Cold SMS marketing, meaning a promotional text to someone who never agreed to receive one, is the riskiest thing you can do with a business phone number. In the US it can breach the TCPA; in the UK it breaches PECR; and in any market carriers will filter or suspend a number that draws complaints. This article answers what to do instead: how to get a cold prospect to the point where texting them is welcome and lawful, using forms, email and calls on the levelpartner.ai platform.
Why a cold text is different from a cold call or email
A phone call can be screened. An email sits in a folder until someone chooses to read it. A text lands on the most personal device a person owns, with a notification, often while they are with their family. That is why the law treats unsolicited marketing texts more strictly than most other outreach, and why recipients report them faster.
There is also the practical problem. Mobile carriers score every business number on complaints and opt-outs. A burst of cold texts can damage the reputation of the number you use for appointment reminders and client service, so the cost lands on your existing customers, not only on the prospects.
What is allowed
Rules differ by market, so take legal advice for your situation. In broad terms, a text is not cold if the person gave you their number and agreed to receive marketing texts, or, in the UK, if they are an existing customer who bought something similar and was given a chance to opt out. A business contact's mobile is still a personal device in most cases, so B2B does not make cold texting safe. If you are buying contact data, read what to check before you buy SMS leads first. Our B2B SMS marketing guide explains what changes, and what does not, when you sell to companies.
The warm-up route instead
The goal is to move the prospect from cold to consented before the first marketing text. That usually takes one of three paths.
- A first touch by email or LinkedIn that offers something useful, such as a guide or a short assessment, behind a form with an SMS consent box.
- A phone call, followed by a text only if the person asks for details by text during the call, recorded in a note.
- An event or webinar registration form that offers text reminders as an option.
Whichever path you use, it ends with a contact record that holds a timestamped consent, the wording they saw and the source.
Before you start
- A form or survey under Sites with a separate, unticked SMS consent checkbox naming your firm, mapped to a consent field.
- A registered business number.
- A consent custom field and a tag that the workflow can read.
- An email or call sequence for prospects who have not yet consented.
How to set it up
Build a form that offers something your prospects value, such as a checklist or a benchmark review, then start the follow-up from the form submission. Branch on the consent field with an If/Else before any text.
- Go to Automation > Workflows.
- Create a new workflow or open an existing one.
- Choose the Form Submitted trigger, filtered to the form.
- Add the Send SMS action on the consented branch.
- Enter a short welcome text with opt-out wording.
- Add personalisation or reusable content where it fits.
- Add Wait steps, the email-only branch and other actions.
- Test the workflow and the SMS content.
- Publish the workflow when it is ready to run.
On the email-only branch, deliver the resource by email and invite the person to opt in to texts later. Put both groups in a pipeline stage so sales can see who engaged.
Say the owners plan to text 3,000 local business owners from a bought list. Instead, they email a free website audit offer to the same sector over a month. If 180 people requested the audit and 110 ticked the SMS box, the agency would have 110 people who asked to be texted. Even a modest share booking a call from that group would come with no complaint risk at all. The numbers are illustrative assumptions.
What it replaces and what it costs
The warm-up route replaces a list purchase and a blast with a form, a short email programme and a workflow. It is slower: you might text a hundred people a month rather than thousands. In exchange, every text reaches someone who expects it, so reply rates hold up and the number stays clean. For a 10 to 250 person firm, maintaining the forms and sequences takes about an hour a week.
The mistake most people make
Thinking a single disclaimer fixes it. Adding "Reply STOP to opt out" to an unsolicited text does not make it lawful. The opt-out is required on consented messages; it does not create consent where none exists.
Texting prospects whose numbers came from their email signature or website. A published number is not permission to send marketing texts.
When not to use texting at all
If a prospect has not opted in, do not text them. If your offer needs explanation, use email or a call even after they opt in, then use SMS for short confirmations. For the difference between promotion and conversation, see two-way SMS marketing.
Troubleshooting
Few people tick the SMS box. Explain the benefit in the wording, for example "text me a reminder before the call". Vague requests get ignored.
Sales wants to text everyone who downloaded something. Show them the consent field. Only the consented branch gets texts; the rest get email or a call.
A prospect complains they never agreed. Check the consent record, apologise, opt them out and review the form wording.
Frequently asked questions
Can I send cold SMS to business owners?
Usually not without consent. Most business owners use a personal mobile, so the same rules apply as for consumers.
Is a text after a phone call cold?
Not if the person asked for it during the call and you noted it. Send only what they asked for, and include an opt-out.
What about texting people who visited my website?
A visit is not consent. Offer a reason to opt in on the site, then text only those who do.
What happens when someone replies STOP?
Treat it as an opt-out: the contact should be marked do not disturb for SMS. Check that your workflows respect that status before every send.