SMS/MMS is an efficient method of marketing and communication for businesses. Similar to email marketing, SMS/MMS marketing is the process of using text messages to communicate with customers about valuable information concerning your business. What makes it so impactful is that it is a permission-based marketing channel, which means customers have to give their permission (i.e., opt-in) to reap its benefits. Factoreal has a dedicated SMS/MMS marketing suite. Follow this overview to understand the requirements you need to comply to before implementing SMS/MMS Marketing.
SMS/MMS Consent to Send SMS/MMS Campaigns
You need to get explicit consent in order to send SMS/MMS communication to contacts. Contacts must opt-in of their own accord before you send them SMS/MMS messages. You need to make it clear to the contact that they are consenting to receive SMS/MMS communications from you. You should keep a record of consent for future reference.
Note that a contact’s consent applies only to the campaign that they signed up for. You cannot use one consent to cover all types of SMS/MMS communications you want to send.
If you do not send SMS/MMS within a reasonable time frame after contact consent, you may be required to get consent again before sending any future messages.
How to get Contacts to Opt-In
In order to send messages, your contact must opt-in to receive your messages. You can get opt-in consent through a Factoreal form which collects a contact’s mobile phone number. The form can include a question that asks a contact to confirm if they would like to opt-in to receive messages for specific messaging campaign types (e.g. notifications, marketing promotions, product updates).
You can then use the default phone form field to collect the mobile phone number of the contact.
SMS/MMS STOP Code
All SMS/MMS senders are required to include a STOP clause to inform contacts how to unsubscribe from SMS/MMS communications. Factoreal automatically adds the STOP clause when it’s not detected.
There are a few actions that need to be taken before you can begin using SMS/MMS service on your Factoreal account.
We highly advise you to review ‘region-specific compliance requirements to send SMS’/MMS’ before you begin.
Configure SMS/MMS Settings in Factoreal
To configure SMS settings, perform the following steps:
- Click Settings.
- Click SMS.
- Enter any URL you want to exclude under URL Exclusion.
Whitelist SMS/MMS Sender Number
Before whitelisting SMS/MMS sender number, make sure you have double opt-in from your subscribers to ensure you have explicit consent from your subscribers to send them SMS/MMS messages.
Select the country code and enter your sender number. Once your numbers are approved, you will see Approved status for your SMS/MMS numbers.
Select Destination
You can choose to send SMS/MMS campaigns to US, India, and Canada regions. Enter your organizational prefix, for example, QP_FAB, this will help subscribers identify your brand. Select an opt-out language.
Opt-out gives recipients the option to unsubscribe from receiving SMS/MMS messages from your brand.
Keyword Responses
You can edit the pre-defined responses your subscribers will receive when they message your number with a defined keyword.
Some of the popular pre-defined keywords or triggers are:
- START
- STOP
- HELP
- UNSUBSCRIBE
- YES
- NO
- CANCEL
Webform SMS/MMS Compliance Disclaimer
You can create a disclaimer message to let your recipients know the conditions applicable after signing up to receive messages from you.
You can now start sending messaging campaigns.
