If you are doing SMS marketing, it's crucial to always stay compliant with regulations and industry best practices to maintain customer trust.

In Omnisend, you can achieve this by using our features called SMS frequency capping and SMS quiet hours. These features allow you to limit the number of messages a recipient can receive daily and schedule custom delivery hours to avoid disturbing your customers during the night.

In this guide, we'll show you how to use these features to streamline your SMS marketing campaigns and enhance your customers' overall experience.

Before You Begin

Benefits

Setup Process

FAQ

Before you begin, please take note of the following:

One of the main reasons why these features are essential is that they help you meet compliance regulations and recommendations. Many countries have laws and guidelines that regulate SMS marketing, and failure to comply with them can result in legal issues and financial penalties. SMS frequency capping and quiet hours help you avoid overloading recipients with too many messages and sending messages at inappropriate times, two common compliance issues.

Another critical reason to use these features is that they improve the customer experience. Sending too many messages or sending messages at inconvenient times can frustrate recipients and lead to unsubscribes or complaints. By setting a limit on the number of messages a recipient can receive and choosing delivery hours that are convenient for them, you can improve the likelihood that they will engage with your messages and take the desired action.

SMS frequency capping and quiet hours can also help you save money on your SMS marketing campaigns. Limiting the number of messages you send to recipients can reduce your overall messaging costs. Additionally, by avoiding sending messages when recipients are unlikely to engage with them, you can improve the efficiency of your campaigns while reducing wasted messaging costs.

By using the process described in this guide, you'll be able to make sure that your SMS marketing campaigns follow the most important regulations and recommendations. By staying compliant, you can avoid the risk of legal and financial consequences and, more importantly, build trust with your customers.

Customers are more likely to interact with and respond positively to businesses that value their privacy and follow industry best practices— moreover, being compliant shows that your company operates with honesty and can help you establish a positive reputation in your industry. By following the instructions in this guide, you'll stay compliant, improve your bond with your customers, and elevate your company's image.

To access these settings, navigate to the Store settings section of your account and select SMS from the menu.

From there, you'll be able to find the options for the SMS frequency capping and quiet hours features and adjust them according to your preferences.

By default, the SMS sending limit feature is set to 3 SMS messages per day for each recipient. However, you can change this limit to a value that works better for you or turn the setting off entirely.

By limiting the number of messages you send to each recipient, you can reduce the risk of spam complaints and opt-outs and ensure that your SMS marketing campaigns are well-received by your target audience.

The SMS quiet hours feature allows you to set custom hours for when SMS messages can be delivered to your recipients. This is particularly useful for those who want to avoid sending messages at night, which could be inconvenient for the recipient and lead to complaints.

Any message scheduled to be sent outside of the set delivery hours will be postponed until the next possible delivery timeframe.

Additionally, turning the SMS quiet hours feature off entirely gives you complete control over your messaging strategy, allowing you to adjust your approach as needed to meet your business objectives best.

Both features are calculated based on the recipient's timezone, so if you send messages worldwide, you should not be concerned about delivering messages at inappropriate times. This feature ensures that messages are delivered at the most convenient time for the recipient, leading to better engagement and conversion rates.

You can choose to use only one of the features, both or none of them. By default, both features are enabled for a more streamlined process. However, you can change or turn off these settings on the SMS settings page.

What happens if I try to send a message after reaching the daily limit set by frequency capping?

If you have only enabled frequency capping, the message won't be sent at all. However, if you have also enabled silent hours, and the sending was initiated during the silent timeframe, the message will be postponed until another day. If sending was initiated during the allowed timeframe, the message still won't be sent.

What happens if I have SMS in my Birthday automation set to send at 9 am but silent hours are enabled from 8 pm - 11 am?

If silent hours are enabled during the time when the SMS is scheduled to be sent, the message will be postponed and sent at 11 am instead and sent then.

Is there a legal basis or specific regulations that require the implementation of quiet hours for our SMS notifications?