StratusTEXTING - FAQ
Search for answer to some of your questions about our StratusTEXTING business texting solution.
Written by Val Campos
Updated at January 9th, 2025
Table of Contents
What is StratusTEXTING?
Many companies and organizations use SMS messaging as an effective way to keep their clientele informed. These texts can include promotional information, marketing advertisements, appointment reminders, and so much more. StratusTEXTING helps facilitate this kind of communication.
StratusTEXTING is an advanced business texting solution that allows companies to effortlessly send personalized, compliant texts of different kinds using its user-friendly interface. Different styles of texts can be scheduled or sent out immediately.
Will StratusTEXTING be Replacing Regular Texting?
No. StratusTEXTING is an additional texting tool that can be used to facilitate your business-class texting needs.
If you are currently using 1-on-1 SMS messaging with SpectrumVoIP, you can continue useing your current texting method. If you would like to enhance your business' experience with SMS messaging with StratusTEXTING's interface, consider upgrading to StratusTEXTING today!
How Can I Get Started with StratusTEXTING?
If your company would like to start utilizing StratusTEXTING for your business' SMS messaging, you can contact our team by texting (972) 332-1213 to get started today!
Pricing
If you are interested in using StratusTEXTING for your business texting services, your expected pricing is as follows:
- $25 one-time registration fee
- $0.03 per message sent
- $10 per month campaign fee
- Monthly payment based off of your pricing plan
We offer three different monthly pricing plans according to how many users are on your StratusTEXTING account: our Individuals (1 user for $49 per month), Small Team (2-5 users for $40 per user per month), and Enterprise (6+ users for $35 per user per month) plans.
SMS Campaign Requirements
To ensure that texting is a secure, trustworthy communication medium, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) require companies that plan to use SMS messaging register an SMS brand. Once an SMS brand for a company has been vetted and verified, the company can then register SMS campaigns for the different types of messages they plan to send users.
Since StratusTEXTING is a specific method of carrying out SMS messaging, a separate SMS campaign will need to be created and verified for the phone numbers that will utilize our StratusTEXTING services. SMS campaigns need to be registered for each special use case for SMS messaging.
For example… If a health clinic would be using StratusTEXTING to send text messages for appointment reminders and promotional content like new treatments being offered, that company would need to register 2 SMS campaigns for each type of text being sent and that the texts are being handled via StratusTEXTING.
✔ If your company needs to register additional SMS campaigns for your new StratusTEXTING services, this can be done using the Stratus web portal by an Office Manager user.
To learn more about registering an SMS campaign, read this article.
How Can I Stay Compliant Using StratusTEXTING?
In order for your business to be able to send your customers SMS messages, your customers will need to give written consent using a valid opt-in method. This can be done through a form, an online prompt on your website, a texted keyword, etc.. Once a customer has given consent to receive SMS messages for a specific purpose, a company can begin sending this contact messages that they have specifically consented to.
What are the Three Levels of Consent?
There are three types of SMS consent a contact can provide your business: Conversational, Informational, and Promotional consent. The consent a customer gives you for SMS messaging can be combination of these. A customer can also withdraw consent at any time by requesting that the business stop sending text messages.
Conversational
Conversational messaging is a back-and-forth conversation via text. If the consumer initiates the conversation and the business responds with relevant information, then the communication is considered conversational as the consumer is giving implied consent.
• First message is always sent by the consumer.
• Implied consent is granted to discuss the topic the contact is inquiring about.
• Two-way conversation.
• Message responds to a specific request.
Although implied consent has been given since a contact has initiated a conversation regarding a particular topic, the customer would need to grant express consent before the company can send any off-topic text messages.
For example… If a customer has messaged a business to check on the status of their order without opting in for informational messages, the company can only send text messages about their order and the questions that customer may ask.
If the customer has not used an opt-in method to subscribe to texts about informational status updates, the company would not be allowed to send an automated, informational text giving the status of a service. If the customer specifically asks for the status of a service, then the company may reply with information that answers the customer's inquiry.
The company would not be allowed to send unrelated text messages, such as a promotional text about a new product. The company would need to obtain express consent from the customer for promotional texts.
Informational
Informational messaging is when a consumer gives their phone number to a business and provides their express consent to be contacted in the future for a non-promotional purpose. Appointment reminders, welcome texts, and other non-promotional alerts fall into this category.
• First message is sent by the consumer or business.
• Express consent is given to receive specific, informational texts using a valid opt-in method.
• One-way or two-way conversation.
• Message contains information.
For example… If a customer has subscribed for appointment reminders and health screening texts from a healthcare clinic using a valid opt-in method, the person has given express consent to only receive informational texts regarding their appointments and health screenings.
The clinic would not be allowed to send promotional texts (i.e., advertisements for new treatment, coupon codes for healthcare products, etc.) to that client unless the client has given express consent to receive promotional text messages about new products.
Promotional
Promotional messaging contains a sales or marketing promotion. Adding a call to action (e.g., a coupon code to an informational text) may place the message in the promotional category. Businesses require the consumer’s written consent to send promotional messages.
• First message is sent by the business.
• Express consent is given to receive promotional/marketing messages using a valid opt-in method.
• One-way conversation.
• Message promotes a brand, product, or service.
• Prompts customer to buy something, go somewhere, or otherwise take action.
For example… If a customer of a business has subscribed for marketing text messages using an opt-in method, the business can send marketing messages to that contact unless the contact withdraws consent by opting out.
How Can I Keep Track of Consent?
StratusTEXTING makes tracking the consent status of your contacts convenient and easy. StratusTEXTING makes tracking the consent status of your contacts convenient and easy. With StratusTEXTING's Consent Management Tool, your users can see and adjust the consent level assigned to a contact while viewing the text conversation taking place with this contact. This can help further ensure your organization and users are staying in compliance while using StratusTEXTING to send different types of messages that require a specific consent level.
It is also recommended for your organization to keep a thorough record of any opt-ins your company has received to ensure your business is staying compliant while using SMS messaging.
Keep Record of Opt-Ins
Under TCPA rules, there are also certain types of opt-ins – including for automated SMS marketing messages – which must be documented in writing. If you plan on sending promotional messages to customers, make sure you are properly logging all opt-ins.
What are you expected to keep track of in your records? The important details that you should include while documenting opt-in requests include the following:
• Timestamp of consent acquisition
• The level of consent that was acquired (e.g., Conversational, Informational, or Promotional).
• Consent acquisition medium (e.g., cell-submit form, physical sign-up form, SMS keyword, etc.)
• Capture of experience (e.g., language and action) used to secure consent
• Specific campaign for which the opt-in was provided
• IP address used to grant consent (if applicable)
• Consumer phone number for which consent to receive messaging was granted
• Identity of the individual who consented (name of the individual or other identifier, e.g., online username, session ID, etc.)
Documenting all opt-ins for at least six years is required by some mobile network operators. Doing so provides proof that you have received consent to send SMS messages to that destination number.
✔ Please refer to the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices for a comprehensive run-down of how to best manage opt-in messaging.
Automate Opt-Ins
One of the most commonly used forms of automated messaging is keyword request texts. These are text messages that ask for the recipient to text in a keyword to perform an action. One of the most common use cases for this is to request a person to text a keyword to opt-in or subscribe for text messages.
With Automations, you can set up an automatic workflow that when a keyword is texted in, such as SUBSCRIBE or START, a reply is sent along while any other configured actions are performed.
Note: To learn more about how you can create an Opt-In workflow automation, read our guide.
Convenient Opt-Outs for Contacts
Ceasing communication with someone that opts out has never been easier. StratusTEXTING can take care of this for you automatically. If a contact texts your business the industry standard "STOP", they will automatically be removed from further text communication from your business.
If a contact does not know that texting STOP is an industry standard for opting out, you can block the contact to ensure your organization does not send message to this person. Simply click the Block 
icon on their contact card.
If needed, you can granularly block individual communication types from being sent to a contact that has only opted out from a specific type of message. Using StratusTEXTING's workflow automations, you can create opportunities for your customers to opt-in and opt-out of several types of communications. This allows customers to choose to subscribe to updates while choosing to unsubscribe from promotions, all while continuing to keep conversational lines of communication open with their account rep.
Automate HELP Responses
While texting with a customer, that customer may need information about how they can get further support. It is an industry requirement for consumers to be able to text HELP to receive this information. To ensure the contacts you are messaging can use this keyword, a workflow automation can be created for this purpose.
Note: To learn more about how you can create a HELP workflow automation, read our guide.
Once a workflow automation is set up for this purpose, your contact can text HELP to your StratusTEXTING phone number to receive the automatic reply that you have configured.
What Does StratusTEXTING Have to Offer?
With your StratusTEXTING services, you can set up multiple users and departments to send text messages to their contacts and leads with ease. Using StratusTEXTING's advanced business texting features alongside your other CRMs and software can make communicating with your contacts more efficient for your team.
Advanced Business Texting Features
Send Texts
With StratusTEXTING, you can send texts back-and-forth with your contacts as long as you have consent. Users can create and use templates to send texts. Texts can be scheduled to be sent out at a future date and time.
While typing out a text, you can do the following to add flair to your message:
• Click the Emoji 
icon to add an emoji to your message.
• Click the Attach Files 
icon to select a media file to share from your PC.
• Click the Gifs 
icon to select and add a gif to your message.
Manage Conversations
While you are participating in a text conversation, you can use Actions to manage the conversation. Users can use the following Actions to handle conversations while keeping other users informed about how the conversation is being handled:
• Mark a conversation as read or unread.
• Claim or unclaim a conversation.
• Transfer a conversation to another user.
• Add internal notes to a conversation.
• Mark a conversation with tags.
• Archive a conversation.
• Export logs from a conversation.
Automations
Automated workflow sequences can be set up in StratusTEXTING to make managing and replying to texts from contacts easier.
These automations can be created with conditions that must be met before a specific action is taken. For example, if an automation is set to recognize when a certain word is received, an action can be set to have a reply immediately sent back. This commonly used for automatically replying to opt-in, opt-out, and HELP messages.
Send Broadcasts
With StratusTEXTING, sending text messages to multiple people at once has never been easier! This can be done using broacast messaging.
Broadcast messages are mass text messages sent to your contacts that have opted in for these messages. Similar to email marketing, you can create one message and send it to a large number of contacts who receive the message individually to their phone number. These broadcast messages can be sent to specific groups of contacts that have a specific tag.
Enhanced User Experience
In StratusTEXTING, you can add multiple users to your account so that your different departments can easily handle conversations. Having multiple users to represent your departments can make it easier for these users to focus on the conversations within their scope of service. Having separate users also makes it easier to keep record of a user/department's analytics for their SMS messaging to see how your users' workflow can be optimized.
StratusTEXTING admin users have the ability to create custom roles for their users. These roles can be customized to have different combinations of permissions that fits the needs of an employee with a specific position and department.
Thoughtful Replies with the Communication Advocate
With the Communication Advocate tool, users can have a chance to reflect on the messages they are sending to ensure their responses are informative and formatted properly. Using this tool can help minimize any small mistakes, such as spelling errors.
The Communication Advocate has two features: Reflections and Answering Without Hearing.
The Reflections feature allows you to set a Reflection Time that users have to wait after clicking the SEND button so that they can review the message they are about to send.
Reflections prompts can be enabled as well. These special messages pop up for users to read while waiting for the Reflection Time to pass. Custom Reflections can be created and enabled/disabled as needed.
The Answering Without Hearing feature can be enabled so that users responding to a question in a conversation can see a prompt that encourages them to ask a follow-up question. The frequency that this prompt is shown can be adjusted to fit your company's standards. This tool emphasizes the importance of understanding all relevant information before responding, helping users ensure their communication is clear, fitting, and considerate.
Convenient Integrations
Many businesses use different software and services to ensure their teams have the proper tools at their disposal to complete tasks. StratusTEXTING offers some integration solutions that can make using SMS messaging alongside these programs more convenient and efficient.
To explore your different integration options for StratusTEXTING, contact our team by texting (972) 332-1213.
Stripe
If you have a Stripe seller account, you can integrate it with StratusTEXTING to allow your users to request payment through text.
Note: If you are interested in using this integrated feature, we recommend reviewing Stripe's Connect Account Agreement and Stripe's Pricing.
Import Contacts from CRMs
If your users use a CRM program to manage interactions with customers, you can log into your CRM and import its contacts to make transitioning to StratusTEXTING more convenient.
You can import contacts from the following CRMs:
• Google
• Hubspot
• Zoho
• Salesforce
• Microsoft Office 365
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Zendesk Sell