Best practices for opt-in and opt-out for business text messaging 🎞️

This article lists best practices for opt-in and opt-out related to text messaging. These best practices are described in The Messaging Principles and Best Practices which is a set of voluntary best practices developed by CTIA’s member companies throughout the wireless messaging ecosystem. CTIA represents the U.S. wireless communications industry. 

Opt-in

Messages should be sent only after the Consumer has opted-in to receive them. Opt-in procedures reduce the likelihood that a Consumer will receive an Unwanted Message. It can also help prevent messages from being sent to a phone number that does not belong to the Consumer who provided that phone number (e.g., a Consumer purposefully or mistakenly provides an incorrect phone number to the Message Sender). Depending upon the circumstances, a Consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent to receive messaging traffic through several mechanisms, including but not limited to:

• Entering a telephone number through a website;
• Clicking a button on a mobile webpage;
• Sending a message from the Consumer’s mobile device that contains an advertising keyword;
• Initiating the text message exchange in which the Message Sender replies to the Consumer only with responsive information;
• Signing up at a point-of-sale (POS) or other Message Sender on-site location;
• Opting-in over the phone using interactive voice response (IVR) technology

Opt-In with Colligso TextIn

From the above list, Colligso TextIn supports the following mechanisms.

• Entering a telephone number through a website;
  • TextIn is either directly integrated with various point of sale systems or can be integrated with numerous customer facing apps via various integration platforms. TextIn provides an action named Get Permission to get opt-in.
• Sending a message from the Consumer’s mobile device that contains an advertising keyword;
  • TextIn supports many opt-in keywords by default. Message Sender (business) can choose one of these and ask consumers to send it to the Colligso-assigned SMS number for the Message Sender.
  • Additionally, Message Sender can run Text Hashtag campaign and get opt-in for his own keyword.
• Initiating the text message exchange in which the Message Sender replies to the Consumer only with responsive information;
  • TextIn's mobile opt-in feature enables the Message Sender to initiate a text message exchange automatically as soon as customer's mobile number is entered at the integrated point of sale or customer management system.
  • TextIn creates a pre-built campaign (name starts with phone_text_default) for every Message Sender to get opt-in from customers when customer data imported into Colligso via various means such as csv, spreadsheet, point of sale, etc.). Message Sender would just change schedule and activate it. No other changes are required.
• Signing up at a point-of-sale (POS) or other Message Sender on-site location;
  • TextIn is either directly integrated with various point of sale systems or can be integrated with numerous customer facing apps via various integration platforms. TextIn provides an action named Get Permission to get opt-in.  

Opt-in Samples

For opt-in message and opt-in response message, take a look at the samples provided in CTIA's Short Code Monitoring Handbook. TextIn adds instructions to opt-out in every outgoing message so you do not need to. We RECOMMEND using Appendix B as a reference: Sample Compliant Recurring-Messages Program.

Opt-out

Opt-out mechanisms facilitate Consumer choice to terminate messaging communications, regardless of whether Consumers have consented to receive the message. Message Senders should acknowledge and respect Consumers’ opt-out requests consistent with the following guidelines:

• Message Senders should ensure that Consumers have the ability to opt-out of receiving Messages at any time;
• Message Senders should support multiple mechanisms of opt-out, including phone call, email, or text; and
• Message Senders should acknowledge and honor all Consumer opt-out requests by sending one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign to notify the Consumer that they have opted-out successfully. No further messages should be sent following the confirmation message.

Message Senders should state in the message how and what words effect an opt-out. Standardized “STOP” wording should be used for opt-out instructions, however opt-out requests with normal language (i.e., stop, end, unsubscribe, cancel, quit, “please opt me out”) should also be read and acted upon by a Message Sender except where a specific word can result in unintentional opt-out. The validity of a Consumer opt-out should not be impacted by any variances in the Consumer opt-out response, such as capitalization, punctuation, or any letter-case sensitivities.

Opt-out with Colligso TextIn

Colligso TextIn supports the following mechanisms to opt-out: 

• Message Senders should ensure that Consumers have the ability to opt-out of receiving Messages at any time;
  • Every message sent out by TextIn includes a footer including instructions to opt-out as following:

        <Business Name> <Business Phone#> <Business City> Text STOP to stop

• Message Senders should support multiple mechanisms of opt-out, including phone call, email, or text; and
  • TextIn supports many opt-out keywords by default that could be used to opt-out by the consumers.

Privacy Policy

Section 5.2.1 of CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices provides the following guidelines regarding privacy policy. 

Maintain and Conspicuously Display a Clear, Easy-to-Understand Privacy Policy Message Senders should maintain and conspicuously display a privacy policy that is easily accessed by the Consumer (e.g., through clearly labeled links) and that clearly describes how the Message Sender may collect, use, and share information from Consumers. All applicable privacy policies should be referenced in and accessible from the initial call-to-action. Message Senders also should ensure that their privacy policy is consistent with applicable privacy law and that their treatment of information is consistent with their privacy policy.

Privacy Policy is typically hosted on your website, a public web page or could be a public file such as Google Doc, Microsoft Doc, etc. If you just have a Facebook page, add a link to your privacy policy to About->Privacy and legal info.

Template: Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

Your website should have terms and conditions. Complete terms and conditions should include customer care contact information, opt-out instructions, a recurring message disclosure, a product description, and a program (brand) name. Some program types (e.g., sweepstakes) have additional requirements by wireless provider.

Template: Mobile Messaging Terms and Conditions

Best Practices

• The Messaging Principles and Best Practices, CTIA
• Protecting yourself from Spam Text Messages , CTIA
• CTIA Short Code Monitoring Program - Short Code Monitoring Handbook section A.9, A.10, Appendix A, Appendix B 

See also:

• Change mobile opt-in messages
• How can I ask my customers to subscribe for text marketing?