This article covers the rules and requirements for sending SMS campaigns through Aloware, including number registration, consent, message formatting, and content restrictions.
What is an SMS campaign
An SMS campaign sends a text message to a group of contacts at the same time. This article covers what to do and what to avoid to keep your campaigns compliant and your messages delivered.
SMS campaigns work well for promotions and special offers, important updates or notifications, event reminders, and customer engagement.
Why compliance matters
Compliance means following the rules set by mobile carriers and regulatory bodies. When you follow these rules, your messages reach recipients instead of getting filtered as spam. Ignoring them can also damage your business reputation.
Best practices for sending SMS campaigns
What to do
Verify campaign approval
Before sending, confirm that your brand and campaign have been approved and that the sending number is attached to the correct campaign.
Match your number to its registered use case
Each number has a registered campaign use case. A number registered for two-factor authentication (2FA), for example, cannot send marketing messages.
Include opt-out language
Every marketing message must give recipients a clear way to unsubscribe. A phrase like "Reply STOP to unsubscribe" meets this requirement. See how to manage opt-outs and the Do Not Contact (DNC) list.
Check your account credits
Confirm you have enough credits before launching a broadcast. Use the broadcast cost calculator to estimate costs. See also: managing your credits.
Identify your brand
Include your company name in the message. Recipients who don't recognize the sender are more likely to report the message as spam. Register your caller ID name (CNAM) using this guide.
Distribute traffic across multiple lines
For high-volume campaigns, use different numbers to spread the load evenly.
Send only to contacts who have consented
Every contact in your broadcast list must have opted in to receive messages. Aloware automatically removes contacts who opt out by text, but if a contact requests removal during a call, you must tag them as Do Not Contact (DNC) manually.
What to avoid
High message volume from a single 10DLC number
A 10DLC number (10-Digit Long Code) is a standard local phone number like 555-555-5555. Sending 20,000 or more messages from a single 10DLC number hurts deliverability. For large-scale campaigns, use short codes instead.
Unbranded or shortened URLs
Do not include link shorteners like bit.ly or other unbranded URLs. Carriers flag messages with these links as spam.
Restricted language and topics
Do not use phrases that imply urgency in a spammy way (such as "click here immediately") or include content related to debt collection, firearms, or drugs. See the full list of restricted use cases.
Sending to international numbers
Sending to international numbers raises costs and compliance risk. When building broadcast lists, segment out international contacts. See the LRN (Location Routing Number) guide to learn how Aloware identifies line types.
Using SMS when MMS fits better
SMS has a 160-character limit. For messages of 600 characters or more, use MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), which supports up to 1,600 characters and costs less than sending multiple SMS segments. See how to activate long SMS as MMS in Aloware.
Using emojis without accounting for encoding
Adding an emoji changes the message encoding from GSM-7 to UCS-2, which drops the per-segment character limit from 160 to 70. This raises your segment count and increases costs.