Element451 recognizes the industry standard keywords for opting out of receiving SMS. While STOP is the one we use most often, any of the following keywords will opt-out a phone number:

These keywords are case-insensitive, meaning "Stop" will be treated the same as "STOP" or "stop," but they do need to be the only content in the inbound message.

When creating a Campaign, Element451 will require you to include an Unsubscribe Prompt in the Configure SMS section. By default, the prompt is set to "Reply STOP to unsubscribe," but if you choose, you can rewrite the prompt. However, you must include clear instructions on unsubscribing and using STOP or another recognized keyword.
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An opt-out message is not automatically included with SMS messages delivered from the Conversations module. However, a recipient can still reply with "STOP" or other recognized key word. and they will stop receiving messages.

As explained above, a contact can self-unsubscribe from your SMS communication, but you also have the option to unsubscribe them manually. To learn more about this process, explore our help article, Email + SMS: Manually Unsubscribe Contacts.

When a person unsubscribes, the SMS Unsubscribe Date milestone is added to that contact's profile. Following this, they will no longer receive messages from you, whether through Conversations or Campaigns.

A new SMS Unsubscribed activity is added to the contact's activity feed, capturing the exact time of the opt-out.

Transactional messages provide essential updates, confirmations, or notifications directly related to a student’s account, application, or engagement with your institution. These messages are typically triggered by a specific action taken by the student and are not promotional in nature.

Promotional messages are used for marketing purposes, encouraging students to engage with events, programs, or opportunities. These messages are typically part of an ongoing outreach campaign rather than being tied to a single action.

A2P 10DLC stands for Application-to-Person 10-digit long code. This new SMS messaging framework by The Campaign Registry (TCR) provides companies with an optimized way to send SMS messages to consumers at scale. The 10-digit phone number(s) Element451 provides you is registered for A2P 10DLC compliance. This helps ensure deliverability with carriers by giving you a verified identity. No action is needed on your part other than maintaining good practices of providing a clear opt in and out process, creating content that provides value to the recipients and targeting your messages to the right audiences.

This is the single best thing you can do to protect your deliverability. High opt-out rates or spam reports signal to carriers that recipients may not have willingly subscribed to your messages.

For mass communications, consider targeting more engaged prospects or students. Also, consider reducing the number of messages to individuals who have not interacted with your institution in over a year (or some other time horizon), as they are more likely to opt-out.

Be mindful of the frequency of marketing or promotional messages. Sending such messages too frequently (e.g., multiple times per week) can be counterproductive and drive higher-than-average opt-out rates. Transactional, confirmation, and targeted promotional messages to highly engaged individuals can be sent more frequently, provided they are timely and relevant.

Ensure your messages clearly state who they are from. If recipients cannot immediately recognize the institution that is sending the message or their connection to the content, they are more likely to opt-out.

Use clear call-to-actions to drive students to take the next step and drive students to trusted online resources of your university website, Element451 landing pages, applications, or microsites.

Employ personalization tokens (Like first name) in Element451 to tailor each message, showing recipients that you recognize them as individuals. This not only enhances the recipient's experience but also helps your messages bypass carrier filters.

Both One-Time and Ongoing communications can be used to send SMS messages. However, large batches (3,000+) sent via one-time campaigns are at higher risk of being filtered by some carriers, which could result in lower delivery rates, especially when those messages contain links and lack personalization. Therefore, it is best to reserve one-time campaigns for urgent or time-sensitive messages like impending deadlines.
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For more routine messages, leveraging Ongoing Campaigns and Workflows to deliver messages asynchronously based on student actions is preferred. This approach spreads out the message distribution over a more extended period. Such a strategy helps to improve the overall deliverability of messages. As a bonus, it also reduces the manual steps required to set up one-time campaigns that you repeat on a regular basis.

While not usually an issue for colleges or universities, avoid sending prohibited content, including but not limited to SHAFT content, as this can lead to immediate blocking and fines from carriers.

SHAFT is an acronym representing categories of content that are prohibited or restricted due to regulatory and carrier compliance requirements.

These categories include:

Carriers enforce strict guidelines to prevent such content from being transmitted over their networks to protect consumers from spam and potentially harmful messages. Violations can result in message filtering, fines, or suspension of messaging services.

It's crucial that you understand and adhere to these content restrictions to maintain compliance and ensure successful message delivery. This may mean that some academic programs, such as Cannabis Business or Cannabis Cultivation, may not be promoted via SMS.