CentriWebIn Australia, marketing texts and emails are covered by the Spam Act 2003, which the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) enforces. Every marketing message needs three things: the person’s consent, clear identification of your business, and a working way to unsubscribe. Messages that are purely factual, like an appointment reminder, are treated differently, as long as you keep the promotion out of them.
This guide works through what that means for a small business sending texts and emails day to day. It’s general information, not legal advice. ACMA’s guidance is the source of truth, and it’s worth reading before you start a campaign.
What counts as a marketing message
The Spam Act calls these commercial electronic messages. In plain terms, it’s any email, text, MMS or instant message that offers, advertises or promotes your goods or services, or points people to somewhere that does. It doesn’t matter how small the business is or how few people you send to. One promotional text to one person is still covered.
Some examples that count as marketing:
- A text announcing a sale, a new service or a special offer.
- An email newsletter that includes your services, even if most of it is helpful tips.
- A “we miss you, book now and save” message to a past customer.
- A message with a link to a page where people can buy or book.
Phone calls are a separate matter. Voice telemarketing falls under the Do Not Call Register rules, not the Spam Act. This guide sticks to texts and emails. If you also market to customers across the Tasman, New Zealand’s rules are similar but not the same.
Service messages vs marketing messages
Plenty of the messages a business sends aren’t marketing at all. Appointment confirmations, booking reminders, delivery updates, invoice notices and “your job is finished” messages are factual. According to ACMA, a message that contains only factual information, plus your business name, logo and contact details, doesn’t need consent or an unsubscribe under the Spam Act.
The trap is the mixed message. Add “and while you’re here, 20% off teeth whitening this month” to a reminder and it becomes a commercial message, with all the rules that come with it. ACMA has taken action against businesses whose so-called service messages carried promotional content. Its advice is simple: keep factual messages and promotions in separate communications.
Consent: express and inferred
You need consent before sending a marketing message. The Act allows two kinds.
Express consent
Express consent is when someone actively agrees to hear from you. Examples: ticking a box on your booking form that says they’d like offers by text, replying YES to an opt-in message, or signing up to your newsletter. Good practice is a box the person ticks themselves, not one that’s ticked for them, with wording that says what they’ll receive and how (text, email or both).
Inferred consent
Inferred consent is narrower than most owners assume. ACMA says it can apply where a person has a provable, ongoing relationship with your business and the marketing is directly related to that relationship. A gym member with an active membership hearing about a new class timetable is a reasonable example.
ACMA is also clear about where it doesn’t apply. A one-off purchase is not an ongoing relationship, so you can’t infer consent from it. Where someone has cancelled a subscription or membership, ACMA says inferred consent is unlikely to be relied on. Having someone’s number in your phone because they called once is not consent.
Because inferred consent is open to argument, the safer path is to ask for express consent at the point you collect contact details. It costs one checkbox.
Identify yourself and include an unsubscribe
Every marketing message must clearly say who sent it and how to contact you. For texts, that usually means your business name in the message or as the sender ID, and a way to reach you. Don’t send promotions from a staff member’s personal mobile with no business name attached.
Every marketing message also needs a functional unsubscribe. According to ACMA’s unsubscribe fact sheet and the Spam Regulations, the unsubscribe must:
- be clear and easy to find, with simple instructions
- be honoured within five working days
- keep working for at least 30 days after the message is sent
- not charge a fee
- not make people log in, create an account or hand over personal information beyond the email address or number they’re unsubscribing
For SMS, the usual approach is “Reply STOP to opt out” or a short unsubscribe link. ACMA has said it will focus on businesses that ignore unsubscribe requests or make unsubscribing hard. It has also flagged automated welcome sequences where the unsubscribe doesn’t take effect until the whole series has gone out. If someone opts out, they’re out of every marketing sequence, not just the one they replied to.
Keeping consent records
Under the Spam Act, it’s up to you to prove you had consent. ACMA can ask you for that evidence. “They were a customer” won’t do much on its own.
For each contact, aim to record:
- how they gave consent (form, text reply, in person)
- the date and time
- the wording they agreed to, or the version of the form
- what channels they agreed to (text, email or both)
- when and how they unsubscribed, if they did
The same applies if someone else sends messages for you, like a marketing contractor or an SMS platform. ACMA’s guidance is that consent is still required, and you’re still responsible. Never buy or borrow a list. People on a purchased list haven’t consented to hear from you.
Common small business situations, worked through
A clinic patient who came in once last year
A single visit is a weak basis for inferred consent, particularly if they haven’t returned. If they didn’t tick an opt-in box when they booked, don’t add them to a promotional campaign. You can still send factual messages related to their care, like a recall reminder, as long as they stay free of offers. Next time they book, ask for express consent.
Appointment reminders
A reminder with the date, time, location and how to reschedule is a factual message. Keep it that way. If you want to promote a new service, send it separately, and only to people who’ve agreed to marketing.
Someone who asked you for a quote
Following up a quote the person asked for is closely tied to their own request, and many businesses treat that as inferred consent for the follow-up. Identify yourself, give a way to opt out, and stop when they say no. What you shouldn’t do is move them onto your general promotions list without asking.
Members and active clients
A current member or client receiving offers related to what they already use is the clearest case for inferred consent. Once they cancel, treat them as a new contact. Ask before sending promotions.
Collecting numbers at the counter or on site
If staff take mobile numbers for receipts or bookings, add one question: “Would you like us to text you about offers too?” Record the answer in your system, not on a scrap of paper.
If you run a gym, studio or clinic, these situations come up weekly. Our health and fitness page covers how we set up follow-up for those businesses.
Setting up your CRM so it handles this for you
Most compliance slips aren’t deliberate. They happen because consent lives in someone’s head, unsubscribes get handled by hand, and promotional sends go to “everyone in the system”. A properly set up CRM takes most of that risk away.
- Add consent fields. Separate fields for SMS and email marketing consent, each with a date and source. Make them required on every form that collects contact details.
- Capture opt-in wording. Store the form name or version so you can show what people agreed to.
- Automate unsubscribes. STOP replies and unsubscribe links should update the contact record straight away and remove them from every marketing sequence, well inside five working days.
- Split message types. Keep reminders and service messages in their own templates and workflows, with no promotional content. Build marketing campaigns as a separate set.
- Filter every campaign. Marketing sends should only go to contacts with consent recorded and no opt-out. Make that filter the default, not something someone remembers to tick.
- Check sender details. Business name and contact details in every template, and a sender ID people recognise.
Once that’s in place, review it twice a year. Send yourself a test campaign, reply STOP, and confirm you drop off every list.
A practical starting point
If you’re about to run your first campaign, do these in order: read ACMA’s spam guidance, add an opt-in checkbox to your forms, split your reminders from your promotions, and only send to people who’ve clearly said yes. A smaller list of people who agreed to hear from you will outperform a bigger list of people who didn’t.
If you’d like help setting up compliant email and text campaigns with consent tracking built into your systems, that’s part of what we do. And if your emails follow the rules but still land in junk, the cause is usually technical: see why business emails go to spam.