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SMS deliverability guide

Overview

SMS marketing is a powerful way to connect with your audience, but it comes with stricter rules than email. This guide covers best practices, compliance requirements, and tips for resolving delivery issues.

Learn more about SMS non-delivery and complaints.

SMS best practices

Goal metrics

While industry, audience, and content-type can all affect engagement expectations, here is a general guide of goal engagement rates for a healthy SMS campaign:

  • Click rate: > 7.5%
  • Bounce rate: < 1.5%
  • Unsubscribe rate: < 1%

NOTE: If your SMS campaigns aren't meeting these expected thresholds, it may indicate issues with your strategy, opt-in process, or technical setup. Reviewing these areas can help identify improvements.

Compliance requirements

Ortto’s SMS feature is supported by Twilio. The below compliance requirements are in alignment with Twilio’s Messaging Policy which are in place to protect your SMS deliverability.

IMPORTANT: These requirements exist due to strict carrier regulations. Failing to follow them may lead to SMS deliverability issues.

Consent:

  • All recipients must have explicitly opted in to receiving SMS communications from you.

Sender identification:

  • You must clearly identify yourself as a sender in all messages.

Ability to revoke consent:

  • All initial contact via SMS should include clear instructions for the recipient on how to opt out (For example: Reply “STOP” etc).

NOTE: Ortto requires an opt-out link or a reply to opt-out option in all SMS messages, even if this is not mandated in certain regions.

Content restrictions:

Ensure that you follow all regional-specific requirements (including delivery time and content restrictions, for messages):

  • SMS deliverability may vary based on your country, the recipient's country, and additional requirements may apply.
  • Ensure that all messages follow the rules of the recipient's country. Twilio provides country-specific requirements for select regions, which should be reviewed before sending messages to recipients in / from those countries.

CAUTION: You should not enact sending practices that attempt to evade and sneak past abuse-monitoring/reporting measures.

Best practice guidelines

Your SMS campaign performance and deliverability is impacted by everything, from your technical setup to your messaging strategy.

Here are some best practices to help maintain reliable deliverability and strong engagement metrics:

  • Choose the Optimal sender ID that is recognizable by your audience.

NOTE: Learn more about Ortto’s sender ID feature.

  • Keep the content focused, organic, and as un-spam-like as possible. Here are some suggestions on how to ensure this:
    • Keep messages under 320 characters to avoid issues with carriers.
    • Avoid public link shorteners like bit.ly. Use your own personalized domain for link shortening.
    • Avoid over-using emojis.
    • Avoid unnecessary capitalization and punctuation.
    • Keep the tone friendly and engaging, not like a flyer or radio ad.
    • Use SMS for personalized, relevant messages, and reserve general outreach for other channels.

NOTE: Some countries do not allow two-way messaging, particularly when sending from outside the recipient country.

TIP: SMS is most effective for transactional messages such as order confirmations or delivery updates, ensuring they feel timely and relevant to recipients.

Some surveys have found that SMS sees a 90% open rate. Low click rates may therefore indicate the need to refine your strategy using the best practices outlined above.

SMS delivery troubleshooting

SMS deliverability depends on several factors, and messages may bounce for various reasons. Understanding the causes and taking the right steps can help prevent persistent issues.