Applying for a 10DLC has two main parts to it: filling the brand registration form and filling the campaign registration form. You can download both forms at the end of this article. We prepared the following guide explaining how to fill out each field, including examples to help you complete your form correctly.
The main concepts behind 10DLC
Brand
A brand is the legal entity of the business, usually one per company. When your company has subsidiaries, we recommend to register each subsidiary as an individual brand. For example, if you subscribe to messaging from a company like Gap, you opt out for messaging from Gap the “brand”. It doesn't mean you also opt out from messaging by Banana Republic or Old Navy, also owned by Gap. In such a case, you might consider multiple brands.
Campaign
A campaign is a set of use cases that describes the nature of your conversation with the customer. There are 2 category types: declared and mixed/marketing. The declared category represents a singular use case (e.g. fraud notification, delivery notification) while mixed/marketing requires multiple use cases, e.g. marketing and delivery notifications.
Note: If you register more than one brand, you can't share one campaign across different brands. Create individual campaigns for each brand.
Code
The code stands for the actual 10-digit number assigned. The number of codes you will need depends on the throughput (messages per second) you want to achieve and whether you want to use localization, which means you assign a separate code for different areas.
Note: Each campaign has a series of codes assigned. You can't share one code across different campaigns.
10DLC brand registration
When you apply for the 10DLC code, start from 10DLC code brand registration form. Complete the following information so that the Acoustic team is able to submit the request for a new 10DLC brand on your behalf.
10DLC brand information
Page 1
Legal company name: The customer that is going to be sending SMS messages or the agency that has multiple customers.
DBA or brand name: The name of the brand you're going to use for internal purposes.
Tax number/ID/EID: Make sure you include dashes and all other non-numeric characters.
Country of registration: If the company has physical presence in the US, then the country is United States. In other cases, type in the company's country of residence.
State: Applicable only if your country of registration is the United States.
City: The city where the company's HQ is based.
Address/Street: The address of the company's HQ.
Postal code: The postal code of the company's HQ.
Page 2
Website: Enter the full URL of the company's home page, including https://.
Type of organization legal form: Choose the right checkbox.
- Publicly traded company
- Private company
- Charity/Non-profit organization
Stock exchange, Stock symbol: Complete if your organization is a publicly traded company.
Vertical type: From the drop-down menu, choose the vertical market that most closely resembles your market.
Brand contact details
Support email address, Support phone number, Support operating hours: If the carrier has a complaint or an audit, they usually contact the provider first and the customer next. However, they might need a point of contact for special circumstances. You can edit the email address later.
Once you complete all the necessary fields, click Validate. If you want to review the form later before validation, click Save.
10DLC Campaign registration
Now complete the 10DLC Campaign registration form. Some fields require the same contact information as the first form, but most of them focus on the purpose and content of your SMS campaign.
Brand information and use case
Page 1
Brand registration reference: The parent brand of the campaign (the value you typed in “DBA” field).
Campaign name: Describe the use case your SMS campaign is about.
Campaign type: Ideally, you would reserve one exclusive code per campaign. Select either Standard or Special and up to 5 use cases. Special campaigns are the ones which may not fall under CTIA compliance or require additional rules the carriers must approve. The only exceptions are emergency and sweepstakes use cases – you can't add any other use case.
Standard
- 2FA
- Account notification
- Delivery notification
- Fraud alert
- Messaging
- Higher education
- Marketing
- Polling & voting
- Public service
- Announcement
- Security alert
Special
- Carrier Exceptions
- Charity
- Conversational Messaging
- Emergency
- Political
- Social
- Sweepstakes
- Large CSP trials
Page 2
Campaign details
Page 2
Content provider: In most cases, the brand acts as the content provider. If the brand is an agency launching a campaign for a specific customer, the customer is the content provider.
Vertical type: From the drop-down menu, select the industry closest to the one your brand operates in. If the content provider is different than the brand, select what’s the vertical that most closely resembles the market of the content provider.
Use case details: Describe the use case briefly – one sentence is enough.
Campaign description: Describe the campaign in more detail, including how customers opt in and what happens afterwards.
Page 3
T&Cs URL: The public URL for the program's Terms and Conditions. The T&C should include:
- Campaign name
- Program description
- STOP and HELP instructions
- Message frequency disclosure
- "Message and data rates may apply" disclosure
- T-Mobile disclosure
- Supported operator’s disclosure
For more instructions on preparing your campaign's terms and conditions, go to Configure your terms and conditions site for SMS.
Call to action: Enter the text of the SMS you're going to send to potential subscribers after the initial opt-in. Include the following components:
- Campaign name and description
- Service delivery frequency or recurring messages disclosure
- "Message and data rates may apply" disclosure
- STOP and HELP instructions
- Privacy policy and Terms and Conditions or direct links
At this point, refer to the code as {10DLC}.
Confirmation MT: Enter the text of the confirmation SMS message you're going to send after the subscriber texts the keyword to the 10DLC. Include the following components:
- Program name (Brand name)
- "Message and data rates may apply" disclosure
- Message frequency disclosure
- HELP and STOP instruction
Note: The confirmation MT shouldn't exceed 160 characters.
Help MT: This is the message sent when the customer texts HELP to the 10DLC code. Include the following details:
- Program name (brand name)
- One type of contact: email, toll-free number (must match the one in the T&Cs).
- "Message & data rates may apply" disclosure
Page 4
STOP MT: This is the message sent when the customer texts STOP to the 10DLC code. Include the following details:
- Program name (brand name)
- "You will no longer receive our messages" or similar disclosure
Sample message 1: Provide a close approximation of what will typically be sent for each one of the previously selected campaign types.
Sample message 2, Sample message 3 (optional): If you have further sample messages you’d like to inform the carriers about you can do so here.
Customer care email (optional): Enter the email address customers can send their support requests.
Customer care phone number (optional): Enter the phone number customers can call for support.
Campaign and content attributes
This section defines the characteristics of your 10DLC campaign. It is a series
of Yes or No questions indicating particular features of the campaign. The mandatory ones are grey while the green ones are optional.
Page 4
Page 5
Number pooling: Check "Yes" if the 10DLC campaign uses more than 50 phone numbers.
Direct lending or loan arrangement: Check "Yes" if the campaign content includes information about direct lending or other loan arrangement programs.
Embedded link: Check "Yes" if you plan to include embedded links in your campaign. Public URL shorteners such as Tinyurl or Bitly are not allowed.
Embedded phone number: Check "Yes" if the campaign includes an embedded phone number that is not a customer support number or the number included in the HELP message.
Affiliate marketing: Check "Yes" if the 10DLC campaign includes information from affiliate marketing.
Age-gated content: Check "Yes" if the 10DLC campaign includes any content that has an age requirement as defined by carrier and Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) guidelines. Typical examples would be tobacco, firearms, alcohol, and other goods with age restrictions.
Once you complete all the necessary fields, click Validate. If you want to review the form later before validation, click Save.