How to: send Bulkmail by SMS

Starting with DNN 4.7.0, the Bulkmail module (accessible via Admin :: Newsletter menu item) has the ability to use an SMS proxy for sending messages to a list of users (especially all members of one or multiple roles) as text messages on their mobile phones.

First you need to get an account at any text message gateway provider (like clickatell.com or pswin.com, you might have a look at http://www.developershome.com/sms/howToChooseSMSGateway.asp for making your choice), who needs to accept emails from your server and forward its content to the recipient specified inside your mail (SMTP gateway). The gateway provider will provide you with an instruction, how to format you email, e.g. the email recipient (which mai contain your credentials) and containing the cell phone number in Subject and content in message body.

To send your message by SMS, you now need to create your message with settings like following and send the message:

Notes:

• you can select any role presented, if you have multiple role groups, an additional group selector will be displayed
• Language filter will be only displayed., if multiple languages are installed
• "from" email address might be specified by your SMS gateway provider (e.g. 010232312@relayservice.com to specify the address for answers), otherwise use your own email address.
• Content and format of Subject and Body will be specified by your SMS gateway provider as well. use [Profile:cell], where recipient's cell phone number is required
• attachments are usually not supported
• you need to enable "Replace Tokens" to get the cell phone number included
• Select send method "Relay"
• enter the email address of the relay service in the additional field displayed below
• you can send emails synchronously or asynchrously as you like
• if you have a large number of recipients, make sure, that the SMTP server specified in host settings, does accept that number of mails to send
• click send to get all mails send out at once.

Have fun using it

PS: You can use similar settings for using an smtp to fax relay service.