When speaking to businesses about TCPA text message marketing compliance, one of their biggest concerns is making sure that the SMS marketing software platform they’re using is properly opting out SMS subscribers when they ask to unsubscribe. That’s why we’re excited to announce a new product at Tatango, that can help make unsubscribing from an SMS marketing campaign easier.
CTIA Requirements
The CTIA and the wireless carriers require that SMS marketing software platforms automatically opt-out consumers if they text the following responses to a mass text message.
- “stop”
- “cancel”
- “end”
- “quit”
- “opt-out”
- “remove”
- “unsubscribe”
After receiving one of the above prompts, the SMS marketing software platform must send back an opt-out confirmation message. The CTIA requires certain things be present in that message, which you can learn about in the video below.
What We Discovered
After analyzing millions of opt-out requests from consumers, Tatango discovered that, many times, consumers don’t use those specific words when attempting to opt-out. For example, they commonly use phrases like:
- “Remove me please”
- “Leave me alone”
- “Lose my number”
- “Delete from texts please”
How common is this? Based on our analysis, up to 40% of opt-out requests from consumers show natural language, rather than the specific opt-out commands. What happens if someone uses natural language to try and unsubscribe? As you can see from the image below, they get an error message, and are not unsubscribed from the SMS marketing campaign.
This can cause problems for your business, because if consumers request to opt-out, even if conveyed through natural language, they can sue your business if you continue to send them text messages.
Every text message that a consumer receives after having been opted out, counts as a TCPA violation in the United States. The penalties for these violations are severe, as businesses can end up having to pay consumers $500 to $1,500 per TCPA text message violation.
Why don’t people just follow opt-out instructions and text stop, cancel, end, etc? Great question! The CTIA only requires that businesses include opt-out instructions in SMS marketing messages at least once a month. It’s easy to see why people use natural language responses, especially in response to those messages that don’t have the opt-out instructions in them. You can learn more about this topic in the video below.
Industry’s First Natural Language Unsubscribe Feature
This is why Tatango is proud to announce the industry’s first natural language opt-out feature. This new technology helps businesses to remain TCPA compliant. It identifies natural language opt-out requests, and then automatically unsubscribes consumers so that they no longer receive future text messages.
For more details about this new feature, check out the video below.
How to Reduce SMS Churn
Ok, so as you can see above, we’ve made it very easy to unsubscribe from an SMS marketing campaign. Now it’s your job to get them back. The most simple way to do this is to include opt-in instructions in your opt-out message, like in the message below.
If you want to increase the chance that people re-subscribe to your SMS marketing campaign, we suggest adding some sort of opt-in incentive, like in the image below. For more details on this SMS marketing strategy, check out this blog post.
Conclusion
With TCPA compliance being top of mind for many businesses, Tatango’s new natural language opt-out feature is a key part of an SMS marketers strategy. If you’re interested in learning more about this new feature, contact us here at Tatango.
