Everything you need to know on SMS / Texting – DLT and Template approval in India

As the saying goes, “The more important tool is more information sharing between the intelligence agencies”. The Short Message Services, simply termed as SMS, allows us to share information among everyone with minimum text. And so, Bulk SMS is one of the easiest ways to connect with people with minimum effort. It is one of the best ways to promote your products or services by sending alerts and notifications without losing under inbox spam.

According to the reports, SMS has the highest open rate of 98% when compared to any form of marketing technique and has a 45% response rate. Thus, mobile SMS stands as a powerful tool to create online traffic. Bulk SMS ensures that your messages are read and can be used as a source to create traffic whenever your customer shows interest in it.

To send Bulk SMS to Indian customers, you need to register and get approval from TRAI. But before that there are a few facts that you should know, to get a DLT and SMS template approval. First of all, one should have a clear understanding of ‘What is DLT and TRAI?’

Let’s see, DLT / Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a block-chain based registration system. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), telemarketers have to be registered in the DLT platform. The approval is issued in the public interest to control the SMS spam from various marketing firms.

Further, to get approval from DLT and TRAI in India, the following are the steps that you need to know.

Step 1 – Get a unique Entity ID

The first step to get a DLT approval is to register (as an entity or as a telemarketer) on any one of the DLT platforms (i.e., service providers) by filling in the required information and you will be provided with a temporary Entity ID. Once your documents are verified, the service provider will provide you with a unique Entity ID. Below are a few Indian service providers for reference.

• Vodafone Idea Limited
• Videocon
• Airtel
• Jio
• BSNL

DLT registration is mandatory for those who do SMS marketing or send SMS & voice calls for business promotional purposes. The documents that are to be arranged before proceeding for Telemarketer and Enterprise registration includes:

• Business PAN Number with Soft Copy
• GST Number (GST Certificate)
• Business Established Certificate
• Complete Business Address
• Proof of Business Identity with Softcopy
• Proof of Business Entity with Softcopy (GST Reg./Business Reg.)

For the registration process, you need to prepare an authorization letter. This is a letter on the company’s letterhead, where the director or owner of the company will authorize the person doing this Registration.

Step 2 – Register Headers and Add telemarketer ID

Once you obtain the unique Entity ID, the next step is to add your telemarketer ID and register the header for your messages in the DLT platforms. The following are the steps involved in the registration of headers.

Register header (Sender ID) in the platforms

Upon registering for the entity, the headers (sender ID) under the header tab are created in the dashboard.

In the tab, you can choose the types of headers i.e., Promotional and Others. Add your preferred header name in the text box and state the reason for choosing it in the description.

For Promotional (SMS such as offers, discounts, etc.)

Add your preferred 6-digit numeral headers (sender ID) in the ‘Find your Header’ text box > Select your category/ industry type from the drop-down > Justify the chosen headers in the description box and/or by attaching a supporting document

Others (for SMS such as OTPs, alerts, etc.)

Add your preferred 6-character alphabetic headers (sender ID) in the text box > Justify the chosen headers in the description box and/or by attaching a supporting document

Note:

• The entities with registered/approved headers can only send SMS
• Headers are case-sensitive, so ABCDEF and abcdef,  are two different sender names and can be registered separately

Step 3 — Register consent templates

Headers (sender IDs) registration is followed by consent templates addition in the DLT platforms.

A consent template is a standard message that is sent to users to get their agreement to receive communications from enterprises. A consent template is required only if you are planning to send promotional SMS. The following examples are needed to be given while registering the consent templates.

Consent Templates:

• Template Name: User-specified name
• Brand Name: A product or service name
• Scope of Consent: Description of the content you plan to send to users
• Examples:
  • We would like to send communication regarding marketing offers and events to our registered customers
  • ABC Solutions needs your consent to send you messages about your account information and activity and our best offers
  • We will send you updates, transactions, recommendations of our services and products to our registered customers

Do’s for consent template

• The relevant short name can be chosen to the template, to help you to associate them with content templates in promotional or service categories
• Brand / Product name should be in the scope of content
• Scope of content and your intent should be clear and relevant to the mentioned brand

Don’ts for consent template

• Don’t use generic names for templates, such as “template1”
• Don’t mention invalid or irrelevant names or popular brand names or short messages like “consent” or “SMS to customers.” Operators will treat these as invalid templates
• Don’t enter an actual message sent to the customer
• Don’t use variables in the scope of consent, as variables are applicable only to content templates

After filling in the details in all three fields you can submit the template for approval. There is no limitation on the number of consent templates you create.

After consent templates are approved by the registrar, you can link them to content templates in promotional or service categories, as shown in the below image:

Step 4 – Content templates and registration guidelines

Upon your registration on consent templates, the next step in the DLT registration process is to add content templates.

There are four types of content templates: transaction, service implicit, service explicit, and promotional.

(i) Transactional

Any message that contains a one-time password (OTP) that is required to complete a transaction in banking or any other sector. Here are some examples of this content type, along with examples of their template formats.

(ii) Service-implicit

Any message arising out of customer’s actions or their existing relationship with the enterprise and is not promotional, is considered a service-implicit message. These include:

• Confirmation messages of net banking and credit/debit card transactions
• Product purchase or payment confirmation and delivery status from e-commerce websites
• OTPs required for e-commerce websites, app logins, social media apps, authentication and verification links, securities trading, demat account operations, KYC, and e-wallet registration, messages from TSP/ISP
• Periodic balance info, bill generation, bill dispatch, due date reminders, recharge confirmation (DTH, cable, prepaid electricity recharge, etc.)
• Delivery notifications, updates, and periodic upgrades
• Messages from retail stores related to invoices and warranties
• Messages from schools, such as attendance and transport alerts
• Messages from hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, radiologists, and pathologists about registration, appointments, discharge, and reports
• Government/DOT/TRAI mandated messages
• Service updates from car workshops, repair shops, and gadgets service centers
• Directory services such as Justdial and Yellow Pages
• Day-end and month-end settlement alerts to securities and demat account holders

(iii) Service-explicit

Service-explicit messages require explicit consent from customers that have been verified directly from the recipient in a robust verifiable manner and recorded by the consent registrar. This category includes any service messages that don’t fall under the service-implicit category.

Customer consent templates must be linked to content templates in the service-explicit category.

Examples include messages to the existing customers recommending or promoting products or services.

(iv) Promotional

These are messages to promote or sell products, goods, or services. Service content mixed with promotional content is treated as promotional. These messages are sent to customers after performing the preference and consent scrubbing function.

Customer consent templates must be linked to content templates in the promotional category.

Examples: