Last Updated: 2025/07/07
This Opt-In, Opt-Out, and SMS Communication Policy outlines how The Creative Image (“we,” “our,” or “us”) collects, uses, and manages contact information—specifically phone numbers—for the purpose of business-to-business (B2B) communication through SMS, email, or telephone outreach.
The Creative Image provides web design, digital marketing, SEO, and related services to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the United States. As part of our outreach efforts, we connect with business owners to share free resources, promotional offers, and service opportunities that may benefit their growth. This policy is intended to clearly explain how we obtain your business information, how we communicate with you, and how you can manage those communications at any time.
This policy applies to all outreach communications conducted via SMS by The Creative Image and its authorized systems or representatives, including communications initiated from toll-free numbers, A2P (Application-to-Person) 10DLC numbers, and manual or semi-automated platforms.
If you have any questions, feedback, or complaints regarding this policy, you may contact us at:
The Creative Image
Website: www.thecreativeimage.net
Email: [email protected]
This policy applies specifically to the SMS messages we send to business owners or representatives of local businesses. These messages may include—but are not limited to:
We do not send SMS marketing to individual consumers or to personal mobile numbers that are not associated with a business or commercial listing. All communications are directed to business entities—typically owners, managers, or digital contacts—using publicly available information or voluntarily submitted contact details.
This policy is governed by applicable U.S. law, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), as well as carrier-specific compliance frameworks such as A2P 10DLC (for long code messaging) and Toll-Free SMS Verification (for toll-free numbers). While our primary market is the United States, we acknowledge that our practices may be viewed under the scope of international standards such as the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Although not always directly applicable, we voluntarily align with key privacy and consent principles from those frameworks.
By continuing to engage with our communications or using our website, you acknowledge and agree to the scope of outreach outlined in this policy.
The Creative Image collects business contact information—including phone numbers, email addresses, and business names—through a combination of voluntary submission and publicly available sources.
We collect phone numbers through the following methods:
These forms clearly state that by submitting their information, users consent to being contacted via email, SMS, or phone for business communication.
Businesses often request to be featured on county-specific directories and industry highlights. All feature requests, nominations, and listing forms explicitly request contact information and include terms acknowledging future communication.
We may supplement our outreach lists with publicly available information from:
In these cases, we limit our outreach to businesses that have publicly listed their phone numbers and appear to offer goods or services in markets we support. Our outreach is directed to the business entity, not to individual consumers.
Business owners occasionally refer peers or partners to us via our website or direct referral forms. These contacts are handled with the same opt-in and opt-out opportunities as all others.
At no time do we purchase phone number lists from third-party brokers or data vendors that do not provide clear opt-in documentation.
We operate in good faith within this gray area by ensuring that:
Although our primary operations are within the United States, we voluntarily align our practices with core consent principles found in:
These frameworks emphasize clarity, transparency, the right to opt out, and the principle of limiting outreach to only those with a legitimate reason for being contacted—all of which are reflected in our approach.
The Creative Image uses a standardized outreach process to initiate communication with business contacts via SMS. Every first-time SMS sent to a business phone number includes the following elements:
We identify ourselves as “The Creative Image” and include a reference to our website or local initiative to provide clarity on who is contacting the recipient.
The message references an activity, opportunity, or context directly related to the business—such as inclusion in a local directory, recent searches for their service, or available marketing resources for their industry or location.
The first message is crafted as a standalone message that requests engagement. It is not part of a multi-message campaign unless the recipient opts in to further communication.
The first message always includes a compliant opt-out instruction that can be triggered with a single-word response (e.g., “STOP”).
“Hey [Business Name], 13 people searched for your service recently in [City]. See how you can turn that into new customers: [ShortURL] — Reply STOP to opt out.”
This message accomplishes several things:
This structure aligns with toll-free SMS guidelines and is considered a compliant approach for one-time outreach based on publicly available or self-submitted business information.
The Creative Image honors all opt-out requests promptly and completely. Any recipient of an SMS from us may opt out of future communications by replying with any of the following keywords, which are case-insensitive and supported across our SMS system:
Upon receiving an opt-out keyword:
We retain this suppression status indefinitely unless the business explicitly reaches back out to request reinstatement.
We do not:
Our opt-out process is reviewed periodically to ensure full technical enforcement across all systems and platforms.
All contact information collected or used for SMS outreach by The Creative Image is stored securely in our customer relationship management systems (CRM) and/or marketing platforms. These systems include Zoho CRM, Twilio, and other integrated tools used to manage business-to-business communication.
Each contact record includes metadata indicating how it was sourced—for example:
This attribution allows us to maintain traceability and demonstrate good-faith collection in the event of a compliance review.
When a phone number is marked as opted-out:
We implement technical safeguards to ensure that suppressed numbers cannot be manually re-added without a documented re-consent event.
We retain contact records—including suppression status—for as long as they are relevant to our services or as required by applicable legal or platform standards. Records may be anonymized or archived after extended inactivity.
We structure our outreach process to comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by:
We also comply with Application-to-Person (A2P) 10DLC standards as required for messaging from long code phone numbers. This includes:
When sending messages from a toll-free number, we follow carrier guidelines and submit toll-free verification applications that:
No SMS is sent from an unverified toll-free number.
While our operations are U.S.-based, we align voluntarily with principles found in:
These frameworks emphasize clear consent, data transparency, and minimal intrusion. Our opt-in/opt-out model is designed to meet or exceed those expectations in the context of B2B communication.
All outbound messaging campaigns undergo human review to ensure:
We do not scrape or mass message consumer databases, nor do we use anonymous or misleading sender IDs. Our goal is to provide genuinely useful opportunities to the businesses we reach out to—such as visibility in local directories, access to marketing resources, or personalized digital support.
We avoid excessive frequency by:
We believe in message quality over volume. Outreach is tailored to industry, location, or recent business activity. Messaging that does not meet our internal relevance criteria is not sent.
We welcome feedback from any recipient who receives communication from us. If you believe we’ve contacted you in error, or in a way that violates this policy, please email us directly at [email protected] so we can review and take corrective action if necessary.
We may update this SMS Communication Policy from time to time to reflect changes in regulation, messaging platforms, or business practices. Any material changes will be posted to our website with an updated effective date. When appropriate, we may notify subscribers or affected contacts of significant updates.
Your continued interaction with our messaging or services after such changes constitutes your acknowledgment and agreement to the updated policy.
For questions, concerns, or requests regarding this policy, contact:
The Creative Image
Website: www.thecreativeimage.net
Email: [email protected]
You may also reach out to request:
We will respond to all such inquiries within a reasonable timeframe, typically within 2–5 business days.
<a href="https://www.thecreativeimage.net/email-sms-opt-in-policy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img width="200px" src="https://www.thecreativeimage.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CI-Feature-Badge.jpg" alt="Email & SMS Opt-In Policy badge" /></a>
