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> Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further.
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# Set up SMS marketing

Before any automation can send, your clinic needs two things: a one-time SMS verification and at least one SMS credit. The Getting Started wizard then walks you from a sender name to live automations in four steps, and nothing is sent until the last one.

| 📍 **Where to find this:** Left navigation menu → Marketing → Automations

## ✅ What you can do

- Complete both SMS prerequisites without leaving Marketing
- Choose the sender name clients see on their phone
- Pick which automations start running, and see what they will cost
- Read and edit every message before it goes out
- Send yourself a test, then go live

## 🔓 Step one — complete the two setup steps

Until both are done, a **Finish setting up SMS marketing** panel sits at the top of every Marketing page, with a tick appearing beside each step as you finish it.

1. Click **Verify now** beside **Verify your account for SMS** and complete the one-time verification of your mobile number.
2. Click **Buy credits** and buy the credits you need.

|| ℹ️ **Buy credits** stays greyed out until verification is complete, because the purchase is tied to the verified clinic. Finish verification first and the button wakes up.

|| ℹ️ Credits are granted by the payment provider a few seconds after you pay, so the balance may take a moment to update after you close the purchase window.

||| ⚠️ **Only the clinic owner can do these two steps.** Everyone else sees the same checklist with the note *Only the clinic owner can verify the account and buy credits*, and no buttons. If you are not the owner, send them this page.

The panel disappears on its own once both steps are complete, and every Marketing page loses its banner.

## 🚀 Step two — run the Getting Started wizard

The wizard opens **by itself** the first time you land on any Marketing page. If you closed it, or want it again later:

1. Click **Marketing → Automations** in the left navigation menu.
2. In the **Set up in 10 minutes** card, click **Get started**. Once you have completed it, the same button offers **Run setup again**.

The wizard has four steps and a progress bar along the top. **Back** returns to the previous step without losing anything.

|| ℹ️ Your place is only remembered once you finish or dismiss the wizard, so refreshing the page mid-way brings you back into it rather than leaving your clinic half-configured.

### 1. Who are your messages from?

This is the name that appears on the client's phone instead of a number.

3. Enter a **Sender name**. Keep it short, recognizable and consistent, for example ELEVACLINIC. MERIDIQ suggests your clinic name with the spaces removed.
4. Enter **Your mobile — for test messages**. Choose the country code on the left, then the number. Every test send in Marketing goes to this number.
5. Check the **Preview**, which shows a sample message under your chosen sender name.
6. Click **Continue**, or **Skip for now** to move on without setting these.

![Getting Started step one, choosing the sender name and test number](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-wizard-sender_vg7txd.png =650x605)

|| ℹ️ Sender names are limited to 11 characters by the mobile networks, not by MERIDIQ. Letters only, no spaces, is the safest choice.

### 2. Choose your automations

7. Switch on the automations you want. **Rebooking reminder** and **Birthday greeting** carry a **Recommended** badge and are on to begin with, because they work for almost every clinic.
8. Read the one-line description under each name to see what it does.
9. Check **Estimated:** *(number)* **credits/month** at the bottom. This is MERIDIQ's estimate for your own client list, not a generic figure, and it changes as you switch recipes on and off.

![Getting Started step two, choosing which automations to run](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-wizard-recipes_vv41yt.png =650x620)

### 3. Preview your messages

10. Scroll through the messages, one card per automation you switched on.
11. Edit any of them. The grey bubble under each box shows the finished message with a sample client name, service and links filled in.

![Getting Started step three, previewing and editing each message](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-wizard-preview_1ll8gs4.png =650x620)

|| ℹ️ Words in double curly brackets, such as `{{client_first_name}}`, are placeholders. They are replaced per client when the message is sent, so every text reads as if you wrote it for that one person.

### 4. Test, then go live

12. Check the summary: your sender, how many automations are on, the estimated monthly usage, your quiet hours and your frequency cap.
13. *(optional)* Click **Send a test of each to** *(your number)* to receive the messages yourself first.
14. Click **Go live**.

![Getting Started step four, the summary before going live](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-wizard-golive_ffkey0.png =650x560)

MERIDIQ confirms with **Your automations are live**, and messages start sending from that moment, within your quiet hours, frequency caps and credit budget.

||| ⚠️ Test messages are **real SMS and are charged like any other message**. They go to your test number and are never sent to clients.

|| ℹ️ Nothing sends until you press **Go live**. Closing the wizard before that point leaves everything exactly as it was.

## 🔁 Change your mind later

Everything the wizard sets can be changed afterwards under **Marketing → Automations** — the timing, the wording, and which automations run at all. You can also reopen the wizard at any time with **Get started**, and once you have been through it the button offers **Run setup again**.

| 💡 Next: set your limits under [Set guardrails and credit limits](https://help.meridiq.com/en/article/set-guardrails-and-credit-limits-1agd3g3/), and check who you are allowed to message under [Manage marketing consent](https://help.meridiq.com/en/article/manage-marketing-consent-1ivd3i0/).