Best Practices for delivering SMS Follow

How to ensure the highest level of deliverability and decrease the chances that your SMS text messages will get blocked

Sending SMS text messages is a highly effective way of reaching your members and constituents. To ensure a healthy and balanced mobile ecosystem for us all, mobile service providers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, provide advanced filtering systems to protect their subscribers from spam or unwanted messages.

Here are some helpful tips to prevent carriers from filtering out and potentially blocking the SMS text messages campaigns you are attempting to send:

• Be sure to only send messages to mobile users who have opted-in to receive any forms of communications from your organization. Sending messages to members is one thing, whereas blasting your entire database of prospects and past visitors is not encouraged.

• Your messages should identify who is sending the message and how to unsubscribe. You don't need to provide opt-out instructions in every message, but you do need to do so at least once a month.
  
  e.g. “Thanks for being a member of the Museum of New Art. As a member, we’d like to invite you to our Member’s Night on July 2 @ 5pm ET.”
  
  

e.g. “Springfield Zoo: Giving Tuesday is right around the corner. Please consider donating to our Evergreen Fund: https://springfieldzoo.org/donate”

• The opt-out language that you include in your messages must include a widely accepted keyword for opting out. This would be either STOP, e.g. or "Reply STOP to unsubscribe."

• If you're messaging users repeatedly over a long period of time, you should check with your recipients at least once every 18 months to make sure they still want to receive your messages. The mobile phone number you're sending messages to may have changed ownership, or the recipient may not remember consenting to receive messages from you.

• Do not send links that have been shortened using free, shared URL shorteners, such as TinyURL or Bit.ly. When sending URLs/links in your messages, only use domains that you control. 

• Do not use emojis, all caps, or special characters, and make sure the message is written with proper spelling.