The world of SMS Marketing can seem overwhelming at first – knowing who to message, when to message them & growing your subscriber list are some of the questions we often see business owners asking. Sending the wrong message at the wrong time has the potential to not only impact your sales & relationship with your customers but could also put your business at risk of legal action. There’s a fine line between effective marketing & spam so before you jump into the land of SMS Marketing, it’s important to understand Australian Marketing Laws & how they can affect your campaign.
Here in Australia we have the ACMA (Australian Communications & Media Authority) regulating communications methods for Australian businesses and not complying with these regulations put you at risk of receiving a hefty fine so today we’re here to cover the best practices to follow to ensure you’re complying with industry & regulatory standards.
COLLECTING YOUR CUSTOMER DATA
Before you collect your customers’ information you need to consider exactly how you are going to store it. Under the Australian Privacy Act 1988, you must be transparent with how & why you are storing this information. Don’t forget when you do collect your customers information for your SMS subscriber list to outline exactly what they’re signing up for.
OPT-IN METHODS
Now don’t get confused, just because your customers hand over their mobile number, this does not mean they are opt-ing in to receive your marketing messages. Having explicit consent is the first (& most important) step to follow when growing your subscriber list. Under Australian Law it is illegal to be sending unsolicited commercial messages & this is one way to ruin any existing relationship with your customers. Collecting your customers’ consent is as easy as providing them with a form to fill out, a box to tick (on your website) or getting their permission over the phone. It’s important that you remember to keep proof of your customers consent because under The Spam Act, you must be able to provide this permission at any time.
OPT-OUT METHODS
While it’s heartbreaking to see, there will come a time that some of your customers may decide to opt-out of your SMS marketing subscriber list. If your customers can’t reply directly to your messages, you must provide a link for them to unsubscribe at any time. Opt-out methods must be included in every message & once a customer decides to opt-out you must remove them from your subscriber list within 5 days. Acknowledging opt-out requests is crucial & failure to do so will put your business at risk of facing legal action.
IDENTIFYING YOUR BUSINESS
There is one last thing to follow before sending out your first message & that is how you will identify your business. Nobody wants to be receiving messages without knowing who they’re from & failing to identify yourself will also put your message in the category of ‘spam’. You can do this by setting a Customised Sender ID, so receivers will see your business name rather than a number or you can just add your business name at the beginning of the message.
SMS Marketing is one of the most effective methods of sending marketing material to your customers. All customers using Chatti services agree to adhere to our Acceptable Use Policy & can Visit the ACMA Website for more information.
Have more questions? Chat to one of our Chatti Experts here today.
