The TCPA and Text Messaging
If you are doing any kind of marketing or selling, you have probably heard of the TCPA. If you haven’t, the TCPA stands for the “Telephone Consumer Protection Act,” which was passed by Congress in 1991. It is the primary federal law governing all telephone solicitations, including text messages.
Foxie is THE EXPERT on SMS (text) messaging, and we want to share some of our most asked questions and answers with you to help make sure that you are staying compliant within TCPA guidelines while texting.
- Can a customer opt-in via text message? The short answer is “Yes” ...but you can’t send a text that says “Sign up for our special offers” because that would be considered marketing and is a violation of the TCPA because they have not yet opted in to receive your texts.
- If a customer decides to opt-out, is it ok to send a text back confirming this? Yes, you can send one final message confirming the opt-out. That’s all this message can be as confirmation of opting out. No further marketing is permitted.
- If a customer wants to opt-out of receiving marketing about campaign A, but still wants to receive marketing about campaign B...is this allowed? Yes..you can be sending texts about multiple campaigns with THEIR OWN opt-out requirements. An example would be text “Stop A” to stop receiving messages from that campaign, or text “Stop B” to stop receiving texts about that campaign.
More to consider...
Are purely informational texts exempt? If a customer had previously opted-out of receiving texts and a new consent is obtained, does the new opt-in supersede the previous opt-out? Are there risks of peer-to-peer texting under the TCPA guidelines?
Sound confusing? It can be...and you can’t afford to make any kind of marketing error without facing fines and serious repercussions from the TCPA.
Let our team of experts at Foxie handle this for you!
Be engaged with your current and potential customers...call us at 866-BE-ENGAGED (866-233-6424), text START to FOXIE (36943) or if you prefer, just shoot me an email at mdaudfar@foxie.com
