SMS Campaign Registration: SMS Usage and Content Policies

Updated: 09/03/2024

Overview

If your business sends SMS messages to mobile phone subscribers in the US, recent critical changes in the industry will affect you.

In short: All business-related SMS/MMS messages sent by any 3rd party application, including 8x8 Work, are now classified as Application to Person (A2P) traffic. Mobile phone service providers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc) are taking strict action to control the type and quality of A2P messages that their subscribers receive.

This article provides key information and requirements of the CTIA guidelines that you as a sender of SMS/MMS messages (using your 8x8 service) should be aware of to ensure that your messages remain supported by wireless service providers.

Note: For the purpose of this article, we are using the term Consumer to mean mobile phone subscriber.

Applies To

8x8 SMS
SMS Campaigns

Consumer Consent

As a sender of business SMS/MMS messages, 8x8 customers must obtain their customer’s consent to send such messages to them. Mobile phone service carriers can request an Opt-In audit – and could act on the results of that audit – so tracking and saving a record of your customer’s consent is very important.

There are different ways that you can manage and collect your customer’s consent to receiving SMS/MMS traffic.

Important: About Reply Automation

8x8's SMS service does not provide any message response automation.

This means that when 8x8 customer users receive SMS messages, including Opt-In or Opt-Out messages sent from consumers, 8x8 users must manually respond to those messages when needed.

Implied vs Express Consent

There are two types of methods for obtaining consent from your customers:

Implied consent is when the consumer initiates the SMS conversation. Implied consent only applies to the topic the consumer is inquiring about when they initiated the SMS conversation.
- Example: If a consumer sends an SMS inquiring about the price of a specific product then the customer is able to respond to said inquiry by responding with the price for that specific product.
Express consent is when the customer collects explicit permission from their consumer regarding receiving SMS communications.
- Example: When a consumer provides their phone number as a contact information, the customer should make sure to collect permission to send SMS if they plan to communicate with the consumer via SMS. This permission can be collected via paper form, web form, or over SMS Text.

Customers should ensure to keep a record of this consent in case a mobile carrier requests for proof consent. This usually will happen if the consumer reports incoming SMS text as SPAM and the customer can use this consent to prove that they did receive consent from the consumer to receive the SMS Texts.

Important: Customers should always make sure that consumers have the ability to revoke consent via some method of Opt-Out mechanic.

Consumer Opt-In

8x8 customers should provide their customers (consumers) with opt-in mechanisms, and messages should be sent to these customers only after they have opted-in to receive them.

Opt-in procedures reduce the likelihood that a consumer will receive an unwanted message.
They can also help prevent messages from being sent to a phone number that does not belong to the consumer who provided that phone number; for example, if a consumer purposefully or mistakenly provides an incorrect phone number to you, the Message Sender.

Opt-In Methods

Depending upon the circumstances, a consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent to receive messaging traffic through several different ways.

Important: 8x8 customers should make sure to explain all Opt-In methods in the Call-to-action workflow field of the 8x8 Admin Console SMS > Campaign form when they create their campaigns. At least one method must be employed.

Opt-In Data Retention

Regardless of the Opt-In method employed, 8x8 customers should also document opt-in consent by retaining the following data where applicable:

Timestamp of consent acquisition
Consent acquisition medium (e.g., cell-submit form, physical sign-up form, SMS keyword, etc.)
Capture of experience (e.g., language and action) used to secure consent
Specific campaign for which the opt-in was provided
IP address used to grant consent (if using web medium)
Consumer phone number for which consent to receive messaging was granted
Identity of the individual who consented (name of the individual or other identifier (e.g., online user name, session ID, etc.)).

Consumer Opt-out

Opt-out mechanisms facilitate Consumer choice to terminate messaging communications, regardless of whether they have consented to receive the message previously.

8x8 customer should acknowledge and respect Consumers’ opt-out requests consistent with the following guidelines:

Message Senders should ensure that Consumers have the ability to opt-out of receiving messages at any time.
Message Senders should support multiple mechanisms of opt-out, including phone call, email, or text.
Message Senders should acknowledge and honor all Consumer opt-out requests by sending one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign to notify the Consumer that they have opted-out successfully.
No further messages should be sent following the confirmation message.

Opt-Out Content

Message Senders should state in the message how and what words affect an opt-out:

Standardized “STOP” wording should be used for opt-out instructions. However, opt-out requests with normal language (i.e., stop, end, unsubscribe, cancel, quit, “please opt me out”) should also be read and acted upon by a Message Sender except where a specific word can result in unintentional opt-out.

The validity of a Consumer opt-out should not be impacted by any de minimis variances in the Consumer opt-out response, such as capitalization, punctuation, or any letter-case sensitivities.

Inappropriate Use-Cases

Due to high volume of consumer complaints, messages containing the following content are considered as not appropriate by mobile service providers and may be blocked regardless of opt-in status.

If messaging traffic is identified by mobile service providers as associated with one of the following use cases, there is unfortunately nothing 8x8 can do to assist in the removal of blocking.

Category	Examples	Notes
High-risk financial services	Payday loans Short term high-interest loans Third-party auto loans Third-party mortgage loans Student loans Cryptocurrency	“Third-party” means originating from any party other than the one which will service the loan. SMS messages featuring financial investment advice or tips, as well as information on loans and refinancing options, are prohibited. Carriers also prohibit messages with links to donation sites.
Third-party lead generation services or affiliate services	Companies that buy, sell, or share consumer information. Companies that do offer any product but “connect” their customer base to other companies.	Buying, selling, or sharing of consumer data is strictly prohibited. The business that obtained consent is the only business authorized to send SMS. “Cold” outreach is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the business and is strictly prohibited.
Debt collection or forgiveness	Third-party debt collection Debt consolidation Debt reduction Credit repair programs	Almost all debt consolidation and forgiveness efforts are prohibited for SMS and MMS. Regarding debt collection, the business owed the debt can send payment reminders to late payers, personalized messages with account details, and follow up on payment confirmations. However, a third party cannot attempt to collect the debt for you via SMS and MMS. This also applies to financial services consultation companies that redirect their customers to other affiliate service providers for financial products.
"Get rich quick” schemes or Multi-level marketing	Work-from-home programs Risk investment opportunities “Get rich quick," "build your wealth," and "financial independence" offerings Multi-level marketing, network marketing and pyramid schemes	Multi-level marketing (MLM) products, services, or content commonly associated with unsolicited commercial messages (spam) are prohibited. This is different from outreach about employment as a result of compliant opt-in practices, messages from brokerages to their members, investment news alerts, or other investment-related messages.
Illegal / Controlled substances	Marijuana/Cannabis CBD/THC/Hemp Prescription drugs Vaping	Cannabis is federally illegal in the United States. Cannabis businesses will not be permitted to use SMS/MMS messaging in the US, regardless of message content. CBD is federally legal, but is not legal in some US states, so US carriers do not permit messaging related to CBD. Offers for drugs that cannot be sold over-the-counter in the US/Canada are forbidden.
Gambling	Casino apps Gambling websites	Approved at the carrier’s discretion. Strong Age-gating required.
"S.H.A.F.T." use cases	Sex Hate Alcohol Firearms Tobacco	Tobacco and Alcohol can be approved at the Carrier’s discretion. They do however require strong Age-gating in order to even be considered. Vaping-related traffic is prohibited.
Job Postings	Exceptions permitted if the message sender is the one doing the hiring	Third party job boards are disallowed. Only the hiring brand itself should be registered. This restriction is due to concerns about potential misuse, information sharing, and high rates of spam complaints associated with third-party job boards. As a result, carriers do not permit this use case on their networks.

Campaign Registration

This section refers to the SMS campaign registration process, itself, in the 8x8 Admin Console > SMS form.

Important: All campaigns are vetted before they can be used to assign phone numbers!

Brand information and online presence

Brand must be verified before customers can register for a campaign. During Brand verification, make sure to provide a website URL that shows your company's online presence. This can be the company website or community URL that represents your business. E.g. Etsy storefront, Yelp business page, etc This will be used to validate your business and the type of communication you’re trying to send out.

Campaign Description & Use Case

The campaign description should clearly explain for what purpose the messaging is being used by the company.

For example: If being used for customer care/account notification:

Description: Communication with customers for account updates, delivery notifications and issue resolution.

Call-to-action

This field should describe how a consumer opts-in to the campaign, therefore giving consent to the sender to receive their messages. The call-to-action must be explicitly clear and inform the consumer of the nature of the program. If multiple opt-in methods can be used for the same campaign, you must list them all. Opt-in methods include, but are not limited to:

Entering a telephone number through a website
Clicking a button on a mobile webpage
Sending a message from the Consumer’s mobile device that contains an advertising keyword
Initiating the text message exchange in which the Message Sender replies to the Consumer only with responsive information
Signing up at a point-of-sale (POS) or other Message Sender on-site location
Opting-in over the phone using interactive voice response (IVR) technology

Opt-In, Opt-Out, Help Keywords and Messages

8x8 SMS functionality does not automate any of the following.

Given the nature of our SMS use case, SMS users should be trained to respond appropriately, depending on which keywords are triggered by the consumer or your customer.

Keywords are generally standardized to the following. We recommend using these for most of the cases:

START (Opt-In)
STOP (Opt-Out)
HELP (Help)

Keyword messages should be used by 8x8 customers to respond to their customer (consumers) when any of the keywords are triggered.

Below are some recommendations on how to make sure you have the proper messages templates:

Opt-in (initial message): Program/brand name, msg frequency, pricing disclosure, help info, stop info
Help response: Program/brand name, contact info (phone number, email and/or support website URL)
Stop response: Program/brand name, confirmation that user has unsubscribed and will not receive any more messages

Sample Messages

The sample messages should be specific, detailed messages representing the type of messages that would be sent from the campaign. It should also include as much as possible of the following to help the consumer understand why they’re receiving an SMS:

Brand name, website, call to action, opt-out/help language
Confirming content does not fall into disallowed content
Confirming HELP and STOP flow in template messages

For example, if being used for customer care:

Sample Message 1: Thank you for contacting [Company Name]. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Reply STOP to opt-out.
Sample Message 2: HI [name]. [Company Name], Just reaching out to remind you that your invoice payment due date is June 1. Reply STOP to opt-out.
Sample Message 3: Hey [name], great news! Your [Company Name] order is on its way! Reply STOP to opt-out.
Sample Message 4: Hi [name]. We are sorry to hear that you're having an issue with your [Company Name] product. Please respond with additional information for our service representatives to help resolve this for you. Reply STOP to opt-out.

Note: If your organization is collecting phone numbers, you will need to add disclaimers with a link to your Privacy Policy. Below are samples for both, with the wording the carriers expect to see:

Disclaimer Sample: "By providing my phone number to “Company Name”, I agree and acknowledge that “Company Name” may send text messages to my wireless phone number for any purpose. Message and data rates may apply.

Message frequency will vary, and you will be able to Opt-out by replying “STOP”. For more information on how your data will be handled please visit (PRIVACY POLICY) (LINK attached)."

Privacy Policy Sample: "No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties."

Campaign Rejection Reasons

Rejection Code	Description	Recommendation
601	Campaign Attributes do not match website and/or sample message content/601	Make sure you’ve checked the correct content attribute in your campaign. Example, if your company is a mortgage company you should check off the Direct Lending and Loan arrangement option. Note: Due to TCR limitation these attributes are not editable post campaign creation. If you need to make a change on this, reach out to Support.
602	Inaccurate Registration. Inconsistency between sample message and use-case/602	Review your sample messages and make sure they’re aligned with your campaign description on how you use your SMS.
603	Inaccurate Registration. Inconsistency between website, brand name and/or sample messages or inconsistent sample messages./603	Carriers will check everything from your Brand and Campaign registration to make sure they’re aligned well. For example, if your website says you're a lawyer’s office, your sample message should reflect that and not that of a doctor’s appointment confirmation.
701	Prohibited Content; Cannabis/701	Cannabis/CBD/Hemp is not allowed. Remove all references to it. Note: This includes your website as it is part of what carriers use to check and confirm your business registration.
702	Prohibited Content; Guns/Ammo/Fireworks 702	Firearms and ammo is not allowed. Remove all references to it. Note: This includes your website as it is part of what carriers use to check and confirm your business registration.
703	Prohibited Content; Explicit sexual/703	Sexual and explicit content is not allowed. Remove all references to it. Note: This includes your website as it is part of what carriers use to check and confirm your business registration.
704	Prohibited Content; Gambling/704	Gambling is not allowed. Remove all references to it. Note: This includes your website as it is part of what carriers use to check and confirm your business registration.
705	Prohibited Content; Hate/705	Hate content is not allowed. Remove all references to it. This includes but not limited to racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc. Note: This includes your website as it is part of what carriers use to check and confirm your business registration.
706	Prohibited Content; Alcohol/706 (Failure to age gate}	Campaign related to Alcohol content need to have Age-Gated content attribute selected and make sure proper age-gating process is in place.
707	Prohibited Content; Tobacco / Vape/707 {Failure to age gate}	Campaign related to Tobacco content need to have Age-Gated content attribute selected and make sure proper age-gating process is in place.
708	Lead Gen/Affiliate Marketing prohibited; other/708	Remove any language that is lead-related or referral messaging to other third-party companies from your sample messages.
709	Lead Gen/Affiliate Marketing prohibited; high risk financial services/709	You can’t use SMS messaging to generate leads for hedge funds, stock market investments, etc. Remove any mention of these from your sample messages.
710	Reseller / Non-compliant KYC. Register the brand info, not the agency or software provider behind the brand	Register the actual company that will be sending the SMS. Example, if you’re an IT company registering for your customer who is a doctor’s office, you need to register at the doctor’s office and not your IT company.
711	Repeated use of same EIN for multiple different brands/711	One EIN can only be registered for one brand. If you have multiple brands they should each have their own EIN.
712	Misleading Registration. Based on details submitted, Campaign appears to be Direct Lending Arrangement but appropriate Content Attribute was not selected./712	If you’re a direct lender, make sure to select Direct Lending or Loan Arrangement under the content attribute for your campaign.
713	Appears to be a large company or company that would have an official email domain. Check for fraud, use official / working email domain./713	Email address used should be of the company domain.
803	Opt-in language is required on website if used to collect mobile numbers./803	If your website collects phone numbers as part of a form or contact us page, make sure it includes the proper SMS consent language on the page.
804	Unable to verify, need website / working website or complete CTA information if opt-in occurs outside of website/804	Re-review your website and Call to Action and make sure it’s clear how you’re collecting consent to send SMS to your customers.

Additional Information

8x8 Knowledge Base

External