Text message marketing has been a favorite choice for many businesses during the last few years. It is simple, cost-effective, and delivers better results than other marketing methods.
However, text marketing has its share of challenges and concerns. Not everyone business registered success with this method. The reasons could be a lack of market research, spamming customers, not following guidelines, or not monitoring the campaigns through analytical tools.
Another concern for many businesses is that the messages aren't delivered to customers. When you use business texting software, you can track the number of messages sent, delivered, opened, etc. A higher failure rate is a sign of concern for any business. After all, you are spending money on messages that are not reaching the target audience.
The Phone is Switched Off
The reason could be something as simple as a switched-off mobile phone. However, the system will continue to resend the message periodically for the next few hours. If the phone is switched for a longer period than the resend duration, the message will not be delivered.
For example, text messages will not be delivered if the person turns on their phone a week or fifteen days after you sent the message.
Roaming Number
It is not uncommon for message delivery to fail if the person using the number is in another country. Roaming is when a person takes a number registered in one country to another country. The calls and messages are routed through the home carrier to the phone’s current location. This increases costs for the person (and they usually don’t respond to calls or messages through the carrier). The messages may get lost halfway through the network.
Blocked by the Carrier Network
The receiver’s mobile carrier might have blocked your number. This can happen if you violate the state and federal laws for telemarketing. It can also happen if the receiver blocks your number. Another reason could be that the carrier detected unusually high activity from your number and temporarily blocked the messages.
Marked as Spam by the Receiver
You should take explicit consent from the target audiences before adding them to the text message marketing list. The receiver might otherwise mark you as spam to block your messages. Or, you might be sending too many messages, which annoyed the receiver. If the person didn’t find a way to opt-out of the campaign, they will be tempted to block your number for spam. The messages will not be delivered for as long as you are on the spam list.
Wrong/ Incorrect Phone Number
Did you check if the phone number in your database is correct? Is the number still active and in use? Have you checked if it is a mobile phone number or a landline number? Experts recommend updating the contact list to avoid such errors. You might be sending messages to an old or invalid number. Naturally, such messages will not be delivered to the receipt. Try contacting the customers through their email IDs or alternate numbers and update their data in your list.
The Number is on the Do Not Disturb List
This feature is offered by some network carriers. Users can add their phone numbers to the Do Not Disturb list. This will filter all automated, telemarketing, and A2P messages. The person will not receive your message unless you send it from a non-business number. The only way to bypass this issue is by asking such customers to add your number to the ‘allowed’ contacts list.
Mismatched SMS Applications
This is an issue on the receiver’s side. Different mobile phones use different applications as a default setting to receive text messages. A mismatch in the sender and receiver’s default application can result in a failed message. You can’t do much here. Just make sure that the phone number can receive text messages and contact the receiver through another communication channel.
Technical Issues
Messages can fail if there’s a hardware/software/ network issue on the carrier’s side. Maybe the network down for maintenance when you scheduled the SMS campaign. The messages will not be sent during this period. They may still be delivered after the network is active. But the risk of failed messages is always there if the network is down for too long. It is good to check up on network updates before scheduling major text marketing campaigns.
TXTImpact is a leading business text message marketing software provider in the US. We offer customizable business texting software and services. Our team integrates the software with your existing CRM systems and customer database to streamline and automate business texting. We have clients from various industries. Our prices are affordable and budget-friendly for startups and small and medium-sized businesses.
