Registering a Brand and Campaign for your business is a REQUIREMENT put in place by the mobile carriers to do ANY business texting. Mobile Carriers have informed Intulse that as of December 2024, any numbers that are not attached to a registered brand and campaign will be blocked by them (the mobile carriers). This will be a total block and you will not be able to send or receive any texts on these numbers.
Intulse and its partner carriers are not able to accept sole proprietor campaigns at this time so if your organization is not incorporated, you have two options:
This process, designed by The Campaign Registry (TCR), is long and complicated. In an effort to help you successfully navigate it with minimal impact to your business texting, Intulse has created this step-by-step guide which walks you through the process as clearly as possible. First we will help you Register your Brand, then we'll look at how to Create a Campaign. Please reach out to our support team if you are confused or need help at any point along the way.
Steps in the Process:
There are several times throughout this process where you will incur a cost. This is not our preference, but it's how TCR has built the platform. In an effort to be as transparent as possible, Intulse wants to provide you with an overview of those costs up front so you know what to expect:
| Brand Costs | Campaign Costs |
|---|---|
| $8 one-time Brand Registration Fee | $20 one-time Campaign Submission Fee (per campaign) |
| $8 Fee for EACH Rejected Brand ReSubmission** | $20 Fee for EACH Rejected Campaign ReSubmission** |
| $55 Standard Vetting* | $3-15 monthly Campaign Fee (based on Use-Case) |
| $120 Enhanced Vetting* |
* Brand vetting is optional, and you can choose Standard or Enhanced Vetting.
** There is a one-time Fee each time a brand or campaign is rejected and must be resubmitted.
This will be explained in further detail later in the process.
Some clients may already have an existing Brand listed in the Account Center. This was done on your behalf by Intulse using an older process no longer available. If so, simply verify that the information is correct and move on to creating your campaign.
This is where you will come to update any of your Brand or Campaign details.
A "Brand" is the company that will use SMS to communicate with customers. TCR will perform Cyber and Identity verification against every brand registered through Intulse.
Click the blue "Register Brand" button.
Is your brand incorporated with its own EIN? If yes, click "Yes, its Incorporated.
Complete the Brand Registration form - The information entered here MUST match what's on your website!
Fill in the following information about your Brand. This MUST match the information on your website!
Click the blue Register button.
You will be charged an $8 ONE TIME Brand Registration fee.
Read the agreement details, click the box to Create billing for this brand registration and click the blue Approve Registration box.
IF YOU ARE A PUBLICLY TRADED ORGANIZATION, you will receive a verification email. You must follow the link in that email and fill out the necessary information to verify your brand. TCR will NOT ask for user credentials, SSN, nor solicit money during this verification.
It will only take a few moments for you to receive an update on your verification status.
If your brand is UNVERIFIED, you can edit it to correct any information that was entered incorrectly. Any field with an "Edit" button will incur an additional $8 Resubmission Fee. For assistance, open a ticket in the Account Center so our support team can help identify the problem and get this resolved for you as quickly as possible.
To edit your Brand, click on the Brand ID.
Then click the blue Edit Brand button.
Any box that allows you to just click and type will not trigger a resubmission fee.
Any box that has an Edit Button WILL TRIGGER AN $8 RESUBMISSION FEE once you click the blue Confirm button.
Once you see Identity Status: VERIFIED, you are ready to continue.
Third party vetting of your Brand is not required, but a good vetting score significantly increases the text limit for your organization.
These are the limits without third party vetting:
If you will not exceed these limits, vetting is not necessary. If you are a large organization who heavily utilizes business texting, third party vetting may be helpful.
To begin the process of having your brand vetted, select your brand.
Click the blue Request Vetting button.
Select whether you want Standard or Enhanced Vetting.
Select the Provider from the dropdown list.
Check the box to agree to the terms and click the blue button to Submit.
You will receive your vetting report, and if vetting is not approved there will be a button to Appeal and resubmit. For additional assistance, open a ticket in the Account Center so our support team can help identify the problem and get this resolved for you as quickly as possible.
You are now ready to move on to the next step.
BEFORE continuing to the next step, make sure the following items are included on your company's website that was provided in Brand registration. Your website will be manually reviewed and these items are REQUIRED by the mobile carriers. Your campaign will be rejected if they are not in place. These are some common reasons campaigns are rejected so it's important to take care of these items PRIOR to the next step as there is a $20 fee for each resubmission.
Your website cannot contain ANY cannabis/hemp/CBD content at all.
Your website cannot have ANY content related to sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, or tobacco.
Use the following template as a starting point for creating your SMS Terms & Conditions. You will need to provide a direct link to this in your campaign details. This is a template for your SMS Terms & Conditions, not your entire website's terms and conditions. It covers only the minimum requirements and may not include everything required for your organization..
{COMPANY NAME} SMS Terms & Conditions
This is NOT specific to marketing campaigns. In this context, the campaign is your texting profile. It explains how you will use text messaging to interact with your clients. You must complete this process if you want to be able to text your clients at all.
Campaign vetting is a manual process during which your website will be reviewed for a detailed privacy policy and online presence that matches what is stated in this campaign. Once you submit your campaign for review, you will be locked into a 3 month agreement with TCR, even if your campaign is denied. Texting services will be paused and it will cost $20 every time a campaign fails and must be resubmitted so follow this guide carefully and reach out to our support team if you need clarification.
Lead generation and affiliate marketing are not allowed over 10DLC. This includes high-risk financial services. Campaigns related tot his content will be rejected.
Click the blue Create Campaign button.
Select the Brand that this campaign will be applied to. Only valid, verified Brands will appear on this drop-down list.
Select ONE Use Case for this campaign. You will be presented with a selection of use cases based on the business type selected when registering your brand. Click HERE for a full description of each use case option.
It is essential that you select a Use Case consistent with the types of messages you will be sending out through this campaign. In a future step you will provide sample messages and if they do not match the use case selected here, your campaign will not be approved. For example, if you select charity as your use case but send appointment reminders, your campaign will be rejected.
UCaaS is the best Use Case if you are not bulk messaging as it allows for more conversational texting. (Bulk messaging refers to sending out large numbers of messages to many recipients at once, such as mass alerts, reminders, or marketing texts.)
You will incur a monthly charge based on the Use Case you select in this step.
When you click the blue Next button, you will see a chart displaying the terms for each carrier.
These qualifications, rates, and limits are set by the mobile carriers and are subject to change without notice. Intulse has no control over them.
Each mobile carrier has its own 10DLC policies and terms. The Carrier Terms Preview page allows you to see the terms of a campaign for each carrier based on the selected Use Case and Brand before you complete registration. Review this page to ensure you are happy with the terms. If not, you can abandon the registration process and apply for third-party brand vetting.
There is nothing to select; this page is informational only.
The preview will provide you with the following information:
Click the blue Next button.
Now it's time to enter the details of your campaign. Please follow these steps carefully because failure to include adequate information could delay campaign approval.
Campaign Description - Give a clear and detailed description of what the campaign will be used for. This must be at least 40 characters in length.
TCR must be able to tell the intended purpose of the overall messages. Your description should include the answer to the questions:
Good Example: Messages aimed at customers of a car dealership service center. Appointment reminders, repair updates, satisfaction follow-up, online bill payment, and 2-way conversations.
Bad Example: Text messages are used for our team members to communicate with our customers and partners. Why is it bad? It doesn’t say who you are or what you want to communicate.
If you are not using the campaign in accordance with the description given, there is a good chance it may get flagged so be as clear and honest as possible here.
Campaign Call-to-Action/Message Flow - Describe how a consumer will opt-in to the campaign, giving consent to receive messages. The call-to-action must be explicitly clear and inform the consumer of the nature of the program. If multiple opt-in methods can be used for the same campaign, you must list them all. This must also include a link to the Terms and Conditions.
Your campaign MUST have a working website with complete CTA information if opt-in occurs outside of the website. Campaigns will be rejected for insufficient call-to-action sections. Provide a working website link and a clear and concise description of how an end user signs up to receive messages.
Opt-in must be 1 to 1, can't be shared with third parties, and can't be implied. It also can't be obscured within the Terms & Conditions and/or other agreement(s).
This information must be clearly posted on your corporation's website, as covered in Step 3.
Sample Messages - This field is used to capture a sample of the types of messages that will be sent on this campaign. Messages should be unique and provide examples of content you may send so TCR can tell what the interaction may look like. Sample messages should align with the overall campaign description. Please make sure at least one sample message has Opt-Out language, which MUST include brand name, confirmation of opt-out, and confirmation they will receive no further messages.
You must display messages that are unique and provide examples of content you may send so we can tell what the interaction may look like. The sample messages should align with the overall campaign description. We would ideally want to see the identification of who is sending the message (a brand name or sender name), meaning it shouldn’t be a generic description along with generic sample messages where the use case can’t be determined without additional research.
Make sure that the selected use case is consistent with the sample messages. For example, if you select charity as the use case but are sending appointment reminders, your campaign will be rejected. You would either need to update the sample messages or change the use case to better align with the content being sent.
Campaign & Content Attributes - During the Campaign registration process, you will be asked to answer Yes or No to indicate whether the Campaign has the listed attributes. Some attributes may require you to add specific information. The following are REQUIRED:
Direct Lending Campaigns must have the appropriate Content Attribute selected. Be sure to select "direct lending or loan agreement" under campaign and content attributes. Currently, these fields are not editable in existing campaigns. Please note that any campaign for a lender will need this attribute checked. For example, the campaign type is Marketing but the sample messages ask questions about qualifying someone for a loan and the campaign/content attributes do not indicate lending (i.e., sample message that asks "Can you please provide your first and last name, and either the year, make and model of your vehicle or the last 4 digits of your SSN?").
Please make sure your content attributes are correct while setting up your campaign. These fields can not be changed, so a brand-new campaign will have to be submitted.
Subscriber Opt-in, Opt-out, and Help content is mandatory and auto populated for you.
Subscriber Opt-in - indicates whether the campaign is collecting and processing consumer opt-ins
Subscriber Opt-out - indicates whether the campaign is collecting and processing consumer opt-outs
Subscriber Help - indicates whether the campaign has implemented replies providing recipients with additional information on how to contact the message sender by replying with the “HELP” keyword
Number Pooling - indicates whether more than 50 numbers will be used with the campaign
Direct Lending or Loan Arrangement - indicates whether the campaign includes content related to direct lending or other loan arrangements
Embedded Links - indicates whether the campaign is using embedded links of any kind (Note: public URL shorteners such as bitly or tinyurl are not accepted)
Embedded Phone Numbers - indicates whether the campaign is using embedded phone numbers (except the required HELP information contact phone number)
Age-Gated Content - indicates whether the campaign includes any age-gated content as defined by Carrier and CTIA guidelines (SHAFT content)
Terms & Conditions - indicates that the campaign follows CTIA messaging principles and best practices
Click the blue Next button to submit your campaign.
Carefully review the billing details and the Professional Services Agreement and click the blue Approve Registration button.
You will be charged a NON-REFUNDABLE $20 Campaign Vetting Fee. You will also see your monthly Campaign fee in this dialogue box. Clicking Approve locks you into this monthly fee for 3 months. Even if your campaign fails, you will be locked into both of these fees with TCR. This is not an Intulse fee so we have no control over this billing.
Campaign vetting is a manual process, which is NOT handled by Intulse. You will see a Pending status while your Campaign is being reviewed. This will include vetting of the privacy policy displayed on your website. Expect this process to take up to 2 weeks.
There is not an automated alert for when your campaign has been processed. You will need to return to the 10DLC page every few days to look for updates.
There is a $20 fee every time a campaign is resubmitted. Submit a support ticket to have the Intulse team look at this with you to help get it resolved.
Once your campaign is APPROVED, you are ready to move on to the next step.
Now that your campaign has been APPROVED, it's time to begin adding the phone numbers that will for texting.
Go back to the Intulse Account Center.
Click on Phone Numbers and then 10DLC.
Select the Campaign to add phone numbers.
Under the section Phone Numbers Assigned to Campaign, click the blue button to Manage Numbers.
Use the drop-down and select any numbers that should be assigned to the campaign. Once they have all been added, click the blue Submit button.
These numbers will not be immediately available for texting. They have been submitted to the mobile carrier for approval and this will take from 30 minutes up to several days.
Once they have been approved, your texting services will be restored and you'll be ready to conduct business as usual.