SMS campaigns are marketing communications shared as text messages. They help you reach leads and customers on their mobile devices, even after they’ve closed their work laptops for the day. With a 98% open rate, they could be the missing piece to your campaigns’ success.
Before you get started though, we’ve prepared some advice so you can use SMS effectively, and not land yourself in legal trouble.
Compliance laws are implemented globally to prevent businesses from harassing phone owners. Today, we’ll explore the consequences of violating compliance laws, understand the nuances between different regulatory bodies, and our recommendations for SMS compliance.
Before we dive in, here are some use cases for SMS in marketing:
- Stock notifications
- Cart abandonment
- Transactional confirmation
- Appointment reminders
- Event attendance
- Surveys
- Campaigns and offers
How do I comply with SMS regulations?
Luckily, you don’t need to bend over backwards to comply with regulations - you just need to put a few measures in place to stay above board.
Obtain explicit consent
Let your contact choose which communications they want to receive and in what format. Maybe they’re happy to get your emails but don’t want SMS messages. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t restrict you to communicating with existing contacts only.
If you sell products online, you may generate leads who sign up for your newsletter. From here, you can share communications settings before enrolling your signups in campaigns, encouraging them to browse and checkout from your online store.
As a SaaS business, you could apply the same lead generation to gated content or event signups. Follow the same process of sharing clear marketing preferences with leads to guide your prospecting activities.
Ensure you have clear permission before sending any SMS messages.
Provide clear opt-out options
While data protection agencies draft their terms in ‘legalese’, it’s best you stick to clear English when explaining how your recipients can opt-in or out of different mailing lists.
Stop frustration by providing a simple system for your contacts to unsubscribe from individual or all communications from your business.
It’s illegal in some regions to send marketing communications without an ‘unsubscribe’ link: concealing or obfuscating the link can also violate compliance laws and may lead to fines.
Restrict your messages to daytime
Ensure your SMS campaigns aren’t delivered during ‘quiet hours’ - periods like early morning or late at night. Bothering your leads and customers when they’re relaxing and resting could drive them from your business, souring your brand reputation.
Laws and industry standards prohibit marketing text messages sent in the morning before and at night – find regional specifications below. This applies to the recipient’s local time zone. If you’re launching a campaign across multiple regions, it’s well worth segmenting the target audience to ensure you reach each contact at a reasonable time.
| Region | Allowed send time | Additional restricted hours |
| US*, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand Germany, The Netherlands, Spain. | 8 am - 8 pm | |
| France** | 8 am - 10 pm | Sundays and public holidays |
| Brazil | 8 am - 9 pm |
Saturdays 8 am - 2 pm Sundays |
| Mexico | 8 am - 6 pm |
*Generally, the USA enables SMS marketing campaigns until 9pm. Some states enforce quiet hours from 8pm, like Florida.
** Quiet hours in France also extend to public holidays and Sundays, with restrictions lasting the full day. While you may be able to launch campaigns, wireless carriers will not deliver them.
Avoid sharing prohibited content
If you sell alcohol or tobacco products, or you provide gambling services, SMS campaigns may not be suitable for your marketing.
Wireless carriers (the companies providing physical and technical infrastructure for mobile usage) may refuse to deliver messages concerning or promoting:
- SHAFT, which includes
- Sexually inappropriate or explicit content
- Hatred content that promotes violence or discrimination
- Alcohol*
- Firearms including fireworks
- Tobacco
- Illegal substances including cannabis and CBD-derived products
- Gambling
- Multi-level marketing
- Debt collection or forgiveness
- High-risk financial services like cryptocurrency and mining.
- Religious content
*Some regions enable you to promote alcohol with the condition that you use ‘age-gating’. This means collecting your audience’s age to demonstrate consent. If your contact doesn’t meet the regional minimum age, they cannot legally consent to SMS campaigns involving alcohol.
The minimum age requirements are as follows:
- 16 in Switzerland
- 18 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
- 21 in the United States.
However, not all countries permit age-gating and it only permits the advertisement of alcohol as opposed to other prohibited content types.
We recommend researching the exact laws and regulations around advertising and communications in your target region, especially for high-risk or prohibited products and services.
Who regulates SMS compliance?
| Region | Laws and guidelines |
| USA | |
| UK | |
| The EU | |
| Brazil | |
| Mexico |
|
| Australia | |
| New Zealand | |
| Canada |
The regulating body responsible for compliance varies depending on your campaign’s target region. Different regions and countries have varying laws created to protect their citizens.
As with any business activity, it’s good practice to familiarize yourself with the relevant regulating bodies and their laws before you get started.
SMS compliance in the US
Businesses launching SMS campaigns in the US must comply with the laws defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC regulates regional and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.
A notable FCC law is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), created to restrict telemarketing, automating dialing systems, and SMS marketing.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) sets guidelines and best practices for wireless carriers and service providers. The CTIA has several guidelines including SHAFT regulations. SHAFT prohibits businesses from sharing content concerning or promoting sexual content, violent or discriminating content, alcohol, firearms, or tobacco products.
Campaigns distributed in the US must also comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). ADA ultimately prohibits discrimination based on disability, requiring businesses to provide equal access to their services and communications. This is relevant to marketers launching SMS campaigns as your SMS marketing should be:
- Transparent: you must identify the sender and the purpose of our message, clarifying who is contacting them and why
- Shortcode compliant: any shortcodes (i.e. shortened telephone numbers) must provide clear opt-out instructions and obtain proper consent.
SMS compliance in the UK
There are three core compliance laws to follow when launching SMS campaigns in the UK:
- The General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR)
- The Data Protection Act (DPA)
- and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
GDPR is one of the most comprehensive privacy and security regulations worldwide, designed to protect UK and EU citizens' data. GDPR stipulates six legal instances in which you might process personal data, including two relevant to marketers:
- The data subject - the customer - gives unambiguous consent to process their information. In this context, means they’ve opted in to receive your SMS communications.
- You have a legitimate interest in processing personal data. It’s the most flexible basis for lawful processing. For more information, visit the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Following the DPA’s regulations, businesses can only process and store someone’s data with their permission. Further, this information can only be held for as long as necessary for you to deliver your service.
PECR is set up to protect your data as it is shared and used on electronic devices. These regulations apply not only to marketing emails and texts but to technologies like website tracking and security in communications services too.
SMS compliance in other regions
Launching SMS campaigns elsewhere in the world? Here are some more regulating bodies in other regions:
- The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) requires clear consent to electronic communications including SMS.
- To run SMS campaigns in Europe, follow GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive which also requires proper consent and clear information on data usage.
- Australia’s Spam Act 2003 restricts unsolicited commercial messages, requiring prior consent and clear opt-out instructions.
- The National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) regulates the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) in Brazil.
- In Mexico, the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO) oversees SMS marketing regulations.
As part of your international marketing strategy, we recommend researching the data and communications regulations applicable to the regions where you wish to run SMS campaigns.
Why is SMS compliance important?
We’ve explained the legality of your compliance, but there’s more to it for both you and your customers.
- Privacy and data security - what might seem like an innocent text here and there could feel invasive for your recipients. This is especially true if they haven’t specifically opted in to receive your brand’s text messages
- Damaging customer relationships - sending as little as one unwanted message to a lead or customer can cause upset and annoyance, potentially tarnishing your customer relationships
- Increased churn - Poor customer relationship management due to sending unwanted communications can quickly put off customers, leaving them to go elsewhere. For B2C marketers, this may even mean scaring off leads who haven’t yet purchased from your brand
- Reputation and trustworthiness - Word of mouth works both ways and unhappy customers will share poor experiences with their networks and review sites, damaging your reputation and trustworthiness. Poor renown is a turn-off to prospective customers, ultimately hindering future sales too.
- Legal fines - if the above wasn’t bad enough, unhappy recipients may also report your communications to the local regulating body, resulting in large fines to pay out.
Transpond’s best practices
- Obtain explicit consent: Always secure clear, documented permission before sending any SMS messages.
- Provide clear opt-out instructions: Every message should include a simple method for recipients to unsubscribe.
- Respect ‘quiet hours’
- Maintain records: If nothing else, it pays off to be on the safe side: keep detailed records of consent and opt-out requests to demonstrate your compliance if ever you’re challenged.
- Regularly review regulations: Laws and guidelines are subject to change so it’s crucial to stay updated on any new legal developments in each region you target.
SMS compliance in summary
SMS campaigns are an effective marketing tool, but compliance is crucial to avoid legal risks and maintain customer trust. Since regulations exist worldwide to protect consumers from unwanted messages, you must adhere to these laws to avoid fines and reputational damage.
Beyond legal requirements, SMS compliance helps you build trust, improve your customer relationships, and reduce churn. Unwanted messages can frustrate recipients, harm your brand reputation, and lead to penalties.
To ensure compliance, we recommend documenting consent, staying up-to-date on regulations, and integrating compliance measures into your marketing strategies. In doing so, you can run effective SMS campaigns without risking legal trouble or damaging your customer relationships.
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