A2P 10DLC registration for a small business, step by step.

What it is, and whether you need it

A2P means application to person: texts sent by software rather than typed on a phone. 10DLC means an ordinary ten-digit local number. If your business texts customers from its own local number through a phone system, a texting app, a CRM or a missed-call text-back service, that number needs an A2P 10DLC registration. Texts from an unregistered number are blocked, and the only sign may be an error code in your provider's logs.

You do not need it when:

• You type texts yourself on an ordinary mobile phone, one customer at a time.
• Your booking tool sends reminders from its own number. The tool deals with the carriers, so check whose number the texts come from before you register anything.
• You text from a toll-free number. Those go through toll-free verification, a separate process that asks similar questions.

Registration does not promise delivery. It tells the carriers who you are, which means less filtering, but texts that stray from what you registered can still be blocked.

The steps, in order

Work in this order. Each step depends on the one before, and skipping the first two is the quickest way to a rejection.

• Decide what you will text: replies to missed calls, booking confirmations and reminders, answers to questions, offers. Each kind affects the campaign you choose.
• Get the website ready: a working site in your business name, a privacy policy with the no-sharing sentence, terms that cover texting and a form that shows how people agree.
• Find your tax paperwork: the IRS letter that confirmed your EIN, which shows your legal name exactly.
• Register the brand through your texting provider.
• Register the campaign: the use case, a description, sample texts and how people opt in.
• Attach your number to the approved campaign.
• Test from your own mobile: get a text, reply HELP, reply STOP, then check that nothing else arrives.

You do not deal with the registry yourself. Your provider, whether that is Twilio, a business phone system such as RingCentral or a texting tool, sends your details to The Campaign Registry, the central register the US carriers use to check business texting, and shows you the status of each step.

Fill in the brand form

The brand is your business. The registry checks it against public records, so the details must match those records, not what is painted on your van.

• Legal business name: exactly as it appears on your EIN letter, including "LLC" or "Inc." and the same punctuation.
• Trading name: your DBA, if you use one, in its own field. A DBA typed into the legal name field will not match the tax records.
• EIN: the nine-digit number that belongs to that legal name.
• Business type: LLC, corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship, as registered.
• Address: the one the IRS has for the business.
• Website: the live site, in the same business name.
• Email and phone: a contact the reviewer can reach. An email on your own domain helps link you to the website.

If the EIN letter is lost, the IRS can send a replacement confirmation. Copy the name from it character for character: "Brightwater Plumbing, LLC" and "Brightwater Plumbing LLC" are different names to the computer doing the check.

With an EIN you register a standard or a low-volume standard brand. Twilio suggests low-volume standard for small senders, which fits a clinic, a salon or a trade business sending replies and reminders. Registration carries one-off fees for the brand and the campaign review, and a monthly fee for each campaign. They are set by the registry and the carriers and passed on by your provider, so ask for the current list before you start.

Sole traders and the EIN trap

There is a separate route for people who run a business under their own Social Security number and have no EIN: the sole proprietor brand. It is simpler, and it comes with limits:

• One campaign and one phone number per brand.
• Lower daily sending limits than a standard brand.
• A code sent by text to a real US or Canadian mobile number, which you must answer to complete the brand. A number from a texting service such as Twilio will not work.
• The same mobile number can verify only a few sole proprietor brands, and the same email or address only a limited number of registrations.

If your business has an EIN, you cannot use the sole proprietor route, even if you work alone. Twilio's guidance says applications from businesses with a tax number on that route are rejected. Register a low-volume standard brand with the exact legal name from your EIN letter instead.

The reverse mistake happens too: a sole trader with no EIN fills in the standard form with a Social Security number, or with the EIN of a business they have closed. Neither passes.

The test is simple. If the IRS issued the business an EIN and it is still in use, you are a standard brand. If you file under your own Social Security number and nothing else, you are a sole proprietor brand.

Describe the campaign in plain words

The campaign is what you text and why. First pick the use case. For a small business the usual choices are:

• Account notifications: reminders, alerts and confirmations, such as appointment reminders.
• Customer care: replies to customers and help with their booking or account.
• Marketing: offers, news and anything else that promotes.
• Low-volume mixed: a small sender doing several of these at once.

Then write the description. Vague ones fail: Twilio gives "This campaign sends messages to customers" as an example of one that was rejected. Say who sends, who receives, what the texts are about and how people come to get them. For a two-van plumbing firm:

"Brightwater Plumbing LLC texts customers who call us, book a job on our website or tick the text box on our enquiry form. We send a reply when we miss a call, confirmation of the visit time, a reminder the day before, the engineer's arrival time and answers to the customer's questions. We do not send marketing texts."

If you plan to send offers later, decide now. Offers sent on a campaign registered only for reminders break the registration, so register what you will really send, and collect a separate consent for offers.

Write sample texts that match

The campaign form asks for sample messages. Write the texts you will really send, with your business name in each and the opt-out line in at least one. Use brackets for the parts that change:

• "Brightwater Plumbing: sorry we missed your call. Is it urgent? Reply here and we will call you back, or book a visit: [link]. Reply STOP to opt out."
• "Brightwater Plumbing: your visit is booked for [day] between [time] and [time]. To move it, reply to this text. Reply STOP to opt out."
• "Brightwater Plumbing: [engineer] is on the way and should be with you by [time]."

The reviewer compares the samples with the description and the use case. A sample that mentions a discount, in a campaign that says it sends no marketing, is the kind of mismatch they catch.

The form may also ask what you send when someone replies HELP or STOP:

• Help: "Brightwater Plumbing: for help, call [number] or email [address]. Msg and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out."
• Stop: "Brightwater Plumbing: you will get no more texts from us. Reply START to receive texts again."

Show how people agree to texts

The message flow field, sometimes called the call to action, tells the reviewer exactly how a customer agrees to texts. Reviewers follow it themselves, so it must describe something they can see. Wherever people agree, the wording should show:

• Your business name.
• What you will text, and how often if it repeats.
• "Msg and data rates may apply."
• How to stop and get help: "Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help."
• Links to your terms and your privacy policy.

On a website form the text box must be unticked and optional, so the customer can send the form without agreeing to texts. Wording to start from, with "Terms" and "Privacy" as links:

"I agree to receive texts from Brightwater Plumbing about my enquiry and bookings, such as replies, visit confirmations and reminders. Message frequency varies. Msg and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. See our Terms and Privacy."

For other routes, give the reviewer the evidence:

• A paper form at the desk: a photo of a filled-in example at a public link.
• Consent given on the phone: the full script your team reads, with every point above. Spoken consent is not enough for marketing texts, which need written consent.
• A keyword, such as "Text BOOK to" your number: where customers see it, with a photo of the sign.
• A form behind a login or in an app: screenshots of each step at a public link.

Missed-call text-back needs care, because a caller has not ticked anything and reviewers dislike consent that is only implied. Describe the flow exactly, say it in your phone greeting ("If we miss your call, we will text you back from this number") and give the website form as the written route as well. The rules behind each kind of text are in text message consent rules.

Get the website ready before you submit

Reviewers open your website, and Twilio lists website problems among the common reasons for rejection. Check it against this list first:

• It loads for anyone, with no password and no "coming soon" page.
• It shows the same business name as the brand, on a domain that fits that name.
• It says what you do and how to reach you.
• The page with the text box is public, and the message flow links straight to it rather than to the home page.
• The privacy policy and the terms are linked from that page.

The privacy policy needs one sentence that carriers look for. Twilio's guidance asks for a plain statement that mobile numbers given for texts are never shared with or sold to third parties or lead generators for marketing. You can still use the companies that send your texts for you. Wording to copy:

"We do not sell or share mobile numbers or text message consent with third parties or affiliates for their marketing. We share numbers only with the service providers who send our texts, and only for that purpose."

The terms need a short section on texting: what you send, how often, that message and data rates may apply, how to get help and how to stop, with a contact address. If your site lacks these pages, what a privacy policy needs covers the rest of the privacy page, and what a small business website needs the rest of the site.

Four small businesses, four registrations

The same forms come out differently depending on what you text:

• A two-van plumbing firm with an EIN that sends missed-call replies, visit confirmations and arrival texts: a low-volume standard brand and one customer care or low-volume mixed campaign, with the website enquiry form as the written opt-in.
• A dental clinic that sends only appointment reminders: an account notifications campaign. The samples give the time and place and never the treatment, and the booking form says reminders will come by text.
• A salon that wants reminders and a monthly offer: a campaign that allows marketing, and two separate boxes on the booking form, one for reminders and one for offers, both unticked.
• A mobile dog groomer who works under her own Social Security number: a sole proprietor brand, one campaign and one number, with the code sent to her own mobile.

If you are unsure which use case fits, describe the texts plainly and ask your provider before you submit. Changing the use case later means a new campaign.

If the campaign comes back rejected

A rejection comes with a reason from your provider. Match it to the list below, fix every point you can find rather than only the one named, and resubmit once. Each round goes back into the review queue.

• Sole proprietor route with an EIN: register a low-volume standard brand instead.
• Legal name or address does not match the EIN: copy both from the IRS letter, character for character.
• Description too vague: say who sends, who receives, what and why, as in the example above.
• Opt-in cannot be checked: link the exact page with the text box, or put photos of the paper form or the phone script at a public link.
• Privacy policy without the no-sharing sentence, or one that says numbers may go to partners: add the sentence and remove the contradiction.
• Website down, private or in another name: fix the site first.
• Samples that leave out the business name or do not fit the use case: rewrite them from the texts you will really send.
• A pre-ticked or compulsory text box: untick it and make it optional.

If a careful fix is rejected again, ask your provider's support to read the reviewer's note with you before the next attempt.

After approval, keep it true

Approval covers what you registered. To keep it:

• Send only the kinds of texts the campaign describes. To add offers, register a campaign that allows them first.
• Let your provider handle STOP automatically, and check that a STOP reply stops texts from every tool that uses the number.
• Answer HELP with your business name and a way to reach you.
• Keep a record of how and when each person agreed.
• Ask before you change provider or phone system, because the registration has to move or be redone.
• Keep the consent page, privacy policy and terms at the same addresses when the website changes.

If your number is an office landline, it has to take texts before any of this matters: texting from your business landline covers the options.

Doing it yourself, or handing it over

You can do this yourself with your provider's forms. The work is in the details: the exact legal name, a public opt-in page and a privacy policy with the right sentence. Gather those before you start and the forms themselves are quick.

For clients on its missed-call text-back and reminders, GGSites handles the US carrier registration and builds the texts as part of its automation work, with replies landing where your team already reads messages. If reminders are the main job, check first whether your booking tool already sends them from its own number: booking automation explains how to decide which tool sends what.