Sending an SMS via the Tall Bob API

Tall Bobs APIs allow you to send outgoing SMS messages using several different Sender ids:

• Alpha Numeric Sender ids
• Virtual Numbers/Long Codes
• Short Codes

This guide will explore how you can manage your Outbound messaging including:

To send an SMS message you will need to know a few things and depending on the API endpoint you are using the format required for them may change slightly

To

This parameter identifies the phone number you want the outbound message delivered to, phone number should be formatted in the E.164 format which looks similar to +61400000000

From

The From parameter identifies who the message is being sent by, the From value can be

Body

This parameter includes the full text of the message you want to send, the maximum length of a message that can be sent via Tall Bob is 1530 characters

SMS Message costs are charged based on the number of SMS Units used, for messages that contain only characters in the GSM-7 space the breakdown of SMS units is as below

Unicode Character messages

Sending Messages to a Mobile Number

Tall Bob support two types of SMS messages Plain SMS and Campaign Based SMS.

Opt-Out Links

Both types of SMS messaging support the inclusion of Opt Out Links (sometimes referred to as Unsubscribe links) for Spam Compliance, they can be inserted into a message using the {OptOutURL} placeholder.

Personalised Messages

Tall Bob uses a subset of the Liquid Templating language so that you can personalise your plain SMS messages through the use of special tags in your messages to personalise messages double curly braces should be used for example “Hi {{ name }} thank you so much for attending our event last night” using personalisation does require that you include additional information in your API request and is only supported in the Send SMS To List of Mobiles endpoint.

Plain SMS Messages

Tall Bob offers two endpoints related to sending plain SMS messages

• Use the Send Single SMS endpoint when sending a message to a single phone number
• Use the Send SMS To List of Mobiles endpoint when sending a message to more than one phone number

Link Shortening

You can also utilise our link-shortening service as a part of the Plain SMS API, it will allow you to take long URLs like https://tallbob.com/awesome-garden-gnomes-and-pink-flamingos and make them something nice and short like http://tallbob.me/O8WJ

Campaign-Based SMS Messages

Tall Bob also supports the sending of Campaigns Based SMS messages to one or more individual phone numbers, this allows you to send messages that include links to landing pages, which include different engagement tools such as:

• Video Content
• Scratch and Reveal
• Spin the Wheel (Beta)
• Surveys and Forms
• etc

To send messages of this type you should refer to the Send SMS Campaign To List of Mobiles endpoint

Sending messages to Groups and Contacts

Tall Bob supports the sending of pre-built campaigns to Groups (sometimes referred to as Lists) and contacts that have been previously created in the platform, you can send Campaign messages by referencing:

• The Group ID (this is a unique id assigned by the Tall Bob platform, to a group of contacts when the new Group is created)
• A list of one or more Contact ids (these are unique ids assigned to a Contact by the Tall Bob platform at the time of Contact Creation)
• A list of one or more External ids (External ids are unique identifiers created and managed by an external system such as your CRM to identify Contacts)

You can send messages to groups and contacts via the Send SMS Campaign endpoint, which will require that you specify an existing template_id from within the platform.

Two Way Chat

Tall Bob offers a specialised endpoint that helps you manage Two Way Chat at scale without having to worry about the potential confusion of having multiple conversations between your business and clients ending up muddled up in the one conversation thread because they all come from a single long code. Some businesses that commonly utilise this sort of feature are:

• Real Estate Agencies
• Delivery Companies
• Food Delivery Services

Messaging via the 2-way chat endpoint uses a 2-part key to manage the long code when sending messages, you will need to specify a reference in the payload you are sending along with the phone number the message is to be sent to. Tall Bob’s platform will then manage the assignment of the long code from a pool of dedicated long codes attached to your account, automatically managing the entire process for you.

Helpful Stuff

• Looking for definitions that revolve around the Mobile, SMS and Telco Industries, then click here
• Looking for those pesky API docs that don't have all of the waffle like above and just get straight down to business, then go here
• Other helpful developer documents can be found here

If you ever need further assistance or someone to point you in the right direction you can email the team at [email protected]