Written by nategifford To use text message marketing, companies must comply with mobile carrier TCR (Trust, Compliance, and Registration) and 10DLC (10 Digit Long Code) regulations—specifically opt-ins on your website must implement certain consent and disclosure mechanisms when collecting a phone number for text message marketing.
Carrot sites have a one-click feature to automate this compliance for each form. Here we’ll show you how to use this built-in feature. If you’d prefer to add an opt-in checkbox manually, check out this tutorial.
Below we’ll guide you through assessing your need for this opt-in and how to achieve TCR/10DLC compliance for websites to the best of our knowledge.*
Preface: Consider Impact on Conversion Rates
It is important to note that our decade of conversion rate testing shows that adding more checkboxes and fields can decrease your form’s conversion rate. Knowing this, we do not enable this option by default. Consider asking for a phone number on your “Step-2 form” to ensure your initial opt-in flow is as simple as possible, and only activate this feature if you are planning to use text message marketing with these leads.
Step 1: Which Forms Accept Phone Numbers?
Understand which forms on your site collect a phone number, plan to locate each and enable the consent feature in the form settings:
- Step One Form: If your website collects phone numbers, follow step 2 of this tutorial to implement pre-built TCR/10DLC compliant checkboxes to your form.
- Step Two Form: If your initial form does not request a phone number, the opt-in consent checkbox is not required until the user progresses to a step that involves providing their phone number. If a phone number is collected on step 2 and not on step 1, follow step 2 of this tutorial to implement pre-built TCR/10DLC compliant checkboxes to your form.
Note: If no phone number is collected on either form, then no consent checkboxes are necessary in order to comply.
Step 2: Add Consent Checkboxes To Each Form
- First, open your form list: go to Site Dashboard > Content > Forms
- Click to open a form’s “Form Settings”
Here is an example of going to the Home Page’s form on a motivated seller template:
- Check the boxes for both the Enable SMS Consent Field and the Enable Privacy Policy Consent Field beneath the Form’s Description. (Both are necessary to fully comply with TCR/10DLC’s guidelines.)
- Save: Scroll down and save your updated form settings
- Verify: Return to your website to view the updated form and verify the checkboxes are visible
Repeat these checkbox activation steps for each form that accepts a phone number for SMS marketing purposes.
Step 3 (optional): Customize and Hyperlink the Consent Field Text
To help cover the varying requirements of CRMs that span across multiple industries, the text within consent fields are fully customizable. You can add hyperlinks or adjust the style of the text within the consent form to align with your needs or CRM requirements.
In the example below, under the Privacy Consent Field text, the words “Terms & Conditions” and “Privacy Policy” have been hyperlinked to those related pages. To add a hyperlink, simply highlight the words with your cursor and click the link icon 🔗 in the toolbar:
Need to create a Privacy Policy or Terms and Conditions page? Check out some guidance on how to do so:
Example Preview
Learn More:
- Text Messaging Compliance Overview – General overview of 10DLC compliance.
- The Campaign Registry – TCR Compliance Main Website
- Terms and Conditions Guidance
- Privacy Policy Guidance
Footnotes:
*This is built upon our knowledge of the current regulations and doesn’t ensure the approval of your brand or messaging campaign. Please remember to consult your messaging provider for any potential additional requirements they might have.