SMS messaging is a powerful marketing tool in your toolbelt. To help you best use SMS in your business we’ve provided the following to:
- Help you know what type of content you should and shouldn’t send
- Understand why opt-in / opt-out messaging are important for continued deliverability
- Clearly call out our voice and text messaging policies
US & CA Content Restrictions
In addition to content prohibited by our Acceptable Use Policy generally, you may not include the following types of content in text messages sent using Keap Services:
- Content related to the sale or promotion of substances that are classified as controlled substances under federal law, including marijuana (Cannabis or CBD) – even if the substance is legal to use in your local area.
- The use of link shorteners (bit.ly, shortly, etc) and non-branded domains for embedded links are not allowed by mobile carriers
- Loan and mortgage advertising
- Credit repair offers
- Debt relief offers
- Debt collection attempts
- Work from home advertisements
- Secret shopper advertisements
- Political advertisements and messages
- Sexual, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, or Tobacco (SHAFT) content
- Pharmaceutical, vitamin, or other drug advertisements
- Messages that are structured to evade this policy or the policies of carriers (e.g. misspelling, uncommon capitalization, etc.), and
- Any other content prohibited by applicable laws.
Compliance - Opt In
Text messages should be sent only after the message recipient has opted-in to receive them. Prior to sending the first message, you must obtain agreement from the message recipient to communicate with them via “opt-in” or "consent", as required by applicable laws and industry standards, including, but not limited to:
- You must make clear to the individual they are agreeing to receive messages of the type you're going to send and identify yourself as the sender.
- Consent expires and if you do not send the initial message within a reasonable amount of time after you receive consent you will need to have the message recipient reconfirm their consent.
Keap customers’ text messages must include/should support opt-in methods, and messages should be sent only after the Consumer has opted-in to receive them. Please note that consent to receive text messages can't be bought, sold, or exchanged. For example, you can't obtain the consent of message recipients by purchasing a phone list from another party and you can’t pass on the consent you received to a third party.
Opt-in consent to receive text messages can be obtained by messaging traffic through several methods, including, but not limited to:
- Entering a telephone number through a website
- Clicking a clear opt-in button on a mobile webpage
- A text message initiated by the consumer where the text message expresses interest to receive communication from the Keap customer.
- Signing up at a point-of-sale (POS) or other Keap CustomerMessage Sender on-site location
- Opting-in over the phone using interactive voice response (IVR) technology.
Proof of opt-in consent should be retained as required by local regulation or best practices after the end user opts out of receiving messages.
Compliance - US Opt Out
You must provide a clear way for users to revoke their consent or “opt out” of receiving your SMS messages, via text. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) guidelines provide clear command keywords that must be used in your text messages and must be honored for opt-out requests, including STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE. When an individual opts out, you may deliver one final message to confirm that the opt-out has been processed, but any subsequent messages are not allowed. An individual must once again provide consent before you can send any additional messages.
Instructions for opting out must be included on any promotional messages, we recommend placing opt out instructions on all messages.
To report abuse of this policy, send an email to [email protected].
Keap’s SMS/MMS Messaging Policy
US & CA
As a user of Keap’s text messaging services, you want all messages you send to be received by customers without filtering or other blockers. An important step you can take to make that happen for your business is to prevent and eliminate unwanted messages. Towards that end, we strive to work with our customers so that your messages are sent with the consent of the message recipient, and that those messages comply with applicable laws, communications industry guidelines or standards, and measures of fairness and decency. This principle is central to Keap’s Acceptable Use Policy.
Specifically, CTIA issues a messaging principles and best practice guide for businesses using SMS to communicate with their customers. Ultimately, their intent is to ensure messages that consumers receive are messages consumers WANT to receive. Businesses looking to use text messaging to communicate with consumers need to heed the CTIA’s guidelines to successfully use SMS to reach their end-users or target customers.
To assist you in complying with these industry standard acceptable use policies, we have outlined the guidelines and compliance requirements on this page for proper messaging use in commercial applications. Please note that these requirements pertain to any usage of our messaging services including web, mobile, and api applications.
Violations of Keap’s Acceptable Use Policy
Accounts in violation of Keap and/or carrier rules and regulations may be subject to reduced deliverability of messages, additional campaign registration requirements,and carrier pass through fees, suspension of service, and/or termination of service. If there are any fines resulting from a user's violation of usage, Keap reserves the right to pass these fines to the user for resolution. For more information about Keap's Acceptable Use policy, click here.
Pricing
To provide our services to a broad base of users, Keap charges for their usage of text and voice services. Current pricing can be found on our website https://keap.com/pricing. Please note that these prices are subject to change at any time. In the event of additional fees from carriers, Keap reserves the right to pass these fees to the users of the service.
In Summary
While Keap services provide some assistance to help you send messages that are within compliance with the CTIA standards, it is ultimately your responsibility to be aware of all applicable laws and restrictions when sending SMS messages, and to adhere to any and all policies related to the recipient number.
Please note, this document is not intended as legal advice or a complete statement of requirements. However, as you abide by the privacy and content best practices outlined above you enable Keap to continue to provide this valuable service to our community entrepreneurs.