SMS marketing best practices exist for one reason: a text channel only stays useful while carriers deliver your messages and customers keep reading them. Break the rules and both happen slowly, then all at once. This article sets out the practices that protect a business text programme over years, and shows how to build each one into the levelpartner.ai platform as a setting or a workflow guardrail rather than a reminder on a sticky note.
Why rules beat good intentions
Every company starts out careful. Then a quarter ends, a target is behind, and someone sends an extra promotion to the whole list. The damage is not visible that day. It shows up as a slow rise in opt-outs, a few carrier complaints, and eventually filtered messages that never arrive.
The fix is to turn your standards into system behaviour. If quiet hours are enforced by the workflow, nobody has to remember them. If opt-outs are processed automatically, nobody can forget to process them.
The practices that matter
Consent you can prove
Text only people who agreed to receive texts from you, and record where and when they agreed. In the US, marketing texts need prior express written consent. In the UK, you need consent or a soft opt-in from an existing customer for similar services. A form checkbox with clear wording, saved to the contact record, covers both and is the safe standard in most other markets too.
Identify yourself every time
Start or end each message with your business name. People save few business numbers, so a text without a name looks like spam and gets reported.
Respect sending hours
Send between mid-morning and early evening on weekdays in the recipient's time zone. US rules restrict marketing texts before 8am and after 9pm local time, and good practice is narrower than that.
One message, one action
A text that asks for a call, links to a guide and mentions an offer will get none of them. Pick the single thing you want and make it easy.
Make opting out easy
Include opt-out wording in marketing messages, at least on the first message and periodically after. Process every STOP immediately, across every workflow.
Answer replies
Two-way is the default with SMS. An unanswered reply is a worse experience than no text at all. Our guide to handling replies as conversations covers ownership and response times.
Measure by replies and bookings, not sends
Clicks and replies show interest. Bookings and revenue show value. Opt-outs show cost. Watch all three per campaign.
Before you start
- Access to Settings for phone numbers and business messaging registration.
- A contact field or tag that records SMS consent and its source.
- Agreement on your quiet hours and maximum monthly marketing frequency.
- Workflow access in Automation.
How to build the guardrails in
The guardrails are: registration approved for every sending number, a consent field with its source and date on every form that collects mobiles, a workflow condition that checks consent and DND before any marketing text, waits that hold texts until your sending window, a tag on each marketing text so a smart list can flag anyone texted beyond your monthly limit, and snippets that already contain your business name. The first platform setting to switch on adds opt-out wording and sender information to texts for you.
- 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 to edit the sender information.
- Turn on Enable periodic opt-out & sender info and set days.
- Click Save.
Say the agency caps marketing texts at two per contact per month. A smart list built to check the cap shows 140 contacts sent three in one month, because they sat in two overlapping workflows. Removing the overlap would bring those contacts back under the cap, and opt-outs should settle back to their usual level. The count is hypothetical; the habit of checking the cap with a list is the point.
What these practices replace
They replace judgement calls made under pressure. In a 10 to 250 person company, several people can send texts: sales, marketing, account managers. Without shared guardrails, each one applies their own idea of what is acceptable. Building the rules into templates and workflow conditions gives everyone the same limits, and lets a manager audit them.
Time it takes each week
Setting up the guardrails takes a day. Running them takes about thirty minutes a week: review the opt-out and reply report, check the frequency smart list, and read a sample of conversations. That half hour is what keeps the channel working next year.
The mistake most people make
Copying generic advice written for online retail. Most published guidance assumes a consumer brand sending daily offers to a large list. A consultant, a broker or an agency texting a few thousand business contacts has different risks: the relationship per contact is worth more, so each opt-out costs more. Send less often than retail guides suggest, and make each text more specific. For a broader plan of which messages to send at all, read building an SMS strategy around the customer lifecycle.
Treating a reply like STOP PLEASE or UNSUBSCRIBE ME as a normal message. Carriers and regulators expect plain-language opt-outs to be honoured too. Have someone check replies for opt-out intent that the automatic keywords missed.
When these practices do not apply
Purely transactional messages, such as a confirmation the customer requested, follow lighter rules on consent. They still need to identify you and still need to respect sending hours where possible. The moment a transactional text includes an offer, every marketing rule applies again. Our article on what makes a text promotional explains the distinction, and writing short marketing messages that get read covers the copy itself.
Troubleshooting
Opt-outs rise slowly over months. Frequency is creeping up. Check your frequency smart list and the number of active workflows that text the same contacts.
Some carriers stop delivering. Complaints are high or registration is incomplete. Review recent sends for list quality and confirm your registration details match your actual messages.
The team keeps sending outside hours. Manual sends bypass workflow waits. Restrict bulk sending permissions in team settings to people who know the rules.
Consent records are incomplete. Older contacts were imported without a source. Run a re-permission campaign by email before texting them.
Frequently asked questions
How many marketing texts per month is too many?
For B2B and professional services, more than two or three marketing texts a month usually raises opt-outs. Event-triggered service messages do not count towards that cap.
Do I need opt-out wording on every single text?
On the first message and regularly after that, yes. Many businesses include it on every marketing text to be safe.
Can I text someone who gave me their card at an event?
Only if they agreed to receive texts. A business card is not consent. Email them first and ask.
What is the best time to send?
Weekday late mornings and early afternoons in the recipient's time zone work well for most of our four industries. Test within your permitted window rather than at its edges.