← Profits with Pajak
Profits with Pajak
Stop Getting Denied: How to Get Your SMS Campaign Approved First Try Ep. #479
00:24:15
Loading summary
Transcript5 lines
- [00:00]
A
If your SMS campaign gets rejected, it's not because Twilio is broken. It's because they don't trust how you're collecting permissions.
- [00:07]
B
Today's episode is brought to you by Yardbook, the all in one CRM for your lawn care business. And as an exclusive partner of this podcast, you can get started today and begin simplifying your business and maximizing your profits. Sign up now@yardbook.com the link is in. The show notes. Time now for Profits with Paycheck, an essential podcast for you in the greenhouse industry who are looking to unlock the full potential of your business. Hosted by John Pajak, your certified financial coach, the show features in depth discussions with successful entrepreneurs, thought leaders and industry experts providing practical advice and proven strategies on financial planning, operations, marketing and sales. Profits with PayJack has valuable insights and action steps that you can implement today for creating long term success. Now here's John Pajak Foreign.
- [01:08]
A
Welcome to Profits with Paycheck, the podcast where we talk about business strategies and financial insights for the green industry. I'm your host John Pajak and today we're diving into something that is frustrating a lot of you right now and it's getting your text messaging campaigns approved. You know, you're trying to communicate with your customers, send reminders, maybe even market your services, and you keep getting rejected and you're sitting there thinking, what am I doing wrong? Well, today I want to break this down in plain English and show you exactly how to get your A2P10 DLC campaign approved the first time. So here's the problem. You know, let's call it what it is. It's this is not a tech problem. This is a compliance problem. You know, your carriers like Verizon, AT&T T Mobile, they get hammered with spam over the years. So now everything is filtered through strict approval systems. And you know, companies like Twilio are just the middlemen. You know, there's a lot of companies out there that do this, the A2 P10 DLC services that Twilio does. But the reason we talk about Twilio and I'm, I'm specifically targeting them is because they're the only one that's integrated with Yardbook. Yardbook is our preferred CRM. I've been using Yardbook since 2015 and you know, we do use the texting feature. So it's very important to be able to use those tools, especially if you're paying for them. So the thing is like when you're using Twilio again, he's there that company is just the middleman. When you submit your campaign and let's just say it gets rejected, they might throw some things back at you as saying like a invalid call to action or opt in is not compliant or insufficient disclosures. Okay. Those three tend to pop up. I've been helping a lot of Yardbook users do this, but it's, it's kind of getting out of hand and a lot of people, sometimes it's user error, they, they're not reading enough. They just think that they could click a couple buttons and then they're good to go. With this process, you have to pay attention, you have to look, you have to read. There are a lot of little buttons like that you hover over and it will give you a lot of detailed information. And this is really what, you know, I've had, I've, I've got, I've been approved for Twilio. Oh, excuse me. You know, I've had my Twilio integration for years now. I believe it was 20, 2023 when they, this, this whole thing had to roll out. But you know, we're going on about three years now that I've, since I've gone through the process and what worked then doesn't work now because they've, they've cracked down on more regulation. You know, so when you get, say you submit your campaign and it gets kicked back for those things I said, like invalid call to action, the non compliance of whatever it might be, it's not random. It means they cannot verify how your customer gave you permission to text them. And this is where most lawn care operators mess up. You know, they think I have a checkbox on my website and I'm good. Well, no, you're not. You know, when it, this, this regulation was meant to help prevent spammers and things, but seems like the spammers are the ones that are winning at this. They, they have the R and D and they have the people that literally, that's their entire job is to get around all the red tape and whatnot. Most of us, we're just worried about, you know, getting the job done, getting our, our schedule filled. Right. So when you're going about this whenever, it doesn't matter if it's Twilio or another one of the A2P10 DLC providers, you have to think like an auditor. You don't think like a business owner. Right now, okay, someone is reviewing your submission who has never seen your business before and they're asking, okay, where does the customer opt in? Can I See it, you know, is it clear? Is it legal? And if they cannot answer those questions in 10 seconds, it's rejected. Now, truth be told, a lot of this is actually AI that, you know, usually the first time it goes through, it's usually AI that looks for it not saying that AI rejects it. If you're, if you're compliant, then more than likely if you have to have the right wording in the right places in order for it to get approved, if not, then they'll send a real person looking after it. You know, when you try to submit it again, you submit a ticket. But so here's how you can really improve your success rate. Okay, so here are three really big mistakes that you can make while you're trying to get approval here. And the first one is having just really like vague opt in language. Okay. You will basically tell Twilio or the other providers that, that customers opt in through our website. Okay. Where what they want, what they're looking for is the exact page. They want the exact page. They want the working link and they want something that they can click. So it, you know, it's not ABC Lawn Care.com, it's ABC Lawn Care.com contact us, you know, whatever that page is, okay. When you look at your, when you look at your, your web address that you're logged on to, okay, like, so whatever page it might be, you need to be able to provide that specific page and that page should have the working link to where they click to opt in. Okay? The second biggest mistake is missing disclosures. And you know, maybe your checkbox says, you know, you agree to be, I agree to be contacted. That used to work. It's not enough anymore. You have to include your message frequency, your message and data rates may apply. You have to have a way for them to opt out. So a lot of times it's stopped. If they need help, you know, you need to have a thing that says like reply help for help. You know, if you miss one of those, you're not going to get approved. You're done. Okay? And then the last, the other big mistake, the third one, I shouldn't say it's the last because there's probably other stuff that's happening right now that's changing. But as of right now, if you don't have proof of opt in, then more than likely, you know, they're not going to be able to verify it and you're going to get rejected. And the thing is, if you have an example of why you would have, you wouldn't Be able to approve an opt in is if your form is behind a login, if it's not built yet, if it's not accessible. Okay, this opt in should be available like right on your website without having to log in as a customer. It technically the. You don't even, you shouldn't even have to have that. They have to have a sign up. They have to become a customer in order to do this. I know that that's. I know it doesn't sound, I don't know how to explain it. I. This is all legal, you know, mumbo jumbo to me. But the thing is, this is what they expect now. It's like basically no, no purchase necessary type of verbiage. Okay? So like if you look at a lot of the giveaways and things that you see on TV or hear on the radio, you know, there's always no purchase necessary, open to, you know, Indiana residents, blah, blah, blah. Basically you kind of have to have that available so they don't sign into your website. In order to, to do this, it has to be right up front. It has to be public, the link has to be there, it has to work. It also there's, you know, terms of service and our privacy policy that needs to be displayed publicly as well.
- [09:45]
B
If you're ready to get your lawn care business running smoother, faster, and more profitably this year, it's time to check out Yardbook. Yardbook is the all in one software built specifically for lawn care professionals. From scheduling jobs and routing crews to invoicing customers and collecting payments, Yardbook helps you manage everything in one place. Whether you're solo or scaling fast. Over 20,000 lawn pros already trust Yardbook to run their business. And the best part, it's free. To get started, head to yardbook.com and create your free account today. Stop doing everything the hard way and start running your business like a pro.
- [10:23]
A
With yardbook profits with PayJack, listeners can get the premium business subscription of yardbook free for 30 days when you use promo code PAYJACK. So here's the fix. This is how you could get approved on your first try. I know it's very frustrating to go through something where you actually have to, you know, purchase a telephone number. I mean, it's very cheap. It's, you know, only like A$10 a month or something. I forgot what we pay for our phone numbers, but it's really, really cheap. It's less than 20 bucks a year, but you know, the, and then the actual text messaging packages themselves, you're talking like, you know, you could send 100 texts for a penny or something. It's ridiculously cheap. But the thing is, you know, every time you submit a campaign, you get charged. You know, like, there's a fee. I forgot what it is. But what you want to do to make sure that you're getting through this process cleanly, efficiently, and you get approved, make your opt in public, okay, Put it, like, on your website. Have a real website page just for it. You know, whether it's a contact form or an estimate request form, you. You have to have a dedicated page to where a person or a bot can, like, actually find this and click on the link, and you want to make sure it loads. You want to make sure the link works, and you want to make sure that anyone can access it. Okay? I know that maybe some people are like, well, I don't want spammers. I don't want bots, kid. Well, guess what, kid? It's just the way it is now. Otherwise, you're gonna get denied time and time again, and you're gonna be getting more mad about it. And, you know, I. The past couple days, I've gotten, like, 36 DMS asking about how to get this approval thing done, and it's because everybody's, like, freaking out because our season's about to start. Like, oh, I just waited till the last minute and I'm gonna do this, you know, and I'm not blaming you, okay? I understand we all drag our feet on stuff, but especially when it's stuff we don't want to face. But you want to get it taken care of as quickly as possible, okay? You know this. So make your opt in public 2. You want to make sure you fix your checkbox language. Okay? You want to use something like this. By checking this box, you agree to receive messages from your business name regarding services and promotions. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Replace stop the op out and help for help. I just gave you a winning recipe right there, okay? I'm not being angry about it. I'm sorry. I'm kind of struggling with a little bit of an upper respiratory infection right now, but I'm kind of gasping for air, so forgive me if I sound angry, but this is the way you go about it. There's no shortcuts here, okay? Make sure that the name that you're using, you know, if it's ABC Landscape, llc, then make sure you're using the full name every time. Don't just say, yeah, ABC Lawns or ab, you know, whatever your Nickname for your company is. Okay. Make sure that, you know, even if you're doing business as, you know, Chuck's Lawns, but your real company name, as far as your ein number and the secretary of state is concerned, if it's like, you know, three letters and few numbers, llc, you have to use that. Okay? That's just part of the transparency and everything to get approved. Okay? So just want to make sure that language right there is gold. So as of right now, that is working. Make sure that you have your business name in there. You're telling what exactly what they're signing up for regarding services and promotions. Message frequency varies Message data rates apply Stop to op out help for help. I'll put that in the show notes so you could actually copy and paste it. Okay. Number three, this big thing to get approved on your first try is add your links, okay. And I would have these on the exact same page. And if you can make sure that like, you know, talk to your web guy. So like that if they try to submit a estimate request form or a contact us form that's opting into your text messages and all that stuff, have it. So where they have to click on the privacy policy and the terms and conditions, okay? And inside your privacy policy, however you got that form, it has to say, no mobile data will be shared with third parties for marketing purposes. Okay. That one line alone is causing a ton of rejections right now. But again, like, going back, I would make sure that, you know, you have to check those boxes as well as, you know, the check this box to contact us thing. Make sure that all three of those things are checked before you can proceed. Okay? And another quick tip is to make sure that those boxes aren't automatically checked, because if they're automatically checked, more than likely you're gonna get rejected. Okay? So talk to your web guy. Or if you're, you know, if you're confident enough to know how to do all this stuff, make sure that all those boxes must be checked before approval. Okay? You also want to be extremely specific with your submission. Don't say optimize or optimize. And don't say customers opt in to our website. Okay. You must specifically say customers opt in our contact form located at, you know, www.your lawn care business.com contact where they could check an unchecked consent box. Before submitting, spell it out like you're. You're explaining it to a child. I've had to do a ton of research on how to navigate this and that that wording seems to get people across the finish line. So I'm telling you, when I first started working through this, I thought the same thing. A lot of you are thinking like, this is ridiculous. But once you start to understand the game, it actually becomes pretty simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. You know, this is really about documentation, transparency and then consistency. And here's the bigger picture. You know, if you, if you could get this right now you have direct communication lines to your customers. So when you're using your CRM, it stays in your CRM. You have a dedicated phone number that you can contact back and forth with. You know, think about that. You've got appointment reminders, you've got your service notifications, you have your upsells, your retention campaigns. And this is powerful, but only if you play by the rules. And I know there's going to be a few of you guys out there like, man, this is too crazy. I'm just going to use my, my phone and do everything. It's like, okay, that's fine. You, you absolutely can do that. It is going to take a lot of your time up. Okay. The reason I'm talking about this is to help streamline and manage your time, be more efficient with it. Everything's dialed into your CRM. And even though we have to use Twilio as a mid, you know, a middleman to, you know, make this all happen, once you get it set up, it's very powerful. So, you know, these are some of the parting tips I want to give you. Okay? Match your business name everywhere. So there's a two part process with any A2P10 DLC company. You have your brand approval that you need to get and you have your campaign approval. Both of them are very similar in a sense. But no matter what you do, make sure that your business name matches everywhere. Again, it's not, you know, not Chuck's Lawns. It's if you're registered as, you know, ABC123 lawn care, then that's the LLC. You know, then that's the, that is the entity that you have to enter everywhere that's in your campaign, your website, your privacy policy. If you have any mismatches, it's going to get rejected. Don't use the pre check boxes. That's an automatic denial. And avoid any shady language. You know, no free alerts, unlimited messages. You know, just, just be honest and clear because those data rates, we might not see them, but who knows if we're, you know, if we're sending to a specific carrier they might charge on both ends. And most companies, they have unlimited texting everywhere, but who knows, you know, so this is why you want to avoid that kind of language where it's like free alerts and unlimited messages. Okay, that might not be true. It may be subject to some type of data charge. Okay. And here's another thing too specifically with yardbook users. I'm not trying to, I know a lot of you guys use it because it is a very economical solution, but a lot of guys don't have a website and they were like, I'm never gonna get one. Well, it makes it even more challenging for you, okay? If you don't have a website, in order to prove that you have whatever you're using as an opt in, you're going to have to upload screenshots of whatever your form is, whatever your opt in process is, and you're going to have to host it publicly like on, you know, Google Drive, something that anybody could have access to. You know, you could have a, you know, your Google Drive can be open to the public if you want it to be, and only certain documents. Not like they see everything but you know, it has to, you know, do it. I would highly suggest just getting damn website. You know, if you're going to be a business, be a real business. You know, your, the digital age is been here for a long time. The website is basically just a form of not only advertisement, but it is also, you know, your online presence and you, it's, it's necessary. So, you know, the big takeaway for today is that this is not just about sending text, this is about proving permission. And if you can't prove it, you're not going to get access to these tools. So again, create or verify your opt in page and make sure it's live and accessible. Update all of your checkbox, checkbox language, you know, add all the required disclosures, don't take any shortcuts here. And then rewrite your campaign submission. You know, be extremely detailed, leave nothing to interpretation. Tell them exactly what is, what a customer has to do to do it, what they're going to get from it. You got to be very, very specific. So you know, if your campaign has been rejected multiple times, stop like resubmitting the same thing, go back, fix the foundation because once you get approved, you unlock some of the most powerful tool tools in your business. So before the end of the day, go review your opt in process and ask yourself, if I were a complete stranger, would I trust this? And if the answer is no, then fix it. So I hope this helps you guys. I know that Twilio, the A2P10 DLC thing has been an issue not only for Yardbook users but for other other systems that it's it's just been a bit of a headache. But I hope that this helps you and it helps you get approved immediately. So with that being said, God bless, Keep pushing through and we'll catch you on the next one. Thank you once again for listening. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a review and share it with fellow business owners. Your support means the world to me and helps keep the show going strong. I want to give a special shout out to our friends at Yardbook. Their continued support has been instrumental in bringing this podcast to you week after week. If you haven't checked them out yet, visit yardbook.com and see how they can give you the tools to streamline and manage your lawn care business. Also, don't forget to explore the resources and upcoming events that I've collected just for you in the show Notes. These are curated to help you stay ahead in your your business with the latest tips, tools and networking opportunities. Whether it's a new tool, an insightful article, or an event you don't want to miss, I've got you covered. Until next time, keep pushing through and God bless. Sam.