When you open the Messages tab in Telerivet for the first time, you see two options: Send Message and Create Campaign. Both reach contacts. The difference is in structure, timing, and what the send needs to do. In Telerivet, Send Message is for immediate ad hoc outreach, Campaigns are for structured scheduled or automated sends, and Services are for anything that needs to respond to an incoming message or run continuously without manual intervention.
Which option fits your situation?
| If you want to... | Use this |
|---|---|
| Send a message to one or more contacts right now | Send Message |
| Schedule a one-time announcement to a group | Message Broadcast |
| Send a sequence timed to each contact's individual date | Relative Campaign |
| Automatically send on a contact's birthday or annual date | Birthday/Anniversary Campaign |
| Read and respond to messages from a specific contact | Conversations |
| Respond automatically to incoming messages | Service |
| Run a poll, keyword opt-in, or two-way conversation flow | Service |
Send Message: immediate, one-off outreach
Send Message is the fastest path from intent to delivery. You type a message, pick recipients (an individual contact, a group, or phone numbers typed directly), and send immediately or at a scheduled time. It supports personalization through contact fields, media attachments, and short links, but there is no campaign structure, naming, or automation attached to it.
Use Send Message when you have something to say right now and do not need the result to repeat, scale, or trigger anything else. Staff alerts, quick updates to a small group, and route tests are the most common uses. It is also the practical way to verify that a new route is working before you build anything on top of it.
For personalizing messages with contact fields, see How to Personalize Messages in Telerivet. For tracking link clicks, see Understanding Short Links in Telerivet. For timing considerations, Best Time to Send Messages covers how send timing affects engagement across different markets.
Campaigns: structured, scheduled, and automated sends
A Campaign adds structure: a name, a defined audience, a schedule, and in some types, multi-step automation. When you create a new campaign, Telerivet surfaces two types as the primary options: Message Broadcast and Relative Campaign. Three additional types (Birthday/Anniversary Campaign, Service Broadcast, and Call Broadcast) are available under "View more options."
Message Broadcast
A Message Broadcast sends a single message to a selected group at a scheduled time. You define the audience using groups or filters, write the message, and set the delivery time. Optional reply-action settings let you add contacts to a group when they respond or click a short link, which makes it possible to segment your audience during the send itself without a separate automation step.
The broadcast builder includes a live preview pane showing exactly how your message will render on a recipient's device, switchable between SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Viber, and Messenger. If you select a channel you have not yet connected a route for, the pane prompts you to set one up directly from the same screen. The message field also supports message templates: reusable text blocks you can save, label, and search so that messages you send repeatedly do not have to be rewritten each time.
This is the right type for promotions, event notifications, seasonal announcements, and any one-time scheduled send where you want a named, reusable record you can analyze and copy. Campaigns in Telerivet: Structured, Automated Messaging covers how to structure audience filters and plan a broadcast before sending.
Relative Campaign
A Relative Campaign schedules a sequence of steps relative to a date stored on each contact's record. Each step fires at a defined interval before or after that date, and the campaign handles delivery automatically as contacts become eligible. You may also see this referred to as a "Sequence" in the onboarding flow.
What makes Relative Campaigns more powerful than a standard drip is that each step does not have to be a message. When you add a step, you choose between three types: Message (a text or media message sent directly), Service (any automated service you have already built in your account), or Call (a voice call with a selected audio source). A single campaign can mix all three. A practical example: day minus one sends a reminder message, day zero triggers a voice call, day plus one launches a post-visit feedback service that collects a rating and writes it to the contact record.
The Service step option is where Relative Campaigns become a genuine workflow architecture tool. You build a feedback poll, a KYC intake flow, or an NPS survey once as a service. Any campaign, in any department, at any point in a sequence can then invoke it. A clinic, a hotel, and a lender can all run the same post-interaction survey service through completely different campaigns with completely different timing, without anyone rebuilding the flow. Note that this is different from a Service Broadcast: a Service step fires within a timed sequence anchored to a contact date; a Service Broadcast fires a service for a group immediately or at a scheduled time, outside of any sequence.
The date field the campaign references can be any date stored on a contact: a subscribe date, an appointment date, a loan due date, or any custom field you define. For how to set up and manage contact date fields, see Managing Contact Fields in Telerivet.
How clinics automate appointment reminders with SMS, WhatsApp, and Viber shows this pattern in a healthcare context. Automated Loan Payment Reminders for Lenders covers the same structure in fintech. For the scheduling mechanics, see How Message Scheduling Works in Telerivet.
Birthday/Anniversary Campaign
A Birthday/Anniversary Campaign sends messages on the yearly recurrence of a stored date field. It follows the same logic as a Relative Campaign but anchors to the annual anniversary rather than the original date, so contacts receive messages every year automatically without the campaign needing to be recreated.
This is one of the most accessible campaigns to build first: a contact group, a date field, a message, and a delivery time is all you need to have personalized annual messages going out automatically. Common uses include birthday greetings, membership anniversary messages, and annual renewal reminders. Like Relative Campaigns, each step can be a Message, a Service, or a Call, and you can build multiple steps around the anniversary date.
Additional campaign types
Selecting "View more options" reveals two further types for more specific scenarios. Service Broadcast triggers an automated service for a group of contacts at a scheduled time, useful for dispatching poll flows, intake sequences, or custom workflows to a defined audience without embedding them in a date-relative sequence. Call Broadcast sends a voice call to a group on the same scheduling model as a Message Broadcast.
Conversations: when a human needs to be in the thread
Once messages start flowing, the Conversations view in the Messages tab gives your team a single threaded view of every exchange with a contact, regardless of which channel it came through. SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, and other channels all appear in the same thread, so the person handling the conversation sees the full history without switching between apps.
This is the right interface when a human needs to be present: a logistics coordinator following up with a driver, a loan officer responding to a borrower's question, a support agent handling an escalation. Basic management tools (handled status, starring, filtering by conversation status) let a small team work a shared inbox without messages getting missed.
Conversations and Services are complementary. A Service handles the automated layer, and a human steps in via Conversations when the situation requires it.
When you need a Service instead
Campaigns and Send Message handle outbound communication. The moment you need Telerivet to respond to an incoming message, run logic based on what a contact sends, or operate continuously without a defined send time, you are working with Services.
A Service handles incoming messages, runs branching logic, updates contact fields, and can connect to data tables and external systems through Cloud Scripts. If your use case involves a keyword opt-in, a two-way conversation, an automated poll, a payment confirmation flow, or any workflow that fires when a message arrives rather than when you schedule it, a Service is the right building block. Services can also be invoked from within a Campaign, via a Service step in a Relative Campaign or via Service Broadcast, which is how most organizations combine automated responses with scheduled outreach into a single program.
Getting Started with Automated Services covers the basics. Automated Services in Telerivet: What They Really Do explains how Services differ from Campaigns and when organizations reach for one over the other. Three Simple Journeys Every Organization Should Automate shows how Campaigns and Services work together across three common programs. For a deeper look at workflow design once you are building beyond a single campaign, How to Build Automated Customer Communication Workflows That Actually Scale is worth reading.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Send Message and a Message Broadcast? Send Message is for immediate outreach with no record structure. A Message Broadcast is a named campaign with a defined audience, schedule, and optional reply actions. Use Send Message when you want to reach someone right now. Use a Broadcast when you want a structured, repeatable send you can track, copy, and analyze over time.
What is the difference between a Relative Campaign and a Birthday/Anniversary Campaign? A Relative Campaign fires steps at intervals before or after a specific stored date, such as three days after a loan disbursement or one day before an appointment. It fires once when that date occurs. A Birthday/Anniversary Campaign fires on the yearly recurrence of a stored date, so contacts receive messages every year automatically without the campaign being recreated.
Can I schedule messages in Telerivet? Yes. Both Send Message and all Campaign types support scheduled delivery. Relative Campaigns and Birthday/Anniversary Campaigns go further: they schedule automatically based on dates stored in each contact's record, so you configure the timing logic once and each contact receives their messages at the right moment without any manual intervention.
When do I need a Service instead of a Campaign? When your workflow needs to respond to an incoming message, apply conditional logic, or stay active continuously rather than running at a defined time, you need a Service. Campaigns are outbound: they send to a defined group on a schedule you set. Services are event-driven: they run when something happens, such as a message arriving, a keyword being detected, or a trigger fired from within a campaign step.
Can Telerivet send the same campaign across SMS and WhatsApp? Yes. Campaigns work across any route connected to your account, including SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, and other supported channels. For multi-channel workflows where a message automatically falls back from one channel to another, Services are the right building block. See Understanding Routes in Telerivet for how routes and channels connect to your project.
Best practice tip
Before choosing between Send Message and a Campaign, ask whether you will want to track results or repeat this send in the future. If yes, create a Campaign even for a one-time send. Campaigns give you a named record you can copy, analyze, and adapt, and they track reply rates and short link clicks in a way that Send Message does not. The extra setup time pays back quickly once you are running more than a handful of sends per month. For guidance on timing, Best Time to Send Messages is worth reading before you lock in your schedule.
Need help designing a messaging workflow for your specific use case? Our Solution Engineers can walk you through the right setup. Get in touch.