Best Practices for reducing filtering on Text Messages

In this article, we will explore the nuances of impactful messaging, covering everything from tone and clarity to timing and etiquette. We have put together actionable strategies to help you navigate the evolving landscape of texting communication.

Sender Reputation -

Managing sender reputation is crucial for any texting campaign to prevent messages from being marked as spam or blocked. Campaign managers can easily manage their reputation by:

• Using Registered Route

• Register for 10DLC
• Verified Toll-Free Numbers
• Dedicated shortcode

These steps establish them as legitimate organizations working with opt-in lists. The idea is to help customers adopt registered routes over unregistered ones. It's important to note that every CallHub customer can use unregistered routes, even if they are registered. They can simply create an Opt-in list using an unregistered route and then conduct an outreach using the registered routes.

• Maintaining a Low Opt-Out Rate

High Opt-out rates can quickly damage the Caller ID reputation and it is important for customers to include the complete context of the outreach while sending the messages. 

• Who is sending the message and why, the name of the organization, website references, or numbers to call?

If this context is not established, most of the contacts usually opt out.

Clean Contact Lists -

The CallHub system, by default, filters contacts that are 

• Litigators
• Landline numbers
• Invalid, malformed numbers
• VOIP numbers

Customers should mark contacts sending profane messages as DNC. To enable this, they may use the Profanity Filter. 

Usage of Links in Text messages -

The customers should refrain from using links in the initial messages sent from the Peer to Peer Texting campaign. By sending links in the initial messages, there is a high possibility of messages being marked Spam.

Avoid using public URL shorteners such as bit.ly or tiny.url. It's better to have links from an established business/organization/campaign-level domain. The users can add custom domains to their accounts using the URL shortener. 

Quick Responses -

The agents should respond to texts within 3-5 minutes. This induces a more human touch. 

Setting up Standard scripts - 

The users should adopt standard scripts. This means the script should not appear spammy, promotional, or for marketing.

• Avoid “Free,” “Now,” “Offer,” “Winner,” or any other promotional-sounding language.
• Avoid using keywords such as purchasing, random, consider, or selling in the first message.
• Requests for action without specifying context, who is sending a message, and why
• Inclusion of generic URL shortener links
• Avoid nonstandard spellings (“H! h0w ar3 u do1ng?”)
• Avoid overuse of emojis; this does not mean do not use emojis at all, only overuse to be avoided
• Avoid unnecessary capitalization and punctuation
• Make the first message short and crisp; nobody wants to read a novel that comes from an unknown sender. Apart from that, the longer the message, the longer the send time, the higher the chance of deliverability issues
• The tone should be casual and conversational in natural language instead of robotic or very formal.

The users should run the script through AI tools like ChatGPT to check if it looks like Spam. Ideally, they can do this as below.

"Does this message look spammy to carriers in the US? Reply yes, no, maybe."

(i) Guidelines for First Message -

• • Objective: The aim should be to get a positive reply to start a conversation, which can then be converted into a relationship
    • Do not introduce heavy actions in this first message
    • Only once the relationship is established, then is when heavy actions be introduced, like signing a petition.
  • Keep the message short and crisp
    • Give complete context - Who is the sender, and why are they messaging
  • Make sure enough personalization is done
    • Contact First Name
    • Agent First Name
    • Organization Name
    • These must be included
  • Always include Call-to-Action as the last sentence
    • This helps in increasing the chances of getting higher responses
    • This helps in making the sender's reputation better
  • Tone:
    • Casual, conversational in natural language
    • Not formal
  • Max Character Limit: 320 characters
  • Local Presence:
    • Messages should be sent to contacts with numbers from their area codes
    • Product enhancement is needed for both unregistered and registered routes
  • Change message template very often - at least once a week
  • Use multiple variants for the same message to avoid message repetitiveness with the carriers

MMS Guidelines - 

• Always make sure the file size is under 500KB; anything more is under a very high risk of being blocked.
• Use JPEG instead of PNG when the file size is more
• Avoid MMS messages for GOTV campaigns.

Avoid Sending high volumes - 

The users should make sure they do not send a high number of messages from the same number or at a specific interval. Sending a large volume of traffic simultaneously can quickly trigger spam filters implemented by carriers. This, in turn, can compromise the deliverability of messages, significantly impacting the effectiveness of the campaign.

Contact List Segmentation - 

It is important to segment contacts over the course of the campaign. Active Engaged, Supporters and Non-Supporters should be categorized into different lists. This, in turn, helps manage the Caller ID reputation as well.

The users can use our Workflows feature to segment contacts based on their preferences.

Message Speed and Deliverability - 

For users deploying unregistered messages in their texting campaigns, it is important to note that if you are using an Adaptive Texting block to increase the outreach rate of your campaign, the deliverability will be hampered. To prevent this to some extent, it is essential to modify your script based on the number of messages you are sending or distribute the outreach over multiple days.

Note: The max speed for MMS in Canada is 15 TPM. Delivery rates for messages sent above this limit will be affected.

Kindly reach out to us at support@callhub.io or create a ticket from support.callhub.io if you have any concerns.