Thursday, August 1

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Did You Know That Your Ads Aren't Shown To Everyone You Target?

Last week, I ran the ads below targeting each one of You.

But I'm pretty sure not everyone has seen the three ads. Or did you?

All my ads were in one ad set targeted to our subscribers.

But why didn't it show all the ads to each of you?

It's because Meta's algorithm works on the fundamentals of audience pockets.

Meta's algorithm would put you into a pocket/group/cohort (as you name it) based on attributes like interests, behaviours, geography, relevance, and engagement.

Based on the pocket you belong to and the likelihood of conversion, Meta will show the ad that you are most likely to convert.

So, whenever you create an ad, Ensure it's relevant and persuasive to certain Customer Personas.

Meta will do the heavy lifting of finding that audience pocket and show the ads with which your prospects are most likely to convert.

I hope that was insightful.

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IBRAHIM’S NUGGETS

Staying compliant with SMS Marketing

Heyy!

As you all know, the goal of Ibrahim’s Nuggets or Deep Dives is to give you the most tactical and actionable advice that I can on how to succeed in DTC.

90% of the time, I’m talking about marketing tactics and how to build better ads, landing pages, emails, influencer marketing etc. for your brand.

Today, I want to talk about something different. And that’s the wonderful world of compliance.

I was notified by my friends at Postscript last year about some new changes happening in the SMS ecosystem (specifically in Florida and a few other states) around compliance and I see a lot of the folks aren’t really aware, so figured it would be helpful to talk about it.

Seriously, IMO, no founder should be spending their days worried about SMS compliance. They should simply use tools that have compliance baked into everything they do. That’s why I recommend Postscript (non-sponsored) because they pay attention to these changes and build tools that are always up to date. If you use a tool that takes care of these compliances, let me know!

Alright, let’s get into it..

As far as general SMS compliance goes, here’s an overview of what you need to know:

Overview of SMS compliance

As everyone who sends SMS marketing messaging knows, any brand that is sending texts using an SMS platform (i.e. it's being sent over an API rather than manually by a person) is subject to certain laws.

There are 4 main categories of regulation to be aware of:

1. Federal laws

2. State laws

3. CTIA (The governing carrier organization)

4. Carrier enforced best practices

The overall risk to your brand varies depending on whose rules are being broken. Federal & state level violations are the lawsuits with potentially very large fines ($500 to $1500 per text per subscriber!) while CTIA and carrier enforced best practices not being followed increase your risk of messages being filtered (basically blocked) or your phone number being shut down.

The Basics To Stay Compliant

As mentioned above, the first and best thing to do is to use a compliant provider like Postscript or Klaviyo, but here are the other basics to follow:

1. Obtain Consumer Consent: You must get consent from a consumer before messaging them. Marketing messages require a higher level of consent known as prior express written consent which requires very specific language. I believe PS & Klaviyo builds this language into their hosted opt-in features and provides guidance for compliantly promoting your text messaging program outside of our platform.

   • These rules apply to pop-ups, checkout opt in, social media/email that let subscribers opt in, any package where a keyword or QR code that allows subscribers to opt in.

   • Note that some of these opt in points will live outside of your sms platform (social media, email, display of keywords and/or QR codes) with any of these touch points, you still need to include the relevant compliance language from your form provider.

2. Support Opt-out Requests: You must make it easy for consumers to unsubscribe from receiving your texts, and you must honor their request to unsubscribe immediately. PS/Klaviyo, for example, builds this feature into their platform.

3. Honor Quiet Hours: The federal TCPA suggests that messages be sent only between 8am and 9pm. Florida, Washington, Maryland, and Oklahoma TCPA laws are more specific and require messages be sent only between 8am and 8pm local time. For example, PS/Klaviyo automatically follows quiet hours for both—automation messages AND campaign messages. A lot of other providers only account for automated messages and they can often be modified. Most providers have no guardrails in place for their campaigns.

New Regulations & What’s Going on In Florida

In July 2021, Florida passed their own legislation that has been referred to as FTSA (Florida Telephone Solicitation Act). The FTSA is essentially just Florida’s state-specific version of the TCPA that regulates calls and text messages to Florida residents, with some additional restrictions and penalties for violations including:

• Longer quiet hours (reducing waking hours to 8am to 8pm local time)

• More restrictions on what messages are allowed during quiet hours

• Limit of 3 messages within 24 hours for a specific campaign or product.

Because Florida has their own state level rules, most of the current litigation has been happening in Florida. Washington, Maryland and Oklahoma have each passed their own set of state specific rules with more states considering similar legislation.

Currently brands messaging subscribers in Florida are getting demand letters (threatening a lawsuit). These can be pretty scary (and so are lawsuits) if you can’t show that a subscriber compliantly opted in to receive texts.

Plaintiffs’ playbook is to spray and pray which is why you see a TON of demand letters and lawsuits in Florida. Keep in mind that even if you are right, but not prepared, “nuisance” ’lawsuits cost $10-100k to settle and legal fees.

There is some potential hope on the horizon that changes to this law could drastically reduce the number of SMS related lawsuits in Florida, but the ultimate impact of these updates will take time and remains an open question—that is worth monitoring.

So… What Can Brands Actually Do?

In short, if your brand is sending texts to customers in Florida, double check that you are following the latest guidelines.

1. Know about legal risks for SMS

2. Follow all of the compliance practices that you can

3. Use a compliant SMS provider that builds in guardrails like PS, Klaviyo, Attentive, etc.

4. Consult your general counsel if you need any help

Alright folks, that’s it for today!

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Have any questions that you need help with?

Ask here - and look out for Friday’s Issue where Ibrahim will answer them.