Hi, Derek Johnson with tatango.com here.
I'm gonna be talking today about double opt-ins for SMS marketing.
And while you know, a double opt-in is not required by the Telephone Consumer Protection
Act, which is the TCPA or federal law.
It's not required by the wireless carriers or the CTIA.
We here at Tatango, and I personally think that a double opt-in is the only way a brand
should be running a text message opt-in campaign.
There is a few reasons why I believe this.
And first, let's talk about what a double opt-in is for text message marketing.
So, when someone opts in for a recurring text messaging campaign, they're either gonna do
that through a website form or a point of sale or getting out their phone and texting
a keyword to a shortcode to opt-in.
So, the double part of the double opt-in is the consumer then must take another action
and usually, it's when the SMS provider or the brand sends back a text message and it'll
say you know, "Are you sure you wanna opt-in?"
They reply, "Yes."
There's so many different reasons why I recommend that the only way that you do a recurring
text messaging campaign is via double opt-in.
So, let me go through these different reasonings and hopefully convince you why a double opt-in
should be the only way you're running your campaigns.
So, the first is if you're using a website form or a point of sale, you definitely wanna
double opt-in and the reason being is that it's really the only way that you can confirm
that the person typing in their phone number is the person that actually owns the phone
number.
So, hypothetically, let's say I go up to a point of sale system and it says, "Hey, would
you like to join our text messaging campaign?"
I type in my sister's phone number or I mistype my phone number.
Maybe I don't even do it on purpose, I just mistype it.
If I don't have a double opt-in, I'm opting in someone else to a brand's SMS campaign,
which obviously can cause problems and would be considered text message spam, okay?
So, that's number one.
So, the reason why a double opt-in would fix that is when I type in, let's say, somebody
else's phone number, they would receive a text message that says, "Please reply, yes,
to confirm that you wanna opt-in."
And they wouldn't opt-in.
Therefore, you wouldn't be sending them text message spam in the future.
Now, if it is my phone number that I type in, then that's great because I'd replied
"yes" and confirm to you that the phone number I typed in is my phone number and I wanna
opt-in, pretty easy.
So, that's a big issue, especially with people who have fat fingers and stuff like that.
They're typing in the wrong phone numbers, they mistype.
There's so many different reasons why maybe, you know, the phone number that's being entered
into these point of sales or website forms is not actually the person's phone number
that is, you know, typing it in.
The second one, which I think is even more important, is that when you do a double opt-in,
you have a record, a text message record of the consumer consenting to the terms and conditions
of the SMS campaign.
What does this mean?
So, let's hypothetically say that you have a big billboard advertising your campaign
and it says, "Text JOIN to 12345 to opt-in."
And then at the bottom, it has all of the terms and conditions and legal language and
you know, the TCPA requirements, consent is not a condition of purchase and they're opting
in for auto-dialed marketing messages, all that stuff is down there.
Now, here's what happens is a consumer, let's say, takes a photo of that billboard and let's
say that consumer, the photo that they took, only includes, "Text JOIN to 12345."
They post that on to Instagram or Facebook and then people on Instagram and Facebook
look at it and they say, "Oh, great.
Text JOIN to 12345."
And then if it's a single opt-in, they're going to text it in and then be automatically
opted into the campaign.
Now, here's the problem, is the consumer then, that saw that Instagram post or saw that Facebook
image, can come back to the brand and say, "Whoa, I never consented for you guys to send
me automated dial messages.
I didn't consent to your terms and conditions of your text messaging campaign," which again,
include really important clauses like an arbitration clause.
So, if you do a double opt-in though, you're always ensuring that you have a text message
record of them consenting to your terms and conditions of your text messaging campaign.
So, in example for the billboard, if the billboard, again, always put your, you know, terms and
conditions and everything on the billboard.
But let's say somebody takes a photo of it, but this is a double opt-in.
So they take the photo of "Text JOIN to 12345."
They posted it to Facebook.
I go to Facebook and I look at the image and I go, "Oh, great."
But it doesn't have the terms and conditions of the program there.
If it's a double opt-in, I text "JOIN to 12345."
And then instead of being opted in right away, the brand sends a text message, and in that
text message, this is the double opt-in part, in the text message, it discloses all the
things that are on the billboard that you need to get from the consumer before they
opt in to your SMS campaign.
This is things like agreeing to your terms and conditions.
So, having a link in your double opt-in message to your full terms and conditions.
This is agreeing to receive auto-dialed marketing messages.
This is agreeing that consent is not a condition of purchase.
Both those two things are required by the TCPA.
Once the consumer agrees to it, all they have to do is reply yes to that message and then
they're opted in.
So, then in the future, if that consumer comes back to you and says, "Whoa, I did not," you
know, "consent to this," or, "I did not agree to those terms," all you have to do is look
up the consumer's phone number in your SMS marketing provider platform and look at the
messaging history and say, "Actually, yes, you did."
So, that's the reason why a double opt-in, while it's not required, I think it's essential
for a brand to use when they're running a recurring SMS marketing campaign.