Receiving 2FA messages or customer responses to your marketing campaigns that you want to get notified about or distribute to multiple parties? Well I’ve got you covered! This post will show you to forward SMS to Slack, email, and another phone number using the Zapier automation tool and the Telnyx CPaas platform.
In the case that you do not want to use Telnyx and just want to forward SMS to Slack or Email then there is the option to use a webhook listener to trigger the zap so long as you have a way of sending webhooks for inbound SMS.
On a related note are you interested in learning more about APIs? APIs are the foundational building blocks that power modern software ecosystems like Zapier and the Demystify the API Crash Course will explain the fundamentals and give you a hands-on introduction to making your first API requests. Check out the course using the button below 🙂
Take Tyron’s Course on Demand
If you are looking for an introduction to Telnyx and why they should be your SMS provider then look no further than the Marketo SMS Marketing with Telnyx post. See how Telnyx stacks up to Twilio, how much you can save on SMS, and all the cool features available with the Telnyx SMS API.
Before starting with the steps below make sure you have followed the Telnyx SMS Quickstart Portal Setup Guide to do the prerequisites below.
N.B. Make sure to sign up using this referral link to get a sweet, sweet $20 in free credit
Follow the steps below when creating your new Zap to set up a trigger for inbound SMS to one of your Telnyx messaging profiles.
Now any inbound SMS to any of the numbers associated with this messaging profile will trigger this Zap to run.
Set up the Slack action to forward the SMS to the intended destination e.g. “Send Direct Message” or “Send Channel Message” and then populate the body of the message with information about the SMS obtained from Step 1.
I would recommend choosing “Yes” for the “Include A Link To This Zap?” option so that if there is an issue it is easy to follow the link from the Slack message and start troubleshooting.
You can forward the SMS contents to a phone number using the “Send SMS” action in the Telnyx app or using Python code in a “Code by Zapier” action to make a request to the Telnyx SMS API.
Using Python code to make the request will allow you to factor in more complex logic and conditions before sending the message e.g. only forward the SMS if a keyword is present in the inbound text.
If you want an example of how to send an SMS with Telnyx using Python code in a “Code by Zapier” action take a look at the Send Response using Telnyx SMS API section in the “Marketo 2 Way SMS using Telnyx and Zapier” post.
The “Email by Zapier” action can be used to forward the SMS contents to your email address. Again I would recommend including a link to the history of this zap so that if there any issues it is easy to click the link and start debugging.
If you have a system in place that can send information about inbound SMS using webhooks then you can use the “Catch Hook” trigger event in the “Webhooks by Zapier” app. The “Custom Webhook URL” field will provide you with a destination URL that you can send the inbound SMS information to.
For example, on any Telnyx messaging profile you can forward any inbound SMS using webhooks to a primary URL or a backup URL if sending to the first URL fails.
If you are looking for a way to test this “Catch Hook” trigger then you can use Postman, the free API testing tool, to make a POST request to the “Custom Webhook URL”. Take a look at the Testing the Marketo API using Postman in the “Marketo API Quick Start Guide” post tolearn how to make your first POST request.
Once you have triggered the zap then the exact same “Forward SMS to Slack” and “Forward SMS to Email” actions from above can be used to forward the SMS to Slack and email respectively.
Since we are on the topic of webhooks, I couldn’t resist mentioning that you can of course also forward any inbound SMS information to a destination URL using the “POST” action event of the “Webhooks by Zapier” app.
In the “Set up action” section you can populate the body of the webhook and specify any headers and authorization that you need to make a request to the destination URL.
A great site for testing your outbound webhooks is https://webhook.site/ because it gives you a URL to send information to, which it will then display as webhooks come in.
Now that you have gotten your first taste of Telnyx and a sneak peek at its SMS capabilities see how you can integrate SMS notifications into your marketing automation platform using outbound webhooks to make requests to the Telnyx SMS API.
Greetings fellow MO Pros! As a previous mechanical engineer turned marketing operations lead, I now fancy myself as a full-stack marketer capable of designing websites, writing SEO-optimized content, and doing all the tracking and automation on the backend. That being said my bread and butter is marketing operations and I love to get down and dirty with the Marketo API, Python, Zapier, and Google Scripts.
Created with the assistance of DALL·E Introduction and Background In 2018, Edward Unthank introduced the four pillars of marketing operations, setting the stage for the management of effective marketing technology (Martech) functions. These pillars have since been the bedrock for many successful careers in marketing operations. My journey to redefine
Introduction When it comes to account-based marketing (ABM), your marketing team might have invested in intent data, built tailored content, and spent time targeting accounts. But is the juice worth the squeeze? You could say marketing operations teams are there in part to squeeze every last marketing dollar in order
Introduction: Blending Human and Technical Perspectives in Martech Caption: Future gardens of martech will blend human and AI perspectives As a co-host of the Humans of Martech podcast, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing some of the brightest minds in marketing technology. This unique experience has provided a blend of
Subscribe to our newsletter!
