (or fix the numbers and upload it again) — the builder will not let a campaign continue with nobody to send to. What does the sync toggle do? When “Also add these to your organisation’s contacts” is on, the valid rows from your imported file become permanent contacts in your organisation as you confirm the audience. It is off by default, and contacts you picked from your existing contacts are never re-added. The created, updated, and skipped counts are shown by name as the sync runs. What do the AI variants actually do? They are draft messages written from your campaign goal — starting points, nothing more. Nothing is sent when variants are generated, and a variant only becomes your message if you select it. You can edit every word or discard them entirely. Why does my preview show [Not Available]? A recipient is missing data for one of your merge fields — for example, you used{{first_name}} and that value is blank. The message would send with [Not Available] in that spot, so fill the gaps (or remove that merge field) before launching.
Why is launch blocked?
The review step lists exactly what’s missing — a message, valid recipients, a confirmed sending window, or sufficient credits. Resolve the flagged item and launch again.
If you’re stuck at any step, contact support with your workspace ID and what step you’re on.