Every outbound campaign you run in Smarter Contact starts with a Message Template. These are the pre-written texts and voicemails your leads actually receive — and getting them right is the difference between a response and a spam folder.
Message Types
Initial Texts
Initial texts are the first messages your leads receive in a campaign. They always sit in the first sequence. To protect deliverability and reduce the risk of carrier blocks, we recommend loading at least 8 variations.
Follow-up Texts
Follow-up texts go into the second sequence and beyond. You can add up to 8 variations for better deliverability, or use a single template if your strategy calls for it.
Voicemail Drops (VMDs)
VMDs deliver a pre-recorded voicemail directly to your lead — no ringing, no interruption. They're one of the most effective ways to generate inbound callbacks and surface opportunities that SMS alone won't reach.
The only difference between "Initial" and "Follow-up" labels is organizational. There are no system-level restrictions on how you use them.
How to Add a New Template
- Click Campaigns in the top navigation bar.
- In the bottom-left, click Message Templates.
- Click Add new template.
- Choose Initial, Follow-up, or Voicemail Drop.
- Enter a title for your template (35-character limit; limited special characters allowed).
- Type your message in the input field. You can write up to 2 SMS segments.
💡 Pro tip: Keep titles short and easy to sort — for example, Initial 1 of 8.
Keep It Personal at Scale
The fastest way to kill a response rate is to sound like a robot. Even when you're sending hundreds of messages, your leads should feel like you wrote to them specifically. That's where dynamic fields come in — type < anywhere in your message body to pull up a list of contact information you can insert automatically, like a lead's first name, property address, or any other saved field. A message that opens with "Hi Sarah" instead of "Hi there" takes two seconds to set up and makes all the difference.
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 for your VMD (35-character limit).
- In the voicemail description field, add context about the VMD — tone, use case, or any notes to help you identify it later (160-character limit; visible only to you on your dashboard).
- Hit the Record button to record directly, or upload an existing audio file.
📁 Supported formats: .mp3 and .wav — up to 25 MB.
Editing or Deleting a Template
- Find the template you want to update in your list.
- On the right side of each template, you'll see two icons:
- Edit — open the template and make your changes.
- Delete — permanently remove the template.
💡 Pro tip: Drag and drop templates to reorder them. Keep your most-used variations at the top for faster access.
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.