Configuring Send SMS activity in journey builder

Question

The documentation for mobile connect in journey builder has the following two points:

• Ensure the MobileConnect Demographic data extension contains the contact data used to personalize any messages used as part of Journey Builder.

• Ensure that all contacts you wish to participate in your Journey Builder activities subscribe to the appropriate short or long code and keyword.

How can the contacts coming in through automation studio into journey builder be subscribed to the short code if the data coming is coming on the fly(Automation studio listening to ftp server for import and then updating a data extension)

Also how is the personalization done using the MobileConnect Demographic DE.Is it something that is done while creating the message in mobile connect that is later configured in the journey builder.

Answer 1

I'm trying to get the bottom of your first question myself, but for the second question - you would create the SMS FIRST in Mobile Studio, and then select that message when configuring the Journey... In other words, you set up the personalization before choosing the SMS in Journey Builder.

Answer 2

There was an update to Journey Builder last year that gave the option to subscribe Contacts in your Journey to MobileConnect keywords while they pass through this activity.

When configuring SMS activity on the Journey Builder canvas, there's an option to either send that SMS to only those who have subscribed - or you can select to subscribe everyone to a specific keyword available on your account.

Meaning, it doesn't matter where your Contacts are coming in, as long as the Phone field is correctly configured in your Journey Builder configuration screen, there will not be any issues.

With personalization it is done when you are actually building your SMS template in MobileConnect where you can reference any of the MobileConnect Demographics attributes. These you can configure in Contact Builder > Data Designer.

Although you don't need to rely on MobileConnect Demographics data for personalization, you can just as easily use AMPscript to lookup your target Data Extension.