How do you set up A2P 10DLC compliant texting in a staffing agency CRM?

To send compliant recruiter texts through a Twilio-based setup, you register an A2P Brand and then an A2P Campaign. Twilio says a sender using U.S. 10-digit long-code messaging must register an A2P 10DLC campaign, and the campaign process requires a Brand first. Twilio lists the Brand establishment fee at $4.50 one time and Standard Brand vetting at $41.50 one time, as of November 2026.

The rest of this guide covers the steps, the fees, the EIN rule, what Trust Score affects, and the consent and timing guardrails to settle before your CRM sends anything. Fees and rules can change, so confirm them on your provider's pages before you pay.

What is A2P 10DLC and why does a staffing agency need it?

A2P means application-to-person messaging, which is software sending texts to people. 10DLC means a standard 10-digit local phone number. If your CRM texts candidates and clients from a local number through Twilio, that traffic falls under this registration.

Skipping it has a cost. Twilio states that unregistered traffic sent from a Twilio 10DLC number receives additional carrier fees. The sources reviewed for this article do not describe other consequences in detail, so check with your provider on how unregistered traffic is handled.

If you are still choosing a CRM, start with our page on a CRM for staffing agencies and the comparison of all 18 CRMs. Ask each vendor which texting provider sits behind its SMS feature, because the registration happens with that provider.

What are the steps to register A2P 10DLC?

The path below follows Twilio's documented workflow. If your CRM uses a different texting provider, the screens and fees may differ.

1. Gather your business information. Have your legal business name and tax ID ready before you start.
2. Register your A2P Brand. The Brand is your business identity with The Campaign Registry.
3. Choose your Brand type. This decides your vetting path, fees and campaign limits.
4. Open the campaign screen. In Twilio, go to Communications, Trust Hub, Registrations, and then Create A2P Campaign.
5. Describe your messages. Twilio bases campaign registration on the types of messages you plan to send, so describe your real use.
6. Wait for review. Twilio says new U.S. A2P 10DLC campaign registrations undergo manual vetting and incur a campaign verification fee at external vetting.
7. Link your numbers. Connect your recruiter numbers to the approved campaign through your CRM's SMS settings.

How much does A2P 10DLC registration cost for a staffing company?

Here are the fees Twilio lists for Brand registration, as of November 2026.

Item	Twilio-listed amount
New Brand establishment fee (The Campaign Registry)	$4.50 one time
Standard Brand vetting	$41.50 one time
Brand appeal after a Standard vetting rejection	$11 per request
Authentication Plus (public, for-profit brands)	$12.50 per request

Source: Twilio, A2P 10DLC Brand Registration.

A Standard Brand that pays the establishment fee and the vetting fee spends $46 on Brand setup. That figure is not your total. The amount of the campaign verification fee, any recurring campaign fees, carrier fees and per-message charges are not all stated in the material behind this article, so we cannot give you a full all-in number.

Twilio also states that additional fees may apply for deeper identity checks, appeals, or special reviews for sensitive use cases. Budget a little extra for a resubmission, since Twilio notes that additional charges may apply if a campaign is denied during external vetting and must be resubmitted.

Do you need an EIN to register?

If you have one, you will use it. Twilio says that if a sole proprietorship has an EIN or another tax ID, it must register as a Low-Volume Brand or Standard Brand rather than a Sole Proprietor Brand.

In practice, enter your legal name and tax ID exactly as they appear on your IRS records. A mismatch between the name you type and the name on file is an avoidable reason for a rejection, so copy the details from an official document rather than typing them from memory.

What does Trust Score change for your agency?

Trust Score is the result of Brand vetting. The material reviewed documents one effect: a Standard Brand's T-Mobile daily messaging volume depends on its Trust Score and can range from 2,000 to unlimited SMS segments and MMS per day.

Do the math on your own sends. Suppose 40 recruiters each send 60 texts a day, which is 2,400 messages. A long message can count as more than one segment, so your segment count could be higher still. At the low end of the range, that agency would exceed 2,000 per day on T-Mobile.

The scoring methodology is not explained in the sources we reviewed, and no score is guaranteed for staffing companies. Check your score after vetting, then compare it with your busiest day of sends.

Can you register more than one campaign?

A Standard Brand may generally register up to five campaigns unless it provides a clear and valid business reason for exceeding that limit.

Whether you need separate campaigns for candidates and for clients depends on your actual use cases and on the provider's review. The material we reviewed does not set a rule requiring separation. A practical test is to list each message type you send and who receives it. Then ask your provider whether one campaign description can honestly cover all of them.

What does TCPA consent require for recruiter texts?

The FCC states that the TCPA generally prohibits non-emergency autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones without prior express consent. A separate FCC order describes prior express consent as required for autodialed texts to wireless numbers, subject to stated exceptions.

The FCC also says consent must be written when a prerecorded or autodialed call contains an advertisement. Whether a given job alert or client update counts as an advertisement is a question for your attorney. It depends on what the message says.

What should your job-board opt-in language say?

No source we reviewed provides a single universal opt-in sentence for staffing job boards. Your wording has to match what you actually send, so we are not giving you a sentence to paste blindly. Build yours from these parts:

• Sender identity: your agency's legal or trade name, matching your Brand registration.
• Message purpose: what the texts are for, as in your campaign description.
• Frequency: how often a person should expect messages.
• Terms and privacy: links to both, visible next to the checkbox.
• Consent type: whether the messages are marketing or operational, which changes what consent you need.

Keep the consent action separate, with an unchecked box. Then make sure your campaign description matches the form word for word in substance. Reviewers compare the two, so a mismatch invites a denial.

Can recruiters text outside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.?

The 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window has a documented source, but a narrow one. The FCC says its cited 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local-time restriction applies specifically to federal debt-collection calls and texts. For those calls, the FCC says they may be placed only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time at the debtor's location.

The sources we reviewed do not establish that every staffing-recruiting text is federally barred outside those hours. Ask your attorney what applies to your messages and states.

You still need a timing rule in your CRM. Any quiet-hours setting must use the recipient's time zone, not the recruiter's. A recruiter in Chicago texting a candidate in Denver is a common mismatch. Decide your send window with counsel, then enforce it in software instead of relying on memory.

How do you handle opt-outs?

The FCC says recipients of federal debt-collection robocalls and robotexts have a right to opt out at any time by any reasonable means, including reply text. That rule is specific to debt collection. Honoring a reply-text opt-out quickly is still a sound baseline for any recruiter program.

Whatever your policy, the opt-out has to work in the system. Test it before launch: text a STOP-style reply from a personal phone, then confirm the contact is blocked from every sequence, bulk send and individual recruiter message.

How do you set up consent guardrails inside your CRM?

We have no verified, step-by-step configuration for any named staffing CRM, so we will not invent menu paths. Instead, ask your CRM vendor to show you each of these settings working in a demo:

1. A consent field on every candidate and client contact, with a date and the source of the opt-in (form name or URL).
2. A block on sending to any contact whose consent field is empty.
3. A time zone field on the contact, plus a send window that follows it.
4. An opt-out flag that updates automatically when a reply comes in and stops all automated and manual texts.
5. An export of consent records you can produce on request.

Recruiters working in a general database may also want our page on a CRM for recruiters. Our how we pick page explains what we look at when comparing tools.

Pre-launch checklist

• Legal business name and tax ID collected and matching IRS records.
• Brand registered ($4.50 one time) and Standard vetting paid ($41.50 one time).
• Campaign created under Trust Hub, Registrations, Create A2P Campaign.
• Campaign description matches the messages you send.
• Opt-in form includes sender, purpose, frequency, terms and privacy links.
• Quiet-hours rule agreed with your attorney and tied to the recipient's time zone.
• Opt-out reply tested end to end.