The fundamentals of political texting for campaigns: what it is, how SMS and RCS voter outreach works, and how to get started.
P2P platforms route messages through human senders one at a time, pitched as avoiding autodialer rules. Broadcast platforms send to many at once. The 'P2P avoids the TCPA' pitch is shakier than vendors claim, courts look at whether automation was really used.
Opt-out rate is the share of recipients who unsubscribe from a send, and it's your best early warning. Here's what opt-out rate measures, what's normal, what a spike means, and why it matters for deliverability.
An SMS aggregator sits between senders and the mobile carriers, routing messages and handling the carrier connections. Here's what an aggregator does, how it fits under your texting platform, and why it affects deliverability.
A delivery receipt, or DLR, is the carrier's confirmation that a text was delivered. Here's what a DLR is, what it does and doesn't tell you, and why delivery data is the first place to look when engagement drops.
Opt-in rate is the share of people who subscribe when given the chance. Here's what opt-in rate measures, why it determines how fast your list grows, and the levers that raise it.
Link tracking measures who clicks the links in your texts, turning sends into data. Here's what link tracking is, how it works, why it's central to measuring texting, and why the tracking domain affects deliverability.
Sender reputation is the carriers' running judgment of whether your traffic is trustworthy, and it decides your deliverability. Here's what shapes sender reputation, why it's hard to rebuild once damaged, and how to protect it.
List hygiene is the ongoing practice of keeping your texting list clean, removing opt-outs, bad numbers, and dead contacts. Here's what list hygiene involves, why it protects deliverability and reputation, and how to maintain it.
The CTIA is the wireless industry association whose messaging guidelines shape what campaigns can send. Here's what the CTIA is, how its principles differ from the law, and why they affect your deliverability.
A contact is a phone number you have; a subscriber is someone who opted in to your texts. Confusing the two is how campaigns end up texting people who never agreed. Here's the distinction and why it matters.
Prior express written consent is the strict consent standard for commercial marketing texts, and the one political campaigns are exempt from. Here's what PEWC is, how it differs from ordinary consent, and why the exemption matters.
Voter contact is the umbrella term for how campaigns reach voters directly, doors, calls, texts, mail, digital. Here's what voter contact means, the main channels, and where texting fits in the mix.