TCPA-compliant marketing for wellness practices
Disclaimer: This is education, not legal advice. TCPA compliance is fact-specific and aggressively litigated. Talk to a marketing attorney about your specific practice.
The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) applies to wellness practices. Many wellness practitioners assume it only applies to telemarketers — wrong. If you send an automated SMS or fire an automated voice call to a contact in the U.S., TCPA applies.
This guide covers what you need to do.
Step 1 — Understand the consent tiers
TCPA recognizes three consent tiers:
No consent
You can’t send any automated SMS or call. This includes “cold” lists, scraped data, or contacts who only gave you their phone for a different purpose.
Implied consent
The contact gave you their phone in a transactional context (booked an appointment, placed an order). You can send transactional messages (appointment reminders, order confirmations) but not marketing.
Express written consent
The contact specifically opted in to receive marketing communications. This is what you need for daily check-ins, lifecycle emails by SMS, renewal nudges, referral asks.
The goal: get every client and prospect into the express written consent tier.
Step 2 — Audit your current consent capture
Look at every form on your site, every ad form, every intake document. Each needs:
- A specific opt-in checkbox (not pre-checked)
- Language that states what they’ll receive (“daily check-ins by SMS”, “marketing texts and AI-powered booking calls”)
- A timestamp of consent
- A reference to your privacy policy
- A way to opt out (STOP keyword)
What doesn’t qualify:
- A generic “by clicking submit you agree to…” footer
- A pre-checked box
- An assumption that booking implies SMS consent
- A consent that’s six months old without recent contact
Step 3 — Update your consent language
Replace generic consent with specific language. Example for a wellness practice’s discovery call application:
☐ I agree to receive automated text messages and AI-powered phone calls from [Practice Name] for the purposes of:
- Appointment scheduling and reminders
- Daily check-in pulses (if I enroll in a coaching program)
- Educational content and special offers
Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP at any time to opt out. View our Privacy Policy.
The Wellness Snapshot ships with TCPA-compliant consent capture on every form by default. We tune the specific language to your jurisdiction and modality during setup.
Step 4 — Configure STOP and opt-out flows
Every SMS your practice sends MUST:
- Honor STOP — when a contact replies STOP, they’re added to a do-not-text list within 30 seconds (legal max is 5 business days, but be faster)
- Confirm opt-out — auto-reply “You’ve been unsubscribed. Reply START to re-subscribe.”
- Suppress across all workflows — opted-out contacts can’t receive any further marketing SMS from any workflow
- Allow re-opt-in — START keyword restores them
The snapshot handles all of this automatically. If you’re building it yourself, this is the area most DIY implementations fail audits on.
Step 5 — A2P 10DLC registration
For U.S.-based business SMS, you need A2P 10DLC registration through The Campaign Registry. Without it, your messages get filtered as spam by carriers — meaning your daily check-ins won’t deliver.
Registration takes 2–6 weeks. Requires:
- EIN
- Business documentation
- Brand description
- Campaign descriptions (one per use case)
- Carrier vetting
The Wellness Snapshot files A2P 10DLC for free for U.S.-based practices. Other GHL agencies charge $150 for this.
Step 6 — Document your compliance posture
Keep audit-ready records of:
- Consent timestamps — when each contact opted in
- Consent text — what they specifically agreed to
- Opt-out events — STOP replies and confirmation timestamps
- Re-opt-in events — START replies if applicable
- A2P 10DLC registration — proof of carrier registration
- Annual re-consent prompts — for long-dormant contacts
The snapshot logs all of these automatically. Export to CSV any time for legal review.
What to avoid (high-risk patterns)
- Cold SMS to purchased lists — TCPA violation, even if consent appeared on the list source
- SMS to contacts who opted in 3+ years ago without recent contact — courts have held this is stale consent
- Marketing SMS without specific category opt-in — “we sometimes send promotions” isn’t specific enough
- Sending SMS outside 8 AM – 9 PM contact local time — quiet hours apply
- Sending SMS on prohibited days — Sundays in some states, federal holidays
- AI voice calls without consent for AI calls specifically — separate from SMS consent
The bigger picture
TCPA-compliant marketing isn’t just about avoiding lawsuits (though that matters — class action settlements can be $500–$1,500 per violation). It’s about building a practice on consent-respecting communication. Your clients value it. Your reputation depends on it.
The Wellness Snapshot ships TCPA-compliant patterns by default. If you take only one thing from this guide: don’t roll your own consent capture. Use ours, or hire a marketing attorney to design yours, but don’t wing it.