SMS Marketing: Ensuring Compliance with the Law
All businesses are subject to the law when it comes to advertising and marketing. Companies cannot make false claims or mislead consumers via advertising materials, for example. Designed to protect consumers and commercial clients, the law regulates most forms of marketing in some way.
When marketing your business, products or services, it’s essential that you consider the relevant regulations and ensure that your campaign adheres to them. Failure to do so could result in the business receiving fines so it’s important to comply with the appropriate legislation.
With companies carrying out various forms of marketing activity, it can be difficult to keep on top of the relevant laws and guidelines. By working with SMS marketing experts, however, you can ensure that your marketing campaigns are fully compliant with the necessary laws and that you’re able to connect with your target audience lawfully and effectively.
Ensuring SMS marketing compliance
Both the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations apply to SMS marketing, as well as other forms of marketing, such as telephone calls and emails. Whilst there is a myriad of specific guidelines laid down by the law, one of the most important issues for businesses to note is that prospective customers must have provided consent before you’re able to send SMS marketing texts to them legally.
Whilst the law requires potential customers to have given consent before they are sent SMS marketing messages, it is slightly different if the recipient is an existing customer. If an existing customer has provided their details whilst purchasing a product or service and you use these details to market similar products and services to them, this will not breach the regulations.
All SMS marketing texts should, however, give the recipient the chance to opt out of future campaigns.
Can businesses still use SMS services?
Absolutely! Despite the legislations governing SMS business texts, SMS marketing still remains one of the most effective forms of contacting existing and potential customers. With a read rate of over 95%, millions of businesses are making a significant return on investment by using SMS marketing.
Whilst the law regarding SMS marketing may seem onerous, it is not particularly burdensome. Much of the regulations apply to other forms of marketing and certain types of marketing activities are subject to additional guidelines as well.
It’s evident, therefore, that businesses will need to comply with relevant legislation, regardless of what form of marketing they choose to use. With the high level of results obtained by SMS marketing, it is still an extremely effective method of B2C communication.
In fact, SMS marketing can provide better returns than other forms of marketing due to the relatively low cost of launching an SMS marketing campaign. Whereas other forms of marketing may require costly graphic design services or expensive bespoke artwork, an SMS campaign condenses your marketing materials to a text-only basis.
Whilst still achieving enviable results, an SMS campaign can be considerably more cost-effective for business and is, therefore, the preferred choice for many companies.
Furthermore, businesses needn’t get too bogged down by the law surrounding marketing activities. By seeking expert help and working with an SMS provider, UK businesses can benefit from their experience. Obtaining SMS services from a reputable text message provider ensures that businesses can contact consumers legally and that their marketing activities are carried out in accordance with the most effective frameworks.
Connecting with existing customers via SMS
Although businesses often use SMS marketing to connect with potential new customers, there can be a considerable amount of value in using SMS services to contact existing customers too. In general, a customer is worth over ten times the amount of their first purchase, so cultivating your existing customer base could lead to a significant increase in revenue.
There are, however, additional reasons to stay in touch with your existing customers via business text messaging. You can use SMS messages to obtain feedback from the customer, for example, and this can be extremely beneficial to businesses.
Adapting your in-house processes as a result of the feedback you receive can ensure that customer satisfaction increases and that your business benefits from increased profits as a result.
In addition to this, SMS marketing can be used to increase brand loyalty and trust in your company. In an increasingly digital age, many businesses want to gain ongoing support from their customers. Creating social networks and two-way dialogues with your customers is an ideal way to do this.
As well as boosting sales, increasing brand loyalty will result in customers sharing your details with other consumers, engaging with your customers across various platforms, issuing positive feedback and recommending your products and services to others.
It is clear, therefore, that SMS marketing can be used to foster a valuable ongoing relationship with existing customers, as well as enticing members of your target audience to try your products and services.
Building your business with SMS marketing
Whilst business SMS services can be used to market your products and sales, you can also integrate SMS delivery into your existing systems. An application programming interface (API) is an ideal way to incorporate SMS marketing into your current activity and, via this, you can offer a variety of functionalities.
Of course, handling business SMS marketing in-house isn’t always viable for companies. In addition to addressing compliance issues, companies may be unable to access the appropriate software or be unable to hire permanent in-house staff to manage this form of marketing.
Fortunately, outsourcing your SMS marketing requirements is a cost-effective way to get results. When you work with reliable, trustworthy SMS providers in the UK, you can obtain strategy advice, compliance assurances, as well as assistance with your campaigns.
Due to this, many companies prefer to work with a experienced text marketer when launching these types of campaigns. With increased brand awareness, company loyalty and significant profits all achievable via SMS marketing, it can be the ideal way for you to build your business.
To find out more about the benefits of SMS marketing in your industry, why not contact us today?
Related Articles
Why You Need a Blacklist and What It Can Teach You
One of the major metrics in SMS marketing is how many people opt in to receive your messages. But there’s a flip side to that metric: how many people opt out. In the ideal world, no one would ever leave your list and instead continue to make purchases or support your organisation for as long as you decide to message them.
Be Careful When Reading About Shortcodes and VMNs
When you start using SMS marketing, one of the first decisions you need to make is whether or not you’ll need to get replies. If you do, then you’ll need to decide between shortcodes and a virtual mobile number (VMN, also called longcode). If you don’t, then that’s alright too.
SMS Marketing: An Essential Guide to PECR
The PECR Regulations, better known as the Privacy and Electronics Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 are one of the most important pieces of legislation affecting those involved in SMS Marketing. They exist to safeguard the privacy and use of personal information when used for direct marketing through electronic means, including communications by SMS. Parts of it crossover with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and where it does so, both pieces of legislation should be complied with. Unlike the DPA, the PECR is obligatory whether or not you process personal data in the course of your business. Read this essential guide to PECR for SMS Marketing to ensure you know everything you need to know.
SMS Marketing – Steering Clear of Spamming and Harassment
Executed properly, SMS direct marketing is a hugely effective and successful means of building customer loyalty and improving sales. But even genuine and honest marketing companies can suffer huge damage to reputation or even break the law through simply lacking knowledge or not double-checking before releasing campaigns. Read this article to learn more about the definitions of spamming and harassment, current UK law and how to avoid simple but costly mistakes.
What Your Customers Want From SMS Marketing
Mobile marketing offers an unprecedented access to your customers virtually any time, anywhere. This is particularly true for SMS marketing because it is “always on”. Customers don’t have to be surfing the web, or using an app to receive messages. Instead, they see the marketing messages right alongside ones from their friends and family.
The ONE Thing You Never Want To Do In SMS Marketing
"UK B2C data for SMS marketing" - That was the search result headline I found while researching online. Interesting I thought. It must be relating to SMS marketing statistics for B2C (business to consumer) sales. Since I was searching for some updated information and studies about SMS I decided to click and read.
Proof SMS Messaging Gets Results: Giveaways and Contests
Companies use contests and giveaways all the time. It turns out that doing them over SMS messaging works really well, and offers some advantages over other channels. Read our blog to see the types of results various companies achieved when using SMS giveaways.
How important is it to run an SMS opt in campaign?
Best Practices for SMS Marketing
In many of our previous posts, we have discussed the whys and hows of SMS marketing, listing the benefits, and the impacts on lead generation. There’s no doubt that by employing a marketing strategy that uses business SMS as a medium that your processes will become more efficient and your leads will become more targeted, meaning a better ROI. Here we will look at the best practices for SMS marketing to ensure your campaigns are offering the best for you and your users.
