Phone providers (AT&T, Verizon, Tmobile, etc) are always looking to protect their customers from SPAM messages. Think of the spam filtering you’ve seen in email accounts, except that instead of being delivered to a spam folder, the message is not delivered at all.
Having your phone number registered through 10DLC does help, but here are some tips and tricks to avoid messages being marked as SPAM and getting your messages to your patients.
1. DO NOT SEND SHORT LINKS - Shortened URLs (like http://bit.ly/rwwave) are a stronger indicator of potential spam because the recipient cannot see where the link will take them (which you can with a normal, long URL).
2. AVOID CAPS - especially at the beginning of the message.
Avoid these words:
UPDATE
COVID
ALERT
IMPORTANT
*Anything that would sound like it was written by a robot. Sound authentic; speak how you speak. A good rule of thumb? Put yourself in your recipient’s perspective and create a message that would be impactful for you. It’s about delivering a good patient experience.
BULK MESSAGE SPECIFIC RULES
Keep all the above ideas in mind plus these additional ones...
3. AVOID UNICODE CHARACTERS - What’s a Unicode character?
These are characters that are universally accepted across the world: emojis, roman numerals, subscripts, etc. Dollar signs, in particular, are a Unicode character that have been found to trigger spam filters, so make it a point to avoid them.
For example: the word “gift” with a $ symbol can appear to be spam.
example #2: "We have a big sale!! The first 20 people who respond get 10% off their next visit! Good luck everyone!!"
4. DO NOT SEND THE SAME BULK MESSAGE MORE THAN ONCE - Sending the same message to large groups of people could get you flagged. Create your Bulk Messages from scratch and add your own flavor to each one.
5. KEEP YOUR MESSAGE SHORT - Long messages sent to hundreds or thousands of people can get your number flagged. We suggest emailing your patients instead or directing them to where they can learn more details.