Before you start
Things you need to know:
Learn how to send SMS campaigns with Dotdigital in Test and send an SMS campaign.
The above documentation for sending SMS campaigns emphasises the importance of testing. In the USA, since there are such strict regulations, this is even more important.
In the USA and Canada you can only send messages from your agreed sender number: a short code, toll free, or 10DLC number, or in Canada, your unregistered long number. If you try to send from a name, or an alpha originator, the message will fail.
Send a test message to at minimum five mobiles. If possible find people you can test to who are on each of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile (in the USA) so you can confirm your message works on each.
If the message fails, contact us to help you find out why and to solve the issue. Then test again so you do not send a live campaign until you have tested successfully.
If there is any doubt about your content, check the requirements detailed in Send SMS in the US: Compliance. This article covers all you need to consider to send messages that are accepted and delivered.
Even with a great campaign to opted-in contacts, it's possible your campaign can be rejected by hitting spam filters. This is an unfortunate reality when the networks are trying so hard to limit spam; there are false positives. If you believe this has happened, let us know immediately.
Dotdigital are still charged when these messages are rejected.
Don’t just test the outbound campaign. If there is a text reply or a link to click, make sure it creates the result you intended.
Content: remember you gave examples - stick to the spirit of these.
Opt-out:
Make sure you are satisfied that your opt-out process works when sending your first campaigns.
With toll free (only), after someone has opted out, their mobile number is opted out for that toll-free number at the network level. This means that there is no need to send an opt out confirmation, since the networks will reject it. So, don’t set up country rules if you're using toll-free.
Links:
In North America,
bit.lyor other shortened URLs are not accepted. SMS including them will probably be rejected; they are definitely rejected on toll-free. This applies even if you are using your own or the Dotdigital shortened URL but it forwards to your website throughbit.ly, or similar.The Dotdigital URL is
dd2.ioand can be used for shortened or personalised links.
Results: it’s good to review results following your campaign and learn from them to keep improving. You may have done your own split testing to assist with this.