Setting up TCR registration and assigning numbers to your SMS campaigns

How to register your brand, campaign and phone numbers with The Campaign Registry (TCR) to enable SMS campaigns

If you’re a Canadian company and want to send SMS (text) messages to U.S. customers, you must register with The Campaign Registry (TCR). U.S. mobile carriers now require you to register your brand, campaign and number assignments with The Campaign Registry (TCR) before enabling SMS. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and U.S. carrier rules must be followed to send text messages to U.S. customers.

This article will walk you through how to submit your brand and campaign registration, SMS usage plan and example use cases to mobile carriers. 

For a full overview of industry requirements related to A2P 10DLC (Application-to-Person 10-digit Long Code) and SMS messaging, see our registration guide
. It includes the process for registering your business with the TCR, methods of obtaining consent from recipients, opt-out option requirement, campaign number assignment and common reasons for SMS TCR registration rejections.

Note:

Mobile carriers review each submission carefully. You need to ensure you follow the exact instructions to avoid rejection. Failure to provide clear, detailed information will result in your application’s rejection.
If you're a Canadian company and want to send SMS messages to your Canadian customers, you don’t need to register with the TCR at this time.

To register with the TCR, you’ll need to complete the following steps in the order outlined below.

Create a brand

Create a campaign

Create a campaign after you’ve successfully registered your brand. Your campaign should clearly show how you use SMS to mobile carriers. You must register a campaign under your brand to comply with TCR requirements. Most accounts only have one campaign under their brand, but you can have multiple if needed.

If you haven’t created a brand
, you must do so first. Once you’ve set up a campaign, you can assign numbers and enable SMS.
If your brand was previously approved
, then you can follow the steps below to set up your campaign.
Note
: A campaign can take 20 to 30 business days to process and get accepted.

Go to the
Voice Manager
and sign in
Click
Phone System
in the top menu
Go to
Enhanced Business SMS
>
U.S. SMS Registration
Under
Add your standard campaign
, click
Start
Select your brand from the dropdown under
Which brand will the new campaign belong to?
Click
Select
next to the campaign type that best reflects how you will utilize SMS:
Under
Select use case
, choose which case best fits your SMS campaign:
Review the terms for all mobile network operators, regardless of the one you use, then click
Next

Note
: TELUS Business Connect limits SMS to 50 messages per minute per number.
Under
Add Campaign details
, enter the name, description, how you obtained consent and at least three sample messages (required by TCR)
Note
: You must obtain consent from consumers before sending them SMS messages.
Click
Next
Type in your opt-in, opt-out and help keywords. By default,
STOP
and
HELP
are entered in the opt-out and help keywords boxes. These are required for any campaign and can’t be unchecked.
Check
I confirm that this campaign will not be used for Affiliate Marketing
Click
Next
Confirm your campaign information and registration costs. Your campaign fees will vary based on the type of campaign you selected.
Check the box next to the acknowledgment statement, then click
Next
Click
Print
to get your submission copy, then click
Done
to close the window

Once successfully submitted and registered, you can assign telephone numbers to your campaign or connect those numbers to the specified SMS use case.

Obtain consumer's consent

Before you can send consumers SMS messages, you need their consent
.

Example
: 
If your chocolate shop wants to send messages to customers, you can get their consent in several ways. Maybe you already use your website to obtain consent, so you can give details on your site to the TCR. You’d enter your details in our campaign registration form as follows:

Campaign Name
: Customers sign up for SMS to get updates on our chocolate shop.
Description
: Customers visit our website and sign up to receive SMS messages about deals, new flavours, holiday specials, etc.
How are you obtaining consent
: We provide an online form for our customers to enter information, where they have to check a box to provide consent to receive SMS messages.

You can implement one of the common methods to get your consumer’s consent:

Having a form for users to enter their phone number on your website
Sending users to a mobile website with a button to opt in for SMS messages
Getting their consent at your physical location using a paper form
Allowing users to call into your automated voice service phone number

Depending on the method you decide to use, TCR requires screenshots, examples and other relevant data as proof of consent. Ensure you submit the following information for your specific campaign method:

Timestamp of user’s consent
What you used to get their consent (e.g., online form, physical form, mobile button, etc.)
Language you used to ask for consent
The campaign you wanted consent to send messages about
IP address captured when user submitted information online
User’s phone number
User information (name, username, session ID, etc.)

Sample messaging guidelines

As part of your TCR registration, you’ll need to provide three sample messages. Each sample message must be unique—you can’t submit the same sentence three times. The sample messages you provide depend on what you intend to use their phone numbers for.

Don’t copy and paste the examples below as this will result in the rejection of your application.

Campaign type	Example message
Health Services
Customer Support
Marketing

Think about what your objective is when sending SMS messages to your customers:

By understanding your goals, you can craft sample messages that speak to your campaign and inform the TCR of your plans.

Assign phone number(s) to your campaign

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Setting up TCR registration and assigning numbers to your SMS campaigns

Create a brand

Create a campaign

Sample messaging guidelines

Assign phone number(s) to your campaign

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