# Start guide

From an empty account to ready-to-send: create a project, verify your business, set up a channel, add your audience and send your first campaign.

**Language:** en
**Audience:** platform
**TLDR:** Order matters: create your project first, then front-load business verification and sender registration since those need external review time, import contacts through a data source, add funds to your prepaid balance, and finish with a test send before your first real campaign.
**Translation key:** platform.overview.start-guide
**Search keywords:** start guide, getting started, get started, quick start, quickstart, onboarding, setup, set up, first steps, new account, empty account, checklist, setup checklist, create project, verify business, legal profile, add sender, configure channel, import contacts, add audience, add funds, balance, first campaign, first send, test send, ready to send
**Related pages:** /platform/es/overview/start-guide, /platform/en/overview, /platform/en/overview/concepts, /platform/en/channels, /platform/en/channels/sms/senders-registration, /platform/en/data-sources, /platform/en/campaigns/creating-a-campaign, /platform/en/campaigns/test-sends
**Docs index (every page):** https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt
**This zone's index:** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/llms.txt
**This page:** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/overview/start-guide/ (HTML) · https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/overview/start-guide.md (Markdown)
**Other language (es):** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/es/overview/start-guide.md

This guide takes you from a brand-new account to your first message delivered.
Six steps, in the order that works best — some involve a short review by
carriers or regulators, so the guide front-loads those to keep you moving.

> **Note**: The dashboard walks you through this too: your project's home shows a
> **Get your project ready** checklist that covers these same steps — import your
> audience, set up a channel, verify your business, add funds and send a campaign
> — plus a few more: your brand profile, an automation and your plan. The
> checklist orders them its own way and doesn't include creating the project.
> Completed or dismissed steps drop off the list, which disappears once none are
> left pending.

## The six steps

#### 1. Create your project

When you sign up, Instasent creates your first project during onboarding —
you may already have one. A **project** is the workspace everything else
lives in: audience, channels, campaigns. Most organizations run one per
brand or product line. To add another, open the project switcher at the top
of the sidebar and click **Create project**. This step comes before the
dashboard checklist — the checklist starts once you have a project.

Not sure what a project is yet? Read [Concepts](/platform/en/overview/concepts)
first — it's a five-minute map of the whole platform.

#### 2. Verify your business

In some countries a prior setup is needed before you can send: registering
the sender with a local regulator, filed with your company's legal details.
Create a Legal Profile under
**Settings → Organization → Legal Profiles** so Instasent can register your
senders with carriers and regulators on your behalf.

The checklist shows this step as **Verify your business** — click
**Complete profile** to fill it in.

#### 3. Set up your sending channels

Go to **Settings → Project → Channels**, pick a channel and create the
sender your messages will send from. **SMS** is available to every project: in
most countries you can start right away, and in some a prior setup is needed —
registering the sender — before you can send:

- **SMS** — open the SMS channel and click **Add sender**. Most countries
  accept it immediately; regulated ones (like Spain) review the
  registration first. See
  [SMS senders & registration](/platform/en/channels/sms/senders-registration).
- **RCS** — branded, interactive messaging. Add a sender, then register
  your agent for at least one country. See
  [RCS senders & verification](/platform/en/channels/rcs/senders-verification).

When the registration needs review, approval usually takes a few business days —
and up to several weeks in regulated markets like Spain.

![The Channels page under project settings, listing SMS, RCS and WhatsApp](/platform/en/overview/images/start-guide--1-channels.png)
*Every channel in one place — SMS reaches any phone, RCS adds your verified brand.*

> **Tip**: Request your senders early. Registration review times depend on external
> operators, providers or regulators, so kick them off first and import your
> audience while you wait.

#### 4. Add your audience

Import or sync the contacts you want to message. Open **Data sources** (in the
**Data** section of the sidebar, at the same level as **Audience**) and click
**Add data source**: upload a CSV,
connect your store or CRM, or push contacts through the API. Instasent can
unify contacts from several sources using the configured key fields, such as
email or phone.

See [Data sources & integrations](/platform/en/data-sources) for every way
in, and [Audience](/platform/en/audience) for what happens to contacts once
they're in.

![The Add data source gallery with CSV import, API, webhooks and one-click connectors](/platform/en/overview/images/start-guide--2-datasources.png)
*Connect your store or CRM in one click — contacts and events stay in sync on their own.*

#### 5. Add funds

Sending is paid from your organization's prepaid balance, shared by all
channels and projects. Open **Settings → Organization → Billing** and click
**Add funds**.

Billing is visible only to members with the **Owner**, **Full access** or
**Billing** role — if you don't see it, ask whoever handles billing in your
organization.

See [Billing & plans](/platform/en/billing/plans-subscription) for prices
per country and payment methods.

#### 6. Send a test, then your first campaign

Open **Campaigns** and click **New campaign**: pick the channel and sender,
choose who receives it, write the message. Before the real send, use a
**test send** — the actual message on your own phone, free up to your
account's test limit.

You'll find the full editor walkthrough in
[Creating a campaign](/platform/en/campaigns/creating-a-campaign), and how to
set up your test numbers in
[Test sends & preview](/platform/en/campaigns/test-sends).

![The campaign message editor with an RCS message, SMS fallback and a live phone preview](/platform/en/overview/images/start-guide--3-campaign-editor.png)
*Write once, preview live — RCS with interactive buttons, automatic SMS fallback, and a test to your own phone.*

## After your first send

You're operational. A few things worth doing next:

- **Set up your brand profile** — logo, colors, voice and tone, so the AI writes
  campaigns that sound like you. See
  [Project settings](/platform/en/project-settings).
- **Automate your messaging** — build an automation that sends messages when a
  contact takes a specific action (a welcome series, an abandoned cart reminder).
  See [Automations](/platform/en/automations).
- **Invite your team** — add members and roles under
  [Organization & account](/platform/en/organization/account-info).
- **Watch the results** — delivery, clicks and revenue per campaign in
  [Insights & analytics](/platform/en/insights).

Want the bigger picture of how projects, audience, segments and campaigns fit
together? Read [Concepts](/platform/en/overview/concepts).

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This is one page of the Instasent documentation. For the complete machine-readable index of every guide and API reference, fetch https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt — start there for full context.