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A well-known fact that many aren’t aware of is that SMS marketing boasts an amazing 98% open rate on average, whereas email campaigns struggle with a scanty 20%. Another interesting fact is that SMS messages get opened within the first 90 seconds, while email recipients take about 90 minutes to open their mail. These facts show how powerful SMS campaigns can be to maintain contact with your customers and targeted audience.
Despite these astonishing facts, no SMS campaign can achieve a 100% ‘Delivered’ rate. In this blog post, we will discuss the reasons why your SMS doesn’t get delivered to everyone.
1. You’ve Got Invalid Numbers in Your Contact List
Whether you use automated systems or manual data collection to acquire customers’ phone numbers, there’s always a chance of occasional errors during input. Besides, some customers even submit incorrect numbers intentionally to avoid privacy concerns. Therefore, sending texts to incorrect phone numbers is one of the most common reasons for high rates of undelivered messages in your SMS campaigns.
The best solution for this problem is to invest in a top-rated phone number validator API from a recognized provider like Trestle. This will help you filter invalid phone numbers before they enter your contacts database.
2. You Used the Incorrect Number Format
The mobile phone numbers in your contact database must be in the correct format if you want to avoid delivery errors when sending messages. This may sound relatively straightforward, but it can sometimes be challenging. That’s in consideration of the fact that there are various acceptable formats for mobile numbers, but just because they work in your region doesn’t mean they will work elsewhere.
For instance, a U.S. phone number can use international and local formats when dialed domestically, i.e., +1-212-456-7890 or 212-456-7890. However, anyone calling this number from outside the United States can only use the international format to guarantee successful communication.
3. The Number is in Roaming Mode in a Different Country
Mobile numbers are bound to contracts. Some of these contracts permit all services except receiving text messages to work outside your country. If this is the case and the mobile phone owner is roaming, any messages you send them won’t go through.
4. The User’s Phone Is Switched Off
This one is pretty obvious. If someone has switched off their phone, they will not only be unreachable through calls, but even text messages sent to their number will also not get delivered.
In most cases, such messages go through eventually once the user turns on their phone, but if the phone is turned off for extended periods, the SMS will expire and thus never get delivered.
5. Your Sender ID Is Blocked or Marked as Spam
The text messages you send will sometimes fail to go through either because the recipient has blocked/filtered your sender ID or their carrier has marked your carrier or sender ID as spam. This typically happens when you send irrelevant or suspicious links. Or, if you are sending many messages with the same content and a significant number of customers, report it to the carrier.
Your best bet is to study your customers closely and give them the option to opt in or opt out of certain communication channels to avoid ruining their experience and triggering irritation.
Handy Tips to Increase the Delivery Rate of Marketing SMS
- Obtain Consent and Maintain a Contact List:
- Opt-in is essential: Only send messages to those contacts who have permitted you to communicate through SMS. This is not only ethical but also legally required in many regions.
- Easy opt-out: Provide an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe (e.g., “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”).
- Maintain the list regularly: You need to remove inactive numbers, correct errors, and update contact details to avoid sending messages to invalid recipients.
- Personalize and Optimize Your Message:
- Personalization: Include the recipient’s name in the message; this method of personalization alone makes the message targeted and less spammy
- Provide value: Ensure your messages provide value to the recipient, whether it’s a special offer or essential information. Avoid sending irrelevant messages.
- Test and refine: Experiment with different message content and track your delivery rates to see what works best for your audience.
- Technical Considerations
- Use a reliable SMS gateway: Choose a reputable SMS marketing platform with a good track record of reliably delivering messages.
- Sender ID: Use a recognizable sender ID (e.g., your company name) so recipients know who the message is from while avoiding spam triggers.
- Timing: Be mindful of when you send your messages, and consider time zones if your target audience is international.
- Compliance and Regulations
- Stay updated: Keep up-to-date with the regulations and best practices for SMS marketing in your region, including rules regarding consent and opting-out
- TCPA and GDPR: Be aware of SMS marketing rules and regulations set by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the United States and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe
- Monitoring and Analysis
- Track delivery rates: Regularly track your SMS delivery rates to identify any potential issues and timely correct them
- Analyze results: It is important to analyze an SMS marketing campaign to determine what works and what does not. This information can be used to improve delivery rates.
Streamline Your SMS Marketing Today
Understanding why your messages aren’t reaching their destinations is one of the first steps toward solving the widely known problem of marketing messages not getting delivered. However, given the wide range of reasons and the fact that your service provider won’t state why the message wasn’t delivered, the best solution is to be proactive.
You might also want to invest in phone number validation tools, send relevant and targeted SMS to the right audience, and check your contact list to ensure the numbers in there use the correct format. Moreover, Trestle supports your efforts by providing high-quality phone verification and validation APIs. So, whether you want to ensure only valid numbers are added to your contact databases or you are trying to clean your contact list, you’ll have the right tool for the job.
