10DLC Registration Best Practice and Guide
10DLC Registration Overview
Regulations in the USA require 10DLC registration. If you send SMS messages in the USA, you'll need to register your company (brand) and your campaigns (use cases) with the U.S. wireless carriers. This is to increase transparency as to who is sending what. From now on, text messages that don't comply with the new industry-led 10DLC regulations may be filtered or labeled spam.
But here's the thing: If you've not registered yet, you need to do it now.
Why? Because if you don't, the new regulations will force us to terminate your YakChat service. And we really don't want to do that.
And registration does have its rewards: You'll not only benefit from improved deliverability and increased throughput, but stats show that a verified business is considered safer and more trustworthy by consumers, which increases their likelihood to buy by nearly 30%.
Note: 10DLC Registration is not limited to marketing campaigns only. All sorts of communication must have an A2P Campaign required by the MNO's (carriers) in the US. A simple "hi" or "hello" requires an approved campaign.
How to submit the 10DLC registration?
How long does 10DLC registration take?
Once you've completed submitting the form, we'll submit it for review via our SMS provider to The Campaign Registry (TCR): The U.S. wireless carriers' official registration hub for A2P-10DLC messaging campaigns. For more information, please refer to this link: The 10DLC vetting process
Brand Registration Best Practices
Standard use case requirements
- Remember the brand is the message sender - the EIN and company information should reflect the message sender, not necessarily you as the reseller.
- Website - some online presence is necessary here; social media presence is acceptable. Opt-in and opt-out information should be displayed clearly and conspicuously on the website.
- Phone number and email - these should use the brand's domain, and the phone number should be found on the company website/social media page.
- Must meet the other requirements set forth by TCR to be at least a Verified Brand.
- External Vetting is only required if you need to obtain higher throughput than your brand currently allows
- We'll be unable to support consumer information sharing with third parties.
Campaign Registration Best Practices
The following recommendations can be applied to all campaigns.
Content Attributes
Please make sure your content attributes are correct while setting up your campaign. These fields cannot be changed, so a brand-new campaign will have to be submitted.
Example: If a customer selects "no" for the embedded link, but the
sample content provided clearly shows links. They will need to
resubmit their campaign with "yes" selected for the embedded link.
Prohibited SHAFT-C content
The following types of content are not allowed on 10DLC: Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco (cannabis, CBD, etc.)
Note: This content is not allowed to be on the customer's website at all.
Example: If a chiropractor's office has CDB Oils on its website, this is prohibited,
and the campaign will be denied, even if not directly related to CBD marketing.
Use Case Description
Must be able to tell the intended purpose of the overall messages. Your description should answer the questions:
- Who are you
- Who do you want to reach
- Why you are sending out messages to
Good Example | Bad Example |
Messages aimed at customers of a car dealership service center. Appointment updates, satisfaction follow-up, online bill payment, and 2-way conversations. | Text messages are used for our team members to communicate with our customers and partners. |
Why is it bad? It doesn’t say who you are or what you want to communicate.
Call to action/message flow (Opt In Consent)
As of November 17, 2022, you're required to provide a clear, concise, and conspicuous description of how an end user signs up to receive messages. Opt-in must be 1 to 1, can't be shared with third parties, and can't be implied. It also can't be obscured within the Terms & Conditions and/or other agreement(s). Examples of how to get users to opt in:
Opt in or Consent | Example |
Entering a phone number through a website or clicking a button on a mobile webpage | Customers opt-in by visiting www.examplewebsite.com and adding their phone number. They then check a box agreeing to receive text messages from the example brand. Note: Add the link to the form or your website |
Sending a message from the consumer’s mobile device that contains an advertising keyword. | Consumers opt-in by texting START to (111) 222-3333. Important: If consumers can opt in by texting a keyword the response should include the Brand Name, confimation of opt in enrollment to a recurring message campaign, how to get help and a clear description of how to opt out |
Initiating the text message exchange in which the message sender replies to the consumer only with responsive information | please explain how the end user finds the number (and/or keyword) to initiate the text message exchange and give opt-in. Is it posted somewhere? A poster? A website? A business card that tells the end user they can text them |
Signing up at a point-of-sale (POS) or another message sender on-site location. | |
Opting in over the phone using interactive voice response (IVR) technology. | Example: "YakChat: You are now opted-in to our platform notifications. For help, reply HELP. To opt out, reply STOP" |
Sample messages
You must display messages that are unique and provide examples of content you may send so we can tell what the interaction may look like. The sample messages should align with the overall campaign description. We would ideally want to see the identification of who is sending the message (a brand name or sender name), meaning it shouldn’t be a generic description along with generic sample messages where the use case can’t be determined without additional research. Please make sure at least one sample message has Opt-Out language.
Good Example | Bad Example |
Hello John Doe, this is a reminder about your appointment with John’s Car Dealership on April 2nd, 2021, at 10:00 AM. Please reply YES to confirm your attendance or NO if you are not able to make it. Let us know when you would like to reschedule your appointment. Thank you! | Thanks for leaving a rating on Google Business. We would like to learn more about your experience. I will contact you soon.. |
Good evening, Church family, we are having an in-person worship service tomorrow at 10:30 am. We will also be streaming the service over Facebook Live for those unable to attend. Reminder: tomorrow is the day to bring the donation boxes. | I received your question. I will get back to you as soon as possible. |
Hi (First Name)! This is Ramiro with YakChat. We’d love to invite you to visit our booth at the upcoming Conference, which is taking place virtually and in person from Nov 9-13! Tickets are available now. There will be panels relating to voice, messaging, and 911! Register at www.yakchat.com. Will we see you at the conference this year? | There’s a little favor I would like you to help me with, please. |
Reminder from Dr. Smiles, DDS, Hi Jim, we look forward to seeing you at 3:00 pm tomorrow for your cleaning. Reply OPTIONS for Notification Options, or STOP to disable SMS notifications. | **Leaving the Sample message blank** |
Visit https://brandedurl.com/optout/ for options or reply with STOP to disable SMS notifications. |
Opt-out message
Good Example | Bad Example |
"[Insert Business Name:] You have an appointment for Tuesday at 3:00 PM, reply YES to confirm, NO to reschedule. Reply STOP to unsubscribe." Note: Acceptable opt-out language is End, stop, unsubscribe, and Arret (French) must be separated by spaces. | Luke's Pizza: Use discount code CHEESE for 10% off of your online order. Stop2End Note: Unacceptable opt-out language: Stop2End |
Why is it bad? There must be spaces separating each word and the word "reply" should be included before the stop keyword (ex, Reply stop to end).