How to Send a Text Blast (Without Landing in Spam)

A text blast is one message sent to many recipients at once, where each person receives it as a private, individual text. Recipients never see each other's numbers and replies come back only to you. That last part matters: a text blast is not a group text. Group threads expose every number, invite reply-all chaos, and cap out around 20 to 30 people on native phone apps. Blasts through a business texting platform scale to thousands. The full breakdown is in mass text vs group text.

Typical blasts: a flash promotion to customers, a shift opening to qualified candidates, a weather closure to members, an event reminder to attendees. Anything where the same core message goes to a whole list, ideally personalized with each recipient's name or details.

Two things must be true before the first message leaves, and neither is optional:

• Every recipient opted in. Marketing blasts require prior express written consent under the TCPA. Purchased, scraped, or rented lists are off the table. Not sure your sign-up language qualifies? Use the wording in our SMS opt-in examples.
• Your number is registered. US carriers require business senders to text from a verified toll-free number or a 10DLC-registered local number. Unregistered blast traffic is precisely what carrier filters block. Toll-free vs 10DLC explains both paths.

1. Import your list. Upload a CSV, map the columns, and let the platform validate, format, and deduplicate every number. Anyone who previously opted out stays suppressed automatically.
2. Write one message. Keep it inside one SMS segment (160 plain-text characters) when you can: shorter messages cost less and read better. Lead with the point, end with one clear call to action.
3. Personalize it. Merge fields like {first_name} turn a blast into what reads like a personal note. Blasts with a name in the first line consistently outperform anonymous ones.
4. Test it. Preview with real contact data and send a test to your own phone. Check the sender number, links, and how the message wraps.
5. Send or schedule. Launch now or schedule for a better hour, then watch delivery, response, and opt-out rates live.
6. Work the replies. Answers land in a shared inbox where your team can assign and respond. The blast starts the conversation; replies are where the value is.

Want the deeper version of each step, including consent record-keeping and list segmentation? Read how to send a mass text. Need wording to start from? Grab a starting point from our message template library.

Carriers score blast traffic aggressively. The senders who get filtered share the same habits, so avoid them:

• No unregistered numbers. The single biggest filter trigger.
• Identify yourself. Say who you are in the message. Anonymous texts get reported, and reports poison a number's reputation.
• Skip link shorteners. Public shorteners (bit.ly and friends) are heavily associated with spam. Use your own domain.
• Avoid prohibited content. Carriers block SHAFT content (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco) and cannabis on US routes regardless of consent.
• Honor opt-outs instantly. STOP must actually stop. Platforms handle this automatically; manual workflows forget, and forgotten opt-outs become complaints and TCPA exposure.

The complete rulebook, including quiet hours and record-keeping, is in the SMS compliance guide.

Whatever the window, respect TCPA quiet hours: roughly 8am to 9pm in the recipient's local time, with some states stricter.

Platforms meter blasts in credits: one credit per SMS segment (160 plain-text characters) per recipient, and typically 3 credits for a photo (MMS). A one-segment blast to 1,000 people is 1,000 credits; on a Quick Send Business plan that works out to a few cents per message, with volume plans bringing the rate down.

The full math, including plan comparisons, overage rates, and the hidden fees some vendors add, is in the mass texting cost guide. Comparing platforms first? Start with the best mass texting services roundup.