Double Opt-in for SMS Marketing

Obviously, we have a lot of reasons to love (and recommend) texts as a marketing channel. 

If we had to pick a favorite reason, though, it’s that every new contact has to explicitly agree to receive your messages–which means you have a captive audience, unlike with most paid advertising.

Want to take that benefit to the next level? Use a double opt-in for your SMS marketing. Not sure where to start? This article will tell you everything you need to know. 

What Is Double Opt-in?

The double opt-in process is a way of confirming that your contacts want to join a text messaging list. 

Basically, this is when you, the SMS marketer, require each contact to reply “YES” to your message to confirm that they want to receive your messages.

It gives businesses confidence in each contact’s consent and helps protect against spam complaints.

Double Opt-in Process for SMS

Let’s start with an example.

Say you’ve just rolled out a brand-new website for your extermination company, Venus McFlyTrappers, Inc. 

To get contacts, you add a Web Sign-Up Form (TCPA compliant, of course!) to your site where contacts can sign up for your texts–and you advertise a 20% discount to attract visitors.

Soon enough, someone living in a house full of flies lands on your website and sees your sign-up form. They enter their information and hit “Subscribe.”

At this point, you’ve technically got all the consent you need—a single opt-in—so you could just reply with a simple “Welcome to our list!” text.

However, you’ve chosen double opt-in settings for your text campaign, so House of Flies Guy gets this message instead:

“Reply Y or YES to confirm that you want to receive SMS messages from Venus McFlyTrappers.”

House of Flies Guy now has to give explicit permission that it’s a-okay for you to send him text messages. Without that “Y” or “YES” reply, he won’t be able to join your list.

Once he confirms, you can send out your welcome text:

“Venus McFlyTrappers alerts! Show this text for 20% off service. Msg&data rates may apply. 4msgs/month. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel.”

Remember that your double opt-in message costs 1 credit to send.

Is Double Opt-in Required for SMS?

Double opt-in isn’t technically required by law, which is why it’s not a default setting in your SimpleTexting account. We still highly recommend it.

But wait, can’t you build a contact list faster with a single opt-in? Well, yes.

So, why is double opt-in the better opt-in method?

Because, believe it or not, there’s a risk that contacts who only opt in once might claim they didn’t know they were giving you permission to text them back.

There’s also the risk that somebody else, whether they just messed up or they have bad intentions, dropped the wrong phone number into a web form…and the person you’re sending texts to never actually signed up.

With double opt-in settings in place, though, it’s pretty hard for people to claim they didn’t know they were signing up for your texts.

Why is any of this important for businesses and organizations to know? 

Because businesses and organizations are responsible for proving that they have consent to text their customers–that’s not your contacts’ job. And failing to do so could land you in hot water with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Lesson: Double opt-in helps you play things safe.

Benefits of Double Opt-in

• A cleaner contact list
  Double opt-in is a great filter for your list. As we pointed out, it’s pretty much impossible for someone to sign up without realizing what they’re doing.
• Better engagement
  Contacts opt in not once, but twice. This tells you they’re really interested in hearing from you, which boosts your open rates, the clicks, conversions, and your sender reputation, too.
• Unambiguous proof
  If anyone complains about your messages, all you have to do is pull up your double opt-in records and show them exactly where they sent their opt-in text.

Need help setting up double opt-in? Just contact one of our support wizards at support@simpletexting.net, and they’ll help you get started. You’ll be enjoying the benefits of super safe text messaging in less time than it takes to get a fly out of your house.