SMS Compliance: Protect Your Reputation

Texting is one of the best ways to connect with customers, employees, and other contacts—so long as you’re doing it compliantly. We aren’t lawyers, but we do know a thing or two about messaging compliance. Here are our three tips.

1. Understand Opt-ins

An opt-in is someone who has given consent for you to text them.

Here’s how you know a person has opted in to be messaged:

They text you first
They’re someone you have a prior business relationship with (made a purchase or worked with you)
They share their number via web or physical form
They give verbal or written consent

You need to text opt-ins for compliance—but also because opt-ins are going to engage with you more and are less likely to opt out. That strengthens your reputation with both customers and the mobile carriers delivering your messages.

2. Make Opting in Easy

Take out the confusion by making your opt-in process crystal clear.

Keywords are words customers can text to opt in for information and promotions. They’re simple to advertise and intuitive for customers to use:

“Text SALES to get updates on our newest discounts!”

Building an opt-in list with keywords means higher delivery rates from carriers, ensuring you stay compliant, and create healthier customer engagement.

3. Send What’s Promised

So how do you keep opt-ins happy once you get ’em?

Here are our big three golden rules:

Give them what they ask for
Don’t send messages too frequently
Encourage two-way conversations

Only sending what you promised is huge for keeping people happy. That means no sending deals when you said you were only sending educational content and vice versa.

Encouraging opt ins and giving people what they want is the surest way to keep compliant. It’ll help you boost your brand and revenue in the process.

Want to dive deeper? Check out our guide, 8 Ways to Keep Your Text Messages From Being Marked as Spam.