Vantage WordPress SMS

The Vantage SMS plugin will allow you to send SMS to authors/sellers/vendors when they are contacted through the inquiry form on their listing pages. The plugin integrates the SMS service from Twilio, which is reasonably priced with an excellent API, via our FREE WP Twilio Core plugin on your Vantage powered business directory website.

After activating the plugin, all you have to do is select the place where your users are leaving their mobile numbers. The possible options are Post Meta (Listing/Event Custom Fields) or User Meta (Profile Fields). Follow the instructions below if you do not know how to create a Mobile Number field.

1. Post Meta (Listing/Event Custom Fields)
   You can create a Mobile Number field from Vantage custom forms section to add it to your listing or event forms. If you have been using Vantage already, you have probably created a lot of fields already, and this must feel like a cakewalk.
2. User Meta (Profile Fields)
   If you prefer to have your users add their numbers in their profiles, then you will have to look outside the Vantage settings. Fortunately, there are many plugins to do it. For starters, you can use the aforementioned parent WP Twilio Core plugin to add “mobile_number” to user profiles. There are also numerous other free plugins that extend user profiles.

Once your Mobile Number field is setup, let the Vantage SMS plugin know where you set it up and its name, that’s it! You have now made your directory site truly stand out by sending out text messages to your customers!

Vantage SMS Features

• Send instant SMS to your sellers when they are contacted via their listings or events
• Select the location (user meta or post meta) and define the name of the mobile number field
• Leverage the excellent Twilio API via our WP Twilio Core plugin

WP Twilio Core Features

• Mobile Phone User Field added to each profile (optional)
• Shorten URLs using Google URL Shortener API (optional)
• Basic logging capability to keep track of up to 100 entries
• Directly send a text message to any permissible number from the admin panel for testing

Pre-Purchase Checklist

Since Twilio API is a paid service, we suggest you make sure it will work for you before you purchase the plugin. Here’s how to do it:

1. Sign up for Twilio’s Free Trial.
   Yes you can! They give a few dollars worth of credit to all trial accounts, and you can use your credit to make sure it works in your country or target market. You can choose an SMS enabled Twilio number for a start. Be mindful of the fact that trial accounts have extra restrictions, for example, you may not have a local number available in your country for yourself (but you can send global SMS anyway), you will need to verify every number you send an SMS to beforehand and the message will be prefixed with a statement saying it’s a Twilio trial account. Of course, these restrictions will be lifted when you have a paid subscription, and do not apply to the excellent dev tools you can use to send SMS or access message history for debugging or testing.
2. Install WP Twilio Core.
   WP Twilio core is a simple plugin to add SMS capability to your WordPress website using the Twilio API. It’s available for free from WordPress.org. We have created this plugin so developers like us can extend it and integrate Twilio with a WordPress website of any niche/type. What it will allow you to do at this point is send messages directly from your admin panel to any permissible (verified for trial accounts, remember?) number. The Vantage SMS plugin also depends on this plugin, so best to familiarise yourself with it before you make your purchase.
3. Read the Twilio SMS FAQs.
   This is another important point, especially if the above steps aren’t working for you. If you are already sending messages to your verified mobile numbers but somehow not having them delivered to you, then you may find your answer on Twilio’s SMS FAQs. Make sure your target country/market and all their network providers are supported. They have pretty much made it clear who CANNOT receive a message. In India for instance, any number on the “National Do Not Call Regsitry” will not receive SMS via Twilio.

Requirements

There are a couple of requirements in order to use the Vantage SMS extension:

1. You must have a verified Twilio account (free trial or paid subscription).
2. You must have the WP Twilio Core WordPress plugin (free) installed (1.2.0+).
3. You must be using the Vantage theme on your website (4.0+).
4. You must have created a Mobile Number field and made sure it appears on listing or profile forms.