Are you trying out SMS marketing in your business for the first time? Ready to see how a new communications channel can help to grow your opt-in list, improve sales and boost your business’ bottom line? Great! However, before you jump right in, you first need to understand the SMS marketing laws within Australia and how they can impact your marketing efforts.
Marketing through electronic commercial messages, such as SMS, MMS or instant message that offers, advertises or promotes a business, goods or service is governed by the Spam Act 2003 and the Spam Regulations. These laws set out what you can and can’t do when it comes to setting up and launching your SMS campaign.
As the law is pretty text-heavy, we’ve set out the key points below on what you need to follow and understand when sending any form of SMS marketing to your audience.
Gain customer consent
The Spam Act 2003 states that before sending an SMS, you first need to have gained their consent (or permission). There are two types of consent that can be given:
Put simply, you can only send an SMS to someone if they have given you consent to do so. Gaining consent can be as easy as asking for someone’s mobile number over a support call, asking someone to provide their mobile number when filling in a form on your website or having a previously existing relationship with them (for example, they’ve made a purchase from you already and had already provided you with their mobile number).
Once you’ve gained consent, you can add them to your SMS opt-in list. Your SMS opt-in list is vital to the success of your SMS marketing campaign and should be updated regularly. You can learn more about gaining customer consent on the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) website.
Identify yourself
The second key point of the SMS marketing law is to ensure you clearly identify yourself to your audience. The Spam Act 2003 states that you must not send an SMS unless:
There are many ways for you to identify yourself when sending an SMS marketing campaign to your audience. This includes:
Provide an easy way to unsubscribe
The last key point that you need to understand when it comes to abiding by SMS marketing laws is to ensure that the SMS message you send contains an unsubscribe method. The main way this is done is by providing your audience with the ability to opt-out. This can be done a number of different ways:
The Australian Government’s information page on promoting your business by email or text messages states that:
Get your SMS campaign up and running today
As soon as you’ve got a good understanding of the SMS marketing laws in Australia, you’ll be ready to launch your SMS marketing campaign. Notifyre’s SMS toolkit is designed for all organisations across Australia to take your business communications to a new level. Create your account today and start sending SMS with pay-as-you-go pricing.
To learn more about the benefits of SMS for your business, check out: