Field notes on running verified voter outreach, 10DLC and TCPA in plain language, and what actually moves a race.
Campaigns assume a supporter's action gives them permission to text. Voters, and the carrier standard, disagree. The three consent myths that get programs flagged.
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.
Yes, opt-in resident alert programs (service updates, emergency notices, reminders) are common and valuable, and they follow the same consent-and-opt-out logic. Emergency alerts have some separate legal footing, but routine informational texting still needs opt-in and STOP.
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.
Mayors, council members, and county officials govern closest to people's daily lives, and have the smallest megaphones. Why text is the local official's most powerful tool.
Texting is cost-effective, until it isn't. Here's how campaigns quietly waste money on texting, from filtered sends to bought lists to over-texting, and how to spend where it actually produces votes and dollars.
Broadcast is live in Txtra. One-to-many sending to a consented list, with per-recipient quiet-hours enforcement built into the send worker
Not necessarily, but the line is legal, not marketing. 'Robotexting' loosely means automated mass texting, which raises autodialer and consent questions under the TCPA. Compliant political texting (consent, registration, opt-out) is lawful; 'robotexting' is what it's called when it isn't.
Prior express written consent: a clear, affirmative agreement to receive texts (often autodialed) at a specific number, with disclosures about what they'll get and that they can reply STOP. A pre-checked box, a buried clause, or 'they gave us their number' doesn't count.
Young voters are text-native, but reaching them takes more than a text. Here's what the evidence suggests about texting youth voters, why relationship and relevance beat channel-native assumptions, and how to turn out a low-propensity group.
TCPA damages run $500 per message, but willful or knowing violations can triple to $1,500. Here's what makes a violation willful, why it matters for campaigns sending in volume, and how to stay on the right side of the line.