Mass text marketing multiplies whatever is wrong with your consent records. One contact texted without permission is a complaint; three thousand is a regulatory problem and a number that carriers stop delivering. This article answers the compliance side of texting at scale, using UK and US rules as the main examples: what consent you need, how opt-outs must work, when you may send, and how to build those rules into the levelpartner.ai platform so they hold even when someone is in a hurry. It is practical guidance, not legal advice.
The three rules that matter at scale
Consent, opt-out and timing. Almost every enforcement case and carrier block traces back to one of them. Get all three right as a system, and mass texting is low risk. Get any one wrong and volume turns a small error into a large one.
The good news is that all three can be enforced by the platform rather than by memory. That matters because the people sending texts change, and good intentions do not survive a busy Friday.
Consent: what you need on each contact
In the UK, PECR generally requires prior consent for marketing texts to individuals. There is a soft opt-in for existing customers if you collected their number during a sale or negotiation, offered an opt-out at the time, and market similar services. In the US, the TCPA and carrier rules expect express consent for marketing texts, and registration of your business and message types.
On the platform, consent should be a field on the contact, set by the form or booking where it was given, with a date. A tag alone is easy to apply by mistake. A field set by a form is evidence.
Opt-out: it must work every time
Anyone who replies STOP, or a similar word, must stop receiving marketing texts. Standard opt-out replies such as STOP stop further texts to that contact, and the contact's DND setting for SMS records it. Your job is not to undo that. Never re-import a list that overwrites the opt-out status, and never text someone who opted out because they asked about something else by email.
Include an opt-out line in your first marketing text to a contact and regularly thereafter. It is expected in the US and good practice in the UK.
Before you start
- A consent field on every contact, set automatically by your forms and bookings.
- A record of where each imported list came from and how consent was obtained.
- US business registration for texting completed, if you text US numbers.
- Defined sending hours for each market.
How to build compliance into the platform
Start with the data: a custom field for SMS marketing consent, with a date beside it, mapped from a consent checkbox on every form and booking page, and a consent column mapped on every import. Switch on the opt-out and sender information settings under Settings > Phone System > Messaging. Then make the consent smart list the only audience anyone sends to in bulk.
- Go to Contacts > Smart Lists and click + Add smart list.
- Choose the SMS consent field from the filter dropdown.
- Enter the value that means consent was given and click Apply.
- Select AND to exclude contacts with DND set for SMS.
- Click Create to save the smart list for bulk sends.
Timing and quiet hours
Texts arriving late at night or early in the morning cause complaints even when consent is clear. In the US, some states set specific quiet hours for marketing texts. In the UK, the expectation is ordinary business hours. A safe rule anywhere is weekdays, nine to six, in the contact's own time zone.
Workflows can hold texts with wait steps until your sending hours. Bulk sends can be scheduled, and Drip Mode can restrict sending to set hours. The risk is a manual send at the end of a long day, which is why sending rights matter too. See the guide to team permissions for mass texting.
Say the firm plans to text 5,400 contacts. Filtering for a recorded consent value leaves 3,100; excluding opted-out contacts leaves 2,950. Those 2,950 can be texted. The other 2,450 would be parked and sent an email asking them to opt in to texts, and if 380 did, the consented list would grow to 3,330 without a single risky send. The counts are hypothetical.
What it replaces and the time involved
Built-in compliance replaces spreadsheets of opt-outs, manual list cleaning before each send and the hope that everyone remembers the rules. Setting up the fields, filters and sending rules takes half a day. After that, each send inherits the protection automatically.
The mistake most people make
Treating an imported list as consented because it came from a partner or an old system. Consent is specific to who collected it and for what. If you cannot show where a number came from and what the person agreed to, do not text it. Email them first and ask. More on that approach in cold SMS and why it rarely pays.
When mass text marketing is the wrong call
When most of your list lacks clear consent, the answer is a consent campaign by email, not a text. When the audience is in another country, other rules apply and you need specific advice. And when the content is sensitive, such as debt or health, mass texting risks exposing information on a lock screen. For the broader view of how to run sends at volume, see mass SMS marketing.
Troubleshooting
A contact who opted out received a text. Check whether a list import overwrote their status, or whether they were texted from a different number. Fix the cause and apologise directly.
US messages are being filtered. Registration is missing or the message content does not match the registered use case. Align the two.
Complaints about late texts. A workflow sends straight after a wait that ends at night, or a contact's time zone is wrong. Adjust the wait and correct the time zone.
Consent field is empty on older contacts. These predate your setup. Treat them as not consented until they opt in. Bulk text marketing list preparation covers cleaning older data.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need consent for every marketing text?
For texts to individuals, yes, with limited exceptions such as the UK soft opt-in for existing customers. Service messages, such as a reminder for a booked appointment, are treated differently. Take legal advice on your own situation.
How should opt-out requests be handled?
Stop marketing texts immediately. The platform blocks further SMS to contacts who reply with standard opt-out words. Do not ask them to confirm or explain.
Can we text people who gave their number on a paper form?
Only if the form clearly asked for consent to marketing texts. Keep the forms or a record of them, and enter the consent on the contact with its date.
Does using the platform make us compliant?
No tool makes a business compliant on its own. The platform gives you the fields, filters, opt-out handling and scheduling. How you collect consent and what you send is still your responsibility.