Support Center›Setup Checklist›Step 4
Phone & SMS Setup
Set up text messaging for your business
Before you begin
- Estimated time
- 30–40 minutes to submit, plus carrier review time you cannot shorten
- Have ready
- Legal business name, EIN or tax ID, business address, business website URL, and a published opt-in page with consent wording already live.
Carrier review takes real time and cannot be accelerated by anyone — not by us, not by paying more. Until it is approved, your texts may be silently filtered: they show as sent on your end and simply never arrive.
Why this matters
Done properly
- Texts actually reach phones
- Higher throughput limits
- Your business name can display to recipients
- Protection against being blocked as spam traffic
Skipped or rushed
- Messages silently filtered — sent but never delivered
- No delivery errors to tell you what went wrong
- Number can be blocked entirely by carriers
- Potential legal exposure under messaging law
How to set it up
Build your opt-in page first
This has to exist and be publicly reachable before you register, because reviewers will visit it.
Create a form with a phone number field and an unchecked consent checkbox. The wording next to the checkbox must state who is texting and what about. Full wording is on Messaging Setup & Compliance.
Publish it on your own domain from Step 2 and note the URL.
Add a phone number
Go to Settings → Phone Numbers and add a number. Choose an area code your clients will recognise — local numbers get answered more often than distant ones.
One number is enough to start. Each additional number carries a monthly cost.
Submit your business registration
This registers who you are. You will need:
- Legal business name, exactly as in Step 1
- EIN or business tax ID
- Business address
- Business website URL
- A contact name, email, and phone for the person responsible
Every field is verified against public records. A mismatch means rejection and resubmission.
Submit your campaign registration
This registers what you will send. You will describe your use case and provide sample messages.
Write samples that reflect what you will actually send, including your business name and an opt-out instruction. For example:
"Hi Sarah, this is Jane at Riverside Consulting confirming your call Thursday at 2pm. Reply STOP to opt out."
Generic or placeholder samples get rejected. So do samples that do not match the traffic you later send.
Provide your opt-in details
Give the URL of the live opt-in page and paste the exact consent wording that appears on it. These must match, word for word. Reviewers compare them.
Wait for approval, and check status
Check the registration status in your account rather than assuming. Approvals move through stages and can come back with a request for more information — which stalls indefinitely if you do not notice it.
Configure your auto-replies
Set what happens when someone texts
HELP— they must receive your business name and a way to reach a human.STOPhandling is automatic and must never be overridden.Test end to end
Once approved, send a message to your own phone from the platform. Confirm it arrives, confirm the sender shows correctly, then reply
STOPand confirm you are opted out. ReplySTARTto restore yourself.
The opt-in page does not exist yet, or the consent wording on the live page does not match what was submitted. Build and publish the form first, then register quoting the live URL.
Carriers block messages containing bit.ly, tinyurl, and similar. Use your own tracked links on your own domain. This applies to your sample messages too.
Someone giving you their number to confirm an appointment has not agreed to receive marketing texts. Consent is specific and does not transfer between purposes.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Registration rejected for business name | The name did not match public records. Use the exact legal name from Step 1, including LLC or Inc. |
| Registration rejected for opt-in | The page was not reachable, or the wording differed from what was submitted. Fix the page, then resubmit quoting it. |
| Approved but messages still not delivering | Check your message content for shortened links. Also check you have not sent a sudden high volume to a cold list — carriers filter on spikes. |
| Messages send but recipients never reply | Check whether they are opted out. Also check the time of day — texts sent outside 8am to 9pm local time are both illegal and ignored. |
FAQ
How long does approval take?
It varies by carrier and by how complete your submission is. It is measured in days, not hours, and nobody can expedite it. This is why you submit on day one.
Can I text people while I wait for approval?
You technically can, but messages are likely to be filtered without any error shown to you. It is not worth burning a number over.
Do I need this if I only send appointment reminders?
Yes. Registration applies to all business messaging, transactional as well as marketing.
What if my registration is rejected?
You will get a reason. Fix that specific thing and resubmit. The most common causes are a name mismatch and an opt-in page problem.
Can I use my personal mobile number?
No. You need a number provisioned in the platform so messages route into your inbox and opt-outs are tracked automatically.
✅Done when
- A number is provisioned on your account
- Your opt-in form is live with correct consent wording
- Business and campaign registration are submitted
- Registration shows as approved
- A test text arrived, and STOP worked