Every outbound campaign in Smarter Contact starts with a Message Template — the pre-written texts and voicemails your leads actually receive. The quality of these templates determines whether you get a response or get ignored, so building them right from the start is worth the five minutes it takes.
The Three Types of Message Templates
Initial Texts
Initial texts are the first messages a lead receives when they enter a campaign. They always sit in the first sequence. To protect deliverability and reduce the risk of carrier blocks, load at least 8 variations — the more diversity in your opening messages, the less pattern-matching carrier filters can do against you.
Follow-up Texts
Follow-up texts go into the second sequence and beyond. You can add up to 8 variations here too, or use a single template if your strategy calls for it. The label "follow-up" is purely organizational — there are no system-level restrictions on how you use either type.
Voicemail Drops (VMDs)
VMDs deliver a pre-recorded voicemail directly to your lead's inbox — no ringing, no interruption. They're one of the highest-ROI touches in any outbound sequence, surfacing callbacks from leads who won't respond to text but will pick up the phone when something sounds personal and worth returning
How to Add a New Text Template
- Click Campaigns in the top navigation bar
- In the bottom-left, click Message Templates
- Click Add new template
- Choose Initial or Follow-up
- Enter a title — 35-character limit, limited special characters
- Write your message — up to 2 SMS segments
💡 Pro tip: Keep titles short and sortable — Initial 1 of 8, Follow-up 2 of 4. You'll thank yourself when you're managing dozens of templates across multiple campaigns.
Generate Templates with the AI Template Assistant
Skip the blank page entirely. The AI Template Assistant generates 20 high-performing variations in a single click — trained on thousands of top-performing campaigns to match your industry, vary tone, and stay within deliverability guardrails. You get up to 3 generations per day, meaning up to 60 ready-to-use templates without writing a single word from scratch.
That said, always review the output before you launch. The AI handles the heavy lifting — your judgment makes the difference between good and great.
Keep It Personal at Scale
The fastest way to kill a response rate is to sound like a bot. Even when you're sending hundreds of messages a day, your leads should feel like you wrote to them specifically.
Type < anywhere in your message body to pull up a list of dynamic fields — lead first name, property address, any saved contact field. A message that opens with "Hi Sarah" instead of "Hi there" takes two seconds to set up and consistently outperforms generic openers. Personalization at scale isn't a nice-to-have; it's the difference between a 3% response rate and a 9% one
How to Record a Voicemail Drop
- Click Campaigns in the top navigation bar
- In the bottom-left, click Message Templates
- Click Add new template and select Voicemail Drop
- Enter a title — 35-character limit
- Add a description — tone, use case, or any notes to identify it later (160-character limit; only visible to you on your dashboard)
- Hit Record to record directly, or upload an existing audio file
Supported formats: .mp3 and .wav — up to 25 MB.
Editing, Deleting, and Organizing Templates
Find the template you want to update and use the icons on the right side of the row — Edit to make changes, Delete to permanently remove it.
💡 Pro tip: Drag and drop templates to reorder them. Keep your best-performing variations at the top so they're always first to grab when building a new campaign.
Frequently Asked Questions
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How many message template variations do I need?
For initial texts, at least 8 variations is the recommended minimum to protect deliverability and reduce carrier filtering. For follow-ups, 8 is also ideal but a single template works if your strategy is more targeted. -
What's the difference between Initial and Follow-up templates?
Only the label — there are no system-level restrictions. The distinction exists to help you stay organized, not to limit how or when you use each type. -
Can I personalize SMS templates with lead data?
Yes. Type<anywhere in the message body to access dynamic fields like first name, property address, and any other contact information saved in your database. -
What file formats does Smarter Contact support for voicemail drops?
.mp3 and .wav files, up to 25 MB.
What's Next?
Great templates don't work alone — they need the right campaign structure behind them. Learn how to build effective Drip Campaigns that put your templates to work automatically, at the right time, with every lead.