Is SMS marketing legal for my business?
Yes, SMS marketing is legal in the US, but only if you follow the rules. Marketing texts require prior express written consent from each recipient, you must register your sending numbers for A2P 10DLC with the carriers, identify your business in messages, and honor opt-outs promptly. Never text purchased or scraped lists. This is general information, not legal advice.
What makes a marketing text legal
A marketing text is legal when the person asked to receive it. In the United States, text message marketing is governed principally by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and it is also subject to CTIA industry guidelines and the rules of the individual mobile carriers. On top of that, sending application-to-person messages through US carriers requires A2P 10DLC registration, where you register your business and your messaging campaign before traffic flows.
The consent standard for marketing texts is prior express written consent. That means the person affirmatively opted in to receiving marketing texts from you specifically, the disclosure they agreed to was clear about what they would receive, and consent was not a condition of buying anything. A checkbox someone actively ticks next to plain language, or a keyword they text to your number, are the kinds of mechanisms that create a real record. A phone number typed into a booking form is not consent to market to that person.
The operational rules that trip businesses up
Most SMS trouble comes from a handful of avoidable mistakes. Every message needs sender identification so the recipient knows who is texting. Every program needs a working opt-out, STOP is the universal keyword, and opt-outs must be honored promptly and permanently. Quiet hours matter, so schedule around them rather than sending whenever a campaign happens to be ready. Frequency expectations matter too, and you should tell people roughly what to expect at signup and then stick to it.
The rule with no exceptions: never text purchased, rented, scraped, or list-broker data. Those numbers never consented to hear from you, and no clever disclaimer fixes that. It is also worth knowing that state law can be stricter than federal law. Several states have their own mini-TCPA statutes with their own consent and timing requirements, so where your customers live changes what you have to do.
Build consent into the system, not into a spreadsheet
The cleanest way to stay compliant is to make consent a byproduct of how you already collect leads. Put a clearly worded, separately checked SMS opt-in on your website forms, your booking flow, and your in-store or point-of-sale capture, and make sure your CRM records the timestamp, the source, and the exact disclosure language the person agreed to. If a complaint ever surfaces, that record is what you rely on.
This is where email and SMS earn their keep as one layer rather than two. Email has a lighter consent standard and a longer shelf life. SMS is permission-heavy and attention-heavy. Collect both at the same moment, use email for the depth and SMS for the moments that are genuinely time-sensitive, and you get reach without abusing the channel that people guard most closely.
Get this confirmed by a lawyer
Treat everything here as general information, not legal advice. SMS compliance is a live area of law, requirements differ by state, and the details of your specific opt-in flow and message content determine your actual obligations. Before you launch or expand a texting program, have qualified counsel review your consent language, your capture flows, and your record-keeping.
That is not a formality. It is cheap insurance on a channel that is otherwise one of the most direct lines you will ever have to a customer. Lasagna builds the opt-in flows, the consent records, and the sending infrastructure to be defensible from day one, but we do not replace your attorney.
Key takeaways
- Marketing texts require prior express written consent, and consent cannot be a condition of purchase.
- A2P 10DLC registration is required to send business messages through US carriers.
- Every message needs sender identification and a working STOP opt-out that is honored promptly.
- Never text purchased, rented, or scraped lists, and check state mini-TCPA laws, which can be stricter than federal rules.
- This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations with qualified counsel.
Frequently Asked
Do I need consent to text a customer who already bought from me?
For marketing texts, yes. An existing customer relationship does not by itself create prior express written consent for promotional messaging. Transactional messages like appointment reminders or order updates are treated differently from marketing, but the line between them is narrower than most owners assume. Have counsel review any message you plan to send to buyers who never explicitly opted into marketing texts.
What is A2P 10DLC and do I have to register?
A2P 10DLC is the framework US carriers use to register business messaging sent from standard 10-digit long codes. You register your brand and your messaging campaign, and carriers use that registration to vet traffic and set throughput. If you are sending business texts through US carriers, registration is required, and unregistered traffic gets filtered or blocked.
How quickly do I have to honor a STOP request?
Promptly, and your system should handle it automatically rather than relying on a person to remember. When someone texts STOP, your platform should immediately suppress that number across every campaign and automation, not just the one they replied to. Manual suppression is where businesses create their worst compliance exposure.
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