What is Email-to-SMS?
This feature allows you to send SMS messages directly from your email client by converting emails into text messages. Email-to-SMS is useful for businesses that want to add SMS into their existing workflows, without additional software or complex APIs.
Set up Email to SMS
Before you send your first Email-to-SMS, you need to link your email account to your ClickSend account. Follow the below steps:
Log in to ClickSend and go to SMS > Email SMS.
Click Add Allowed Addresses.
Add any email addresses you want to send Email-to-SMS ‘from’. Don’t use a generic or shared address (e.g., mail-noreply@google.com) as we won’t be able to match your email to your ClickSend account.
If you want to edit or remove existing Allowed Addresses, you can do this now.
Optional: You can set your Sender ID. If you don’t set a Sender ID, the SMS will be sent from a shared number. Find out more about Sender IDs.
Choose which part of the message gets sent by configuring it at https://dashboard.clicksend.com/messaging-settings/sms/email-sms
Using an email address you do not control?
Using an email address you do not control?
To ensure that your message gets delivered successfully, do not use a generic address or an email address that you do not control. For example, if you are sending alerts from a service provider.
Option 1
We suggest sending the email from your service provider to your organisational inbox first. From there, set up a forwarding rule to get the email sent to your desired contact (see below)
Option 2
Set up an automation to trigger this via Zapier.
Create a Zapier account
Create a new Zap
Choose Email by Zapier from the list of Built-In Apps. Once it has been added, select New Inbound Email as the trigger event and Continue.
Customize the inbound email address you would like to use. This is what the service provider will be sending the email to.
Add an app for the action and choose ClickSend SMS from the list.
Select Send SMS as the action event. Click Continue.
It will now prompt you to sign in to your ClickSend account. Indicate your username and API key for your ClickSend account. Your API credentials can be found here
Customize the SMS that you want to receive when a new email is received.
In the To field, add the mobile number where you want to receive the SMS or Voice message.
In the Message box, you can choose to add what you want to receive on the SMS. You can choose to add just the Subject of the email or both the Subject and the body of the email. Once done with these, click Continue, then click Test and Continue.
Edit the name of your zap. Then turn it ON. You zap is ready to use.
To test if the zap is working, send an email to the @zapiermail.com email address generated in Step 4. If everything was set up properly, you should be able to receive an SMS for the new email you've received.
Send an Email-to-SMS
Open a new email in your preferred email client.
Set the recipient by using ‘{mobile number}@sms.clicksend.com’. For example, 0400000000@sms.clicksend.com. You can add multiple recipients if needed.
Write your message in the email’s subject and body.
Press Send.
Check your email inbox for replies. You can also view replies in ClickSend’s Messenger section.
If you receive a Missing Required Fields error, ensure the email subject and body aren’t empty. If you keep seeing the error, contact customer support.
Assigning Email-to-SMS to a subaccount
Want to assign Email-to-SMS usage to a specific subaccount for reporting purposes? It’s simple.
Go to the Allowed Email Address screen.
Edit or add a new address.
Select a sub account.
Click Save.
Sending a Group Email-to-SMS
Use our Group Email-to-SMS functionality to easily send to a large group of users. To set this up:
Create your contact list
Add all participants to the list.
Configure Email to SMS settings (if you haven't done so previously)
Set Get message from email body only.
Make sure your sending email is listed under Allowed Addresses.
Add it if it’s not there.
Send your message
Open your contact list and click Group SMS.
Copy the custom email address provided. Note that this email address is unique per contact list.
Send an email from the email address you previously authorised from step 2 to the custom email address
There is a limit of 1000 contacts for group Email-to-SMS. If you'd like to send to more contacts, please use the SMS Campaigns.