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Communication Template Best Practices for SMS, Email, Push, and Voice Channels

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Best Practices for Creating and Editing Communication Templates

Learn recommended best practices for creating and editing templates across SMS, Email, Push Notifications, and Voice channels.

Overview

Following channel-specific best practices helps improve message delivery, customer engagement, readability, and compliance across all communication channels. This guide outlines key recommendations for SMS, Email, Push Notifications, and Voice templates.

Important Note

Always test templates before publishing and use the Test Draft feature to validate wildcard values and formatting across all channels.

What You'll Need

Before you begin, please make sure you review the following general best practices:

  • Use clear, concise, and customer-friendly language.
  • Verify that links, images, and dynamic fields are working correctly.
  • Preview templates on desktop and mobile devices whenever possible.
  • Keep branding, tone, and formatting consistent across all channels.
  • Avoid unnecessary special characters or excessive formatting.
  • Use UTF-8 encoding to ensure special characters render correctly.

Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these channel-specific guidelines when creating or editing templates:

  1. SMS: Keep messages within 160 characters, use plain text only, and always include opt-out language such as Reply STOP to unsubscribe where required.
  2. Email: Keep subject lines short and meaningful, use inline CSS and web-safe fonts, always include alt text for images, and test in Outlook, Gmail, and mobile email applications before publishing.
  3. Push Notifications: Keep messages short and action-oriented, keep payload sizes optimized for both iOS and Android, and use URL references instead of embedding images directly in payloads.
  4. Voice: Use simple, conversational language in TTS scripts, avoid abbreviations and symbols, deliver the most important information within the first 30 seconds, and restrict call delivery windows to comply with regional regulations.

Having Trouble?

If you encounter any issues with wildcards or template formatting, refer to this quick troubleshooting guide.

What you're seeing Why it happens How to resolve it
Wildcard not populating correctly The wildcard was manually typed instead of selected from the dropdown. Remove the manually entered value and re-insert it using the Wildcards dropdown in the template editor.
SMS message sending as multiple parts Special Unicode characters or emojis are reducing the available character limit per SMS segment. Remove special Unicode characters and emojis. SMS supports multiple segments, so longer messages can be sent — avoiding these characters simply ensures each segment uses the full 160-character capacity.
Email rendering incorrectly in some clients External CSS or non-web-safe fonts may not be supported by all email clients. Switch to inline CSS and web-safe fonts, then test in Outlook, Gmail, and mobile email applications.

Tips for Success

To get the most out of your communication templates, keep the following in mind:

Common Pitfalls

  • × Manually typing wildcard values instead of using the Wildcards dropdown.
  • × Using special Unicode characters or emojis in SMS templates, which reduces the available characters per segment.
  • × Publishing templates without testing across all target devices and channels first.

Best Practices

  • ✓ Always use the Wildcards dropdown when adding dynamic values.
  • ✓ Test templates across all supported devices and channels before publishing.
  • ✓ Keep customer communication clear, concise, and easy to understand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why should I use the Wildcards dropdown instead of typing values manually?

A: Manually typed wildcard values can cause formatting or delivery issues. Always use the Wildcards dropdown in the template editor to ensure values are inserted correctly and consistently across all channels.

Q: What should I check before publishing a template?

A: Review all content for accuracy, verify dynamic fields and placeholders, test links and contact information, confirm formatting on desktop and mobile devices, and send test messages before activating the template.

Need More Help?

If you need assistance with creating or editing templates, our support team is ready to help.

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