Ensure SMS Compliance for Effective Event Communication
SMS has been around for a long time and proven to be a very effective way of communicating, with 97% of delivered messages being read by recipients. However it can also cause a lot of frustration when people receive unwanted SMS. That's why many countries have strict legislation around brands and organizations communicating via text messages for marketing or commercial purposes. Making sure your organization is compliant can be a challenge, since the laws change constantly and vary from country to country.
In general, SMS compliance regulations exist to ensure people's privacy is protected, and to give them more control over how they can be contacted via text and for what purpose. In other words, people should only be contacted via SMS by businesses and organizations they trust and want to be contacted by.
How does SMS compliance affect my event?
zkipster's commitment to providing users with an industry-leading event management platform also means we need to comply with local legislation in order to protect your brand's reputation and your guests’ experience.
With that in mind, it is important to note that, depending on the country where your organization and your guests are based, some zkipster features involving SMS text messages, such as the SMS Communications and the Check-In Message features, might not be available. Not complying with applicable local laws could incur fines and result in other legal action being taken against your business.
How do I know if I can use the Check-In Message or the SMS Communications features in my country?
As mentioned above, local legislation regarding SMS compliance changes often and can be difficult to keep track of. In order to find out if the Check-In Message or SMS Communications features are available for you to communicate with your guests, the best option is to test the feature before relying on it for your event.
Our recommendation is that you create a test guest in your event's guest list and follow the instructions from this article to trigger a SMS message to your mobile phone number, so you can check if it is delivered or not.
Please note: Since SMS compliance regulations vary from country to country, if you have guests in your event's list with phone numbers from different countries, it might be that some are from countries that allow this type of SMS communication, while other numbers might not receive your SMS. Feel free to check the Regulatory Guidelines for SMS from our underlying SMS sending service, Twilio, by clicking here.
If you have any questions regarding this topic, please contact our Support team.
Error Status
Please note that a message that is not delivered does not necessarily mean that it happened due to local SMS regulations. There are other errors that could cause your message to not be delivered.
When sending a SMS/WhatsApp campaign, you can view the deliverability report from the 'Summary' page of the campaign.
Hovering the mouse on top of the error status will display the error message.
Please note: some error messages will only be displayed as a string of numbers. This is the error code received by zkipster from Twilio, the SMS/WhatsApp message sending service used by zkipster. Feel free to refer to the table below with the most common error codes or you can also find a complete list of the error via Twilio's documentation.
Most Common Errors:
Error | Source | Description |
Not enough credits | zkipster | There are not enough credits in your account to send the message. Click here to learn how to purchase more credits. |
Did not consent to receive messages | zkipster | Recipient replied 'No' to zkipster's consent request in WhatsApp. Click here to learn more about WhatsApp Consent Requirements. |
21612 | Twilio | Message cannot be sent with current parameters. Click here to learn more. |
30003 | Twilio | Message failed to be delivered due to the recipient being unavailable or unreachable. Click here to learn more. |
30005 | Twilio | The recipient's number you are trying to reach is unknown and may no longer exist. Click here to learn more. |
30007 | Twilio | Carrier Violation. Click here to learn more. |
30008 | Twilio | Generic error from Twilio when the carrier of the recipient's number does not return a reason why the message could not be delivered. Click here to learn more. |
30019 | Twilio | Content size exceeds the limit imposed by the recipient's number carrier. Click here to learn more. |
131053 - Media Upload Error | Attachment failed to upload. Click here to learn more. | |
131026 - Receiver is incapable of receiving this message | Issue on the recipient's side prevented the message from being delivered. Click here to learn more. |