sms marketing in italy

SMS mass marketing in Italy with millions of mobile users, this country has also paved ways for SMS marketing to strengthen the marketing strategies of businesses in many ways.

With the increasing SMS marketing activities, it was imperative to set up certain rules and regulations to ensure the smooth working of this mechanism. Though Textback.ai meets compliance procedures of this country and can help you to apply them, you must also know the applicable laws before implementing an SMS Marketing strategy in Italy.

SMS Marketing Rules and Compliance in Italy

GDPR and Privacy Code govern electronic marketing in Italy. Some of the highlights are-

  • The organizations must obtain the express consent of the consumers through opt-in mechanisms like filling the consent form on a website, ticking a checkbox to give consent for sending future communications, or signing of a statement. Obtaining consent is of the utmost importance.
  • Customers have the unconditional right to object to any type of direct marketing at any time.
  • The consent of the customer to send him any commercial or transactional texts must be recorded as proof of consent.
  • Separate consents are required for website registration or opt-in for marketing communications. A unique marketing consent for different marketing channels (SMS, email, telephone, market surveys, etc) can be obtained but all of the services must be informed to the customers. 
  • A separate consent for passing on personal information to third parties is required to be obtained. Such a third party must also send a notification to the customers before sending them any marketing communication.
  • There is no requirement of opt-in from existing customers to send them marketing communications regarding products or services they have received in the past and are willing to receive in the future.
  • The customers must be informed prior to receiving their consent that they can opt-out at any time by simply sending a STOP for a respond.
  • The customers have the unconditional right to opt-out at any time during the communication.
  • If a consumer follows a social media page of a company, he is assumed to have already given his consent to receive such communication.

How To Drive Successful SMS Marketing Campaign in Italy?

As per Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), there are around 97.9 million sim cards in Italy. Thus, you can understand that there is a vast market that is completely at your disposal to drive a marketing campaign. There are certain things that will help you to drive a successful marketing campaign in Italy.

Give Them an Option to opt in and out.

It must be completely a customer’s choice to opt-in and give you the consent to contact them or not. This does not apply to an existing customer base. For them you may market your services as if they have already given their number in some earlier event.

The right time

How does an SMS sent in the middle of the night sound to you? Definitely, not good. Not from a business perspective nor compliance perspective. An SMS marketing must be sent during the working hour of business or with slight but sensible extensions. E.g., sending a deal for weekend sale on Friday evening but not so late that it distracts peoples rhythm and sleep. Typically it is ok to send until 7 or 8 pm.

The Right Message

You have only got 160 characters in a text message and you need to utilize them efficiently. A message that strikes the customer in the right way is the key to the success of the campaign. Hiring a copywriter to write a message for you can be helpful but you may do it yourself also. Key is to get some value and preferably clear call to action to each message.

Call-To-Action

A message with the right content, written in the right tone, clearly specifying its purpose sent at the right time gives you an opportunity to incite a response from the customer. Proper call-to-action is an integral part of a message.

Summary of SMS Mass Marketing at Italy

The benefits of SMS marketing are known to everyone. This marketing strategy if implemented properly can do wonders for businesses. The small details like the tone of the message, the time of sending the message, following up of legal requirements, etc are the key elements of this strategy and require experts to handle it.

With Textback.ai, you get experienced professionals who help you to plan your campaign, design it, and show how to execute it with perfection so that your return on investment is higher and results are even better than your expectations.