Creating a Keyword

TrueDialog Portal

Sending Messages > Keywords

This article will guide you through the process of creating a keyword. Once the keyword is created, you can attach it to a campaign, allowing you to automatically send the campaign’s message to someone who texts that keyword to the designated phone number. See the Attaching a Keyword to a Campaign article for instructions on attaching a keyword.

How does a Keyword work?

A keyword is typically a word but can be any sequence of letters, numbers, and special characters without spaces. When TrueDialog receives a message on one of your channels, it compares the first string of characters with any keywords assigned to that channel. If there is an exact match and the keyword is attached to a campaign, the corresponding campaign message will be sent to the message’s sender.

The diagram below shows several examples of how the system checks received messages for a keyword and pushes a campaign message when a match is found.

Here are some important details about keywords to keep in mind when creating and using keywords.

Keywords are not case-sensitive.
Keywords cannot contain spaces but can include numbers and special characters.
Keywords are only compared to the beginning of the received message.
If the keyword appears anywhere else in the message (other than the beginning), it will not match.
The keyword must be an exact match. For example, if the keyword is “info” and the received message starts with “Information”, the keyword will not match.
Each keyword is linked to only one channel and can be attached to only one campaign.
Multiple keywords can be linked to a single channel.
Multiple keywords can be attached to a single campaign.
A specific keyword name can only be used once on each channel, but the same keyword name can be used on multiple channels.
Different variations of a keyword can be attached for the same campaign. For instance, “info” and “information” can be attached to increase the chance of a user sending a valid keyword.

Expand Send Messages in the left sidebar and select Keywords.
Click New Keyword to open a form for reserving a new keyword.
Enter the keyword in the Name text box. Keywords must not contain spaces and are not case-sensitive.
In the Channel drop-down, select the channel to reserve the keyword on.
(Optional) To use the keyword for the Text To Push feature: (Only for accounts that support Text To Push.)
1. Expand the Advanced group.
2. Select the Text To Push checkbox.
Click Reserve Keyword to reserve the keyword.
- A success notification will be displayed in the upper right corner if the keyword was created successfully.
- An error notification will be displayed in the upper right corner if there is an error while creating the keyword. Try a different keyword Name until one is successfully created.