What do CASL Compliant SMS / Text Messages Look Like?

CASL, short for “Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation”, came into effect July 1, 2014, and will be phased in over 3 years. By July 1 2017, when the law is fully in effect, your customers and prospects will gain the right of private action – the ability to sue you and your company for CASL violations, real OR perceived. CASL applies to digital media – email and SMS/text, although it can be applied to social media in certain contexts.

CASL is, according to some experts, the most restrictive anti-spam legislation in the world. It is often ambiguous, and seems to be more focused on curtailing the efforts of genuine, well-meaning business owners than the real contributors to spam, who aren’t residents of Canada at all. Instead, they lurk overseas in countries where any sort of prosecution is considered a long shot at best, a huge joke at worst. To make matters worse, the penalties are extreme!

So I don’t need to tell you how important it is to adhere to CASL guidelines to avoid any potential legal liabilities.

So what does a CASL compliant SMS / text look like?

According to the law, all text messages must include a “one-step” option to unsubscribe. By “one step”, I mean that the customer does not have to take any additional steps after taking an action to remove herself from the database.

You can see that in the image to right; “Reply STOP to end.”

By responding “STOP” the customer is immediately deleted from the database, and will receive only one additional message from us – one confirming her removal from the database.

CASL also requires that specific information be displayed to identify the sender of the message.

This includes a physical address and additional contact data. Of course, since text messages are short, it’s not practical to include this message in the text, so CASL allows for that information to accessible via a web link.

You can also see this link just above: Info: TX3.ca/l (we use a link shortener and a 3 character domain to reduce character requirements as much as possible).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what a CASL compliant message looks like; a call to action. An unsubscribe option. A link to identifying info.

How Does CASL Get Implemented?

When a Canadian business owner signs up for the Local Text Marketers™’ service, the first thing s/he does is provide us with CASL-required contact data. When that business owner sends a text message to her database of customers, we append all messages with CASL mandated information and a custom shortened web link.

We then display business owner’s CASL compliance indentification information to customers and prospects who click on this web link.

For example, customers who subscribe to our service to demo it by texting SMS to 58279 will receive this message if they click on the “info” link in the text message they receive.

You’ll see it identifies us as the sender, and provides relevant contact data. If you scroll down further, help data is presented.

Perfect!

Dealing with CASL on your own is a pain in the Bu**.

Thankfully, we’ve already taken care of the irritating details, so all you have to do is focus on building your business.

We offer a 30-day, 100% satisfaction or your money back guarantee, plus a “no-credit-card-required” 14-day free trial.

In other words, we’ve made experimenting with our service a “no-risk” venture.

Why not sign up for the free trial today?