SMS promotional messages are texts that try to sell, upsell or encourage someone to buy, and the law treats them differently from texts that simply serve a customer. Get the classification wrong and a harmless-looking reminder with an offer tacked on becomes a marketing message sent without consent. This article answers where the line sits between promotional and service texts, and how to keep the two apart on the levelpartner.ai platform so every message goes only to people allowed to receive it.
Promotional, service and conversational texts
There are three broad types, and each carries different expectations.
Promotional texts encourage a purchase, a booking for a paid service, an upgrade or attendance at a sales event. Newsletters, offers, product announcements and invitations to talk about buying more all count. They need marketing consent.
Service texts deliver something the customer asked for or needs to complete a transaction: a booking confirmation, a reminder of an appointment they made, a payment receipt, a document ready to sign. They carry lighter consent requirements because the customer started the transaction.
Conversational texts are replies within a thread the customer started. If someone texts you a question, answering it is not marketing. Pushing a new product into that reply might be.
Why the line matters
In the United States, marketing texts need prior express written consent, and carriers also review your registered use case. Sending promotions under a use case registered for appointment reminders can get messages filtered. In the United Kingdom, electronic marketing rules require consent, or a soft opt-in where the person is an existing customer, was given a chance to refuse, and the marketing is for similar services.
In both countries the test is the content, not the label. A reminder that ends with "and ask us about our new service" has become promotional.
Before you start
- A list of every text your company sends today, from any system, with its purpose.
- Separate consent fields or tags for service texts and for marketing texts.
- The use case your numbers are registered for, checked in Settings > Phone System > Trust Center if you text US numbers.
- Access to Automation to review existing workflows.
How to separate promotional and service texts
The separation is mostly an audit: list every automated and manual text your team sends and label it promotional, service or conversational; record marketing consent separately from service consent, with an unticked checkbox on your forms; add a marketing consent check before every promotional text in your workflows; strip promotional wording out of reminders and receipts; and review the list quarterly. The platform setting that helps most adds opt-out wording and sender information to your texts.
- 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 details.
- Turn on Enable periodic opt-out & sender info and set days.
- Click Save.
Say an audit finds 14 automated texts across the agency's workflows: nine service texts, three promotional and two service texts with an offer added at the end. If those two mixed messages reach around 2,500 contacts a year who only agreed to viewing reminders, that is 2,500 marketing texts without consent. Splitting them out would remove the risk, and the offer could move to a separate monthly text for the 900 contacts with marketing consent. The counts are hypothetical.
What this replaces
It replaces assumptions. In a 10 to 250 person company, texts are often added by whoever needs them, and nobody holds the full list. A one-off audit plus a rule that every promotional text passes a consent check gives you a defensible position and a cleaner list.
Writing promotional texts that stay welcome
A promotional text can still be useful. Make it specific to the segment, rare enough to notice, and honest about what it is. People tolerate offers from businesses they chose to hear from, provided the offer is relevant. For the copy itself, read writing marketing texts that get replies, and for a single time-limited offer from start to finish, see running an SMS promotion.
Time it takes
The audit takes half a day. Adding consent checks and splitting workflows takes another day. After that, a quarterly review of fifteen minutes keeps it clean.
The mistake most people make
Believing that an existing customer can be sent anything. The UK soft opt-in only covers similar services and only if the customer was offered a way to refuse when their details were collected. In the US, an existing relationship does not replace written consent for marketing texts. For the wider set of rules, our article on protecting your texting programme goes further.
Treating a review request as a service message. Asking for a review promotes your business. Most firms treat it as marketing and send it only to customers who have agreed to texts.
When the distinction is unclear
Some messages sit on the boundary, such as a renewal notice that also offers a better plan. When in doubt, treat the message as promotional and send it only with marketing consent. The cost of being cautious is a slightly smaller audience. The cost of being wrong is complaints and filtered numbers. For bulk sends of either type, see sending texts to large lists.
Troubleshooting
Carriers filter some messages but not others. Your promotional texts may not match your registered use case. Update the registration to cover marketing.
Contacts complain they never agreed to offers. They gave service consent only. Check that promotional workflows test the marketing field, not a general phone consent.
Old forms still use one combined checkbox. Replace it with two, and treat existing combined consent cautiously until you re-confirm it.
Frequently asked questions
Is an appointment reminder a promotional message?
No, as long as it only reminds. Add an offer and it becomes promotional.
Can I send promotional texts to existing customers without consent?
In the US, no. In the UK, possibly under the soft opt-in for similar services, if the customer was given a chance to refuse.
Do promotional texts need opt-out wording?
Yes. Give a clear way to opt out, and honour it across every workflow immediately.
Should promotional and service texts come from different numbers?
Not necessarily, but your number's registration must describe both uses, and your workflows must keep consent checks separate.