We agree. Sending internationally can seem really overwhelming. To help out, we’ve put together some top tips for sending to international numbers:
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Focus on your most popular markets first. We’d always recommend starting with the countries where you have the most recipients. This makes it more manageable to address any registration and filtering.
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Format your data. Before you upload your contacts, it’s vital you format your mobile numbers correctly. This means ensuring all of your numbers begin with the correct country code. For example, UK mobile numbers would be: 447xxxxxxxxx
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Be aware of pre-registering or approved number costs. For example, sending in the US is relatively low-cost, albeit has a registration & vetting process - complete with their own campaign fees. Conversely, New Zealand requires messages to be sent from a shortcode - these will cost you £000’s over the course of a campaign. If the country requires brands to be whitelisted, there is often a cost associated with the application (e.g. UAE).
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Monitor your messaging. Do check your delivery reports. If you notice a high number of declines for a certain country, it’s worth addressing this to save wasting messaging costs for future campaigns.
FireText has some helpful ways to set up your account for international sending. Please get in touch with your account manager or hello@firetext.co.uk to discuss options and ideas for successful international sending.