How do I stay compliant with my SMS campaign?

SMS marketing is a great way to connect with your audience. It allows you to contact them directly through their cell phones, which is proven to be an effective communication method.

But, just like email marketing, SMS marketing requires certain things to be completed to ensure your campaign is compliant — namely consent to send messages.

For your SMS marketing campaign, you need to gain consent from the people you wish to send to. You can do this through shortcode opt-in or by asking on a web form. Once you have this, you have essentially gotten permission to send SMS messages to these contacts.

SMS differs from email marketing in one major way: you need to provide a "join" message to all shortcode opt-in subscribers. This message is sent immediately and must contains information identifying the company sending the messages, how to get more information (by texting the keyword plus the word "help" typically), and how to stop all messages (by texting the keyword plus the word "stop" typically).

The "help" and "stop" options are also mandatory. When contacts type in "help," you need to provide them with another text with the following information: who is sending the messages, how to stop messages, the frequency of the messages, and that standard message rates apply.

Then, when someone texts in "stop." They need to be immediately removed from your SMS contact list.

SimplyCast's SMS marketing tool manages the "join," "help," and "stop" messages for you automatically. Click here to learn more.