3 reasons why A2P 10DLC will shift business messaging as we know it

3 reasons why A2P 10DLC will shift business messaging as we know it

As with the natural progression of every modern method of business communication, the way businesses and consumers use communication channels ebbs and flows as technology changes over time. 

We’ve seen this over and over again as communication technology has evolved. Radio. Television. Social media. And in 2021, a year after the pandemic hit the world and forced many businesses to make SMS an integral part of their business communication strategy, we’ve reached the point where consumers are hearing from businesses via SMS more than ever before. 

And while the benefits of business messaging are still quite powerful and a huge opportunity for customer engagement, the increased usage has also led to an increase of bad actors/spammers taking advantage of consumers and making the channel more difficult for those businesses trying to reach their customers in a genuine and trustworthy way. 

In order to address the downsides of the influx of business messaging on SMS, there is an exciting update on the horizon. A2P-10 DLC. This new update will make the SMS ecosystem a more trusted, high engagement space that allows you to continue to build long-term customer relationships via SMS.

A2-what’s that you say? A2P-10 DLC is a system in the United States that allows businesses to send Application-to-Person (A2P) type messaging via local 10-digit long code (10DLC) phone numbers. Carriers’ A2P 10DLC offerings provide better delivery quality than long code messaging of the past, using the same phone numbers. 

Before you get wrapped up in the TLDR of that acronym, the benefits of 10DLC in comparison to traditional business messaging are game changing and exciting. Below we’ll break down the three major benefits of making the switch now in order to prepare for this once in a generation shift in business messaging beginning in the next few months.

Benefit #1: Trust and compliance

Messaging historically has provided an easy way to communicate with customers but with limited barriers to entry. Because of this, as messaging use has increased, so has the likelihood of spam and the distrust in SMS due to bad actors taking advantage of the increase in usage. What consumers desire and what businesses need to succeed in this space is a verified, secure ecosystem. 

Because statistics show, consumers trust verified ecosystems. Not only that, but when businesses messaging is verified, consumers indicate as much as a 27 percent increase in likelihood to buy. 

Building a transparent ecosystem has been in the works across all business messaging channels from various SMS and MMS number types to verification on platforms such as Whatsapp for a long time.This is also one of the reasons that A2P 10DLC is such an exciting and groundbreaking industry shift. With A2P 10DLC, the ecosystem is verified and completely private within SMS. 

Businesses who choose to use this system will need to go through an extensive registration process before doing so. This is because carriers want to know who you are in order to establish your business's credibility within this ecosystem. 

In order to help with this process, Twilio has released our own know-your-customer registration system, called Trust Hub, which sits on top of the A2P 10DLC system. Registering through the Trust Hub simplifies the registration process and makes it easier for you to start sending messages within A2P 10DLC. 

Bottom line: A2P 10DLC means trust. And that trust means happy and long-term engaging customers who will appreciate a spam free ecosystem that serves messaging they actually want to receive.

Benefit #2: Local identity

Sometime today you’ll probably receive a text from a random short number letting you know about a one-day sale, a new limited time product, and/or the updated hours of a business. 

Text messaging used to be a place exclusively for friends and family. And while 91 percent of consumers are interested in signing up for SMS, the lack of intimacy that comes with short code business messaging is a hindrance to customer engagement for the business SMS ecosystem as it currently stands.

With A2P 10DLC, messaging comes from a 10-digit number within a customer’s area code. Because of this, it’s a more personalized experience and can offer a sense of familiarity to customers. 

Imagine receiving a message from one of your favorite brands that was in your area code and was personalized around your shopping experiences. For example, a message about a sale on an item you were recently looking at, a personalized discount code, all from a number that you trust. That’s the benefit of local identity over a trusted ecosystem. Previously, you couldn’t have both. Local numbers meant messaging was sent over P2P routes and a verified ecosystem required either short code, toll free, or OTT. With A2P 10DLC, you can have your local number, and send from it securely, too. 

Bottom line: With localized 10-digit numbers and more personalized messaging, there will likely be increased customer engagement brought on from increased familiarity and hyper-segmented personalization.

Benefit #3: High throughput/increased deliverability

One of the most exciting benefits of A2P 10DLC for businesses is the ability to reach more people at the same time. 

In the past, 10DLC used person-to-person routes: all messages were sent at one message per second. That’s fine if you only want to reach a few people (for example, sending out an alert about COVID vaccination updates to 120 people would take two minutes). 

But when you want to send a message to hundreds or even thousands of people, the same message could take hours and hurt ROI because of the lag in throughput. 

With A2P routes, there is a massive increase in that throughput. With A2P 10DLC, you can now send up to 180 messages per second.

This can massively increase reach (and ROI) depending on the timeliness of the message being sent. And because you can send more, faster, you can also personalize to more customer segments, which could result in a nearly 78 percent increase in end customer lifetime value.

Additionally, businesses benefit from another aspect of a verified ecosystem: improved deliverability. With the added trust created from the A2P 10DLC registration process, carriers know who is sending messaging and what is being sent on their routes. This makes it easier to identify good actors sending messaging their customers actually want to receive. Because of this, carriers are less likely to flag these registered messages as spam.

The future of business messaging is here

You don’t have to be a developer to see the exciting opportunities that A2P 10DLC provides. With the value of a verified ecosystem and a local, recognizable number, the ability to reach your customers via SMS are transformed. Curious about how to get started? Check out our Twilio Trust Hub and start your business’s registration process.