A common misconception is that more people will consume your message if it’s being sent from your local area code. This sentiment was somewhat true with automated voice calls when recipients had a choice to answer a call or ignore it and let it go to voicemail, but text messaging has completely changed this. Regardless of whether the message is sent from a local or toll-free number, 98% of text messages are opened. When recipients receive a text message, they don’t choose to ignore it. The message gets delivered, shows up in a message list, and usually even has a preview. The idea that local numbers are better for texting just doesn’t make sense.
However, there’s a chance some organizations feel nervous about letting go of their local number, and so we’re going to walk you through the differences between toll-free and local text numbers, and how to make sure your recipients know who’s contacting them. Find out all you need to know below.
Toll-free numbers are great and give your business a more established and trustworthy look. Today, the main advantage of toll-free messaging versus local messaging is the ability to send approved high-volume traffic, as well as receiving better deliverability information.
Toll-free messaging is an approved business text messaging channel in the industry. Local numbers are starting to be utilized for this, but you may experience deliverability issues like volume limits, blocking, and filtering when using local numbers for texting.
Toll-free messaging also has an advantage over local messaging in the accuracy of delivery information we receive about a message. Toll-free messaging supports handset or final delivery receipts (confirmation that the handset received the message), while local numbers receive delivery information based on whether the message was sent to the carrier or not.
Toll-free texting is cheaper than local texting. While Text-Em-All provides all customers with toll-free numbers at no additional cost, toll-free texting is a great choice if your organization is budget-conscious.
While local numbers are only suitable for P2P (Person-to-Person) interaction, toll-free text numbers are equally suited to handle mass texting for groups and conversational texting for individuals. With your Text-Em-All account, you can easily manage conversations from both your desktop and your cell phone with our mobile app.
When you send your first text message from your new toll-free number, make sure to begin by stating who you are. Especially if you have a larger contact list, it’s a best practice to always let your contacts know who you are in each text message. For frequent contacts, encourage them to save your phone number in their phone so they always know who is sending them a message. The combination of these efforts will lead to less opt-outs, and more informed recipients.
Finding a scalable, efficient, reliable, and personalized way to communicate with your contacts might not always be easy, but here at Text-Em-All, we have worked with a myriad of businesses and organizations to ensure your message is received by your contact.
At Text-Em-All, we also provide customers with toll-free numbers at no additional cost if you don’t already have one. Since toll-free provides the same high-volume and improved deliverability, Text-Em-All recommends toll-free for all our customers.