It can certainly be frustrating when you realize that some of your messages aren't successfully reaching their intended recipients.

So what can you do?

Here are 6 troubleshooting tips.

1. Make sure to register your brand

Make sure you've registered your brand. This pre-approves your traffic with the mobile carriers so that they are less likely to filter out your messages as potential spam.

As of December 7th, 2024, brand registration is required by the wireless carriers. All unregistered messaging traffic will be blocked from getting delivered. Please contact support if you need any help with registering your brand.

How to register your brand

To register your brand, click the "Please Complete Brand Registration" link on the top of your Dashboard page:

You'll then be taken to a form you can fill out in order to register your brand:

Why register my brand?

You'll enjoy 2 primary benefits if you register your brand:

• The best message delivery - many message delivery issues are simply caused because of unregistered messages being sent

• Better messaging speeds - registering your brand can allow your messages to get sent out twice as quickly (or more)

If you're on our 2,000 messages/month plan or higher, brand registration is totally free. For the 500 or 1,000 messages/month plans, it is free to register your brand for better message delivery, and if you also want faster messaging speeds the cost is $15/month.

NOTE: To be eligible for brand registration on a 10-digit long code phone number, your business/organization would need to have a valid EIN (Employer Identification Number) to input on the registration form. If you don't have an EIN, you can contact us to set up and register a free toll-free phone number instead.

2. Include opt-out instructions on all messages

The opt-out instructions that you provide to your subscribers (for example, "Reply STOP to opt out") should be included on all messages that you send.

The mobile carriers view this as a signal that your messages are not spam, and so they will be less likely to stop the messages from being delivered.

3. Keep an eye on your opt-outs

If you get an uptick in people opting out, this may be a red flag to the mobile carriers.

And when that happens, they may start preventing messages from being delivered.

So for best delivery results, make sure you're providing valuable content and are only texting people who actually want to receive your texts.

4. Watch out for landlines and invalid numbers

If you're noticing lower than expected delivery rates, it may be because of landlines and invalid numbers in your subscriber list.

You can use the "Filter" option on your "Manage Subscribers" page to help with this:

From here you'll be able to select the "Show Landlines" toggle to be able to see some of these subscribers in your database, so that you can remove them:

5. Refrain from public link shorteners

Including any publicly-shortened URLs (i.e., bit.ly, rb.gy, tinyurl.com) is a sure-fire way to get your messages flagged as spam by mobile carriers.

Avoid that type of link shortening, and instead either use your full link or use our in-house link shortener to share links with your audience.

6. Don't send PDF files

PDF files can also cause message delivery issues. If you want to share a PDF, there are a few options available to you:

• Convert your PDF to a PNG or JPG file before attaching to your message (make sure the file size is 500 KB or less) - you can do this using free online file converting tools

• Upload your PDF to a file sharing site such as Google Drive or Dropbox, and then share the link to the file rather than attaching the file itself