The Campaign Registry is the secret sauce of text messaging. It adds flavor, quality, and trust to your messages.
If you are a business that uses text messaging to communicate with your customers, you are most likely familiar with the term – The Campaign Registry. But what is it, and why does it matter?
To put things in perspective, let’s liken The Campaign Registry to a cookbook filled with recipes for delectable dishes, each with precise instructions to ensure culinary success.
The Campaign Registry (TCR) is a similar guide for businesses engaging in SMS messaging, providing a recipe for responsible and compliant communication.
You see, the cookbook represents TCR’s comprehensive set of guidelines and best practices for businesses to follow when sending SMS messages. Just as a cookbook guides a chef through the cooking process, TCR guides businesses through the intricacies of SMS communication.
The registration process is a choice to adhere to specific guidelines, ensuring your messages are crafted with the right ingredients and techniques.
TCR’s compliance guidelines are the ‘recipe instructions,’ outlining the essential steps for creating compliant and effective SMS campaigns. These instructions include obtaining customer consent, honoring opt-out requests, and adhering to message frequency limits.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss
- What is the Campaign Registry
- Why it was created
- Why you need to register
- How to register with the Campaign Registry.
What is the Campaign Registry?
The Campaign Registry (TCR) is a central hub for registering Application-to-Person (A2P) text messaging campaigns on 10 Digit Long Code (10DLC) numbers.
Created by mobile network operators (MNOs) like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, the Campaign Registry aims to make business texting more secure and trustworthy.
Think of retail stores located in a bustling shopping mall. To ensure that customers have a safe and enjoyable shopping experience, mall management establishes a set of guidelines for all stores to follow.
Similarly, The Campaign Registry (TCR) regulates SMS messaging businesses, especially those using 10-digit long codes (10DLC). It sets standards and guidelines to ensure companies follow responsible and compliant SMS practices.
There are stakeholders involved in the campaign registry processes:
- The MNOs are the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) such as wireless carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.). Your potential customers are their users and act as the intermediaries who deliver your messages to them.
- The CSPs are the Campaign Service Providers (CSPs) such as Aloware. It provides messaging services to customers. A CSP works with its customers (aka Brands) to create and launch new and successful messaging campaigns.
- Brand – This is your company or entity. You register to TCR via a CSP (Aloware), then select and send campaign messages to potential customers through the platform (e.g., Aloware’s Business Texting).
Why was the Campaign Registry created?
The reason for the campaign registry isn’t far-fetched. Spam texting is a serious problem that affects millions of people every day. These texts can be annoying, intrusive, and even dangerous, as they may contain malware, phishing links, or fraudulent offers.
You see, spam text frequency surpassed spam calls for the first time in 2020, with the gap widening in 2021 and 2022 (87,850,585,036 spam texts sent vs. 72,236,875,541 spam calls placed). The rise in 2020 could be associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to a more remote lifestyle, which created new business opportunities and challenges.
Another factor was the TRACED Act, signed into law in December 2019 to combat robocalls and require voice service providers to implement call authentication technologies. This further pushed some spammers to switch from robocalls to text messages.
To curb spam texting, the Campaign Registry was created in 2020 to regulate the telecommunication industries, preventing robocalls and spam texts and making opt-outs for messaging an industry standard.
It introduced high transparency between campaign service providers and mobile network operators (MNOs) for more predictable and reliable service delivery to end-users, supporting a sanctioned A2P 10 10-digit long Code text messaging campaign ecosystem.
Check out:
The A-Z of everything you need to know about A2P 10DLC
Why do you need to register?
The Campaign Registry matters because it supports a sanctioned A2P 10DLC messaging channel that provides visibility, transparency, and trust to the messaging ecosystem. By registering your campaigns on the Campaign Registry, you can:
Avoid Penalties and Fines
Not registering with The Campaign Registry (TCR) can lead to telecom carriers imposing penalties and fines. These penalties discourage non-compliance and encourage businesses to follow industry standards for responsible SMS messaging.
Some of the penalties and fines for unregistered or non-compliant 10DLCs are:
- Blocked messages: Starting from August 30th, 2023, all SMS and MMS messages sent to US phone numbers using unregistered 10DLC numbers are blocked by carriers. Blocked messages will return an error code and will not be delivered to the recipients. Check out Important deadlines for 10DLC compliance.
- Higher fees: Registering and complying with the rules for 10DLC usage is essential. Failure to do so may result in higher fees. For instance, T-Mobile charges $0.003 per message for registered campaigns, while unregistered campaigns will incur a higher fee of $0.01 per message.
Increase Messaging Trust and Security
No one enjoys receiving texts from untrusted numbers trying to sell them a service or product they never subscribed for. As a business, you risk being flagged and dumped in the spam box as a business.
Check out:
Preventing Your Number from “Marked as Scam”
Establishing trust and credibility with your customers is increasingly important. One way to achieve this is by registering your numbers with the Campaign Registry, which helps boost credibility and ensures that customer messages are standardized and authorized.
This step allows businesses to build a strong foundation for their messaging strategies and foster long-term relationships with their customer base.
Improve Delivery Rates
The Campaign Registry assigns Trust Scores to businesses. This Trust Score ranges from 0 to 100 and indicates the quality and performance of messages.
A higher Trust Score means that your business provides better service quality and ensures more effective communication.
Once registered, your business can build up a high Trust Score, which translates into enjoying higher message delivery rates and reaching intended recipients effectively.
Higher throughput
Once you register, your throughput rate will increase, and you can send even more messages per second.
The increase in throughput rate will enable you to send mass messages without using a shortcode, which can help save significant money.
Shortcodes have long been popular for engaging potential customers. However, there are downsides if not implemented with the right strategy. Want to improve your SMS/MMS delivery rate and throughput using shortcodes? Let’s talk.
Enhanced Brand Reputation
TCR registration serves as a testament to your commitment to complying with industry standards and responsible communication practices. This can be a significant factor in building consumer trust and engagement with your business.
Registration provides enhanced visibility into the source and content of your messaging campaigns. This means recipients can easily track and trace your campaigns’ “Who” and “What.”
This level of transparency can go a long way in building consumer trust and confidence, assuring them that your campaigns are legitimate and trustworthy.
How to register with the Campaign Registry
As mentioned earlier, if you want to delve into A2P and 10DLC messaging campaigns, you need a CSP (Aloware) to register with the Campaign Registry.
At Aloware, we simplify the registration process, guiding you through self-service steps that get you up and running in no time.
Here are the steps you need for easy registration.
- Understand the requirements
- Brand registration
- Campaign registration
- Identify use cases
- Register telephone lines
- Pay the required fees
- Wait for approval
- Monitor compliance
Understand the requirements
Understanding requirements before starting the registration process is like reading the recipe before baking the cake – it’s the secret ingredient for a successful outcome.
It’s crucial to clearly understand A2P 10DLC and how it can potentially affect your business operations.
To ensure that you adhere to the regulatory requirements and guidelines, it’s highly recommended that you find a reputable CSP and research what you need before getting started.
This will help you avoid any potential issues down the road and ensure that you are operating in a compliant and safe manner.
Brand registration
Registering your business is the first step to getting on the compliant side of business texting.
Fortunately, the process is easy with an intuitive and user-friendly interface on Aloware.
You only need to provide basic information such as your business name, address, tax ID, etc. Additionally, you’ll need to provide the contact details of a representative from your organization and verify your identity.
By completing these steps, you can ensure that your business profile is complete and accurate, giving you a great start to your registration process. You can click here to submit your brand now.
Check out A2P 10DLC Compliance: Brand Registration Guide
Campaign Registration
Next, you’ll need to declare and register your campaigns.
It is essential that you declare your proposed campaigns. Every number you plan to use for campaigns must have an approved campaign registration, which enables you to send messages without any restrictions.
There are different types of campaigns, depending on the goal and content of your messages. Some of the common types are:
- Promotional campaigns: These are designed to generate interest in a product or service. They can include discounts, coupons, and other special offers. For example, a clothing store might send an SMS campaign with a 20% off coupon code and a link to a website.
- Transactional campaigns: These are sent in response to an event or activity. They offer time-sensitive and relevant information to the customer, such as appointment reminders, shipping notifications, or password resets.
Aloware provides two (2) options to register your campaigns:
- If your use case involves Customer care, Marketing, and Mixed, you have the option of a “Quick Setup.”
- If your use case differs, you have the “Advance Setup.”
Since each campaign can host multiple Aloware lines, you can register multiple lines to as few campaigns as possible.
The recommended approach for campaign registration:
- Customer Care – Add agent lines for inbound/outbound calls and texts, including personal and inbound support lines.
- Marketing – Register all SMS marketing lines, including those used for Bulk SMS.
While registering your campaign, Aloware helps you define the campaign’s purpose, the type of messages you plan to send, and the expected volume of messages based on your business needs. You also have samples to create up to 50 campaigns.
Identify use cases
This section lets you specify how you intend to use your 10DLC number. It verifies the content of the messages you’re sending.
To align your SMS/MMS goals, you can choose from various use cases that suit your needs, such as alerts, notifications, reminders, marketing, and customer service.
Additionally, you can specify the expected volume and frequency of your SMS messages.
This step helps you to optimize your messaging needs by improving your message delivery and throughput.
Remember that choosing the proper use case for your campaign is the key to its success and cost-effectiveness.
Check out:
Understanding A2P 10DLC SMS Campaign Registry and Use Cases
Register your Lines
Aloware ensures that your lines do not end up in the blocked/spam bin. Every number you intend to use for your campaigns must be fully registered.
If you have unregistered lines, you must follow the steps to register them promptly to comply with the Campaign Registry requirements.
Registering a line takes 2-3 minutes and doesn’t require any paper documentation. If, for some reason, you forgot to register a line, you’ll get a warning message notification.
Pay the required fees
There are fees associated with the registration process. These fees are ‘passed-through’ from the carriers and not levied by Aloware.
These fees are broken down into different categories:
- Brand Registration Fees: There is a one-time passthrough fee of $44. This fee covers the registration process to ensure compliance with carrier guidelines.
- Campaign Registration Fees: There is a one-time vetting fee of $15 for each messaging campaign use case. This fee is required to verify compliance with carrier guidelines and ensure message deliverability.
- Monthly Campaign Fees: Besides the registration fees, there is a monthly charge of $10 per messaging campaign. This covers the ongoing maintenance of your campaign and ensures compliance with regulations. We recommend grouping your lines by use case for cost-effectiveness when submitting all phone numbers under a registered campaign.
For Carrier fees and more, check out
A2P 10DLC Fees: Brand Registration and Campaign Costs
Wait for approval
After you’ve submitted all the necessary information and paid the required fees, the carriers will carefully review your application.
This process may take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the complexity of your application.
Once your application has been approved, you’ll receive a trust score that significantly impacts your message throughput and the level of service you receive from carriers.
Learn more about Trust Score here.
Monitor compliance
After you’ve been approved, monitoring your compliance is essential to ensure that your messaging aligns with your declared use cases and that you stay within your approved message volume.
Remember, non-compliance with the Campaign Registry guidelines will lead to blocking your messages. So, it’s critical to follow these steps carefully.
What next…
The Campaign Registry is a vital development in the business texting industry.
Your business gets to enjoy a reliable, transparent, and compliant way for you to communicate with their customers via text messages. Registering your campaigns on the Campaign Registry can improve your deliverability, throughput, cost, reputation, and compliance.
Also, while following updated compliance regulations may be challenging, we have a team dedicated to carrier operations and regulations.
To get started with the Campaign Registry, please contact support@aloware.com with any questions. Let’s talk.
