You will learn
Learn what information you need to provide when requesting an SMS short code for New Zealand.
This advice is for informational purposes only and is neither intended as nor should be substituted for consultation with appropriate legal counsel and/or your organization’s regulatory compliance team.
Before you begin
Please note the following:
- The information below only applies to New Zealand short codes
- New Zealand short code applications take 5–6 weeks for carrier approvals
- If approved, short codes are only valid for sends to New Zealand; they won’t work in any other country
- Currently, MMS is not supported on New Zealand short codes
- Short codes are the only type of SMS sending number available in New Zealand
If you want a short code, you must apply and be approved. The goal of the short code application process is to communicate to wireless carriers how a brand will use a short code.
In New Zealand, short code compliance involves wireless carriers and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs. Note that carrier policies are often unpublished and only known through interactions with the carriers during the application process. These policies are also subject to change. Klaviyo stays informed of current requirements; however, changes to your short code application or mockups may be requested at any time to maintain compliance.
Klaviyo works to avoid rejections or the need for re-review by vetting applications before they are sent to carriers. If a wireless carrier rejects a program, you may be able to modify it to meet the carrier’s requirements. Once the changes have been made the program can be resubmitted to the carrier. However, resubmissions aren’t prioritized ahead of first-time applications, so the second review may result in delays in launching the short code.
New Zealand short code checklist
The goal of the short code application process is to demonstrate how your brand plans to use a short code. Thus, wireless carriers ask you to provide specific information.
Review this checklist to make sure you have met all the requirements:
- Collect your company and contact information
- Create a short description of your public-facing brand
- Fully describe the proposed message service
- Prepare examples of the messages you plan to send
- Review your terms of service and privacy policy
- Explain your opt-in process step-by-step
- Explain your opt-out process step-by-step
- Describe how you will advertise your SMS program
- Provide your expected sending volumes and peak times
- Recommended: include any subscribe keywords you want to use
Collect your company and contact information
Gather information regarding your business, point of contact, and contact details to provide to wireless carriers, including:
- Company name
- Company website URL
- If you have a domain specific to your short code program, provide that
- Otherwise, enter your brand’s main domain
- Company physical or mailing address
- Primary contact name
- Primary contact phone number
- Support email address
- Support phone number
Your brand needs a toll-free or New Zealand local rate number beginning with “0800” or “0508” for your support phone number.
Create a short description of your public-facing brand
As part of your short code application, you’ll need to provide a brief description of your public-facing brand. This overview should include the:
- Types of products you sell
- Services you offer
- Industry your brand is in
Fully describe the proposed message service
Wireless carriers want to know how you plan to use your short code and what type of messages you’ll send. Fully describe the type of messages you will be sending, and how you will be using your short code.
Below are the most common types of messages:
- Promotional
Provides marketing, advertising, coupons or deals highlighting the latest products, services, discounts, events, and upcoming offers - Transactional
Sends alerts, notifications, etc. (if any promotional content is in the message, it loses its transactional classification) - Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Provides an extra layer of security verification
Prepare examples of the messages you plan to send
You’ll need to provide an example of each type of message you plan to send using your short code. Examples must be representative of actual messages that you want to send with the short code.
Mandatory compliance elements include:
- Your legal business name, or your company name and New Zealand business number
- Contact details for your business or a link to your business’s contact details
- An opt-out mechanism (e.g., unsubscribe keyword) that:
- Presents unsubscribe instructions clearly
- Allows users to unsubscribe through the original method of communication
Review your terms of service and privacy policy
As part of New Zealand’s short code application, we recommend auditing your mobile terms of service and privacy policy.
For instance, check that your terms of service describe your SMS program, how to opt in, how to opt out, where to get help.
Explain your opt-in process step-by-step
Sending text messages to someone who hasn’t consented to them is illegal in New Zealand. Due to this, wireless carriers want to understand your opt-in process.
Requirements:
- Share all the ways you plan to collect consent, such as:
- Having recipients text your number
- Using a popup, click-to-text, or embed form
- Checking a box at checkout
- Add any disclosure language [LINK] you use when collecting SMS consent
- Provide a step-by-step explanation for each opt-in method
You’ll also need to include a screenshot or URL for the actual opt-in method. This must show the full opt-in page and the opt-in box must be unchecked by default.
Including SMS disclosure language on your popups, website, and any other opt-in methods is required in New Zealand. Klaviyo’s default disclosure language fulfills these requirements:
"By entering your phone number and submitting this form, you consent to receive marketing text messages (such as promotion codes and cart reminders) from [Your Organization's Name] at the number provided, including messages sent by autodialer. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. You can unsubscribe at any time by replying STOP or clicking the unsubscribe link (where available) in one of our messages. View our Privacy Policy [insert link] and Terms of Service [insert link].”
For example, if you use a multi-step popup form, the steps may be:
- A user goes to my website
- User sees a popup form with a first name, last name, and email input fields as well as a button to sign up for email
- User fills out their information
- User clicks “Sign me up for email alerts”
- User is taken to another page that includes:
- A phone number field
- Disclosure language with links to my mobile terms of service and privacy policy
- A button to sign up for SMS
- User inputs their phone number
- User clicks “I want text alerts”
- User receives a text to confirm they want to opt in
- User texts “Yes” to confirm they want to be an SMS subscriber
- User receives a welcome message from my number
Explain your opt-out process step-by-step
Wireless carriers also want to ensure that consumers have the ability to easily opt-out of marketing messages. You’ll need to share the ways that your customers can opt out from SMS like:
- Unsubscribe keywords
- Call your business’s help number or email support
For example, for your unsubscribe keywords:
- A user that is subscribed to SMS marketing decides they no longer want to receive content from my brand
- User opens the messaging app on their mobile device
- User identifies previous messages from my brand or drafts a new message to my brand’s sending number
- User types in any of the unsubscribe keywords:
- STOP
- CANCEL
- etc.
- User sends unsubscribe keyword by replying to previous message from brand, or sending new message to my brand’s sending number
- User receives a confirmation message indicating they will not receive SMS marketing from my brand anymore
Describe how you will advertise your SMS program
When submitting your short code application for New Zealand, provide information on how your SMS program will be advertised. Include information about the marketing channels your brand is using and where users opt in.
Examples may include:
- Website popup form
- Checkbox during checkout
- Third-party marketing platforms
Provide your expected volumes and peak times
Provide information regarding your expected sending volume for SMS messages, including how many SMS you will send daily and weekly.
In this estimate, consider:
- How many SMS subscribers you have
- Your average list growth
- The number of flow messages that you send
- How many campaigns you send per month and the number of subscribers typically included in your campaigns
- The number of people who unsubscribe or are suppressed due to list cleaning
Additionally, include information around your expected peak sending times through the day and expected volume during these peaks.
Recommended: include any subscribe keywords you want to use
While not required, it's a best practice to inform Klaviyo about any subscribe keyword you are using (except for JOIN) or plan to use.
The reason for this best practice is that if wireless carriers ever audit your short code program, having your keywords on file can help protect you.