Tells is heading to Affiliate Summit East 2026 in New York on July 27 and 28. Members of our team, including co-founder Justin Ramsey, will be there to meet affiliate networks, publishers, lead buyers, agencies, and performance marketing teams looking for better ways to turn consumer interest into real conversations.
For performance marketers, generating the lead is only the beginning. What happens in the next few minutes often determines whether that lead becomes a customer or disappears into a crowded funnel. Fast follow-up matters, but so do consent records, deliverability, accurate routing, and the ability to keep every conversation aligned with carrier requirements and customer expectations.
Where Performance Marketing Meets Customer Communication
Affiliate and lead-generation programs can move quickly. A click becomes a form submission. A form submission becomes a call, text, appointment, or purchase intent signal. The communication layer connecting those moments has to move just as quickly without sacrificing reliability or compliance.
That is the problem Tells is focused on solving. We help businesses modernize customer communication across SMS, RCS, and AI voice while supporting the infrastructure and workflows required to operate those channels at scale.
At Affiliate Summit East, we are looking forward to practical conversations about:
- Speed to lead: Reaching interested consumers while intent is still high.
- SMS and RCS strategy: Choosing the right channel for alerts, follow-up, branded conversations, and richer customer experiences.
- AI voice: Using voice agents for qualification, routing, appointment setting, inbound response, and customer reactivation.
- Short code and 10DLC planning: Building messaging programs on infrastructure suited to each campaign's scale and use case.
- Consent and compliance workflows: Keeping opt-in records, carrier requirements, and operational controls connected to the customer journey.
- Marketing-to-sales handoffs: Coordinating messaging, calls, and internal routing so qualified opportunities reach the right team quickly.
SMS, RCS, and AI Voice in One Operating Strategy
Different customer moments call for different communication tools. SMS remains a direct and familiar channel for timely updates and two-way conversations. RCS adds verified branding, richer media, interactive actions, and a more app-like experience inside the native messaging inbox. AI voice can handle conversations that benefit from natural dialogue, qualification, scheduling, and real-time routing.
The strongest programs do not treat those channels as isolated campaigns. They connect them around the customer's intent, consent, and next best action. A lead might receive an immediate text, continue through a branded RCS experience, and move to an AI-assisted or human voice conversation when the situation calls for it.
Tells gives teams a practical way to build those workflows while keeping deliverability, infrastructure, and compliance considerations in view.
“Performance marketers need fast communication that is also reliable and compliant. That is exactly where Tells is focused.”
David Schlaegel, Co-Founder of Tells.co
Meet Tells in New York
Affiliate Summit East brings together the people building modern performance marketing programs. We are attending to learn what operators are seeing in the market, share what we are building, and help teams think through the communication layer after the lead, click, form submission, call, or purchase-intent event.
If you are attending Affiliate Summit East 2026 and want to discuss messaging strategy, RCS readiness, AI voice use cases, short code or 10DLC planning, compliant opt-in workflows, or scalable customer communication, connect with the Tells team in New York.
Read the official announcement: Tells Brings Messaging and AI Voice Solutions to Affiliate Summit East.
To learn more about Tells and our messaging and voice solutions, visit Tells.co.
