Table of Contents
Are you trying out SMS marketing in your business for the first time? Ready to see how a new communications channel can help to grow your opt-in list, improve sales and boost your business’ bottom line? Great! However, before you jump right in, you first need to understand the SMS marketing laws within Australia and how they can impact your marketing efforts.
Marketing through electronic commercial messages, such as SMS, MMS or instant message that offers, advertises or promotes a business, goods or service is governed by the Spam Act 2003 and the Spam Regulations. These laws set out what you can and can’t do when it comes to setting up and launching your SMS campaign.
As the law is pretty text-heavy, we’ve set out the key points below on what you need to follow and understand when sending any form of SMS marketing to your audience.
Gain Customer Consent
The Spam Act 2003 states that before sending an SMS, you first need to have gained their consent (or permission). There are two types of consent that can be given:
Express consent
Inferred consent
Identify Your Business
The second key point of the SMS marketing law is to ensure you clearly identify yourself to your audience. The Spam Act 2003 states that you must not send an SMS unless:
The message clearly and accurately identifies the individual or organisation who authorised the sending of the message, and
The message includes accurate information about how the recipient can readily contact the individual or organisation
There are many ways for you to identify yourself when sending an SMS marketing campaign to your audience. This includes:
Setting a custom SMS sender ID – change the mobile number to your business’ name so your audience knows exactly who sent the SMS. All Notifyre sender IDs are approved by our support team before use to meet Australian legislative sender ID requirements.
Body text – simply state who you are in the body of the SMS message.
Adding a CTA – identify yourself by allowing your audience to explore your website through the SMS
Using a custom SMS Sender ID is a crucial step to avoid your messages being mistaken for spam and helps to keep your customers feeling confident when communicating with you.
Replace a generic number with your business name or number (alphanumeric or alphabetical characters) and showcase your brand's identity. Each Sender ID can have up to 11 characters.
Provide an Easy Way to Unsubscribe
The last key point that you need to understand when it comes to abiding by SMS marketing laws is to ensure that the SMS message you send contains an unsubscribe method. The main way this is done is by providing your audience with the ability to opt-out. This can be done a number of different ways:
Tap on an SMS hyperlink to opt-out – when the opt-out is tapped, a new page is opened with the unsubscribe option.
Reply to the SMS to opt-out – give your audience the option to reply to the SMS with a keyword e.g., STOP to opt-out, automatically unsubscribing them once they have replied.
Call to opt-out – ask your audience to give your business a call to unsubscribe by providing a phone number in the body of the SMS.
The Australian Government’s information page on promoting your business by email or text messages states that:
Your unsubscribe facility should be clear and easy to see
If an SMS recipient unsubscribes, you should action this within 5 working days (if not immediately)
Unsubscribing should be low cost or free
Your SMS recipient should be able to unsubscribe up to 30 days after they receive your original message
If you’ve used a third party to send out the SMS for you, a recipient's unsubscribe request should come to you, not the third party.
Get your SMS Campaign Up and Running Today
Now you have a good understanding of the SMS marketing laws in Australia, you are ready to launch your SMS marketing campaign. Notifyre’s online SMS service is designed for organisations across Australia to take business communications to a new level. Create your account today and start sending SMS with flexible pay-as-you-go pricing.
To learn more about the benefits of SMS for your business, check out:
What is SMS and why your business needs a text messaging service with a bunch ways to implement SMS in your business
If we haven’t convinced you yet, we will with these top 5 benefits of using SMS in your business
Learn how to launch your campaign with these 5 SMS marketing tips for small business
Accelerate your political campaign with these 5 effective SMS marketing examples
Increase engagement with mass text message marketing
Create contact groups to manage your contacts, opt-ins, opt-out lists and more, all in one place.
SMS Sender ID
Using a custom Sender ID is more than a branding tool, it's a great way to build trust with your customers.
Explore Sender ID 
