SMS and email marketing are powerful tools to connect with your audience. They’re fast, highly effective, and, when done right, can lead to increased sales and customer engagement. However, before you send that first SMS campaign or promotional email, you need to make sure you’re following the law—specifically the rules around opt-ins and consent.
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Opt-in compliance is not only crucial for maintaining a good reputation but also for staying on the right side of the law. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines, and in some cases, you may even lose the ability to send marketing messages at all. Thankfully, SMS and email opt-in compliance is easier to navigate than it seems.
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Here’s everything you need to know for peace of mind you're compliant with SMRT.
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Firstly, consent is about respect. It’s simply bad practice to send unsolicited messages to people who don’t want to hear from you. Not only does this damage your brand’s image, but it also wastes your marketing budget on messages that are likely to be ignored or flagged as spam.
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The level of consent you need from customers depends on the type of messages you are sending. Let’s break down the three main categories:
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These are the essential messages you send to your customers. They’re not meant to promote sales but rather to keep customers informed about important business matters. Informational messages include things like Order Confirmations, Pickup notifications, Card on file updates and order updates
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Since these messages are purely transactional and provide value to the customer (e.g., helping them keep track of their orders), they don’t require explicit marketing opt-in consent. However, customers should still be able to easily unsubscribe or opt-out if they no longer wish to receive such messages.
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When a customer initiates a message, for example, by texting you a support query, they are starting a conversational exchange. These types of messages are often one-on-one communication between the business and customer.
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You don’t need explicit consent to reply to customer-initiated messages, but we still make it clear in your responses that they can opt-out or stop receiving any further messages if they wish.
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Promotional messages are those sent for marketing purposes—messages that aim to drive conversions, sales, sign-ups, or engagement. These are typically the messages you send to advertise products, share special offers, or invite customers to events or sales. Examples of promotional messages include:

For promotional messages, explicit opt-in consent is required. This means that the customer has to actively agree which is usually assumed agreed when the customer provides their email either via the Customer App or In-store with your team.
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For All Messages - Opt-Out Under the law, every promotional message you send must give recipients a clear and easy way to opt-out of future communications. This is done in SMRT by giving the reply option, “Reply STOP to unsubscribe,” (SMS) or an Unsubscribe link at the footer of an email (email)

In Australia, SMS and email marketing is regulated by the Spam Act 2003 and enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). and in New Zealand it is regulated by Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act (UEMA) 2007 The key points of the Spam Act/UEMA include:

If your business is found to be sending unsolicited or non-compliant messages, you could face hefty fines. The penalties can vary depending on the severity of the breach and the number of affected recipients. In addition to the financial impact, your brand’s reputation could be tarnished, making it harder to gain the trust of future customers.
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SMRT works diligently to keep your SMS/Email communications easy to manage and following correct Australian legal standards.