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SMS in Close is the highest-open-rate channel you have (90%+ open rate vs 25% for email). It is also the channel where one misconfigured Sequence gets all your numbers blocked by T-Mobile in two weeks. Here is the setup that delivers and the compliance that keeps it delivering.
Who this is forSales managers, SDR leads, and founders running US/CA outbound. SMS in Close is US/CA only. If you have ever sent a follow-up text and watched it go un-replied because it was actually blocked at the carrier, this tutorial is the fix.
What you'll need
Step 1
All US business SMS goes through 10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) registration. Without it, carriers throttle or block your traffic. Approval takes 7-21 days — start before you need it.
10DLC = 10-Digit Long Code, the regulated framework all US carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon) use to filter business SMS. Brand + Campaign registration is required.
Brand registration: $4 one-time fee, ~3-7 day approval. Verifies your business is real (EIN, address, website).
Campaign registration: $10-15/month per campaign + use-case fees. Approval 5-14 days. Defines what type of messages (sales, support, marketing).
Without 10DLC, T-Mobile blocks ~95% of traffic outright. AT&T and Verizon throttle aggressively. You see "delivered" in Close but recipients never receive.
Canada uses a different regime (no 10DLC) but Canadian carriers still filter — apply the same compliance rules (consent, opt-out language, business hours).
Step 2
Settings → Numbers → SMS Compliance → Register Brand. Enter business entity details. Approval typically 3-7 business days.
Settings → Numbers → SMS Compliance (or Settings → SMS Registration depending on Close version).
Brand information required: Legal business name, EIN (or registration number outside US), business type (LLC, Corp, etc.), industry vertical, business address, business website, point-of-contact email + phone.
Vetting score: $40 optional "external vetting" fee speeds approval and unlocks higher daily SMS limits. Worth it for any team sending 500+/day — without vetting you cap at ~2,000 SMS/day across the brand.
Common rejection reasons: business website does not exist or is parked, business address does not match EIN registration, EIN does not match legal name. Use exact data matching IRS records.
Wait for approval before submitting Campaign. Brand approval is a hard prerequisite.
Step 3
Campaign defines the use case + sample messages + opt-in/opt-out language. Reject rate is higher than Brand — get the sample messages right.
Settings → Numbers → SMS Compliance → Register Campaign (after Brand approves).
Pick use case: Standard (Marketing, Account Notification, Customer Care) or Special (Charity, Political, Emergency). For B2B outbound sales: "Marketing" or "Mixed" (combines marketing + transactional).
Sample messages: provide 2-3 sample messages the campaign will send. Critical — must include: business name in message body, clear opt-out language ("Reply STOP to unsubscribe"), and concrete value (not generic 'Hi, are you free to chat').
Opt-in proof: describe how you collected consent. For inbound leads (filled form, said yes to SMS): "Opt-in via web form with explicit SMS consent checkbox." For cold outbound (B2B prospecting): "B2B publicly-listed business contact, opt-out provided in every message." (B2B prospecting is allowed but carriers scrutinize — set realistic expectations).
Privacy policy URL: required, must include SMS-specific language. If you do not have one, add a section to your privacy policy: "Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Reply HELP for help. Up to 4 messages/month."
Step 4
After Campaign approves, link each phone number you want to send SMS from. Numbers not linked = cannot send SMS via that campaign.
Settings → Numbers → click each SMS-enabled number → assign to approved Campaign.
Each campaign has a daily SMS volume limit based on Brand trust score: low-trust = 2,000/day, medium = 40,000/day, high = 200,000/day. Most B2B outbound teams need medium tier ($40 external vetting).
Link 2-3 numbers per campaign for distribution. Sending 200 SMS/day from one number triggers spam filters faster than sending 100/day from each of 2 numbers.
For multiple use cases (cold outbound + customer support + appointment reminders), register separate Campaigns — do not mix use cases under one campaign. Carriers flag mixed-content traffic.
Step 5
Settings → SMS Templates → New Template. Every template includes business name, value, opt-out. Templates without these get traffic blocked.
Settings → SMS Templates → New Template. Name it for the use case: "Follow-up after no-show," "Cold outbound — VP of Eng," "Appointment reminder."
Template anatomy: [Greeting + first name] + [your name from Company] + [specific reason / value] + [soft CTA] + [opt-out language]. Example: "Hi Sarah, this is Saad from Acme — saw your team is hiring 3 SDRs. We help SaaS teams cut SDR onboarding from 8 weeks to 2. Worth a 10-min call this week? Reply STOP to opt out."
Length: keep under 160 chars when possible (single SMS segment). 161-320 chars = 2 segments (billed 2x). Over 320 = 3+ segments and many carriers fragment delivery.
Avoid spam-trigger language: "Free," "Limited time," "Act now," "Click here," excessive emojis, shortened URLs (use full URLs). These trip carrier filters even on registered campaigns.
Personalization: use {{contact.first_name}} and {{lead.company}}. Always provide fallback: "{{contact.first_name|there}}".
Step 6
Close auto-handles STOP keywords. Your job: set business hours, throttle, and integration into Sequences.
Settings → SMS → Auto-Reply Settings. Close automatically processes "STOP," "UNSUBSCRIBE," "QUIT" — adds the contact to the Do Not Text list and suppresses future SMS. Verify this is enabled (it is by default; do not disable).
Configure HELP auto-response: a polite message explaining the SMS program + your support contact. Required by carriers.
Business hours: SMS only sends 8:00-20:00 in the prospect time zone (Close auto-respects). Sending outside these hours triggers TCPA-style complaints even in B2B contexts.
In Sequences: add SMS step → pick template → preview → activate. SMS step sends only if (1) Contact has a mobile number, (2) number is not on Do Not Text list, (3) current time is within business hours of prospect.
For 2-way SMS handling: replies land in the rep's Inbox in Close as a new SMS conversation. Make sure reps know to check Inbox daily — un-answered SMS replies kill the channel's value.
Step 7
Reports → SMS → Delivery Rate. Healthy is 95%+ delivered. Below 90% = carrier blocking, fix before scaling.
Reports → Activity → SMS. Filter by date range, user, campaign. See: Sent, Delivered, Failed, Replied, Opt-Out.
Healthy delivery rate: 95%+ delivered. 85-95% = warning sign (some carrier filtering). Under 85% = active blocking, stop scaling immediately and investigate.
Failure-reason codes are surfaced in the Activity view. Common: 30007 (T-Mobile spam filter), 30008 (carrier opt-out), 30006 (landline / unreachable). Recurring 30007 = your campaign content is triggering filters; revise templates.
Spam complaint rate: target under 1%. Above 2% gets carriers paying attention. Above 5% gets the brand de-registered.
Audit weekly for the first 90 days. After steady-state, monthly audit is enough. Drift always shows up first in delivery rate before it shows up in conversion.
Common mistakes
Sending SMS without 10DLC registration
What goes wrong: Sales team starts texting prospects in week 1. By week 3, T-Mobile delivery drops to <10%. Reps notice 'no one is responding to texts.' Close shows messages sent but most never arrive. Loses an entire channel for 2-4 weeks while you scramble to register. At 50 SMS/rep/day × 5 reps × 90% loss × 2-week recovery = ~3,150 missed touchpoints.
How to avoid: Register Brand + Campaign BEFORE sending any business SMS. Process takes 7-21 days. Start day 1 of the Close rollout.
Generic SMS templates without business name or opt-out
What goes wrong: Templates that say 'Hey, are you free for a quick call?' get flagged as spam by carrier filters. Even on a registered campaign, content filters block messages that look like impersonation or social engineering. Delivery rate craters; you blame Close.
How to avoid: Every template includes: business name, specific value/reason, opt-out language ('Reply STOP to unsubscribe'). Personalize with merge fields. Keep under 160 chars.
Mixing use cases under one Campaign
What goes wrong: Same campaign sends cold outbound + customer support + appointment reminders + marketing promos. Carriers see inconsistent traffic patterns and flag the campaign. Trust score drops. Daily volume limits get reduced from 40K to 2K. Now you can't even send the legitimate transactional SMS.
How to avoid: Register separate Campaigns per use case (Marketing, Account Notification, Customer Care). $10-15/mo per campaign — cheap insurance.
No business-hours throttle on SMS Sequence steps
What goes wrong: Sequence fires SMS at 6:30am or 11pm based on send delay math. Prospects wake up annoyed. Spam complaint rate spikes to 3%. Multiple carriers throttle. The 9am-5pm prospects who would have replied never get to because delivery rate is now broken for the whole campaign.
How to avoid: Settings → SMS → Business Hours → set to 8:00-20:00 in prospect time zone. Close handles the timezone math automatically.
Not monitoring delivery rate
What goes wrong: Delivery quietly drops from 96% to 78% over 3 weeks. Nobody notices because Close UI shows 'Sent' for everything. Reply rate halves. Reps blame the prospects. Real cause is carrier filtering nobody investigated. Wasted 3 weeks of effort.
How to avoid: Weekly: Reports → SMS → check delivery rate. Below 90% = stop scaling, investigate failure codes, fix templates or campaign metadata.
Ignoring inbound SMS replies
What goes wrong: Prospects reply with questions, callbacks, even 'yes, interested.' Replies sit in Inbox for days because nobody trained reps to check SMS conversations. Replies go cold. Prospects assume you are not real. The channel's biggest advantage (immediacy) is gone.
How to avoid: Train reps that SMS replies require same-day response. Add Inbox SMS view to their daily check-in routine. Slack notifications on inbound SMS for hot accounts.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to set up Close Sequences that book meetings without burning your sender reputation
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
10DLC + SMS compliance is the most-skipped CRM setup task and one of the most expensive to recover from. A specialist who has registered 20+ Brands knows which TCR fields to fill (and which to leave blank), how to write sample messages that pass review, and how to monitor delivery health. EverestX Close specialists handle this end-to-end at $14-16/hr — typically a one-shot $200-400 engagement for registration + template library.
See specialist rates
Yes — even 10 SMS/day from an unregistered number gets filtered by T-Mobile and increasingly AT&T. There is no 'low-volume exemption' for unregistered business SMS in the US. The $4 Brand + $15/mo Campaign cost is non-negotiable infrastructure. Skipping it = the channel does not work.
B2B cold SMS to publicly-listed business numbers is legal in most US contexts under the FCC's TCPA business-contact exemption — but with caveats: (1) recipient must be a business contact reachable on a business line, (2) message must include opt-out language, (3) message must not be auto-dialed using prohibited equipment, (4) you must honor STOP requests immediately. Always consult an attorney for high-volume B2B SMS programs.
A2P (Application-to-Person) = automated messages from a business platform (Close, etc.) to consumers. Requires 10DLC registration. P2P (Person-to-Person) = manual texts between individuals. No registration needed. Close SMS is A2P by carrier classification even when a rep manually clicks Send — the carrier sees the message originating from a platform, not a personal phone.
Yes — toll-free SMS (TFN) is an alternative regulatory path. Approval is faster (3-5 days vs 7-21) but throughput is lower (3 messages/second cap) and the verification fee is similar. TFN works well for support / transactional SMS. For high-volume outbound sales, 10DLC + local numbers wins on cost and trust.
Close SMS officially supports US and Canada. For UK, Australia, EU outbound, you need a third-party tool (Twilio direct, or specialized international SMS platforms) and you cannot send through Close's native SMS. For mixed US/international teams, use Close SMS for US/CA and a parallel tool for the rest — with Zapier syncing inbound replies back to Close as Tasks.
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