Email gets you a regulator.
Texting gets you a plaintiff.

Not automatically, and this is the single most common misunderstanding we encounter. A number collected to schedule a service call was given for that purpose. The federal rules set prior express written consent as the standard for advertising and telemarketing messages to wireless numbers, and an existing business relationship does not convert into that. Service reminders and marketing sit on different footings, which is why we keep them on different lists entirely. Take your specific situation to a lawyer. The parallel logic for email is under email marketing.

Two things, and the second is the one that changes your risk. The standard is higher — the rules require prior express written consent for marketing messages rather than the looser basis that supports commercial email. And the enforcement route is different: under CAN-SPAM an individual recipient cannot sue you, while under the TCPA they can, without any agency involvement, with exposure accruing per message. That asymmetry is why we treat texting as the channel to slow down. See email marketing.

Treat it as a revocation. The FCC's consumer guidance reflects that consumers may revoke consent through any reasonable method, and insisting on an exact keyword is a losing position both legally and commercially. Practically, that means plain-language replies, phone calls to your office and emails all need to reach the same suppression list — which is a systems problem, because the reply arrives in a platform and the phone call arrives at a desk. Related: CRM.

Usually carrier filtering, and usually registration. Carriers require business senders to register their brand and campaign, and apply their own content rules on top of federal law — the framework is set out in CTIA's messaging principles. The failure is silent: unregistered or filtered traffic is not rejected with an error, so your platform reports the message as sent while nobody receives it. It is the same invisible-failure class as unauthenticated email or a form that submits and never delivers. See website maintenance.

Within the permitted window measured at the recipient's local time, which is the detail that catches multi-state senders. The federal rules restrict the hours for telephone solicitations, and a send scheduled comfortably in Austin arrives two hours earlier in California. We schedule against each recipient's time zone and deliberately use a narrower window than the maximum, because a text arriving early damages the relationship well before it raises a legal question. Related: local SEO.

Less than you disclosed, and much less than the platform allows. No authority publishes an optimal frequency, so any number quoted to you is unsourced — that much is the same as every other channel. What is different is the interruption: this is the only medium that reaches a lock screen, so overuse produces resentment rather than the quiet disengagement email produces. Your own sign-up disclosure also binds you: "occasional updates" is a promise, and the FTC's advertising guidance covers claims you make. See reputation management.

We decline this work. A purchased or appended list by definition lacks the prior express written consent the federal rules require, and unlike email the recipients can bring claims themselves with exposure attaching per message — so a single campaign against a large purchased list is the shape of a class action rather than a complaint. The carriers filter it as well, so the practical outcome is legal exposure in exchange for messages that largely do not arrive. Related: market research.

Identify yourself in the opening words, make one specific request, and keep the opt-out plain. The recipient sees an unfamiliar number, so a message that does not immediately say who it is from reads as spam regardless of its content. Use a readable full domain rather than a shortened link, because a customer cannot tell where a shortener goes and neither can a carrier's filter. One action per message outperforms several, for the same reason a landing page carries one — covered under landing pages. Google's people-first standard is the right instinct here too.

A platform can provide keyword handling, registration workflows and suppression lists. It cannot know whether the numbers you uploaded ever consented, whether the consent covers the campaign you are about to run, or whether your sign-up disclosure matches your actual cadence. Those are the questions that decide a dispute, and they sit with you. The pattern is identical in email, where the FTC's compliance guide states responsibility cannot be contracted away to a vendor. Related: email marketing.

Replies, booked appointments and revenue attributed to the campaign — not delivery counts, which report what your platform attempted rather than what arrived. Links should carry campaign tagging so the resulting sessions are attributable rather than absorbed into direct traffic, and conversions defined per Google's conversion documentation. Watch opt-out rate as a leading indicator: a rising rate is the audience telling you the cadence is wrong before the revenue number reflects it. Destination pages still need to meet the technical baseline. See CRO.