Toll-Free SMS Best Practices Guide
Introduction
ActivateStaff is dedicated to enabling high-quality, high-integrity, business communications. We are careful not to allow spam or unsolicited messaging. To protect both our network and our customers, ActivateStaff encourages our users to use best practices for sending messages and content generation. All ActivateStaff users, including users of software, API or gateway services, are held to the same standards and expectations.
Consent & Content
The message sender must obtain proper consumer consent for each message sent. The type of consent that is required depends on the type of message content sent to the consumer. The list below includes the types of messaging content and the associated consent that is required. Consumers can revoke consent at any time and in any way. Consumer opt-out requests must be honoured, whether they are made by phone call, email or text.
Types of Content
Conversational Informational Promotional
Conversational messaging is a back-and-forth conversation that takes place via text. If the consumer texts into the business first and the business responds quickly with a single message, then it’s likely conversational. If the consumer initiates the conversation and the business simply responds, then no additional permission is required.
Informational messaging is when a consumer gives their phone number to a business and asks to be contacted in the future.
Appointment reminders, welcome texts and alerts fall into this category because the first text sent by the business fulfills the consumer’s request.
A consumer should agree to receive texts when they give the business their mobile number.
Promotional messaging is when a message is sent that contains a sales or marketing promotion.
Adding a call-to-action (such as a coupon code to an informational text) may place the message in the promotional category.
Types of Consent
Implied Consent Express Consent Implied consent is acceptable when:
The first message is always sent by the consumer
Two-way conversation
Message responds to a specific request
If the consumer initiates the text message exchange and the business only responds to each consumer with relevant information, then no verbal or written permission is required.
Express consent is required when:
The first message is sent by the consumer or business
One-way alert or two-way conversation
Message contains information
The consumer should give permission before a business sends them a text message. Consumers can provide permission over text, on a form or website, or verbally. Written permission also works.
Example Consent (Opt In) “By (signing here/clicking this check box), I give my express consent to receive transactional SMS text messages to my phone.”
We also recommend setting expectations around the frequency of messaging. For example: “We will send you a maximum of 1 message per day.” “Average 3 messages per day.”
Revoking Consent (Opt Out) The Toll-Free carrier supports mandatory opt-out compliance by supporting the STOP keyword at the network level. This opt-out system is active by default across all accounts on the carrier network.
A STOP request blocks all text message exchanges between an individual mobile number and a text-enabled business number. A consumer can opt back in at any time by replying with the keyword UNSTOP.
Consumer Notification It is a recommended best practice to notify the consumer of their ability to opt out of future messages from the message sender. An example would be to include the sentence, “Reply STOP to unsubscribe” at the end of the initial message sent to the consumer. We recommend sending this communication on at least every 5th message for continued consumer awareness.
Opt-Out Key Words & Messages A consumer can opt-out of communication with any message sender by texting the keyword “STOP” to the message sender’s phone number. The keyword is not case sensitive and triggers an opt-out only when sent as a single word with no punctuation or leading spaces (any trailing spaces are trimmed). If the consumer uses the opt-out keyword within a sentence, then an opt-out is not triggered.
Examples of valid opt-out messages:
“STOP” “Stop” “stop” “STop”
Examples of invalid opt-out messages: “Hey can you stop texting me?” “Stop it!”
The opt-out confirmation message returned to a consumer is generic and gives instructions on opting back into the service with the message sender’s phone number.
Opt-out confirmation message: NETWORK MSG: You replied with the word "STOP" which blocks all texts sent from this number. Text back "UNSTOP" to receive messages again.
Opt-In Key Words & Messages: A consumer can opt back in at any time to receive messages by texting the keyword “UNSTOP” to a message sender’s phone number. The keyword is not case sensitive and triggers an opt-in only when sent as a single word, with no punctuation or leading spaces (any trailing spaces are trimmed). If the consumer uses the opt-in keyword within a sentence an opt-in is not triggered.
Examples of valid opt-ins:
“UNSTOP” “Unstop” “unstop” “UNStop”
Examples of invalid opt-ins:
“Hey can you enable me again” “Unstop me!”
The message returned to a consumer is generic and informs the consumer they can start two-way texting with the message sender’s phone number again.
Message text: NETWORK MSG: You have replied "unstop" and will begin receiving messages again from this number.
Notification of Opt Out/Opt: In Depending on their connectivity with the Carrier network, opt-out and opt-in messages trigger either an SMPP message or HTTP webhook event to the message sender. This is the default behavior unless otherwise specified during the onboarding process.
Expectation upon receipt of Opt Out/Opt In A message sender must act upon every opt-out event sent to them from the carrier. The opted-out consumer phone number must be removed from all distribution lists and be logged as “opted out” from SMS communications. This ensures that future messages are not attempted and consumer consent is honored.
Sending to a Customer that has Opted: Out If a message sender attempts to send a text message to a consumer that has opted out of communications with the specific phone number of the sender, then an error message is returned. If final delivery receipts are not enabled, then no notification is presented to the message sender. Delivery of final delivery receipts is the default behavior unless otherwise specified during the onboarding process.
SMS-Specific Privacy Policy and Terms of Service: When collecting opt-in for sending SMS text messaging, we recommend adding language to your privacy policy and terms of service to specifically address SMS. For example:
Privacy Policy: “We collect your phone number specifically for the purpose of communicating with you via SMS text messaging. We do not share or sell your phone number with any third party.”
Terms of Service: “We send SMS messages to you strictly in accordance with your preferences, and only after you have explicitly opted in. If you change your mind at any time, and no longer wish to receive SMS messages, simply reply to a message with the word STOP. Afterward, should you choose to begin receiving messages again, reply with the word UNSTOP.”
Disallowed Sending Practices: If a message sender is observed performing any of the disallowed sending practices that are listed below, then an account review is performed by the carrier. The review can result in the suspension of sending rights for a provisioned phone number; restriction of high-throughput access; suspension of provisioning rights for new phone numbers; and/or suspension of all network services.
Continued sending to opted-out consumers: When a consumer opts out, they should no longer receive messages from that message sender. If they do receive messages, then it’s likely that the opt-out event was either not processed or processed incorrectly within the message sender’s network.
Opt-out avoidance: If a consumer opts out of communications with a business, then disregarding the consumers opt-out and sending a message from a new phone number from the same business is not allowed.
High opt-out rate: The daily opt-out rate on a phone number is defined as the total number of unique consumer phone numbers divided by the unique opted out consumers that were sent messages within a 24-hour period.
If the daily opt-out rate on a sending phone number is 5% or greater, then the account is flagged for monitoring. An opt-out rate of 10% or greater on a sending phone number may result in immediate suspension of services.
Snowshoe sending: Snowshoe sending is defined as a technique used to spread messages across many source phone numbers, specifically to dilute reputation metrics and evade filters. The carrier actively monitors for snowshoe sending. If we discover snowshoeing, then the sending phone numbers may have their sending rights immediately suspended.
If your messaging use case requires the use of multiple numbers to distribute “similar” or “like” content, then you should inform the carrier of the phone numbers ahead of time to have them excluded from this monitoring.
URL cycling: This practice is defined as the utilization of multiple destination URLs on the same message content for the specific purpose of diluting reputation metrics and evading filters. URL cycling does not include the use of unique “personal” links to give a consumer custom content via a URL shortener or other means, which is fully allowed.
Best Practices for Message Content: It’s recommended to follow the best practices when generating content and choosing source phone numbers. High quality, well-formatted content is more likely to be opened and read by a consumer and less likely to be mistaken as spam by consumers, Operators, and the carrier.
As a practice the carrier does not pre-approve or whitelist messaging content. The carrier may review any message content as part of an account review. Message content flagged by automatic spam detection algorithms is then reviewed by a human operator. If the human operator perceives the message as promotional, the sending number may be blocked by the operator platform.
To prevent this, use the following guidelines for creating messages:
Content Creation: These best practices make messages more valuable to consumers and less likely to trigger real-time content analysis from flagging messages incorrectly as spam.
As a rule of thumb, if the message is reviewed by a third-party, out of context, it should appear to be a transactional, application-to-person message, originating from a specific request by the end user.
In general, message content should include:
Your company name
A reference to the reason the message is being sent
A STOP message
While a STOP message does not need to be included in every message sent, consider sending it with every fourth or fifth message.
Message content should avoid:
Generic URL shortener links
The words “Free”, “Now”, “Offer”, “Winner” or any other promotional-sounding language.
Request for action without specifying context.
If the daily opt-out rate on a sending phone number is 5% or greater, then the account is flagged for monitoring. An opt-out rate of 10% or greater on a sending phone number may result in immediate suspension of services.
Real-time Content Analysis The carriers work with industry leading spam containment vendors to uniquely fingerprint and analyze message content. Real-time analysis is used to identify if a message falls outside of the code of conduct or best practices.