A campaign in TextBay is one message, personalized per person, sent to an audience you choose from your contacts. The Send page walks top to bottom.
1. Who gets it #
Choose the audience: Everyone, Only people on these lists, or People I pick myself. The count under the choice updates live, and See who shows the exact people before anything happens. Blocked and opted-out numbers are skipped automatically on every run.
2. Your message #
Pick the channel first (SMS, MMS with pictures, or WhatsApp), then write. Two bits of syntax do the personal touch:
{{first_name|there}}inserts a contact detail, with a fallback for people missing it: “Hi Anna”, “Hi there”.[[a|b|c]]picks one variant at random per person, so a hundred messages do not read byte-identical.
The preview rail on the right shows the message exactly as each person will get it (use the arrows to flip through people) plus a live character and SMS-segment count, so a stray special character never surprises you with a three-part bill. For marketing to the US or Canada, click Add an opt-out line: see Handle opt-outs.
3. Send #
Name the campaign (optional, it tags every history row for filtering), then press Send now. The confirmation dialog repeats the audience size, the estimated segment volume and your live Twilio balance, so the cost holds no surprises. During the run, the page shows a per-person grid with live statuses; a minute after the run the statuses refresh themselves from Twilio.
Want a dry run first? Switch on test mode under Settings: the whole pipeline runs, the history fills, and nothing is sent or charged.
Afterwards #
History keeps the truth: Delivered only when the handset confirmed it, and failures carry a plain-language explanation plus Twilio’s error code. Replies land in the Inbox, where you can answer inline. To send later instead of now, use Schedule: Schedule a send.