Not All Text Message Marketing Is Created Equal

A main question we get from prospective customers is how other text marketing companies can offer “unlimited” text message services for such low monthly fees. To understand this you need a little background on the two types available today. SMS marketing uses short codes and is regulated by cell phone carriers and the FTC. Companies must submit an application and it takes months for approval from each company and the FTC. Companies that use SMS marketing comply with all Mobile Marketing Association regulations and bylaws.

Companies who are able to offer unlimited text marketing for such low prices are using a loop hole left open by cell phone carriers when they first started business. SMTP uses the email gateway attached to each cell phone number with the wireless carrier as the domain name to send messages. To carry this out, these systems generate e-mails to mobile phone numbers with the wireless carrier as domain name. The carriers then convert the email into a text message. For example: 6075551234@cingularwireless.com. This practice is not only forbidden for ‘1-to-Many’ applications by the wireless carriers, but if done without an expressed ‘Opt-in’, a user, you the business owner, can be fined $11,000 per message under the FTC’s widely publicized CAN-SPAM Act.

Even if the service provider claims to use Short Codes, many of these systems simply use a Short Code to handle the initial ‘Opt-in’ requirement then continue to send free messages via SMTP. Because these text messages are routed through email servers, recipients cannot ‘reply’ to these text message and therefore have no way to ‘Opt-out’.

This is not allowed by cell phone carriers and messages sent this way are often blocked and the success rate of messages sent is only around 50% and it can take hours for your message to reach your subscriber. Obviously marketing this way is not effective and while there is not much regulation in place yet, cell phone carriers actively work every day to close this loop hole down.

The Mobile Marketing Association and we at Moto Message believe that these types of unlimited services will be obsolete in the near future. Businesses that have spent months or years building up their subscriber list would see it disappear overnight and would have to start over from scratch again.

To send legitimate, ‘1-to-Many’ SMS in the United States, the FTC, CTIA, and ALL wireless carriers require that you use a Short Code – for not only the ‘Opt-In’ and ‘Opt-out’ process, but also for every single message sent to subscribers who have opted into your marketing campaign or alert service. Moto Message is among a handful of text messaging companies who bring this reliable SMS marketing capability directly to the independent business owner.