Use this guide before you send a campaign, publish a playbook, start a route, or import customer profiles.
The goal is to understand whether Hellotext should contact a customer profile, through which channel, and why.
This is product guidance for operating Hellotext. It does not replace legal or compliance review for the countries and channels you use.
The short version
A customer profile is usually ready to receive a message when:
- The profile has a reachable channel address, such as a phone number or WhatsApp identity.
- The profile is subscribed or otherwise eligible for the channel you plan to use.
- The profile has not opted out of that channel.
- The channel, sender, and message type are ready.
- Quiet hours, frequency limits, and other sending rules allow the message.
If any of those pieces is missing, do not assume the customer profile can receive the message.
Customer profiles, subscribers, and audiences
A customer profile is the record Hellotext uses to understand one customer. It can include identifiers, channel addresses, profile properties, events, purchases, conversations, and subscription status.
A subscriber is a customer profile that has opted in to receive messages on a channel.
An audience is the group of customer profiles selected for a campaign, playbook, route, or report. An audience can contain profiles that are not eligible for every channel, so always check eligibility before sending.
Consent is channel-specific
Treat consent as channel-specific.
For example, a customer profile may be subscribed for SMS but not WhatsApp, or may be able to receive a reply in an active conversation but not a new outbound message.
Before sending, ask:
- Which channel will this message use?
- How did this customer profile subscribe to that channel?
- Is the sender or account connected for that channel?
- Does the message type fit the channel rules?
- Can the customer reply, and where will that reply go?
Common states to review
Exact labels can vary by channel and account setup, but these are the states to reason about before sending.
| State | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribed or opted in | The profile can usually receive messages on that channel if other sending rules allow it. | Confirm the message, timing, frequency, and sender. |
| Opted out or unsubscribed | The customer asked not to receive messages on that channel. | Do not include the profile in sends for that channel. |
| Unknown or no consent | Hellotext has a profile or channel address, but no clear opt-in for that channel. | Use a capture or consent path before sending. |
| Invalid or unreachable | The channel address cannot be used reliably. | Fix the data or remove the profile from the launch audience. |
| Duplicate profile | More than one profile may represent the same customer. | Review identity and merge behavior before measuring or sending broadly. |
Where consent can come from
Consent and subscription status can come from different places depending on your setup:
- QR codes.
- Shareable links.
- Website forms and popups.
- Checkout opt-ins.
- Channel-specific opt-in flows.
- Customer profile imports with consent fields.
- Commerce or custom integrations that sync subscription status.
Capture tools are usually the safest self-serve way to grow a reachable audience because they create a clear subscription path.
Before importing customer profiles
Imports need extra care because imported data may not have the same context as a capture.
Before importing or sending to imported profiles, confirm:
- Where the customer profiles came from.
- Which channel each profile is eligible for.
- Which field maps to subscription or consent status.
- Whether opted-out profiles are excluded or mapped correctly.
- Whether duplicates should be merged before launch.
- Whether the first send should go to a smaller test segment.
If the consent source is unclear, keep those profiles out of the first send.
Before sending
Before launching a campaign, playbook, route, or agent, check:
- The selected audience matches the goal.
- The audience has consent for the channel.
- Exclusions remove opted-out, invalid, duplicate, test, or internal profiles.
- The sender and channel are connected.
- The message includes opt-out or unsubscribe copy when needed.
- Replies will reach the Inbox or the expected owner.
- Quiet hours and frequency limits are clear.
For a first launch, start with a small audience and watch replies, opt-outs, failed messages, and reporting before expanding.
If a customer profile cannot be messaged
If a customer profile is not eligible, use a safer path:
- Ask the customer to subscribe through a capture.
- Send from a channel where the customer is already eligible.
- Fix invalid or duplicated profile data.
- Wait until the customer starts a conversation if the channel allows replies only in certain windows.
- Exclude the profile from the send.
Do not override an opt-out just to make a campaign, playbook, or route larger.