Disclaimer: BatchDialer does not offer legal advice. This article is for educational purposes only. Consult a legal professional before cold calling leads or using a dialer.
Key Takeaways:
- SMS marketing in 2025 faces stricter regulations like A2P 10DLC and TCPA compliance, leading to higher costs and lower delivery rates as carriers increasingly filter messages.
- Cold calling with AI-powered dialers like BatchDialer offers real-time conversations and better lead qualification while automatically managing compliance.
- Combining BatchDialer’s smart dialing features with quality property data from PropStream can create a more effective outreach strategy than SMS marketing.
Many real estate agents text prospects to generate business. However, this outreach strategy may not be as effective as it once was—especially compared to AI-assisted cold calling.
Between carrier filters and SMS regulations, many marketing text messages don’t even reach their intended recipient because they’re blocked or marked as spam. Furthermore, agents that violate these regulations may face steep fines and other legal consequences.
To get the most out of your outbound marketing, you must focus on the channels and methods that deliver the best results.
The Growing Challenges of SMS Outreach in 2025
SMS marketing has been around for decades, but in 2025, it faces more regulations than ever:
- A2P 10DLC: This stands for “Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code.” It’s a nationwide system and standard for companies to communicate with customers via SMS or MMS messages. Among other things, it requires you to register your business phone number to ensure you comply with carrier regulations.
- TCPA: This is short for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Among other things, it requires you to receive express consent from someone before texting (or calling) them if their number was generated with a random or sequential number generator.
- Carrier filtering: This is a practice where phone carriers block the delivery of some or all of the messages from specific numbers or businesses to comply with SMS regulations and reduce spam.
As a result, some SMS marketing campaigns may experience declining delivery rates and rising costs, putting a strain on your resources and time. To make your marketing dollars stretch further, you may want to consider an older but more resilient tactic: cold calling.
Why Cold Calling Still Works (When Done Right)
Cold calling is the practice of calling prospects you’ve never talked to before. The goal is to start a conversation, qualify their interest, and ultimately convert them into new clients.
Unlike SMS messages, cold calling makes it easy to have genuine human conversations and qualify prospects in real time. However, you must still ensure that you comply with telemarketing regulations and don’t resort to spam dialing techniques.
According to Salesforce, cold calling remains a tried and true marketing strategy because it provides immediate feedback, calls are harder to ignore, and seniors may respond better to phone calls than other communication channels.
The Role of BatchDialer in a Post-SMS Era
That said, it’s not enough to manually dial phone numbers. To stay ahead of the competition, invest in a dialer, an automated phone calling system that streamlines cold calling campaigns.
For example, BatchDialer is a dialing solution to consider with the following must-have features:
Multi-Line and Predictive Dialing
Multi-line dialing lets you call up to five numbers at a time, directing you to the first number that picks up and redirecting the others. Meanwhile, predictive dialing prioritizes numbers in your call queue most likely to connect based on BatchDialer’s proprietary right-party contact algorithms.
Smart Local Presence
Leads are four times more likely to pick up your calls if you’re calling from a local area code. That’s why BatchDialer automatically displays local numbers on recipients’ phones when you call from outside their area.
Number Reputation Management
BatchDialer actively monitors 10+ sources to ensure your phone numbers stay in good standing. Whenever a phone number gets flagged as spam, BatchDialer automatically replaces it.
AI Suite
A dialer with built-in AI features can take your cold calling to the next level. For example, BatchDialer’s AI Suite provides outreach recommendations and prompts, trend and sentiment analysis, and other predictive insights to optimize your marketing.
By using a dialer like BatchDialer, you get all the traditional benefits of cold calling with the modern benefits of a data-driven strategy.
Combining Property Data and a Smart Dialer for Outreach Beyond 2025
BatchDialer performs best when paired with quality property data. After all, you’re more likely to find highly motivated sellers and potential buyers when you have accurate real estate data.
Fortunately, BatchDialer pairs seamlessly with PropStream’s nationwide real estate data, a comprehensive database containing information on over 160 million properties across the country. It lets you build highly targeted lead lists with 165+ search filters that you can stack on top of one another. Alternatively, you can choose from 20 pre-built Lead Lists to quickly identify potential leads to call.
From there, you can import lead lists directly into BatchDialer and start a cold calling campaign. With higher-quality PropStream leads, you may see your connect and conversion rates improve.
The key is to focus on efficient workflows without sacrificing the personal touch in each call. The rest, including call transparency, consent management, and compliance with STIR/SHAKEN standards, is taken care of automatically by BatchDialer.
Try BatchDialer for Free Today
With SMS marketing potentially becoming riskier, now may be the time to connect and follow up with leads in a better way: through trusted, AI-powered calls with BatchDialer.
Start your free 7-day trial today!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is SMS marketing still effective in 2025?
SMS marketing in 2025 faces growing challenges due to stricter regulations and aggressive carrier filtering, leading to lower delivery rates and higher costs. Many businesses are finding better results with AI-powered cold calling instead.
What is A2P 10DLC, and how does it affect text messaging?
A2P 10DLC (Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code) is a regulatory system that requires businesses to register their phone numbers before sending marketing text messages. This adds complexity and cost to SMS campaigns.
What’s the difference between a predictive dialer and a smart dialer?
A predictive dialer uses algorithms to call multiple numbers and connect you to live answers, while a smart dialer includes additional features like local presence ID and AI-powered insights. BatchDialer combines both capabilities.
What features should I look for in cold calling software?
The best cold calling software should include multi-line dialing, local presence ID technology, number reputation management, integration with real estate databases, and built-in compliance. Advanced platforms also offer AI-powered features for call analysis and optimization.
Can I use the same phone number for SMS marketing and cold calling campaigns?
While technically possible, it can be risky due to different compliance requirements and potential carrier filtering affecting both channels. Using dedicated numbers for each channel helps you maintain better organization and a better phone number reputation.
What is the number reputation management in cold calling?
Number reputation management involves monitoring multiple sources to ensure your phone numbers aren’t flagged as spam. BatchDialer automatically replaces flagged numbers to help you maintain high connect rates.
