10DLC Campaign Form Help

Enter your legal company name. Ensure that your legal company name is consistent with your IRS or corporation registration and properly spelled. Any mismatch can result in a rejection (including spaces, periods, or commas). If you are using a DBA make sure that it matches the brand represented by your Website/Online presence.

Choose the type of legal entity your company is registered as. Please note that if your company is registered as another category than the one selected, your registration will result in a rejection. The options available are as follows:

• Publicly traded company
• Private Company (LLC, Ltd, S-Corp, etc.)
• Non-profit Organization
• Government
• Sole proprietor (Individuals with no Tax ID)

Sole Proprietor Entity Types

• The Sole Proprietor entity type is intended only for individuals who do not have a registered business and a business EIN, Tax ID, or equivalent. Single Member LLCs and other incorporated businesses are not eligible for a Sole Proprietor registration type.
• Since Sole Proprietor types are intended for individuals, companies that have employees or 1099 contractors working on behalf of the company will need to register as a private company or other entity type with a valid EIN.
• Only valid U.S. or Canadian addresses (including P.O. boxes) are allowed. Addresses in other countries are not permitted.
• Only one phone number is allowed to be registered per Sole Proprietor entity.
• A mobile phone number with active text messaging is required to receive a one-time password (OTP) for verification during registration. Talkroute Virtual Phone Numbers cannot be used for OTP verification.

Enter the Tax ID/EIN associated with your company that matches with your legal company name. The Tax ID/EIN is used in conjunction with the company’s legal name, address, and other information during the registration process. Talkroute has no way to verify a Tax ID/EIN/BN before  submitting your registration.

• United States
  • If you are a US company or a foreign company with a US IRS Employer Identification Number (EIN), please enter your nine-digit number in the Tax ID/EIN field.
  • Ensure that your legal company name is consistent with your IRS registration and properly spelled.
  • The address you enter should also be the same that is used in registering with the IRS. The correct information for registration can be found on your company's IRS EIN confirmation letter (SS-4).
    
    
• Canada
  • If your primary business registration is in Canada, please enter one of the following tax IDs:
    • Your Canadian Business Number (BN) that was issued by the CRA.
    • Your Corporation/Incorporation Number
    • Your Registry ID
  • Please ensure that your legal company name is consistent with your corporation registration and is properly spelled. The address you enter should also be the same as that used in registering with Corporations Canada.
    
    
• Sole Proprietor
  • A Tax ID/EIN is not required for a Sole Proprietor company type as it is intended for individuals with no Tax ID/EIN. If your business has a Tax ID/EIN and you select the Sole Proprietor legal entity type, your registration will result in a rejection.

Enter the Account Number for your Talkroute account that this campaign applies to. You can access your account number by visiting our Manage Your Account Page.

Enter the primary address for your company, including the Street Address, City, State/Province, and ZIP/Postal Code. The address you enter should be the same that is used in your legal business registration paperwork.

A working website link is required with the exception of some Sole Proprietor cases. A website that lands on a domain parking site (e.g. GoDaddy and Wix) or empty placeholder (e.g. “Coming Soon” or “Under construction”) will be rejected.

Having a website serves as a public-facing proof of your business’s existence and purpose. It’s  required by messaging platforms to verify that your business is legitimate and that you are not sending spam or unsolicited messages. A website gives regulators, carriers, and customers a place to understand more about your business practices and ensures you are a real, operating entity.

• Social media pages
  • For Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or other social media pages, make sure the brand is clearly identified. The page should be a company listing, not an individual page(unless for a Sole Proprietor). It is best if the email address and phone number in your form also match, if at all possible. A more established social media presence will be more apt to be approved than something that was more recently launched. The ‘About’ potion of the company listing should also include Privacy Policy links and a fully compliant SMS Disclosure.
    
    In general, we discourage social media pages as an online presence; however, it may be considered for a non-Sole Proprietor type businesses. Usage of personal social media pages instead of another online business presence will result in a rejection.
    
    
• Profile sites
  • These are sites that are used for professionals that will provide general information about that professional – common with physicians, medical, trucking companies, and occasionally legal. If text messaging is to be used with these sites, there will need to be a way to also provide a compliant SMS Disclosure and Privacy Policy link (or statement) for the business. 
    
    

• Options for Compliance

  • Even a simple, one-page website with basic information about your services, a brief privacy policy, and T&C could fulfill these requirements.
  • You could use free or low-cost website builders to set this up, providing the minimum required information for compliance.
    
    
• Sole Proprietors

  • A website and privacy policy page for a Sole Proprietor entity type is generally encouraged, however, it may not be required if you meet all the following criteria:

    • You do not have an established online presence such as a company website or company social media page
    • Your call-to-action or opt-in method does not involve an online presence.

    If you do have an established online presence and/or your call-to-action or opt-in method involves your website, both a website and a compliant privacy policy page are required. 

Enter the links where your Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy pages can be found. A privacy policy page is required at minimum.

Terms & Conditions

While a terms & conditions page is not required in most cases, this will depend on your opt-in method and use case. Your terms & conditions page should describe any applicable terms and conditions related to messaging (e.g., how to opt-out, customer care contact information, and link to any applicable privacy policy).

10DLC Requirements:

• Your Company or DBA (brand) name
• “Message and data rates may apply” disclosure
• Message frequency disclosure* (e.g., #msgs/mo, msg frequency varies, recurring messages, etc.). *Only required for recurring message programs
• Opt-out information (e.g., Reply STOP to stop)
• Customer care contact information (e.g., Reply HELP for help)
• Link to privacy policy or privacy policy statement

 

Privacy Policy
Privacy policies are required for 10DLC registration (except for some Sole Proprietor use cases). Your privacy policy should describe how you collect, use and share information from end users.

10DLC Requirements:

• Your Privacy Policy must be clear that end user’s personal info will not be shared or sold to third parties for the purpose of marketing.
  Example privacy policy statement: “No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties."
• An opt-in consent statement with your SMS disclosure.
  Example: By submitting your phone number, you are authorizing [YOUR BRAND NAME] to send you text messages. Messaging frequency will vary. Message & data rates apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe to messages sent from us or reply HELP for more information."

If you do not already have a privacy policy in place, privacy policy generators may help you with this task. The following websites offer such generators:

• Termly Privacy Policy Generator
• Iubenda Privacy Policy Generator 
• PrivacyPolicies Privacy Policy Generator 
• Get Terms Privacy Policy Generator 
• Privacy Policy Online Privacy Policy Generator 
• WebsitePolicies Privacy Policy Generator

Notes for Facebook or Instagram sites: Some small businesses do not have a website but use a business social media presence. In those cases, create a post with both the full SMS disclosure and a Privacy Policy link or actual text of a short Privacy Policy. You can make that social media post “sticky” so that it always appears at the top of the social media presence for this business. Another option is to link it in the “About” section (applies to Facebook).
Privacy Policies can be in a linked Google documents or written out in the social media post.

Enter the name, email, and phone number of the contact person who manages messaging on your account. These details may or may not match what is on your website/online presence. If the company uses social media for an online presence, it’s best that these match the contact details with what is listed on the social media page.

If your brand is a larger company, a regional or national brand, or a publicly traded company, then the email domain needs to belong to that brand – not Gmail, yahoo, outlook, etc. Email domains for larger companies should not be using gmail.com, as this can result in this campaign being rejected.

We realize that many small businesses have a website domain, but still use Gmail or some other
public email solution. Typically, this is okay for smaller businesses.

• Sole Proprietor
  • If you are registering as a Sole Proprietor please enter a mobile contact phone number. A one time password or verification message will be sent to the mobile number as part of the registration process. Not providing a mobile phone number may delay your registration.

Enter all local Talkroute phone numbers you want to use for your registration. Do not list any Toll-free numbers or any local phone numbers not associated with your Talkroute account. Multiple local phone numbers can be registered under a single campaign as long as they all share the same or similar use case and pertain to the same business.

Enter your estimated monthly texting volume for all numbers listed in your campaign form. This number should reflect an average of both incoming and outgoing messages combined. If you plan to expand your texting usage, please use an estimated value for where you will be in about six months.

Choose a category that best represents your use case, content, and company. Please only select one category. The following are available options:

• Agricultural
• Communication and Media
• Construction and trade services
• Education
• Energy and utilities
• Entertainment
• Financial services
• Gambling and lottery
• Government services and agencies
• Healthcare and Life sciences
• Hospitality and travel
• HR, staffing or recruitment
• Insurance
• Legal
• Manufacturing
• Non-Profit organization
• Political
• Postal and delivery
• Professional services
• Real estate
• Retail and consumer products
• Information technology services
• Transportation or logistics

The Use Case Description should describe what messaging will be used for with your local phone numbers. While it can include a short description of the brand, the majority of the text should describe the use-case and how you will be using SMS/MMS.

There is a minimum of 40 characters for the Campaign Description, so short notes such as “customer service” will not be accepted.

It is important that the use case description actually match the sample messages and that the sample messages are as accurate as possible.

You may optionally provide a one or two sentence outline of what the business does in addition to how messaging is used.

Example Use Case: Our business will use SMS to send transactional notifications and customer support updates to existing customers. The types of messages include order confirmations, shipping updates, appointment reminders, and support follow-ups. Additionally, we will use SMS to provide customers with real-time responses to their inquiries.

The Call-to-Action / Message Flow's purpose is to describe how recipients of your text messages consent to receive messages from you. In other words, how is opt-in consent obtained.

This should match the type of opt-ins that are on your website/online presence.

This is simply a description of how opt-in or consent is obtained. Just as there are virtually countless SMS/MMS use-cases, there are many different ways that consent for messaging can be obtained, including through a website contact page or web form, Opt-in keyword, user-initiated text to the company, onboarding or intake paperwork, and many others. Please note that no matter the opt-in methods you use to get consent, you will also need to provide proof of the opt-in methods used.

This field has a 40 character minimum, so please provide a useful description for how consent is obtained. The key point here is to be accurate and descriptive.

Please review some examples of Call-to-Action / Message Flow for a number of opt-in variations:

• Opt-in Via Website - There are various ways to provide consent via a website. Here are some examples illustrating a number of options. In all cases, there should also be an accompanying SMS Disclosure on the website.
  
  • When the user signs up for an account, the user must first enter their phone number. A 2FA message is sent to validate that phone number. After that, they are asked if they wish to receive account notification messages sent to the provided (and validated) phone number. The user will see all text messaging disclosures here.
  • The user fills out a form on the website where they can consent to receive notification messages. There is also a box they can check to receive product updates and/or marketing messages. The messaging disclosure is displayed to users by this form.
  • Use fills in their phone number on a webform and consents to receive updates for any new opportunities.
  • Under the “Contact Us” website option, there is a form to fill out to get more information. The user’s phone number is requested. Additionally, there is a checkbox that the user may check to receive information via SMS message, with a full SMS disclosure provided.
  • When a consumer uses our online form to make an appointment, they are asked if they would like SMS appointment reminders sent to their phone. If they check the box, YES, then appointment reminders will be sent.
    
    
• Opt-in Via Email
  • In our weekly marketing emails, we include a button that asks consumers if they would like to receive targeted information about upcoming sales via SMS. If they consent, then no more than twice weekly messages are sent. A full SMS disclosure is provided next to the email button.
  • In our account validation email, we offer the consumer a button to opt-in for SMS messages. If the consumer consents, messages will be sent for shipping and product updates.
    
    
• Opt-in Via Verbal Consent (including Voice Calls) - Verbal consent can be used, however it can be difficult to provide sufficient proof of this consent type. Typically an outline the script that the company uses with all the proper SMS disclosures as well as evidence of a tracking system for opt-ins would be needed. Verbal Consent is a great candidate for double opt-in methods. Essentially receiving verbal confirmation and then sending an opt-in message after to have them confirm they wish to receive messages from you. See these examples where the company provides a verbal disclosure:
  
  • When a consumer requests directions via a phone call, we ask if it is okay to send them an SMS message with directions to our shop. Additionally, when consumers call us for an appointment, we ask if they would like to receive appointment reminders via SMS. During these calls, consumers are reminded that message and data rates apply, that they can always opt-out later by replying STOP. We’ll also note that they will only receive appointment reminder messages when they make an appointment and that no other messages will be received.
  • While the client is at our location, we ask them if they would like to further discuss through text messaging, also reminding them that they can always opt-out of further messaging if they wish by simply replying STOP. We’ll also note remind them that these text messages are subject to message and data rates and that the number of messages will vary, based on our conversations. Finally, we note that we won’t sell or convey their private mobile data to any third parties and that they can always refer to the Privacy Policy on the website. If they reply that they would, we enter their phone number, and they will receive an opt-in confirmation message that will contain all of the appropriate disclosures.
  • When a consumer is checking out of our practice, we ask if we can send follow-up appointment reminders via SMS. If they consent, we remind them that they can always optout and that messaging and data rates will apply. Once we get their phone number, the will receive a welcome message noting that subsequent appointment reminders will be sent.
  • Consumers will Opt-In to receive messaging when talking with our Project Managers who canvas local neighborhoods. When speaking with the Project Managers, they agree to receive messages verbally and on our contact form. After a user provides us with the initial consent, we then send them a double Opt-In message to ensure they wish to receive SMS messages from us.
    
    
• Opt-in Via Consumer-Initiated message -This is where consumers opt-in by initiating an SMS (a user-initiated or mobile originated message) to the phone number. Here are some examples of this call-to action:
  
  • The customer can reach out to us via SMS (the phone number to text is on the website). We’ll send back a welcome message which notes that they will now receive updates via SMS. The initial message (or opt-in message) will have all SMS disclosures.
  • Employees may opt-into messaging by texting the keyword START to a posted number on a bulletin board. The bulletin board post also contains additional information about the SMS notifications they will be receiving. There is also a welcome message after they send the START keyword, which contains the full set of SMS disclosures.
    
    
• Other opt-in examples 
  • We provide a button on our social media site that opens up a form that the consumer may access to fill in their phone number and approve the receipt of SMS messages. There is a full SMS disclaimer underneath the button.
  • From our messaging app, users opt in by texting our opt-in number and agreeing to receiving text messages by sending OPT-IN, optionally our users can text a phone number once the user sends an OPT-IN.

With all call-to-action cases described above, the more specific, the better. It’s best to provide too much information vs. too little.

Enter sample messages that will be sent by the numbers under this campaign form. These should be specific to the campaign and not some generic set of messages that have nothing to do with the campaign. Please make sure your company/DBA name (Brand Name) is included as well as an opt-out clause at the end of the message.

Please provide an accurate sample of at least two messages. Here are some good and bad example messages:

Good examples:

• Hello John Doe, this is a reminder about your appointment with John’s Car Dealership on April 2nd, 2021 at 10:00 AM. Please reply YES to confirm your attendance or NO if you are not able to make it. Let us know when you would like to reschedule your appointment. Thank you!
• Good evening Church family, we are having an in-person worship service tomorrow at 10:30 am. We will also be streaming the service over Facebook Live for those unable to attend. Reminder: tomorrow is the day to bring the donation boxes.
• Hi Maurice! This is Ramiro with Example Co. We’d love to invite you to visit our booth at the upcoming Conference, which is taking place virtually and in person from Nov 9-13! Tickets are available now. There will be panels relating to voice, messaging, and 911! Register at www.example.com. Will we see you at the conference this year?
• Reminder from Dr. Smiles, DDS, Hi Jim, we look forward to seeing you at 3:00 pm tomorrow for your cleaning. Reply OPTIONS for Notification Options, or STOP to disable SMS notifications.

Bad examples:

• Thanks for leaving a rating on Google Business. We would like to learn more about your experience. I will contact you soon.
• I received your question. I will get back to you as soon as possible.
• There’s a little favor I would like you to help me with, please.

If you provide conversational messaging, you might provide examples of the messaging between the brand representatives and consumers. It is also good practice that the first message response from the campaign to a consumer reaching out should be similar to the following (with an opt-out clause): 

• [Brand Name] Customer Service. Thank you for reaching out to us. One of our representatives will be with you shortly. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. You may opt-out of further messaging by replying STOP.
• Hi this Bill from [Brand Name]. What can I help you with today? Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency may vary. Reply STOP to Cancel.

Select “YES” if the company originates loans or financing of any kind, including arranging third-party financing, loans, or mortgages. For example, even auto sellers who provide or arrange financing or loans should check this attribute “YES.” Virtually all banks, savings & loans, and credit unions off loan products, so the attribute should be set to “YES.”

This includes places such as car, truck, boat, or other vehicle dealerships and sellers. While not their primary business, they likely arrange some sort of financing. If that is the case, then this attribute should be checked “YES.”

If your website (regardless of business) indicates anywhere that it might provide or arrange financing, then check this attribute as “YES.” We’ve seen window companies, HVAC dealers, home builders, home remodelers, appliance companies that need to have this attribute checked since they can arrange financing for consumers.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you leave this set to “NO,” and your business can arrange or provide any kind of loans, financing, mortgages, your campaign may be rejected.

So, once again, if you can provide any type of financing, loans (personal or business), or can arrange such, go ahead and check this attribute as YES.

If any of the messages that you send will include a link (such as your website) or your phone number (or both), select “YES” for these.

We recommend always checking YES for both to cover you if you decide at a later date to include an embedded URL or phone number in the text of the message -- regardless of whether it is shown in your sample messages.

For embedded links, public URL shorteners will not be approved (bit.ly, tiny.url).

Indicates whether the usage includes any age-gated content as defined by CTIA guidelines. This is for approved texts that can only be sent to consumers over 21 and means that the business must check the consumer’s age before giving them the option to opt-in to receive text messages. This is allowed if proper age-gating procedures are in place. Select "YES" if it applies to your use case. Otherwise, select “NO.” If you select "YES", you will need to provide proof that proper age-gating procedures are in place

Agreeing to the Terms & Conditions is confirmation that your phone numbers will not be used for Affiliate Marketing. 

• Contact Form: Screenshots/URL of the website where the subscriber adds their number and agrees to receive messaging. A checkbox is required that users must select to agree to receive messages.

• Website and Promotional Materials: Screenshots/URL of where the number is advertised and where customers find the number to send a text. Add “Text or call us” wherever you display your phone number, indicating that by contacting you, customers agree to receive messages.

• Terms of Service: Screenshots/URL of your terms of service page where opt-in and opt-out language is shown, making it clear that users consent to receive messages by agreeing to the terms.

• Keywords: Screenshots/URL of where subscribers find the keyword to opt-in to messaging. For example, ask customers to text a specific keyword to a designated number to opt-in.

Other Uncommon Opt-Ins:
• On-Site POS: Screenshots of where the subscriber enters their number on-site at the point of sale and agrees to receive messaging. 
• IVR or Phone Approvals: Asking for explicit approval over the phone and keep a record of the consent. We will need documentation showing the script you use to ask and confirm, as well as the process you follow to update a contact’s records to opt them into texts.
• Paper form (Customer/Employee): Photocopy or screenshot of the form. Use physical forms that include opt-in language, ensuring that customers provide written consent.