What are the three rules of the Spam Act?
The Act (the Australian Communications and Media Authority, "Spam Act 2003 and your business") applies to any commercial electronic message, which includes a text, and it asks for three things in every one.
| Rule | What it means in practice | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Consent | The person agreed to receive marketing texts, expressly (a tick box, a reply, a spoken yes you recorded) or by a relationship where they would reasonably expect it | Texting every number in the booking system because they were customers once |
| Identify the sender | The message says which business sent it, clearly and accurately | A text from a random number with an offer and no name |
| A way to unsubscribe | Every message carries a functional way to stop, usually "Reply STOP", honoured within five business days | A message with no opt-out, or one that keeps coming after STOP |
The ACMA publishes its enforcement actions, and the penalties it has imposed on Australian companies for texting without consent or without a working unsubscribe run into the millions. For a small business the practical consequence is simpler: a text platform in Australia will not send a campaign without an opt-out, and a customer's complaint to the ACMA is a letter you do not want.
When is a text better than an email?
When the message is short, timely and expected. A booking reminder the day before. A "your order is ready" from a repair shop. A flash offer that ends tonight, to people who asked for them. A quote follow-up from a tradie, two days after the quote. A text costs more than an email per message and earns far more attention per message, so it suits the moments where attention is the point and a newsletter would be noise.
Return on a text campaign = (jobs or orders × value) ÷ (messages × cost per message)
(9 × $380) ÷ (300 × $0.08) = $142 back per $1
What does one text earn a service business? (example figures)
A Toowoomba vet clinic has 300 clients whose pets are overdue for an annual vaccination and who ticked the box for reminders. It sends one text on a Tuesday morning: the clinic's name, the pet's name, a link to book, and "Reply STOP to opt out".
| Count | |
|---|---|
| Sent | 300 at about 8 cents each, $24 |
| Booked within a week | 41 |
| Opted out | 3 |
| Revenue at $95 a visit | $3,895 |
The same reminder by email the previous year had booked 14. Three opt-outs from 300 is the cost of using the channel; thirty would mean the list did not consent or the message was wrong. The clinic now sends one reminder text a year per pet and nothing else by SMS, which is why the opt-outs stay low.
What should a small business never do by text?
Send to people who did not ask. Send more than a few a month. Send at breakfast or late at night. Hide the business name behind a short code with no sender ID. Keep sending after STOP. Each of those breaks a rule or the goodwill the channel runs on, and the goodwill is the asset: a customer who gets two useful texts a year keeps the number; one who gets a weekly sale text blocks it.
What does Cora do with SMS marketing?
CoraVision does not send texts on your behalf and does not read your SMS platform. When a text reminder or follow-up is a tactic in your action plan, Cora talks you through setting it up on your own screen, including the consent wording and the opt-out, and the results come back through the numbers CoraVision does read: bookings and sales in Google Analytics 4 once it is connected, and the one number your plan is chasing. CoraVision itself sends you a text reminder before a meeting you book with Cora, which is the one SMS it uses.
Questions
Can I text customers who gave me their number when they bought?
For a message about their order, yes. For marketing, you need consent, and the ACMA accepts inferred consent only where a reasonable person would expect marketing from the relationship, which an order alone does not establish. Ask at the till or on the form, in words, and keep a record.
What does a text cost?
A few cents each through Australian SMS platforms, with the price falling at volume, plus the platform's monthly fee. The cost per message matters less than the reply rate, which is what makes a text worth ten emails for the right use.
Is there a time I cannot send?
The Spam Act sets no hours. Common sense and the complaints do: a marketing text at 7:00 am on a Sunday earns unsubscribes and ACMA complaints. Business hours in the customer's own time zone, and never more than a few a month.