Texting problems tend to develop quietly, deliverability slips, opt-outs creep up, a compliance gap opens, and you don't notice until it's costing you. A periodic health check, a deliberate audit of your program, catches these before they matter. It's a simple discipline that keeps a program from degrading unnoticed. Here's how to run one and what to look for.
Why run a health check?
Because the failures that hurt texting programs are often invisible until they're bad. Deliverability erodes silently, an opt-out setup breaks without an alert, complaint rates climb gradually. A program can look fine, sends are going out, while a problem grows underneath. A periodic health check surfaces these issues on your schedule instead of at the worst moment, and it's especially worth doing before a critical period like GOTV, when you can't afford to discover a problem mid-blast.
What do you review?
The areas where problems hide:
- Deliverability. Are delivery rates healthy? Is registration current and on the political use case?
- Compliance. Are opt-outs, including human-worded ones, being caught and suppressed across all campaigns? Are quiet hours and sender ID in place?
- List health. Is list hygiene keeping the list clean of opt-outs and dead numbers? Is consent documented?
- Metrics. Are opt-out and complaint rates trending up? Is engagement holding or falling?
- Process. Is there an approval step before sends? Are records being kept?
What are the warning signs?
The signals that something needs fixing: a delivery rate that's dropped, opt-out rates creeping above your baseline, engagement falling with steady delivery (a message problem) or with falling delivery (a deliverability problem), opt-outs that aren't being suppressed, or gaps in your consent records. Each points at a specific fix. The health check is really a structured way to catch these signals early and act on them before they compound. Running one quarterly, and always before a major push, keeps a program healthy, and it's far cheaper than diagnosing a crisis mid-cycle.
Frequently asked questions
Why run a texting program health check?
Because texting failures develop quietly, deliverability slips, opt-outs creep up, compliance gaps open, until they're costing you. A periodic audit surfaces these on your schedule instead of at the worst moment, especially before a critical period like GOTV.
What should a texting health check review?
Deliverability (delivery rates, current registration), compliance (opt-out and quiet-hours handling, sender ID), list health (hygiene, documented consent), metrics (opt-out and complaint trends, engagement), and process (an approval step, record-keeping).
When should you run a health check?
Quarterly as a routine, and always before a major push like GOTV, when you can't afford to discover a problem mid-blast. Catching warning signs early is far cheaper than diagnosing a crisis mid-cycle.
Keep reading: reading your texting analytics and a political texting launch checklist. For carrier registration, see The Campaign Registry.