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⚡ Getting Started with OfferBolt
⚡ Getting Started with OfferBolt

Set up your Offerbolt account to start sending and receiving SMS messages using Automated Campaigns & AI Workflows!

Dennis avatar
Written by Dennis
Updated over a month ago

Initial Account Setup:

Step 1: Connect Messaging Provider

What is Twilio? - Twilio is an External messaging provider that directly connects to OfferBolt. A2P application is done on Twilio's site, and can take up to 2 weeks for approval. No throttling of messages, less restrictive with error and opt out rates. Twilio will be self managed by the user who will be responsible for keeping track of Delivered/Error and Opt Out rates.

Using Twilio(Recommended Method): Notice: **A2P Approval can take up to two weeks and multiple submissions may be required.** An Active website with a complaint Opt in form is required to apply for A2P. To learn more about A2P complaint websites click here

  1. If you currently do not have a Twilio account go to www.twilio.com Create an account (ensure it’s a business account that has an EIN #, by adding this Twilio will enable the throughput of messages required for your campaigns)

    1. If you currently have a Twilio account start from here.

    2. Go to billing overview and add funds. Add your billing info and charge your initial account balance of at least $20. https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223183208-Upgrading-to-a-paid-Twilio-Account This will upgrade your account to where you can now see your Account SID and Auth Token on the console dashboard.

    3. Connecting Your Twilio Account To OfferBolt:

      Send us a message using the in app messenger widget and provide us with your company name. Copy and paste your Account SID and Auth Token as the message. Be sure to “show” your Auth Token before copying and pasting.

    4. **You are required to setup a A2p Compliant website**. We provide an A2P compliant website template with your account. **Click here begin the website template setup.** Using your own website is an option as well, be sure to review the approval requirements for a smooth process.

    5. Within Twilio: Go to Account menu and scroll down to the “Trust Hub” section → click on overview → Click on “Go to A2P messaging”. This where you start your A2P registration process. **Click here to view a guide through the process.**

    6. Once you have submitted your A2P for approval you will need to verify that your Twilio campaign has been approved BEFORE sending any SMS. This process can take up to 2 weeks. To learn how to check your campaign A2P status click here.

    7. After completing A2P registration watch the video below to learn how to purchase phone numbers in Twilio, or click here on how to purchase numbers in OfferBolt. It is recommended to purchase at least 9 numbers to run your workflows effectively and efficiently.

    8. Assigning Your Phone Numbers To Your Twilio A2P Campaign: In Twilio: Click on the menu item "Admin". A drop down menu will appear, click on Account Trust Hub -> A2P Messaging → Campaigns → click on the connected messaging service link → add senders → click on the numbers that you purchased and add them to the messaging service.

    9. Within Offerbolt visit “Settings → Phone Numbers” and click the “Add” button to right of each phone number you would like to use within Offerbolt.

Step 2: Create Users

  1. Visit Settings → My Staff → Click “+ Add Employee” Create a staff member for each of the Initial SMS workflows. NOTE: The names are placeholders and meant for you to change them to whatever you like. We recommend not using the default names to ensure your messages stand out!

Fill out the user info section with first name, last name, email(doesn’t have to be an active address), password(doesn’t matter unless you are assigning this user to a real person).

Open the “Call & Voicemail Settings” dropdown and select an inbound number. This is the number messages will be sent from with sms workflows.

2. Repeat this for each user in the Initial SMS workflows

Step 3: Add Users to workflow

Be sure to make a copy of each workflow you are going to use, this will avoid system updates overriding your settings. Click here to see how to do it.

  1. Visit Workflows → Initial SMS → Click on a workflow like "Initial SMS" or “Ben SMS 9am-12pm”. You’ll now be viewing the workflow detail page and can click the second workflow action labled “Assign to user”

    1. Select the users for this workflow, click “Save Action”, then “Publish the workflow”

    2. Complete this step for each of the Initial SMS Workflows and the users you’ve created

Add at least 3 users if using "Ben, Jen or Sarah" workflows and 9 total users for the initial workflow (3 users per timeframe ex 9-12, 12-4 or 4-8). Each user is assigned to a given workflow(which runs during a certain time window). A round robin format will be used to rotate between users for that workflow ensuring the amount of sms sent is balanced between all the users. Be sure to go to each staff member and assign phone numbers as seen in step 2 if you haven’t already.

Step 4: Customize Initial SMS Workflows

Workflows → Initial SMS → Select Individual Workflow

Edit initial and drip SMS messages

We recommend this to ensure messages from your agency are unique and fit your brand.

Adjust SMS message start and end times

Be sure to avoid overlapping start and end times between workflows unless that is desired.

Be sure to watch the video as three separate places need to be updated for time changes to work properly.


a. Wait Time - ex. “Starts at 9am”, “9-12”
b. Window Time - ex. “9-12 window”
c. Settings - Settings page time window. Only needs to be updated if your time change falls outside of the current settings time windows. This may need to be extended to allow for drips that have already entered to be sent out.

Please ensure all workflow updates or changes are completed before adding contacts to the workflow. Any changes made to the workflow settings will not apply to contacts already in the workflow. Similarly, contacts currently at a wait event will not be affected by any changes made to that event.

Adjust Initial SMS Workflow Drips

We highly recommend you keep these settings as is. We’ve tested these settings to ensure your Twilio account doesn’t get restricted!

Please ensure all workflow updates or changes are completed before adding contacts to the workflow. Any changes made to the workflow settings will not apply to contacts already in the workflow. Similarly, contacts currently at a drip event will not be affected by any changes made to that event.

Step 5: Adding Contacts To OfferBolt

Uploading your contact list into OfferBolt

Your contacts files should be a “csv”, or an excel file saved as a csv file.

  1. On the contact screen click the icon with the arrow facing up. From this screen you can easily drag and drop a file into the center drop zone area or simply click on the blue link in the drop zone area to upload your file.

    1. After clicking next step, you will be viewing your list. On the left are the fields from your list and on the right the custom fields from OfferBolt. Check each field on your list to ensure each one is paired with a custom field, this is critical to ensure the mapping is correct. On the top left of the screen you have the ability to create a pre set map which will save your mapping preferences. This can help if you upload lists multiple times using the same table format.

    2. Once you have completed the mapping, look to the bottom center of the window and enable the checkbox, this will keep prevent any un-mapped data from being imported.

    3. Click next → then choose a name that describes your list and the day you uploaded it.

    4. Below the name click on a check box that labled “create a list of contacts from the import”. This will create your “smart list” which will make finding and adding contacts to workflows a lot easier.

    5. Click on the blue advanced button. Leave the next field selected as-is “Add New And Update Existing Contact records”.

    6. Next, do the same for “Phone” this is what identifies as your contact. You cannot have duplicate numbers in the system but you can have duplicate names.

    7. Now add your tags, just like you named your list, Be descriptive with naming your tags, one tag can be the name of your list or the city and type of list, another tag to use is tag the date you are uploading this list or created the list. Lastly you can tag if this is “mobile 1,2 or 3” this could help you keep an eye on what type of numbers come up as wrong numbers especially mobile 2 and 3’s.

    8. Click on the blue toggle button near the bottom labled “Add New Contacts to Workflow/Campaign”. A drop down will appear where you can select the workflow you’d like to import this list to. If this is a new list add your contacts to one of the initial workflows named Ben SMS, Jen SMS, Sarah SMS or the Initial SMS.

    9. Click Submit and you are now done. Clicking the blue link in the success window takes you to bulk actions where you are able to view the status of the list.

Please ensure all workflow updates or changes are completed before adding contacts to the workflow. Any changes made to the workflow settings will not apply to contacts already in the workflow.

If you did not add your contacts into the workflow when you uploaded your list, then watch this video below.

Add Existing Contacts to a workflow

  1. Select the Smart List that you would like to add to the workflow

    1. Just below the smartest on the left side of the contact window there is a box to select all contacts on that page for the smart list. Click on that box.Then just to the right of that box if there are any remaining contacts there will be a buttons that says “select all xxxxxx records” Clicking on that will include the rest of the contacts on the list.

    2. Just above that there is a row of icons, click the third from the right it’s the one that looks like a robot. If you hover over it or any of those icons it will tell you what they are. Click on that Robot icon.

    3. Click Ok, proceed. From the drop down select the workflow you would like to put this list of contacts into. If this is the first time putting these contacts into the workflow look for any of the initial workflows, they are named as Initial SMS, Ben SMS, Jen SMS, or Sarah SMS.

    4. Within the notes section it’s helpful to put a useful description such as the list name, the workflow and date.

    5. Select Add To Campaign/Workflow → Select OK and you are done.

Step 6: Configure Booking Calendar

The appointments calendar is where you should set your unavailable time and sync your calendar with google.

  1. Visit Calendars → Calendar Settings, on the row for the “Appointments” calendar, all the way to the right hand side click the “3 vertical dots” and select “Edit” to view the Appointments calendar settings.

    1. Click “Availability” to edit those settings. This is allows you to control the days and times your agency is available for appointments. The AI workflows bot will only set appointment within your available times.

      After connecting your gmail account by visiting Settings → Integrations and signing into gmail. From the Appointment calendar edit page click “Connections” and choose the gmail account you would like to link to the calendar.

      Sync Options:
      One Way - All events from the Google Calendar will be show as grey. Invitees added in Google won’t be added in OfferBolt. Events will be synced from OfferBolt to your Google Calendar.
      Two Way - All events from Google will be colored and sync between OfferBolt and Google. Invitees on the Google event will have a contact created for them and fire off any triggers associated with the calendar.

      Smart - When an even is created in Google but the invitee doesn’t exist in OfferBolt, OfferBolt will not add them as contacts but will block off time in your OfferBolt calendar. When an even is created in Google Calendar and contacts are found in OfferBolt, the event will be color coded in OfferBolt and any triggers associated with the calendar will fire off.

Step 7: What should I do after sending my first message?

Download the mobile app to track the bot, conversations, opportunities and more.

Prepare for your first deal with Offerbolt by setting up contracts

Learn more by watching our In-Depth Onboarding and Intial SMS Workflow explainer videos.


Initial SMS Workflow Introduction - Watch Here

In-Depth Onboarding - Watch here

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