Verify Your Phone Number for Square Text Message Marketing
With Square Text Message Marketing, you can send text messages with marketing information right to your customers using a verified toll-free phone number. Unregistered phone numbers can’t deliver messages with Square Text Message Marketing. When you sign up for Square Text Message Marketing, your account goes through a phone number verification process. While the average time to verify your phone number is around two to three business days, the process can take up to 14 business days. Learn more about Square Text Message Marketing.
Sign Up and Register Your Phone Number
Signing up for Square Text Message Marketing starts the phone number verification process. Square Text Message Marketing also offers a 30-day free trial when you sign up. Your Square Marketing free trial and plan do not begin until your phone number is verified, and you are not charged until your phone number is verified and your free trial ends.
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Customers > Marketing.
Select Create Campaign and select Text Message to sign up for Square Text Message Marketing.
A setup guide opens. Review the overview and select Next.
Enter your sender name. Your sender name is the name that appears at the beginning of texts to your customers. Select Next.
Review your audience information and select Next.
To get your toll-free phone number, review your business information, including your business name, address, phone number, and business website or social media links. Click Submit.
Confirm your payment method and select Next.
We’ll email you once your verification process is complete. While your account is pending verification, your use of Square Text Message Marketing is restricted and you can’t send messages.
Check Your Pending Verification Status
The pending verification process usually takes two to three business days. Until your phone number is verified, avoid sending messages from an unverified number. We will notify you when your number is verified. To view your verification status, sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Customers > Marketing.
If you are selling alcohol products, your business website requires age-gating technology to use Square Text Message Marketing. Age-gating prompts your website visitors to confirm they are over 21 years of age to prevent minors from viewing or purchasing alcohol-related products. If your verification is rejected, retry once you implement age-gating technology.
Once your phone number is approved:
The phone number is directly associated with your business.
The phone number has a verified tag.
If any of the above information is incomplete or invalid, your verification will fail, and you must resubmit the information. Resubmission sends you to the end of the verification queue (adding up to another 14 business days of wait time). During this time, the same restrictions apply.
Before your customers can receive text campaigns, they need to consent to receiving SMS marketing text messages. Learn more about getting started with Text Message Marketing.
SHAFT-C is an acronym that stands for sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco/cannabis. SHAFT-C was created by the CTIA, an association of mobile carriers who create best practices and requirements for text message marketing. Mentioning content related to SHAFT-C topics can cause mobile carriers to block your messages from being delivered.
Square Text Message Marketing monitors text message delivery rates, and you will receive a notification in your Square Dashboard if it appears your message was blocked due to SHAFT-C restrictions. Because Square is not responsible for the blocked message and has no visibility into SHAFT-C enforcement, we cannot tell you how to alter the message to make it SHAFT-C compliant.
Under SHAFT-C, network carriers have created a set of rules to determine what content can and cannot be sent via text message. Businesses sending content or messages related to SHAFT-C are either completely banned or faced with extra restrictions. Learn more about SHAFT-C rule requirements.
If you are selling alcohol products, your business website must use age-gating technology to use text message marketing. Age-gating prompts visitors to your website to confirm they are over 21 years of age to prevent minors from being able to view or purchase alcohol-related products.