Transactional vs promotional SMS in Nigeria

What is the difference?

A transactional SMS exists because the recipient did something - signed up, paid, ordered, booked - and is the direct consequence of that action. A promotional SMS exists because you have something to say to them. Everything else about the two, including the price on Sendozi, is the same; what differs is the route the message travels and therefore who receives it.

Why the classification matters

• Delivery. A large share of Nigerian subscribers have DND active. Marketing sent to them will not arrive, whatever the platform.
• Compliance. Marketing without consent is the thing the DND register and Nigerian data protection law both address.
• Reputation. A sender ID that carries misdeclared traffic can be suspended, taking your legitimate OTPs down with it.
• Diagnosis. If you cannot say which route a message used, you cannot tell a DND block from a bad number when it fails.

The grey cases

A receipt with a discount code at the end

Promotional. Attaching marketing to a service message does not make the marketing transactional; it makes the whole message promotional. Send the receipt, then send the offer separately to people who opted in.

Abandoned cart reminder

Promotional. The recipient did take an action, but the message exists to change their mind, not to inform them of an outcome.

Subscription renewal notice

Transactional. It informs the customer of a charge about to be made under an existing agreement.

'We miss you, here is 10% off'

Promotional, without qualification.

Appointment reminder for a booking they made

Transactional. It follows directly from their booking.

School fee reminder to a parent

Transactional. It relates to an existing obligation, not to an offer.

Election, religious or campaign broadcasts

Promotional in every case, regardless of how important the sender considers the content.

Service outage or maintenance notice

Transactional. It affects a service the recipient already uses.

A workable test when you are unsure: would the recipient be annoyed to be charged for the SMS if they were paying for it? If the answer is no - if the message genuinely serves them - it is likely transactional. If the answer is yes, route it as promotional and treat DND blocking as the correct outcome rather than a problem to solve.

Selecting the route on Sendozi

curl -X POST https://api.sendozi.com/v1/sms/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDOZI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: order-48291-shipped" \
  -d '{
    "sender": "Acme",
    "recipient": "+2348012345678",
    "message": "Order 48291 has shipped and arrives tomorrow. Track it at acme.ng/t/48291",
    "sms_type": "transactional"
  }'

curl -X POST https://api.sendozi.com/v1/sms/bulk \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDOZI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: campaign-august-sale" \
  -d '{
    "sender": "Acme",
    "recipients": ["+2348012345678", "+2349012345678"],
    "message": "Acme August sale: 20% off all orders this week. Shop acme.ng. Reply is not monitored; call 0808 880 8090 to opt out.",
    "sms_type": "promotional"
  }'