Maximize SMS Deliverability Rates and Enhance SMS Outreach with Compliant Communications
Digital marketing is constantly evolving. What worked last year could very well be ineffective this year. And when it comes to ensuring your messages reach your target audience, it’s important you have a firm grasp on what it takes to get it right. Otherwise, you likely won’t stand a chance against your competitors who do.
From text messages to emails and phone calls, each mode of communication comes with its own set of compliance requirements, often puzzling even the most seasoned marketers. However, adherence to compliance standards is pivotal to foster trust and ensure the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
A full understanding of TCR scores, TCPA regulations, and FCC guidelines is essential to increase the deliverability of your campaigns, safeguard your brand’s reputation, and enhance customer engagement.
In this blog, we’ll unravel the complexities of compliance in digital communication, including TCR scores, TCPA regulations, and stringent FCC guidelines—and how you can effectively incorporate these into your communication strategies.
Key topics include:
- Best practices for higher TCR scores
- How to comply with the TCPA
- Adhering to FCC guidelines
- Integrating compliance into communication strategies
TCR Scores, TCPA, and FCC Regulations
Strict adherence to TCPA regulations and the FCC’s guidelines helps businesses move through the digital world without stepping on consumer rights. Playing by the rules doesn’t just avoid expensive legal troubles; it also makes marketing efforts more impactful.
There are three key focus areas that ensure compliance:
- TCR (The Campaign Registry) scores
- TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) regulations
- FCC (Federal Communications Commission) guidelines
What is a TCR Score?
The Campaign Registry (TCR) assigns brands TCR scores, which can range from 0 to 100, to rank a brand’s trustworthiness.
How TCR Scores Impact SMS Deliverability
TCR scores play a pivotal role in assessing the efficacy of communication channels, and serve as a measure of quality and reliability, impacting the deliverability of text messages.
They’re also a performance indicator for telecommunication operators, reflecting the reliability of their messaging services. In a nutshell, TCR scores are key to text deliverability.
A higher score indicates a trusted sender, reducing the likelihood of being blocked or filtered by cell phone carriers. Higher scores lead to a notable improvement in SMS deliverability rates. So, how do you boost your TCR score?
Best Practices for Higher TCR Scores
There are a few key best practices that can help boost TCR scores to both propel SMS marketing efforts and improve your connection with your customer base:
- Understand and avoid spam filters
- Use analytics to monitor SMS deliverability
- Maintain a strong relationship with cell phone carriers
- Employ reputable SMS gateways
- Understand requirements for text deliverability
Brands want to avoid activating any spam filters. Certain keywords, the frequency of messages sent, and the sender’s reputation play pivotal roles in determining whether a message reaches its intended recipient or disappears into the void of filtered content.
To avoid the void:
- Do not use an excess of exclamation points and capital letters, which are red flags for spam detection.
- Incorporate personalization and relevance into each message to elevate customer engagement (reducing the likelihood of being reported as unsolicited communication).
- Establish a routine schedule for sending messages rather than sending in sporadic bursts—unexpected spikes in the frequency of messages sent from a single number can set off spam filters.
- Segment your contact list to help ensure messages resonate on a personal level, heightening relevance and engagement.
Note that carriers critically assess each sender’s reputation, which is influenced by previous user reports and the rate of message failures.
To ensure deliverability rates, integrate comprehensive data analysis into your text messaging strategies. This includes monitoring delivery rates, open rates, and engagement metrics to identify and rectify any issues proactively.
In addition, it’s crucial to maintain a strong relationship with cell phone carriers. Brands should establish a direct line of communication with cell phone carriers and understand the unique requirements each carrier puts forth, such as:
- Text message formatting
- Sender ID usage
- Implementation of pre-approved short codes
Lastly, companies should employ reputable SMS gateways to further solidify their reputation as a trusted sender, substantially reducing the risk of messages being flagged or blocked.
What is the TCPA?
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulates telephone communications, including calls and text messaging. It prevents businesses from calling and texting during certain hours, restricts the use of auto-dialed and pre-recorded marketing calls, requires callers to identify themselves correctly, and requires marketers to suppress phone numbers on Do Not Call (DNC) registries.
How to Comply with the TCPA
Enacted to shield consumers from unsolicited messages and calls, the TCPA delineates stringent guidelines that businesses must adhere to when conducting text messaging campaigns, email marketing initiatives, and telemarketing calls.
The TCPA contains two of the most important rules for consumer protection:
- Before sending promotional texts or making marketing calls, businesses must obtain prior express written consent from the recipients.
- Businesses must provide an easily accessible and straightforward process for consumers to opt-out at any time.
Failure to adhere to the TCPA provisions can be costly—not only does it damage brand credibility, penalties range up to $1,500 for each unsolicited message or call.
TCPA compliance in digital marketing strategies
TCPA compliance within digital marketing strategies is fairly straightforward. Businesses must have a system for acquiring and documenting express written consent before launching any communication campaign. Brands can effectively comply with TCPA regulations by both:
- Integrating a consent framework seamlessly into customer sign-up processes.
- Providing a clear opt-out for all communication channels.
Additionally, employing a robust SMS platform (such as Verse.ai) that manages consent and automates compliance checks can streamline adherence and avoid potential pitfalls.
What is the FCC?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a federal agency that regulates all communications activities, including radio, telephone, TV, and satellite across the U.S. By FCC rules, a business cannot send unsolicited texts to a customer unless that customer has opted to receive texts from the business.
Adhering to FCC Guidelines
The FCC enforces a comprehensive set of guidelines that target the seamless and respectful use of digital platforms for communication, encompassing text messages, emails, and phone calls. Designed to safeguard consumer privacy, these regulations mandate transparency in sender identity and provide mechanisms for recipients to easily opt-out of unsolicited communications.
In essence, the FCC’s directives ensure that businesses uphold the principles of integrity and consideration in their digital outreach efforts, fostering trust and engagement between brands and their audience.
How to Comply with FCC Regulations
Compliance with FCC regulations is very straightforward, and helps businesses to foster a culture of transparency and accountability in their digital communications.
Companies must ensure that each message, whether transmitted via text, email, or phone, clearly identifies the sender and provides a straightforward method for recipients to withdraw consent.
Integrating Compliance into Communication Strategies
Now that you understand TCR scores and TCPA and FCC regulations, it’s time to incorporate compliance into your comprehensive communications strategy.
To ensure compliance now and in the future, it’s important to understand:
- Technologies that can aid in compliance.
- Best practices for text message marketing.
- Emerging trends in compliance.
Tools and technologies to aid in compliance
Modern compliance efforts are significantly bolstered by a range of innovative technologies and tools designed to streamline the adherence to regulatory standards.
Effective tools include:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems help to manage customer consent records.
- AI-driven compliance checkers, by proactively identifying potential compliance breaches, act as early-warning systems that help avoid legal pitfalls.
- A communication platform that automatically incorporates compliance rules—such as Verse.ai.
Best Practices for Text Message Marketing
Today, digital saturation often leads to consumer desensitization. For brands looking to boost customer engagement, text message (or SMS) marketing endures as a way of personalized, direct communication with customers. SMS marketing boasts significantly better open rates compared to email marketing, and creates an instant connection between brands and consumers.
SMS marketing continues to be a chosen communication channel for brands because:
- Text message marketing is a champion of personalization, which drives higher engagement and customer response rates.
- Its direct nature bypasses email filtering.
- The widespread use of mobile devices amplifies its reach.
For brands looking to capitalize on SMS marketing, it’s essential to stay up-to-date on technological advancements and evolving policies of mobile carriers. Brands that actively monitor these changes and adjust their SMS campaigns accordingly are better positioned to maintain high deliverability rates and ensure compliance.
A lasting SMS marketing strategy incorporates:
- Analytics and data to refine and adjust messaging for maximum impact.
- Personalization and segmentation to boost open rates and engagement.
- Advanced SMS technologies and AI-driven tools.
Emerging Trends in Digital Communication Compliance
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, what will compliance look like?
Upcoming trends likely to shape the digital communication landscape include an intensified focus on personalization and automation, driven by advances in data analysis and artificial intelligence.
With technologies evolving faster than ever, regulatory bodies are changing guidelines to keep pace, with updates including:
- Stricter guidelines to cover new communication technologies.
- Adoption of AI and machine learning for predictive compliance in text, email, and phone communications is becoming more prevalent.
- Encryption of consumer data to safeguard privacy and enhance trust in digital communications.
To maintain both innovative outreach and privacy protection, companies should stay educated and employ cutting-edge compliance software—or use Verse.ai to handle present and future compliance challenges for you.
Verse.ai: Your Compliance and SMS Deliverability Partner
At Verse.ai, we help companies reach more customers through texts, emails, and calls—all while navigating the convoluted landscape of regulatory compliance for you, including:
- TCR scores
- TCPA regulations
- And FCC requirements
Our trademarked TrustContact™ technology propagates customer trust to partners including phone carriers and email service providers, enabling them to fully trust your traffic from either channel. Verse customers benefit from TrustContact™ products such as SHAKEN/STIR attestation and A2P messaging, which are both required by the FCC.
Verse.ai enables companies to leave worries about compliance and message deliverability in the past. We simplify compliance for businesses, ensuring messages reach their intended recipients and protecting your brand reputation.
Conclusion
Seamless deliverability of digital communications through texts, emails, and phone calls critically hinges on maintaining high TCR scores and strict compliance with TCPA and FCC guidelines.
When compliance is a fundamental aspect of your communication strategy, you not only safeguard against potential sanctions, but also fortify your reputation in the competitive digital marketplace.
As technologies and regulations continue to evolve, Verse.ai is your reliable partner for navigating the complexities of compliance.
By partnering with Verse, you can be confident that your marketing campaigns are in line with all regulations. This not only helps protect your business from potential legal issues, but it also shows your customers that you value their privacy and respect their preferences.
