Brands
A brand is who is texting: the business name your messages come from, registered with the carriers. It is registered once, and every campaign underneath sends under that name.
The checklist's Brand registration row is where a business starts one. There is no brands list — the checklist opens the brand this business has.
Why brands exist separately from businesses
The business answers "which legal entity is this?" The brand answers "what name will recipients see this traffic under?" Carriers keep them apart because the two questions have different audiences. The registration number and registered address matter to a reviewer checking records; the name matters to the person whose phone lights up.
Register brand registers the brand under the business's legal name, because carriers vet the brand against the verified business details, not against a name typed into the dialog. The name your texts identify you by is written in the campaign: reviewers look for it in the sample messages and in the opt-in and help replies. A practice known by a shorter name uses that name there.
Several brands, one business
A brand is the name people see on a text. A business is the legal entity behind it. One business can have several brands: the same registration, different sender names. A different legal entity is a different business, not the way you add a second name.
What you do not need a second brand for is sending different kinds of message. That is what a campaign is for. Today the checklist opens the one campaign stored on the brand. See Campaigns.
Today a business holds one brand: the checklist opens the brand this business already has, and it cannot start a second one yet.
What registering a brand requires
An approved business. This is a hard prerequisite. The brand registration is filed as that legal entity, so the entity has to be verified first. If the business is not approved yet, the checklist's Register brand row says so, rather than leaving you to work out what "not eligible" meant.
Almost nothing else from you. The dialog shows the brand name and the fees. A sole proprietorship adds one field: the owner's mobile number, which gets a text asking the owner to confirm the registration. Everything a carrier needs about the brand — legal name, registration number, business type, website, address, authorized representative — comes from the business details you already filled in. That is the payoff for having done that page carefully: you do not type any of it twice, and there is no second place for it to drift out of date.
Cost
Registering a brand carries carrier fees: a one-time setup charge plus a recurring monthly charge. The exact amounts are shown in the dialog before you confirm, and again on the Brand registration row of the checklist.
Billing starts when registration starts — not when the brand is approved. That is worth knowing before you register a brand you are not ready to use. If a registration stops partway and has to be restarted, the setup fee is not charged again.
After you register
The brand goes to carriers for verification. Expect a few days. The checklist's Brand registration row carries the live state, and its status pill reads:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not started | Registration has not been submitted. |
| In review | Carriers are verifying the business identity behind the brand. |
| Approved | Cleared. Campaign review can proceed. |
| Needs changes | Something was rejected, or the registration stopped early. |
Needs changes covers two different situations and the row's note tells you which:
- "Registration needs updated information before it can continue" — carriers rejected something. Go back to the business details, correct what the banner names, and retry.
- "Registration stopped before it finished" — nothing is wrong with your data. The run ended early and needs restarting. The row offers the restart, and it does not re-charge the setup fee.
Do not wait idle during the brand review. The campaign copy and opt-in evidence steps open as soon as brand registration starts, and they are the work that would otherwise happen after approval. Filling them in now is the difference between a fast setup and a slow one.
Inside a brand
A brand address opens that brand's campaign. The campaign type, the samples, the opt-in wording, and the evidence are the campaign. Write them on Campaigns while the brand is in review.
Tips
- Register the brand when you are actually ready to move — billing starts at registration, not at approval.
- Use the review wait. Open the campaign and write what this brand sends while you wait.
Related
- Business Registration — the checklist this step sits in.
- Business details — where every field a brand inherits comes from.
- Campaigns — what the brand is allowed to send.
- Phone & Voice — turning sending on for a number once the campaign clears.