Is SMS Marketing Legal in Nigeria?

So you decided to throw caution to the wind and try SMS marketing? Great! You’re on the right track because SMS marketing is still a great mobile strategy for growing your business. However, certain telecommunication laws per country regulate how individuals and businesses can utilize bulk SMS for marketing purposes.

Don’t lose heart now, we’ve got you covered!

As a marketer or business owner in Nigeria, you need to be aware of the regulations and good practice guidelines as regards sending bulk SMS if you are looking to run an effective SMS marketing campaign that brings results. Trust us, the last thing you want is to see your company breaking the rules or falling foul to the Nigerian Communication Commission.

To avoid that, let’s take a peek into the legality of sending bulk SMS for marketing purposes in Nigeria and figure out just how legal us SMS marketing. Stay back, relax, enjoy the gist.

DND

You might have come across or heard of the almighty DND. As marketers, we frown as much as you do. The Do-Not-Disturb (DND) feature effected on July 1st, 2016 is obviously the most noticeable legal plays regarding bulk SMS sending activities. The feature allows subscribers to opt into automatic blocking of unsolicited SMS messages and phone calls. According to the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) categories, a subscriber can select which class of service he wishes not to receive related text messages from. Subscribers can equally block all unsolicited text messages by texting “STOP” to 2442. In this case, your bulk SMS would not reach such subscribers if they didn’t opt-in for your SMS content.

Watch out for DND numbers while sending bulk SMS as undelivered messages can result to wastage of resources. In rare cases, subscribers who signed up for your SMS services can be automatically placed on DND by their network providers without their knowledge or yours. If you discover this and are able to reach the subscriber in time, you can ask him/her to manually opt-out of DND so as to continue enjoying your SMS services. If you cannot reach the subscriber, simply remove the DND number from your list. It happens, the sky would not fall.

SMS Volumn

There are equally legal restrictions on the volume of messages a subscriber can receive at any given time in Nigeria. For example, sending multiple messages to the same address in a day is not recommended as these messages may be blocked. One time! Banking traffic SMS such as messages from banks about transactions are always sent and delivered without restrictions on volumes. However, promotional traffic SMS–all other transactional messages that are not bank-related, including a thank you message following an online purchase–can only be sent at certain times of the day.

Ethically speaking, two promotional texts a day can be seen as too much. Experts recommend sending less than six promotional texts per week.

Blacklisted words

Have you ever tried sending a bulk SMS and it just wouldn’t go through? Perhaps it went through but did terribly in delivery? That might occur if you use blacklisted words in crafting your message. NCC has a list of banned words that a sender cannot use in the message body or sender ID when sending bulk SMS. There are quite a lot and you should see them here. These words are blacklisted for certain reasons such as to prevent spam or fraud. Usually, bulk SMS texts containing these words would not get delivered, so it is important to know them before launching an SMS marketing campaign. You don’t want to waste resources!

Conclusion

So to answer the question, ‘’Is SMS marketing legal in Nigeria?’’, the answer is yes. Businesses can execute SMS marketing campaigns as long as they are not breaking legal restrictions on DND and SMS volumes. Sending text messages to subscribers who did not opt-in to your SMS services can attract legal fines or an image tarnishing by the press.

The only way to avoid this is by sending marketing content to people who intentionally subscribed to your SMS services. Not sure how to go about getting subscribers for your SMS campaign? Learn about it here, and thank us later.

However, you don’t want to overdo it. No-one likes a bugger, certainly not one in our text message inboxes. Most subscribers would opt out of your service if you try sending them too many content at a time. You would need to structure your SMS marketing campaign is such a way that subscribers get periodic content from you without feeling bugged.

Finally, ensure that your messages do not contain blacklisted words to prevent wastages of resources or bagging trouble with the regulators.

If you have done the above right, congratulations! You are ready to launch your SMS marketing campaign from a legal point. Now all you need is a reliable bulk SMS platform to begin the journey to successful SMS marketing activities. SMSexperience is a platform trusted by over 46, 000 people to nail in their marketing plans. Why be left out? Log on to www.smsexperience.com to start.