Perhaps learning from the experience of email marketers, the industry association regulating text messaging made a widely anticipated announcement this summer.

Beginning on September 15, 2022, the Communication Technology Industry Association (CTIA) announced any business texting their customers from a toll-free number must verify their brand by completing a detailed compliance check designed to weed-out marketers who don’t play by the rules.

After September 15, national carriers and SMS service providers are expected to restrict or ban business texts sent through an unverified number.  So for the thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses that rely on toll-free SMS messaging, this news is a game changer.

For wineries that take the time to verify their toll-free SMS numbers, they’ll be able to continue texting their customers this holiday season – delighting them and selling more wine in the process.

But for wineries that don’t verify their SMS numbers, the sky-high message delivery and click-thru rates generated by text marketing will soon be out of reach.

Making SMS marketing more exclusive by requiring a thorough background check, the telecommunication industry hopes to avoid the same fate now plaguing email marketing.  Once the darling of DTC wine merchants but now overrun by spam, email marketing has become a growing burden for consumers and merchants, costing valuable time and money.

          

By acting quickly before September’s deadline, savvy wine marketers can use SMS messaging to gain a decisive competitive advantage this holiday season while other wineries are left to struggle with email as their only way to reach thirsty customers.

Now with prices starting at less than $100/mo, it’s never been a better time to make the move to SMS wine marketing.