Political SMS marketing carries stricter rules and closer scrutiny than commercial texting. Carriers vet political and advocacy senders separately, the UK regulator treats campaign texts as direct marketing, and US rules on automated texting apply whether or not you are selling anything. This article answers how to run compliant, two-way text messaging for political campaigns and advocacy on the levelpartner.ai platform: for a trade body mobilising members, a firm responding to a consultation, or an agency or consultancy running communications for a campaign, without putting a business number or reputation at risk.
Who this is for
Most readers here are not running for office. They are an estate agency group responding to a local planning consultation, a mortgage broker network asking members to write to their representative, a consultancy running a public policy event, or an agency whose clients include local campaigns. In each case the message is political in content, and the sender is an organisation that also has a business to protect.
If you run an election campaign for a candidate or party, take specialist legal advice. The rules for candidates and parties have extra requirements, such as spending and imprint rules, that are outside this guide.
The rules to check before you text anyone
In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations treat political campaigning messages as direct marketing, so you need consent from each recipient before you text them. The regulator's guidance is that promoting a party, candidate or cause is marketing, and the electoral register alone does not give you consent to text a mobile number.
In the US, automated texts to mobiles generally need prior consent, carriers require political and advocacy senders to register their use case, and many campaigns must pass third-party verification before traffic is carried reliably. Campaign texts may also need a paid-for-by disclaimer, and state rules can add disclosure requirements. None of this is legal advice.
The practical result in both countries is the same: text only people who opted in to hear about this topic from you, record when and how, identify who is sending, and give an easy opt-out in every message.
Before you start
- Consent that covers political or advocacy messages, not only service updates, recorded on each contact.
- Registration for a political or advocacy use case where your market requires it.
- A separate number from the one used for client service, so a campaign never affects reminders.
- A clear statement of who the sender is and who paid for the message, where rules require it.
- A plan for replies, including hostile ones, and the people who will answer them.
How to set it up
The platform can add the opt-out line and sender information to texts for you, which removes the most common compliance slip in a busy campaign. Switch it on before the first send.
- Click Settings in the left menu.
- Click the Phone System tab.
- Click Messaging in the top menu bar.
- Turn on Make SMS compliant by adding an opt-out message.
- Click Customize to edit the opt-out text.
- Turn on Make SMS compliant by adding sender information.
- Click Customize and enter the campaign name as sender.
- Turn on Enable periodic opt-out & sender info and set days.
- Click Save.
Then build the audience from an opt-in tag only, send from Contacts as a bulk SMS with Drip Mode during daytime hours, and assign replies in Conversations to named people.
Imagine an association asks its 1,400 members and their staff to opt in to campaign texts about a proposed licensing change, and 520 do. Two texts over three weeks link to a response form. If 210 people submitted a response before the deadline, the campaign would have worked entirely from opted-in numbers, and the association's usual business number would never be used. The figures are hypothetical.
Writing campaign messages
Political texts attract strong reactions, so the writing matters. State the issue, the action and the deadline. Avoid language that would read as an attack on a named person. Give a source for any claim, ideally a link to an official document.
"Midshire Lettings Assoc: the council consults on new HMO licence rules until 12 May. Have your say in 3 minutes here: [link]. Reply STOP to opt out." That is clear, attributed and easy to act on.
Two-way texting is the point
The value of a campaign text is the reply. A supporter who replies yes to volunteering, or asks where to vote, is a person you can move one step further. Treat every send as the start of a conversation, which is why staffing the inbox matters more than the message. A text that asks people to reply and then leaves them unanswered for two days does damage.
Work from Conversations so every volunteer uses the same queue and sees the history on each contact. Saved snippets for the common questions keep answers consistent; conversational SMS covers routing and ownership.
Suppose the consultancy manages 12,000 opted-in supporters for a client campaign and sends three texts: a volunteer call, polling station details and a final reminder to vote. If those produced around 1,400 replies, twenty volunteers in two-hour shifts could work through them using snippets for the ten most common questions. Hostile replies would be tagged and closed without argument. The volumes are assumptions.
Separating campaigns from business
The most important design decision is separation. A political message, however reasonable, will upset some recipients. If it shares a number with your appointment reminders, complaints from a campaign send can reduce delivery of service messages. Use a separate number, a separate consent field and a separate list.
The trade-off
Campaigns face pressure to text as many people as possible, including numbers from purchased data or old lists of unclear origin. That may lift reach for one day and expose the campaign to complaints, carrier blocking and regulatory action that becomes a story in itself. Restricting sends to consented supporters gives you a smaller list and a cleaner campaign.
Using an existing client list for a cause. Consent to receive service updates from a lettings agent is not consent to receive campaign messages. Ask people to opt in separately, even if fewer join.
Time it takes
Setting up consent, a number and the first message takes a day of work, plus however long registration takes to approve. Each send then takes an hour to prepare and a few hours of reply handling.
When not to use it
If the topic splits your client base and the action is not urgent, use email instead. If you cannot complete political registration in time, do not send through an unregistered number. For general guidance on content and consent, see SMS marketing best practices, and for pacing a large send, bulk text marketing.
Troubleshooting
Registration is rejected
The description probably does not match the sample messages. Make both specific to the campaign and resubmit.
Volunteers give inconsistent answers
Agree a short set of snippets for questions and disagreement, and ask volunteers to use them rather than personal opinions.
Replies turn abusive
Do not engage. Opt the contact out if they ask, tag the conversation and close it.
Members forward the text to non-members
That is their choice. Do not add numbers you receive second-hand; ask them to share the opt-in form instead.
Frequently asked questions
Do political texts need consent in the UK?
Yes. The regulator treats campaign messages as direct marketing, so recipients must have opted in. Being on the electoral register is not consent to be texted.
Do political texts need a disclaimer?
Often, depending on the jurisdiction and the type of message. Agree the wording with your compliance lead and save it as a snippet so every send uses it.
Can volunteers send from their own phones?
They can, but you lose the record of consent, replies and opt-outs. Working from the shared inbox keeps every conversation on the contact record.
Can an AI agent answer campaign replies?
Only for simple, factual questions such as deadlines and links. Route anything opinion-based to a person, and read text message AI on limiting what an agent may say.