Group SMS (Bulk SMS) – How it works

Group SMS, also known as Bulk SMS, is a messaging feature that enables the simultaneous delivery of a single message to a large number of recipients. With Group SMS, you can efficiently send messages to entire contact groups, making it an ideal solution for broadcasting information, promotions, or announcements to a targeted audience.

This feature typically allows users to manage and organize contacts into groups, ensuring streamlined communication for marketing campaigns, notifications, or any scenario where mass messaging is required. 

The sender’s identity is often represented by an approved Sender ID or brand name for a professional and recognizable communication experience.

  1. Login into your account:
    • Visit sms.tonkra.com and log in using your credentials.
  1. Create a Contact Group:
  • Navigate to the “Contact Groups” page from the menu.
  • Click Create a new Group
Navigate to the Contact Groups page and create new group
Navigate to the Contact Groups page and create new group
  1. Enter Group Name or Title:
  • Create a new group and assign a name or title.
Enter Goup Name or Title
  1. Add or Import Contacts:
  • To add a single contact, enter the phone number.
Click Add Contact button
Click Add Contact button
Enter Phone number to add save (First & Last Names are not compulsory)
Enter Phone number to add save (First & Last Names are not compulsory)

To Import Multiple Contacts:

  • Click the “Import” button as seen in the screenshot above.
  • You can toggle use the Paste Text option as demonstrated in the image below;
  • Note: This way, you will have to enter only Phone numbers, and should begin with the country code without + or 0 e.g. 233597419743
  • Click “Save” button to have the contacts imported
Paste or Type in Numbers Option
  • For bulk import with Microsoft Excel, prepare your data as seen in the image below.
  • Note: File must have phone number column and must be in country code format e.g. 233xxxxxxxxx Supported file types are: Excel csv, xls, xlsx Supported Date Columns, formats are: 2/1/90, 2/1/1990, and 1990-01-21.
Prepare contacts in excel for bulk upload
  1. Click Import Button:
  • Click on the “Import” button for bulk contacts.
Click Import button to do a bulk contacts import
  1. Drag and Drop or Select Excel File:
  • Drag and drop or select the Excel file containing your contacts and click “Save“
Drag and drop or select Excel file containing your contacts and click save
  1. Select Fields:
  • Identify and select fields corresponding to the columns appropriately. and click “Import“
  • Note: Only the Phone number column is mandatory, and should begin with the country code without + or 0 e.g. 233597419743
Identify and select fields corresponding to the columns appropriately.
  1. Import History:
  • Wait for a few seconds to minutes based on data size.
  • Refresh to check if the import is completed.
At import history, wait a few seconds - minutes based on the size of your data and refresh to see if the import is completed
  1. View Uploaded Contacts:
  • After refreshing the page, see the total entries of uploaded contacts.
  • Duplicate contacts are automatically skipped.
When you refresh the page, you will see the uploaded contacts' total entries, the system will skip duplicate contacts automatically.
  1. Group SMS Feature:
  • Utilize the Group SMS feature to send Bulk SMS to all contacts in the group (multiple groups can be selected).
  • Ensure that you have an approved Sender ID.
Finally you can now use Group SMS feature to send Bulk SMS to the group

To track the message-sending status, go to Reports >> Campaigns and click the overview icon to monitor the progress.

Here you can pause, resume or resend a campaign.

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