SMS and MMS messaging in the US is governed by:
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
Cellular Telephone Industries Act (CTIA)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Learn more about each of these in Send SMS and MMS in the US and Canada: Governing bodies.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
⚠️ The information provided in this article is not legal advice.
It remains your responsibility to know the law and to take efforts to ensure you adhere to best practice. We recommend that you consult with your legal team or counsel before starting to send SMS and MMS.
Track SMS and MMS opt-ins
SMS and MMS opt-in is the way in which contacts indicate to businesses that they’re happy to receive SMS and MMS messages. This may be for example for marketing messages, alerts, reminders, or order updates.
SMS and MMS opt-in is usually provided through one of the following:
Signing up at point of sale on a commerce site.
Filling out a popover or form and giving consent to be contacted.
Texting START to the mobile number owned by the business.
You can track whether a contact has opted in to receiving SMS/MMS with Dotdigital.
You can collect opt-ins for single and mixed use cases with Surveys, pages, and forms and store the information as ConsentInsight.
Learn more in Record consent for your contacts.
When you send messages, you can segment contacts based on their ConsentInsight to ensure you’re only sending messages to those who have provided consent to receive them.
SMS and MMS mixed-use cases
A mixed use case is when you use one Dotdigital account and sender number to send out different types of messaging.
For example:
promotional messages such as sales notifications, special offers, and content marketing
and
transactional messages such as order updates, appointment reminders, and password resets.
Contacts must give specific permission for each type of message you intend to send. This means contacts should have a way to opt in to promotional and transactional messages separately from each other, such as a different checkbox for each.
SMS and MMS opt-out is managed at an account level. If a contact texts STOP they are unsubscribed from all SMS and MMS communications sent from your Dotdigital account regardless of the type.
Collect mixed use opt-ins
You can create your opt-in form using our Surveys, pages, and forms tool.
Make sure to include:
Imagery and branding so your contacts know it’s you.
A clear call to action so your contacts know what they’re subscribing to.
Input textboxes for Email and Mobile number so that a contact is created or updated after they submit the form.
A separate consent check box for each use case — promotional and/or transactional — so that you can be sure contacts have given express consent for each case.
This must be the consent text that you submitted as part of your number verification.
Once you’ve built your opt-in form, make sure to publish it and test it out.
Learn more
Segment your contacts
Collecting opt-in for each use case with ConsentInsight means that you can add a check for the ConsentInsight in your segments, and only send to contacts that have opted in to receive that type of message.
Learn more about segments in the Segmentation overview.
You should create one segment for each type of opt-in that you’ve added to your sign-up form, so one for promotional and one for transactional, if your form includes both of these.
To do this:
Edit the segment that you want to send to, or create a new segment.
If you’re creating a new one, give it a name that’s easy to remember as you’ll use this segment often.In the segment builder, drag in the ConsentInsight block from the left hand side.
If you have a large number of Insight data collections in your account, the block is named Insight data, and you can choose the specific collection during editing.
Select the Insight data or ConsentInsight block you’ve dragged in.
If you have the Insight data block, expand the drop-down menu and select ConsentInsight.
Set the contact filter to The number of records is greater than or equal to 1.
For record filters, expand the Select data field drop-down menu and select Text.
For the rule operator, expand the next drop-down menu and select contains.
In the text box, enter a unique section of the text from your promotional or transactional opt-in, depending on which type of SMS this segment is for.
You must make sure that the word or phrase you use only exists in the specific opt-in record you want to identify.
Select OKAY. Add any other rules you need to the segment, then select SAVE AND GENERATE.
You can repeat this process for each type of opt-in you collect.
Tip
If you only want to send messages to the US, then you can use a Data fields block in your segment to filter to only mobile numbers in the US.
Learn more in the section Identify contacts with a US mobile number.
You’re now ready to send.
Send to your segment
When you send an SMS or MMS campaign, you can pick which segments you’d like to send to.
Edit the campaign you’d like to send, or create a new one.
Once you’re happy with the content, select SAVE AND CONTINUE.
This loads the Contacts step of campaign creation, where you can select which contacts you’d like to send to.
For Select contacts, select the Segments tab.
Select the checkbox for the SMS/MMS consented segment you want to send to
Select CONTINUE.
From this final page, check the campaign details and make sure you’re happy before sending the campaign.
You can also use the segments you’ve created in programs to send transactional or marketing SMS based on a trigger, such as a welcome campaign or an abandoned cart notice. As with standard campaign sends, you must make sure that the message type you’re sending matches the opt-in you’re targeting.
SMS and MMS opt-outs
SMS and MMS opt-out is how contacts let businesses know they no longer want to receive SMS and MMS messages.
To opt-out, contacts must text STOP, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, REMOVE, CANCEL, or END to the mobile number owned by the business.
When a contact replies with a stop word to any of your marketing or transactional messages, they are opted out from receiving any further messages of any type from that number and the Dotdigital account that it’s associated with.
Toll-free numbers vs 10DLC or short code
When you send from a toll-free number and a contact opts out, the opt-out is processed at a network level. Any further messages you send to the contact’s mobile number are blocked by the network.
When you send from a 10DLC or short code, the opt-out is processed by Dotdigital. Any further messages you try to send to the contact’s mobile number are not delivered.