10DLC Messaging Campaign Alternatives to Number Pooling

Number pooling requests to allow 50+ phone numbers (DIDs) to be assigned to a single long code (10DLC) messaging campaign are time-consuming and costly. They also go through heavy scrutinization with the carriers and may be denied. 

The good news is that there are several options for alternative campaign submissions to get your messages approved and on their way. 

Example: Corporation with Numerous Departments

I have a company of 2,000 employees who use text messaging to reach our clients. Instead of doing a number pool request in a single campaign, I can break it down into individual campaigns by department: 

1. 1. Account Executives (new business team)
   2. Account Managers (growth and expansion team)
   3. Marketing
   4. Billing
   5. Customer Success Managers
   6. Porting Group
   7. Support 
   8. Others

Depending on how large your business is, you can even break down departments on a further level. Let’s take Campaign 1: Account Executives as an example. If I have 200 employees in this one department, I can break it down into campaigns by territory, customer size or type, etc.: 

1. 1. Northeast Account Executives
   2. Strategic Account Executives
   3. SAAS Account Executives

When creating long code messaging campaigns this way, much of the information may be the same across all the campaigns. For example, the opt-in process is likely the same for all departments. However, the campaign description should vary to show the reason for each additional campaign; for example: 

Customer Success Campaign Description:

This campaign is used for our CSMs to contact customers regarding open tickets/requests to gather additional information or give them updates directly. 

SAAS Account Executives Campaign Description: 

This campaign is used by our SAAS AEs who are contacting customers in our testing process to check in on their account status and offer assistance. 

The sample messages on each of these campaigns should align with the content each specific department would be sending and should be different from what another department might be sending. That said, the sample messages could be very similar for related departments. 

Example: School District

Another example of a number pooling long code campaign that might be better suited for multiple campaigns would be a school district. I have 50 schools within my district and each school has multiple numbers used by their teachers to contact parents. 

You have a lot of options to register the campaigns:

• • By school (if the school has less than 50 numbers associated)
  • By grade (if each grade has less than 50 numbers associated)
  • By department – Administration, Science, Math, etc. 

Considerations

Some things to note when deciding on how to register your messaging campaigns and how many campaigns you will need:

1. 1. Is the content being sent by different numbers the same type of content? If so, they can share the same campaign. (Note: the company/organization/perceived sender has to be the same to share a campaign.)
   2. Does every individual need their own phone number? Or can a single number be used to send outbound messages from multiple individuals?
   3. Is there more than one legal company/organization involved? If so you cannot share a campaign as the perceived sender of the messages needs to be the company registered under the brand info tied to each campaign. 

Example: I have a store that offers franchising. Each franchise has its own tax ID, even though the offers and content of the messages is the same. Each company would have to be registered as its own brand (tax ID (EIN) must be provided) and unique campaign.