SMS consent: how to collect it properly on your forms

SMS consent is a person's clear, recorded agreement to receive text messages from your business. You collect it with a phone field and a plain disclosure on your form that names your business, says what you will text, notes that message frequency varies and that message and data rates may apply, and explains that they can reply STOP to opt out and HELP for help. Keep a record of when and where each person agreed, and never text a list that did not opt in.

This article is general information, not legal advice. The rules depend on what you send and where your audience lives, so have a lawyer review your forms and your texting program.

Why consent matters

In the US, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and related rules govern marketing calls and texts, and the mobile carriers add their own requirements on top. Texting people without consent exposes you to legal claims. For most small businesses the more immediate problem is delivery: texts to people who did not ask for them draw opt outs and spam reports, and carriers filter senders who draw those. Your messaging provider will also ask exactly how you collect consent when you register to send texts.

What a good SMS consent disclosure says

Put the disclosure right next to the phone field or consent box, where the person sees it before they submit. It should cover:

• Who is texting: your business name.
• What kind of messages: for example, event reminders, booking reminders and occasional offers.
• How often: "Message frequency varies", or a specific number.
• Cost: "Message and data rates may apply."
• How to stop: "Reply STOP to opt out."
• How to get help: "Reply HELP for help."
• Links to your terms and privacy policy.
• For marketing texts, a statement that agreeing is not a condition of buying anything.

An example for a webinar registration form:

"By checking this box, I agree to receive text messages from [Business] about this webinar, future events and offers at the number provided. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. See our Terms and Privacy Policy."

Adapt the wording to what you really send, and have your counsel review it.

Make agreeing a clear choice

• Use a box the person checks themselves. Do not check it for them.
• Keep text consent separate from agreeing to your terms or joining your email list.
• Let people register or download without agreeing to marketing texts.
• Ask for a phone number only where texting makes sense for that form.
• Make the disclosure readable: normal text size, near the button, not hidden behind a link.

Record what they agreed to

For each person who opts in, keep:

1. The phone number.
2. The date and time they agreed.
3. The form or page where they agreed.
4. The exact disclosure wording they saw. Keep old versions when you change it.
5. How they arrived at the page, if you track it.

If someone later says they never agreed, this record is how you show otherwise. It is also what a provider or carrier may ask to see if your messages are questioned.

STOP and HELP

When someone replies STOP, or a standard variant such as UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT, remove them from texts right away and send one short confirmation, such as "You're unsubscribed from [Business] texts. No more messages will be sent." After that, send nothing unless they opt back in, usually by replying START.

Treat plain language the same way. "Please stop texting me" is an opt out even without the keyword, and so is "wrong number, take me off".

HELP should get an immediate reply with your business name and a way to reach a person: "[Business]: For help, email [address] or call [number]. Reply STOP to opt out."

Imported and purchased lists

A spreadsheet is not consent. Contacts you imported from an old CRM, an event sign in sheet or a partner do not bring text consent with them, unless you can show each person agreed to texts from your business specifically. Purchased lists never do.

What to do instead: email those people (following email rules), explain what your texts are for, and invite them to opt in through a form with the disclosure above. Text them only after they do. You will end up with a smaller list of people who want your texts, which is the list carriers are happy to deliver to.

Consent in person and by text keyword

Not every opt in happens on a web form. At a live event, a sign up sheet with a phone column is weak evidence unless the sheet shows the same disclosure and the person ticked a box. A better approach is a QR code that opens your normal form, so the record is captured the same way as your online sign ups.

Some businesses invite people to text a keyword to their number to join. If you do, the first reply should confirm the subscription and include the disclosure (business name, message types, frequency, rates, STOP and HELP), and you should keep that inbound text as the record of the opt in.

Different kinds of texts

The rules can treat a reminder for a call someone booked differently from a promotional message. The simplest approach is to collect consent that covers both on the same form, so you never have to decide later whether a particular text was allowed. If you use an AI assistant to text leads, the same consent rules apply to its messages.

Quiet hours

Consent does not mean any time of day. Hold marketing texts overnight in each person's own time zone. We hold them from 9pm to 8am. Federal rules restrict solicitations before 8am and after 9pm local time, and some states set narrower windows.

Your registration has to match

US businesses texting from standard 10 digit numbers register a campaign with their provider, and that registration describes how people opt in. Reviewers check that the opt in they read about is the one they can see on your website. If your form changes, update the description.

An SMS consent checklist

1. Put a phone field and an unchecked consent box on each form that should lead to texts.
2. Write the disclosure: business name, message types, frequency, rates, STOP, HELP, links to terms and privacy, and that consent is not a condition of purchase.
3. Have a lawyer review the wording.
4. Store the time, source and disclosure wording for every opt in.
5. Set up automatic STOP and HELP replies.
6. Treat plain language opt outs as STOP.
7. Keep imported and purchased lists on email until each person opts in.
8. Hold marketing texts during quiet hours.
9. Make sure your texting registration describes the same opt in flow.

How Niche handles SMS consent

Niche Engine texts only people who gave a phone number and agreed to texts on one of your forms. Imported contacts (CSV files of up to 5,000 rows) can be emailed, and become textable only by opting in through one of your forms. STOP is honored at once. Each contact record shows the person's source and consent, and you can filter the list by Textable or Opted out. Marketing texts wait out quiet hours, 9pm to 8am in the person's own time zone. The AI texting assistant follows the same rules, so it never texts anyone who has not opted in.