HotDoc Broadcast sends targeted SMS messages to patients from your clinic's database. It uses information synced from your database to allow you to target messages to a specific segment of your database.

Read the guide below to learn how to create and send a HotDoc Broadcast.

Creating a Broadcast SMS

1. Login to your HotDoc Dashboard using your login.
   
   
2. Click on the Broadcast icon to the left of the screen, then Broadcasts. From here, select either:
   
   - Create New Broadcast if you would like to use our built in demographic filtering, or upload a CSV exported from your clinical software
   
   - Send SMS to Single or Multiple Mobile Numbers if you only need to contact one patient, or a handful of patients. See Sending Broadcasts to one or multiple mobile numbers for more information
   
   - Select an existing pre-built template that you would like to edit from our Broadcast Templates below
   
   
   
   
3. Once you've selected your choice, enter the title and message you would like to send out to your patients in the appropriate fields. Under the message box, you will see how many credits each message will use. One credit is equivalent to one SMS containing up to 160 characters:
   
   
   
   
4. If you would like to insert a placeholder (e.g. the patient’s name) you can do this by clicking on the Insert Placeholder drop-down menu. By selecting an option from the list, it will be inserted into the message automatically for you:
   
   
   
   
5. Enter the filters you would like to apply to your Broadcast in the Who are you sending to? section:
   
   
   
   - For more information on how our Broadcast filters work please see HotDoc Inform Broadcast Filters
    
   - For more information on how to export a csv from your clinical software, see How to upload a .csv file
   
   
6. Once you've drafted your message, you will see an estimate of the number of credits that will be used by your Broadcast SMS in the bottom left of your screen. If you are happy with this, select the Next button in the bottom right of your screen to see a final preview of your message.
   
   
   
   
7. On the review screen you will see a summary of your message and an estimate of the number of credits you will use. You can also send a demo of the message to your phone by entering your mobile number and clicking on the Send demo button
   
   Sending a demo is free, and highly encouraged so you can see how it actually looks like on your mobile phone!
   
   
   
   
8. Once you are happy with your message, you can either Save as draft for sending later or, click Send Broadcast if you're ready to send now!
   
   
   

Please note: Broadcast SMSs will not send if there are no recipients or if you are on legacy pricing and do not have enough credits to send all of the messages.

If you do not have enough credits you can request a top up via the Request Top Up button in the top right corner of your screen.