Does your Mobile Marketing Campaign Comply with the Latest TCPA Regulations?

You may already be aware that in the year 2012 the Federal Communications Commission revised the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) with the objective of adding new guidelines to protect the interests of mobile wireless consumers. These regulations have been in effect since October 16th, 2013.

The revised TCPA presents both challenges and opportunities for mobile marketers. According to the new guidelines, marketers cannot send autodialed text messages for advertising purposes without the express auditable and written consent. Of course, this is not good news for mobile marketers. But before you press that panic button, remember that the changes also present a great opportunity to launch a smarter and more creative marketing campaign. 

If SMS is an important part of your cellphone marketing strategy, you will definitely want to explore newer and more effective ways to encourage more and more people to subscribe to your messages.

Make it fun and relevant

Depending upon the scope and nature of your campaigns, you may have to re-opt potential consumers. If you intend to include other advertising methods in addition to this campaign, you will probably have to do a double opt-in. This can sound daunting. But it is also an opportunity to start fresh.

What you need to do is to launch user friendly mobile opt-in campaigns to allow consumers to express their interest by giving you their phone number and/or email address and permission to send messages to them. Remember that quality and quantity are not always mutually exclusive. You cannot expect consumers to opt-in if you do not give them something of value.

Offer content to gain consent

Under the revised TCPA guidelines, a straightforward web page can serve as written consent. This allows you to easily leverage existing resources. Offer a free app, a song download or movie clip to encourage consumers to opt in. Include a checkbox and your terms and conditions in straightforward language. When consumers check the box, they also agree to receive your text messages at the cellphone number they have provided.

Target recently tested the efficiency of this method by allowing people to download a song for free. People who were interested in downloading the song had to call a certain number to receive a message that contained a link to a landing page. The campaign asked them to check a box and reveal their email address before they could download the song. This strategy enabled Target to quadruple consumer engagement.

Launch contests and sweeps that pair social and mobile

The revised TCPA guidelines are not applicable to one time campaigns where you ask users to call or text a number to receive a message that includes a hyperlink to download a song or an app, a sweeps entry, or a single coupon. These campaigns are exempt provided that they do not contain additional advertisements. That means by adding sweepstakes to your existing marketing efforts, you can reap rich benefits. Sweepstakes can be implemented pretty easily. They are also a great mechanism to measure the efficacy of your media placements.

Here is how Wendy took advantage of this: To promote their new sandwich launch, Wendy offered their customers several prizes for uploading a video clip shot with a mobile phone. They launched a mobile-optimized website for the campaign, included a hashtag and allowed participants to upload the video on Twitter, Vine, or Instagram. The participants had an opportunity to win an American Express gift card worth $6,000. The campaign was hugely successful.

There is a certain degree of ambiguity and uncertainty around recent regulatory changes. But launching marketing campaigns that comply with the guidelines are not all that difficult.