TCPA got you nervous? Face the Elephant Together!

Ramifications on the Industry

Although the purpose of this article is to persuade you to engage and confront the challenge, let’s first acknowledge some of the unpleasant possibilities – the elephant in the room, or the one drinking at the bank of ‘the Nile’ mentioned above.

Business repercussions: Decisions around Opt-in policies require careful consideration and strategic planning. Thoughtful, transparent approaches that prioritize user consent and clarity will strengthen your business model.
Demands on Technology infrastructure: Determine whether your flows need to capture data differently. What kind of technological capabilities will these differences require?
Legal ramifications: How do these new regulations open the door for consumer complaints and lawsuits? We know of lawyers who are making plans right now, though it’s really time that will tell how the landscape will change and where the potholes are. More to come in future articles.

Here’s What We Know

Starting Jan 27 2025, you will need to capture, store, and be able to provide key pieces of data showing explicit 1 to 1 consent was obtained prior to a consumer being contacted via phone call or text message.

You should vet out and decide NOW on adjustments you’ll want to make to your methods & technologies.

Business Strategies

Strategically-placed presentation of Opt-in vs Opt-out

This is an area of your business that should not be taken lightly. Presenting and disclosing to your consumers with transparency is the focal point of this new regulatory rule. You’ll want to exercise your best judgment on methods of soliciting Opt-in from each consumer.

• Un-checked vs Pre-checked boxes: It’s probably obvious that un-checked boxes translate better into explicit consent than pre-checked boxes. If the consumer overlooks a pre-checked box and fails to manually un-check it, who’s the liable party? Is it the company reaching out to the consumer? Or is it the business that setup the lead form? Could it possibly be considered that the consumer is liable in this scenario?
• Select-all vs Unselect-All: Again, can you guess which approach would be considered more aligned with the concept of explicit 1:1 consent? You are probably safer going with the approach requiring consumers to manually tick a checkbox for each and every company they agree to allow contact with them .
• 1 exclusive buyer per page: Here’s an alternative to checkboxes, where the consumer is presented with one or more pages sequentially that require an action from the consumer to agree to the buyer on each page.
• Multi-checkboxes or tiles: In our image-driven world, using tiles next to each logo may conceivably be the most appealing. Consumers can quickly assess by way of brand recognition and tick each company logo they agree to be contacted by. Of course, multi-checkboxes may not employ the same visual appeal but in some cases may avoid a laborious user experience.

Opt-out (not surprisingly) generates more leads than Opt-in but the overall quality of these leads may turn out to be lower. Get your creative juices flowing in finding ways to create an engaging Opt-in process.

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Diversification

• Ping Post: Some argue that ping post is a thing of the past, but its survival remains possible with the support of any variety of dynamic TCPA technologies. As long as the explicit consent is gathered at key points.
• CoReg as well as Aged leads: These too can survive by obtaining consent at pivotal points. Integrate advanced TCPA tools to adapt these approaches and continue to thrive.
• Calls shifting to Inbound (vs Outbound): Putting the ball in the consumer’s court changes the game to coming up with compelling incentivized CTAs to bring inbound traffic to call centers.
• Click Model – As most of you know, a link-out or affiliate marketing model can put the onus on lead buyers to host quality landing pages & quality forms; lead generators are compensated on a click or revshare basis.
• Email – Direct marketing strategy that falls outside of TCPA regulations. Of course there are compliance rules specific to the world of email; more on this topic in other articles.

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Technological Tools

LinkTrust’s TCPA technology: LinkTrust provides dynamic TCPA technology in an API that supports 1:1 consent, with other enhancements in our pipeline. Our API solution facilitates disclosure of multiple companies as needed to the end user with HTML as an option.

Integrations: LinkTrust integrates with both TrustedForm and Jornaya, deservedly reputable products for capabilities in tracking conversion events and related consent data.

LinkTrust’s development pipeline includes enhancements to our dynamic pull of TCPA-relevant data. As well, an optional full data response from each buyer channel and call tracking compliance are projects forthcoming.

LinkTrust’s existing integrations with major Fraud Prevention platforms, IPQS and Anura, will also facilitate the transition in January. The TCPA rule change is an opportunity to up your game in quality, verification, and fraud detection. If the costs of leads are going up, the quality should go up too!

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Conclusion

We want you to feel empowered to confront and take on the elephant. We believe the best way forward is to begin engaging your own networks in conversations about the upcoming changes. Compare notes and concerns. Identify key KPIs now (eg close rate, cpa) so you can validate performance and make adjustments while going through the upcoming changes. And of course, evaluate your acquisition process and decide on the adjustments you need to make now. With thorough preparation, we aim for the upcoming changes to fade into the past, remembered only by those with a memory like an elephant.