SMS marketing may not be available for merchants in North America. For merchants in that region, we recommend using Email marketing to communicate with customers.
One of the most powerful benefits of Lightspeed Loyalty is the ability to communicate directly with your customers through our marketing tools. The Email Marketing module will allow you to send longer messages, include eye-catching images, and even attach points or one-time rewards to your emails, but there's no substitute for the immediacy of a text message (SMS). With SMS Marketing you can compose a short message and reach specific demographics by selecting which customer Groups you want that text to go out to.
Before using SMS communications within Lightspeed Loyalty, please make sure you understand the guidelines for businesses in the United States or Canada.
Send marketing SMS
To begin:
- Click on SMS Marketing > Send marketing SMS.
- Enter up to 300 characters into the Message field.
- Specify which customer Groups you would like to receive this message. Note: if this field is left blank, the message will go to all of your customers.
- Click Send SMS.
- Click Confirm.
The message will be sent to every customer who is a member of one of the specified Groups.
If you write a single message and send that message to a user group with 100 members, that will count as 100 text messages sent (1 for each user). The Tips section of the Send SMS page will keep a tally of how many text messages you've used so far, so you can quickly gauge whether or not you can afford to add another user group to a message's distribution list based on your per message rate.
SMS History
Lightspeed Loyalty will keep a log of every text message you've sent to your customers. You can view this log at SMS Marketing > SMS history.
Guidelines for businesses in Canada or the United States
Non-permitted businesses
Although Lightspeed offers businesses the ability to send both automated and marketing SMS communications, certain guidelines restrict the right of Canadian or United States businesses from using these features.
In the US, your business must adhere to the CTIA’s Messaging Principles and Best Practices, which means if your business sells tobacco, vape, CBD, cannabis, marijuana, firearms, or adult products you are not permitted to use SMS communications.
In Canada, your business must adhere to Federal regulations (Cannabis Act, Tobacco & Vaping Products Act, Firearms Act, etc.), which means if your business sells tobacco, vape, CBD, cannabis, marijuana, firearms, adult, or alcohol products, you are not permitted to use SMS communications.
Mobile carriers take compliance seriously. As of April 22, 2022, all SMS communications for non-permitted businesses will be disabled. If by chance you have evaded the SMS disablement and continue to send messages, you may face serious financial penalties. Your business will be responsible for any and all claims made against Lightspeed resulting from your continued use of the SMS features.
Alternative solution
Our email marketing feature will still be available for you to further interact with your customers on the Lightspeed Loyalty platform. You can also expect all of your automated notifications to be sent to your customers via their provided email address.
It is important that you collect your customer’s email address during the Lightspeed Retail customer enrolment process. This will ensure Lightspeed Loyalty receives the email identifier and you can proceed with appropriate communication to your customers via email.
Non-permitted content
In addition to the non-permitted businesses (and affiliated products), you should not send links that have been shortened using shared public URL shorteners, like Bit.ly or TinyURL. Carrier policies discourage the use of shared public URL shorteners, and state that your URL shortener should be both proprietary and properly branded. If you want to use a shortened URL in your message, we recommend using a dedicated short domain name.