DM4: Privacy, consent and the law for marketers
Messages people agreed to: email, SMS and WhatsApp
🎯You'll be able to
Collect consent for marketing messages properly, follow TRAI's rules for commercial SMS, and make unsubscribing easy.
🏠The everyday picture
A neighbour who asked to be told when your shop gets fresh mangoes is glad to hear. A stranger who gets three messages a day about mangoes blocks your number.
📘What it really is
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Separate consent for messages: a purchase doesn't mean someone agreed to promotions. Use an unticked box or a separate sign-up, record when and how consent was given, and honour withdrawal.
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Email:
- double opt-in (confirm by clicking a link) proves the address is real and the person agreed;
- every promotional email has a visible unsubscribe link; large mailbox providers now expect one-click unsubscribe and proper sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) from bulk senders;
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keep complaint rates low by sending only what people asked for.
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SMS and calls in India: TRAI's Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 require businesses to register on the operators' Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platforms, with approved sender headers and message templates, and to respect customers' preferences on the National Customer Preference Register (the "do not disturb" list) unless they have that customer's consent.
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WhatsApp Business: customers must opt in; marketing messages use approved templates; people can block or report a business, which limits its reach.
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Frequency and relevance: fewer, useful messages keep lists healthy. Set frequency caps (DM9).
📝A worked example
Input: MittiMart wants to send festival offers by SMS to past customers.
Steps:
- Check consent: did customers agree to promotional messages, or only to order updates?
- Register as a sender on a DLT platform, with a header (for example "MITMRT") and an approved template including how to opt out.
- Send only to customers who agreed, and remove anyone who opts out.
Expected output: a plan in which order updates (service messages) and offers (promotional messages) are kept separate, each with its own consent. (This is a planning exercise; the kit doesn't send messages.)
🌍Where it's used
- Banks and telecom companies run DLT-registered SMS for alerts and offers.
- Shops run abandoned-cart emails only for people who agreed to marketing.
- Service businesses use WhatsApp templates for reminders with opt-in.
📝Case scenario
A clothing brand bought a list of 2 lakh "opted-in" email addresses. Its first campaign had so many complaints and bounces that mailbox providers began sending its order confirmations to spam too. Rebuilding with double opt-in from its own customers took six months.
🖱️Try it
Find one promotional email in your inbox and check: is there a visible unsubscribe link, and does it work in one step? Success: you can say how many steps unsubscribing takes.
⚠️Common mistakes
- Assuming a purchase means marketing consent. Sign: offers to every customer. Fix: a separate, recorded opt-in.
- Buying lists. Sign: "50,000 verified emails for ₹5,000." Fix: build your own list with consent.
- Hard unsubscribing. Sign: "Log in to change preferences." Fix: one-click unsubscribe.
🛠️For your project
MittiMart's newsletter form is practice only. Project 1 asks that it sends generate_lead without the email address; your capstone design
notes can describe how real messages would be consented to.
✅Quick check
What does TRAI's DLT system require of businesses sending commercial SMS?
Show the answer
Registration, with approved sender headers and message templates, and respecting customers' preferences.
Why use double opt-in for email?
Show the answer
It confirms the address is real and the person agreed.