Broadcasts

Broadcasts are one-time email or SMS campaigns that you can send with Twilio Engage. Use broadcasts for single, one-off occasions like the following:

• Special events, like webinars or conferences
• Offers, like product discount codes
• Newsletters that you want to send on a specific date

For more on the different types of Engage campaigns, read Audiences, Journeys, and Broadcasts.

On this page, you’ll find step by step instructions for how to create a broadcast.

Create and send an email broadcast

Follow these steps to create an email broadcast:

1. Navigate to Engage > Broadcasts, then click + Create broadcast.
2. From the New broadcast page, choose Email.
3. Add a name and description, then click Choose recipients.
4. Click Add condition to add users who will receive your campaign, then click Build.
   • To send a message to a pre-built audience, choose Part of an Audience, then select the audience.
5. Select Build a new email or use an email template, then click Continue.
6. Fill out the Email settings fields, choose your email editor, then click Continue.
7. Configure your email, then click Continue.
8. On the Review and schedule page, confirm your broadcast’s settings.
9. Schedule your broadcast:
   • To send your broadcast immediately, select Send now, then click Send now ->. Confirm a final time by clicking Send in the popup.
   • To send your broadcast later, select Schedule, then enter the date, time, and time zone for your scheduled broadcast. Click Schedule ->, then confirm by clicking Schedule in the Schedule message popup.

Create and send an SMS broadcast

Follow these steps to create an email broadcast:

1. Navigate to Engage > Broadcasts, then click + Create broadcast.
2. From the New broadcast page, choose SMS.
3. Add a name and description, then click Choose recipients.
4. Click Add condition to add users who will receive your campaign, then click Build.
   • To send a message to a pre-built audience, choose Part of an Audience, then select the audience.
5. Select Build a new SMS or use an SMS template, then click Continue.
6. Choose a messaging service, enter your message into the body field, and add any merge tags.
7. Test your SMS, then select Review and schedule.
8. On the Review and schedule page, confirm your broadcast’s settings.
9. Schedule your broadcast:
   • To send your broadcast immediately, select Send now, then click Send now ->. Confirm a final time by clicking Send in the popup.
   • To send your broadcast later, select Schedule, then enter the date, time, and time zone for your scheduled broadcast. Click Schedule ->, then confirm by clicking Schedule in the Schedule message popup.

Cancel a scheduled broadcast

Follow these steps to cancel a scheduled broadcast:

1. Navigate to Engage > Broadcasts > Scheduled.
2. Select the scheduled broadcast you want to cancel.
3. From the broadcast overview tab, click Unschedule.
4. In the popup, click Unschedule to confirm.

Unscheduled broadcasts revert to draft status and can be found under the Drafts tab of the Broadcasts page.

Working with broadcasts

Keep the following information in mind as you work with broadcasts.

SMS segments

SMS broadcasts longer than 160 characters are split into segments and then joined together by the recipient’s device. As a result, you can send SMS broadcasts longer than 160 characters, but each 160-character segment is billed individually.

For more on message segments, view SMS character limits.

Email template limits

The total size of your email, including attachments, must be less than 30MB.

To learn more, view SendGrid’s email limits.

Scale and throughput

The following table lists geographic availability, scale, and speed details for email broadcasts and short code SMS broadcasts:

Long-code message throughput depends on a number of factors, including your 10DLC trust score.

Segment recommends that you use short code phone numbers for SMS broadcasts sent to more than 5000 recipients.

Broadcast analytics

Engage tracks analytics for both email and SMS broadcasts. For more information on Engage analytics, view Analytics Overview.