Ethical aspects of SMS campaigns: how not to become intrusive for the customer

SMS is a promotional tool capable of solving a number of marketing tasks. However, an ill-considered word, intrusiveness, or inappropriate behavior by the business or its representative can undo years of effort and negatively affect the reputation.

Regarding the ethics of business communication in SMS marketing, how to adhere to it, and communicate with customers in a way that makes them return — read on.

What is consent and why is it beneficial for business

In general, marketing ethics revolves around respecting the customer. Their time, attention, personal space, money, taste, appearance, sense of humor, and confidential information.

Thus, a person’s introduction to your brand begins with the first purchase. This is when the store, company, or organization most often asks the person to sign consent to receive information about discounts, favorable offers, or product updates.

It may seem like an unnecessary formality with no real connection to marketing. But this is a misconception — obtaining consent to receive advertising automatically solves at least two business tasks.

1. Legal. The European Union also has similar regulations for protecting citizens’ personal data, known as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Violating GDPR requirements can lead to fines of up to 4% of a company’s global turnover, which is usually a significant amount.
2. Budget-saving. Thanks to this formality, you minimize budget wastage, as consent to receive mass texting is usually given only by people who are genuinely interested in your product. In other words, consent for bulk sms filters customers. This means the likelihood of high conversion rates in mass sendings increases significantly.

Tip:

ven at the stage of acquaintance, it is worth asking how the person prefers to receive messages from you and whether they are okay with giving feedback on the quality of the product or service. This simple question can help avoid many undesirable situations in the future.

Respect for personal boundaries

Whether a person becomes your regular customer after their first purchase will depend on many factors. Among those that you can definitely influence — besides offering quality products and pleasant proposals — are politeness and respect for the person’s boundaries.

For example, one typical mistake many brands — including well-known and quite successful ones — make is being pushy.

This can manifest as annoying communication — inappropriate calls, pop-up ads, constant reminders of an “unfinished” purchase in the cart, and so on.

A true story:

Situation: A person took an online course from a school. Six months later, a representative of the institution called with questions about whether the knowledge gained was being applied in practice. After this, they insisted on purchasing the next course — right now, while the discount was still available. The course cost was $300.

Reaction: As a result, the school lost a loyal customer — the person sent the school’s phone number to the blacklist even before the conversation ended.

Cause: Pushing an unnecessary product, as a firm “no” somehow didn’t stop the eloquent manager. This is one of the possible signs of disrespect for the client’s personal boundaries and their choice.

Possible solution: Business ethics involves maintaining a healthy balance between “reminding about yourself” and “not being annoying.” In this niche, as practice shows, regular newsletters — about new course launches, discounts, or personalized offers — are often sufficient.

Tip:

Intrusiveness arises when a marketer or sales manager places their own interests above those of the customer. It is entirely understandable why this happens, but in some situations, respecting another person’s boundaries will bring long-term results.

Respect for the wallet and freedom of choice

Intrusiveness can manifest not only during live communication with a customer. An aggressive tone can also appear in text messages. Just as attempts to nudge a person toward a decision.

Most often this involves:

Manipulation — phrases like “Still haven’t done it?” or “Buy it now so you won’t regret it”. Focus on the benefits of your product, not on playing with people’s fears or darker sides.

Creating artificial hype. These are all offers with limitations. “Last chance”, “Only today”, “Only with us”. Even if this is true — it’s better to soften the wording. For example, “Offer valid until December 31”.

Opaque offers. Always, under any circumstances, explain the terms of the promotion in detail and avoid hidden fees or additional conditions. People don’t return to stores where they were once tricked.

Tip

When creating an offer, don’t neglect the targeting of your database. The best approach is to synchronize message sending with customers’ purchasing behavior. In some businesses, you can focus on personalized offers.

Respect for feelings and pains

Advertising is information about a product, service, or offer. Its goal is to attract the consumer’s interest and be memorable. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to achieve this, as the market is saturated with both quality products and equally high-quality advertisements.

If sales decrease or plateau, any marketer will adjust the promotion strategy, trying to stand out in the market. The easiest way to do this is with creative ideas that provoke an emotional response from consumers. This is precisely where ethics often “slips”.

It may seem that everyone knows the general rule that “what amuses me may upset another”. However, the desire to take risks and play on a painful topic sometimes exceeds common sense.

For example, a marketing campaign with a line like “In our swimsuits, you can surely swim across the Tisa” will undoubtedly catch the attention of a certain group of buyers. But it will also undeniably offend others. Society is reacting more harshly to cringe.

Tip: 

At the preparation stage of advertising bulk campaign, test creative ideas on a small audience — it’s cheaper for you. These can be relatives, colleagues, or even random acquaintances in the pizza line.

Ideally, before launching campaigns, research the information background in society and try to avoid potentially sensitive topics.

Conclusions

In the art of creating SMS campaigns, there are many nuances related to ethics. For example, how to set the sending time and how often to send SMS? Should personalized messages be sent, and how to set the alpha-name in the SMS service so that the customer immediately understands who the sender is? To solve these and other questions — it’s better to consult with professionals. 

But the key takeaway: adhering to ethics rules at the stage of campaign creation helps preserve business reputation and build long-term relationships with customers. Success starts with respecting the customer, not with the desire to sell anything to anyone.