Start guide

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.

The six steps

1. 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 first — it's a five-minute map of the whole platform.

2. 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. 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.
   • RCS — branded, interactive messaging. Add a sender, then register your agent for at least one country. See 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.

   

4. 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 for every way in, and Audience for what happens to contacts once they're in.

   

5. 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 for prices per country and payment methods.

6. 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, and how to set up your test numbers in Test sends & preview.

   

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.
• 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.
• Invite your team — add members and roles under Organization & account.
• Watch the results — delivery, clicks and revenue per campaign in Insights & analytics.

Want the bigger picture of how projects, audience, segments and campaigns fit together? Read Concepts.