The Ultimate Guide to SMS Deliverability

SMS marketing has become one of the most effective ways for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands to engage with customers. However, even the best-crafted SMS campaigns can fail to reach their intended recipients if they’re not optimized for deliverability.

This guide will walk you through the essential aspects of SMS deliverability, provide insights on how to improve it, and give you the tools you need to evaluate and maintain healthy SMS performance metrics. Whether you’re using a multi-channel marketing platform or exploring dedicated SMS options, these best practices are universally applicable.

What is SMS Deliverability?

SMS deliverability is the measure of whether or not a text message successfully reaches the recipient’s mobile device. It is a critical metric for SMS marketing success, impacting both customer engagement and the overall return on investment (ROI). If your messages aren’t being delivered, you can’t expect your campaigns to perform well. High SMS deliverability ensures that your messages are reaching your audience and driving results, while poor deliverability can lead to wasted resources and decreased engagement.

Regularly monitoring SMS performance is crucial to maximize your ROI and avoid issues like carrier filtering, which can prevent your messages from being delivered.

The Start of SMS Deliverability: Consent

Before diving into deliverability, it’s essential to understand the importance of SMS consent. In many countries, you must receive explicit consent from your subscribers before sending them marketing messages.

Subscribers must explicitly agree to receive SMS marketing messages when they provide their phone numbers.

Opting into other forms of communication, such as email or push notifications, does not count as consent for SMS marketing.

If a subscriber has not consented to receive SMS messages, your platform will typically prevent you from sending messages to their phone number. Without clear consent, messages can be blocked or flagged as spam by both the carrier and the recipient’s mobile device.

How SMS Messages Are Delivered

SMS delivery is a complex process involving multiple contributors. Here’s a breakdown of the key components:

SMS Marketing Platform

This is the platform you use to create and send your SMS messages. It performs essential checks before sending a message to ensure compliance with regulations and best practices. For example, the platform will:

• Verify that the recipient has opted in to receive SMS messages.
• Check the content for prohibited terms (e.g., related to hate speech, alcohol, tobacco, or illegal activities).

Each SMS marketing platform will have its own compliance checks, but all platforms aim to prevent non-compliant messages from being sent.

Wireless Carriers

Once your message passes through the marketing platform’s checks, it moves on to the wireless carrier (e.g., Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.).

The carrier will perform its own set of checks, focusing on:

• Content compliance: Ensuring there are no references to prohibited content (e.g., SHAFT — Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco).
• Sender reputation: Evaluating factors like message volume, engagement rates, and unsubscribe rates.
• Message content: Reviewing whether the message could trigger spam filters.

Each carrier has its own set of criteria for filtering SMS messages, and they may block messages without providing feedback to the sender, making it hard to determine why a message was not delivered.

Recipient’s Mobile Device

Finally, the message reaches the recipient’s device. Even if it passes through the platform and carrier checks, it could still be blocked or filtered on the device itself. For example:

• Android devices may filter messages into a spam folder rather than showing them in the main SMS inbox.
• Service issues: If the recipient’s phone is turned off or out of service, the message may fail to be delivered.

How to Evaluate SMS Deliverability

To assess the effectiveness of your SMS campaigns and overall deliverability, you need to focus on key metrics. These metrics will help you determine how well your messages are reaching your audience:

Key Metrics

SMS Click Rate

This is the percentage of recipients who clicked a link within your SMS message. A high click rate indicates strong engagement with the message’s content.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of recipients who clicked the link and then made a purchase or completed another desired action within a given time frame.

Number of Subscribers

This is the total number of people who have opted in to receive your SMS communications. A growing subscriber list is a positive sign.

Unsubscribe Rate

The percentage of recipients who opt out of your SMS list. A rate higher than 2% can be a red flag, as high unsubscribe rates can lead to carrier filtering and increased message blocks.

Resubscribers

The number of recipients who unsubscribed and then resubscribed. This can be an important indicator of customer satisfaction and willingness to engage with your brand again.

How to Monitor SMS Deliverability

To maintain good SMS deliverability, it’s vital to keep a close eye on these metrics and make adjustments as needed:

Target the Right Audience

Use segmentation to send messages to specific groups, ensuring that content is relevant to the recipients.

Review Timing and Frequency

Make sure you’re not sending too many or too few messages. Messaging too frequently can lead to unsubscribes, while infrequent messaging can result in low engagement.

Content Review

Ensure your SMS content is clear, concise, and includes a clear call-to-action (CTA). Make sure any links work correctly and that recipients know what to expect when clicking on them.

Provide Easy Unsubscribe Options

Ensure that recipients can easily opt out of receiving messages if they choose to.

Improving SMS Deliverability: Best Practices

To improve or maintain high SMS deliverability, follow these best practices:

Engagement Segmentation

• Regularly engage with your entire subscriber list. Text unengaged subscribers at least once a month to keep them active and ensure your messages are not flagged as spam.
• Create targeted segments based on subscriber behaviors (e.g., past purchases, browsing activity) to personalize messages.

Use a Short Code

• Short codes are dedicated phone numbers that carriers trust more than long numbers. If possible, use a short code to send your SMS messages. It can help reduce the likelihood of your messages being filtered.

Compliance with Local Regulations

• Always adhere to the local SMS marketing regulations in your region. This includes:
  • Identifying your brand: Ensure that your messages clearly state the sender’s identity.
  • Avoiding prohibited content: Never include terms related to SHAFT or other restricted topics in your messages.
  • Follow timing restrictions: Don’t send SMS during designated quiet hours (usually before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m., but this can vary by country).

List Hygiene

• Regularly clean your SMS list to remove inactive or invalid numbers. Implement a double opt-in process to confirm that users truly want to receive SMS messages from you.

Monitor Failed Deliveries

• Keep an eye on your failed delivery rate. If the failure rate is high, investigate the cause. Possible reasons include:
  • Device issues: The recipient’s phone may be off or out of service.
  • Carrier violations: Your message may have been flagged or blocked by the carrier.
  • Message content: Ensure that your messages comply with all regulations and don’t contain prohibited content.

By addressing these issues, you can reduce failed deliveries and improve your SMS performance.

Get SMS Deliverability Support

Maintaining high SMS deliverability is crucial for ensuring that your direct-to-consumer brand’s SMS campaigns are effective. By understanding the various components of SMS delivery — platform, carrier, and recipient device — and by following best practices like segmentation, compliance, and regular list maintenance, you can significantly improve your SMS engagement and ROI.

If you’re struggling with SMS deliverability issues or need assistance optimizing your SMS campaigns, Granite Data Pro is here to help. Our team specializes in improving SMS performance metrics and ensuring that your brand’s messages reach the right audience, every time.

Let us help you overcome your SMS deliverability challenges and maximize the impact of your marketing campaigns. Reach out now for expert support!