Most countries put regulations in place to protect customers from unsolicited text messages. The United States has strict SMS marketing regulations that you have to follow to avoid your SMS campaign from being blocked by mobile carriers. This is why we enabled the manage compliance for the United States feature to make it easier for you to comply with two strict SMS marketing regulations for the United States. 

❓What is the manage compliance feature? 

The manage compliance feature is a toggle option that displays when creating your SMS campaigns. It makes it easier for you to comply with two strict and mandatory SMS marketing regulations for the United States:

• Organization prefix 
  The organization prefix is your business name or any word or phrase that will help your customers understand where the message is coming from and identify your business. It is mandatory and required by U.S. mobile carriers. Usually, when sending bulk SMS messages, most providers send them through a shortcode, which means your contacts won’t know it is coming from you. A recipient who knows who they received a text message from is more likely to pay attention and read it. 
• Unsubscribe instructions
  Unsubscribe instructions are the opt-out words or phrases at the end of your SMS campaign that give your recipients the option to unsubscribe from your future communications. By providing clear unsubscribe instructions to your recipients, you reduce the risk of having your number blocked by recipients or mobile carriers, which could result in hard bounces that hurt your sender's reputation. U.S. mobile carriers require you to provide clear unsubscribe instructions that contain the keyword STOP at least every 5 SMS Campaigns. If you do not provide clear unsubscribe instructions, you may receive fines and be permanently blocked by mobile carriers. 

❓What if I send my SMS campaign to U.S. phone numbers without the manage compliance feature?

If you try to send your SMS campaign to recipients from the United States and decide to toggle off the Manage compliance for the United States feature, your campaign will not be sent and will get suspended with the following error message: 

Your campaign is suspended as you attempted to send to US recipients without following the United States compliance.

Before you start

Before sending SMS messages to your customers, ensure you:

• Understand and follow the SMS marketing regulations in your recipient country. 
• Follow our best practices to ensure the best SMS deliverability.
• If you are sending an SMS campaign to recipients in the United States or Canada, you have to register for a toll-free number and comply with U.S. regulations. If you send an SMS campaign without complying with these regulations, your campaign will not be sent and will be suspended.
  💡 Good to know

  The registration process for a toll-free number can take 3-4 hours. After your registration is validated, you may experience deliverability issues during 2-3 weeks until all U.S., and Canadian providers have processed your registration. You will be informed of status updates by email.

👮 Enable the manage compliance feature

1. Create your SMS campaign and complete the Setup step. To learn more, check our dedicated section Create your SMS campaign.
2. Toggle the Manage compliance for the United States 🇺🇸 feature. 
   
   
   💡 Good to know

   If you registered for a toll-free number via Telenyx, toggling on the United States compliance feature will automatically display the Insert image button under the SMS message field to add an image to your SMS campaign. To learn more, check our dedicated article Add an image to your SMS campaigns (MMS).
3. In the Organization prefix field, enter your business name to help your recipients know from who they received an SMS and identify your business. The organization prefix is automatically displayed in the SMS message field. 
   
4. In the Unsubscribe instructions field, enter clear unsubscribe instructions to your recipients, such as Send STOP to unsubscribe. Your unsubscribe instructions have to contain the keyword STOP. The unsubscribe instructions are automatically displayed in the SMS message field. 
   
   ❗️ Important

   The Organization prefix and Unsubscribe instruction characters are included in the 160-character count allowed for sending an SMS campaign. The countdown is visible under the SMS message field. 
   
5. Complete the other steps of your SMS campaign creation. To learn more, check our dedicated section from Select your recipients.

Congratulations! 🎉 You are now compliant with the United States SMS marketing regulations! 

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.