SMS marketing (aka text marketing) is one of the most underutilized, yet lucrative marketing strategies for building brand awareness, leads, sales, and customer loyalty—and it’s simple with the right tools. We compared dozens of apps to find the best SMS marketing software based on cost, features, and ease of use. The tools below can do all the heavy lifting for you and get you instant results.
- Textedly: Best SMS Marketing Platform Overall
- SlickText: Best for Growing Your Subscriber Base
- Brevo: Best for Precise Customer Targeting
- SimpleTexting: Best for Two-way Messaging
- ClickSend: Best for Converting Emails Into SMS Campaigns
- Twilio: Best for Fully Custom SMS Campaigns
- EZ Texting: Best for MMS Messages
- Attentive: Best AI-powered SMS Marketing Platform
Best SMS Marketing Software Platforms at a Glance
Providers | Pricing | Features | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
 | From $26 monthly |
| or |
 | From $29 monthly |
| or |
 | From $1.09/100 texts |
| or |
 | From $23.20 monthly |
| or |
 | From 2.39 cents/text |
| or |
 | From 0.79 cents/text |
| or |
 | From $20 monthly |
| or |
 | Custom |
| or |
Note: MMS messaging refers to any text message with media like images or video (MMS stands for “Multimedia Messaging Service”). SMS, or “Short Messaging Service,” refers to regular text messages with no media. | |||
As with permission-based email marketing, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) law states that SMS marketing messages should only be sent to people who consent to receive them, so be sure that all your recipients have opted in to your marketing texts before sending them. Some ways customers can opt in are via website forms, QR codes, or physical sign-up forms.
Textedly: Best SMS Marketing Software Overall for Small Businesses
Pros
- All-in-one platform for collecting opt-ins, sending texts, and analyzing results
- Extras like text personalization, surveys, drip campaigns, and more
- Beginner-friendly platform
- Zapier integration to connect with 1,000+ apps
Cons
- No free plan, only a 14-day free trial, and plans are more expensive than ClickSend and Brevo
- No features for segmenting contacts or email-to-text conversions
The best thing about Textedly is how easy it is to use—even complete beginners can easily set up and send a text campaign through Textedly’s user-friendly dashboard. You don’t need to install or set up anything; simply sign up for an account, input your recipient list and campaign content, and your SMS campaign is ready to be sent out.
We also love that Textedly is an all-in-one platform for building an entire text marketing campaign. It has features for collecting opt-ins (people who consent to your SMS campaigns) via web forms and text keywords and a dashboard for sending your campaigns and monitoring your results, plus other extras to optimize your campaign, such as personalization and surveys, which are helpful for building a stronger brand presence.
Basic | Bronze | Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost* | $26 | $38 | $69 |
Monthly Text Messages | 600 | 1,200 | 2,400 |
Custom Keywords | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Unlimited Contacts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Picture Messages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Payment Collection via SMS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Google Business Reviews Invitations | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
*Billed annually, or a pay a higher cost month-to-month | |||
Textedly also offers many other plans with 30,000 to 240,000 monthly text messages. Visit Textedly’s pricing page to learn more.
As Textedly offers all the essential features for building a text marketing campaign from scratch in an easy-to-use platform, it’s our top pick overall for the best SMS marketing software for small businesses. At reasonable enough prices, you have everything you need—and then some—to create text marketing campaigns. Collect opt-ins, upload your recipients list, personalize your messages, and set up drip campaigns easily, all in one platform.
Here are all the features Textedly has to offer:
- Opt-in collection via web forms and text keywords
- Bulk SMS sending
- Text scheduling
- Two-way messaging
- Drip SMS campaigns
- SMS campaign analytics
- Auto-reply texts
- Text personalization
- Text surveys
- MMS messages
- Review-request messages
- Payment collection via SMS
- Long messages (up to 445 characters)
- Zapier integration
- Instagram text integration
- Built-in link shortener
- Monday to Sunday live chat support
One of the most full-featured yet easy-to-use SMS marketing platforms around, Textedly is our overall top recommendation for SMS text marketing services for small businesses. Go from setting up your account to scheduling your SMS campaign in less than an hour. Start with the free trial to try out its features, and then upgrade to a paid plan for a more long-term solution.
SlickText: Best for Growing Your Subscriber Base
Pros
- Most comprehensive subscriber growth features: landing pages, website pop-ups, QR codes, and more
- SMS automations, analytics, customer segmentation, and unlimited contacts
- Plans have credit rollover
Cons
- No free plan, and paid plans are more expensive per text than most others
- SMS automations are only available on the higher plans
- No email-to-SMS converter
We like SlickText most for understanding that subscriber growth is a central metric of success, and therefore having the most channels for collecting opt-ins—from landing pages to QR codes—of any SMS marketing provider on this list. But we also like that it doesn’t sacrifice on the other essential features, such as bulk SMS sending, text automations, analytics, and segmentation.
Basic Plan | Step Up Plan | Lil Bro Plan | Big Bro Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost | $29 | $49 | $79 | $139 |
Monthly Texts | 500 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,600 |
Opt-in Keywords | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
Opt-in Forms, Pop-ups, QR Codes & Links | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Campaign Analytics | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Contacts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Customer Segmentation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
SMS Automations | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
SlickText also offers plans for upward of 3,600 monthly texts, including an Enterprise plan with custom pricing. Visit their pricing page to learn more.
Subscriber growth is the first step in any opt-in marketing campaign, which is something SlickText prioritizes. Where other SMS marketing software only have opt-in collection as an extra feature, SlickText prioritizes it with website pop-ups, QR codes, landing pages, and more as available opt-in channels. Naturally, this makes it the best platform for growing your subscriber base.
But SlickText also offers more, including all the essentials for building a text campaign plus some extras like customer segmentation and loyalty programs. In all, SlickText has one of the most comprehensive toolkits around for text marketing.
Its main drawback is that its paid plans have a more expensive cost-per-text than most others. However, it also offers a free SMS marketing trial with 50 credits, and its subscriber growth features are unmatched in scope, helping you build a solid text marketing strategy.
Here are all SlickText’s features:
- Bulk SMS sending
- Opt-in collections including text-to-join, forms, pop-ups, QR codes, and email capture
- SMS automations for drip campaigns
- Two-way messaging
- Campaign analytics
- Customer segmentation (with custom fields)
- Coupon and loyalty program management
- MMS messaging
- Integrations with Shopify, HubSpot, Zapier, and various email services
- Live chat support
Build a top-to-bottom SMS campaign with SlickText’s comprehensive suite of features, from collecting campaign subscribers to sending automated and targeted campaigns and measuring your results. Its credit rollovers are also a plus for building a long-term SMS strategy. Get started today with 50 credits for free.
Brevo: Best for Precise Customer Targeting
Pros
- Customer segmentation for highly targeted SMS campaigns
- Pay-as-you-go pricing, no locked-in contracts
- SMS customization, automations, and campaign analytics
- Easy-to-use platform, no setup required
Cons
- No free plan or free trial for the SMS tool
- Automations are only for text alerts, not for drip campaigns
- No two-way messaging
What we like best about Brevo’s SMS marketing platform is that it allows you to send highly targeted campaigns. It does this through its customer segmentation feature that organizes recipients by location, interests, and other parameters. And, it has all the text marketing essentials, including bulk SMS sending and campaign analytics—all on an affordable pay-as-you-go pricing scheme.
Number of Text Messages | Cost* |
|---|---|
100 | $1.09 |
200 | $2.18 |
500 | $5.45 |
1,000 | $10.90 |
2,000 | $21.80 |
10,000 | $109.00 |
*All prices are for text messages in the U.S. Separate pricing applies for texts in other countries. | |
With the customer segmentation feature from Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), you can be sure that your campaigns will reach the most relevant recipients. This maximizes your budget and increases your campaigns’ chances of success. It also allows for more precise campaigns. For example, if your objective is to increase foot traffic to a new store, you can send SMS campaigns to recipients in the nearby area instead of sending to your entire database.
On the flip side, automations are limited to standard alerts like shipping updates—not for complex drip campaigns. Still, Brevo is one of the most affordable SMS marketing software around, especially for building targeted campaigns.
Here are the features you’ll find on Brevo:
- Bulk SMS sending
- Customer segmentation
- SMS personalizations
- Automated text alerts
- Campaign analytics
- Support via email, phone, and knowledge base
Sign up for Brevo and use its customer segmentation feature to build highly targeted SMS marketing campaigns. No setup is required—create an account, build and send your campaigns, and track your SMS campaigns all on its user-friendly platform.
SimpleTexting: Best for Two-way Messaging
Pros
- Supports two-way text messages
- Shared dashboard for team collaboration on managing messages
- Credit rollover and 30-day money-back guarantee
- Automations, customer segmentation, opt-in collections
- AI tools for generating campaign copies and images
Cons
- No free plan
- 1 MMS costs 3 credits
- No email-to-text converter
We like SimpleTexting best for its two-way messaging feature, which is significantly helpful for getting leads to convert as opposed to regular mass text messaging—although it offers features for that too. We also like that it allows teams to work together on managing and responding to text messages with its assignment features.
Monthly Messages | 500 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 |
Credits* | 6,000 | 12,000 | 24,000 | 36,000 |
Monthly Cost** | $23.20 | $39.20 | $63.20 | $87.20 |
Use of All SimpleTexting’s Tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Contacts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Keywords | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Mailchimp & Zapier Integrations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
3 Users | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
*One SMS costs one credit; one MMS costs three credits **Annual billing, or pay a higher cost month-to-month | ||||
SimpleTexting also offers plans for over 3,000 credits, including a custom Enterprise plan. Visit their pricing page to learn more.
SimpleTexting’s defining trait is its two-way messaging feature, which allows you to build meaningful conversations with your recipients that lead to real actions and conversions instead of just being left on read. This can help with everything from answering customer questions to collecting survey responses. There are also templated messages to streamline this process, and you can collaborate with teammates on responses via the shared dashboard.
However, SimpleTexting also has helpful SMS tools, including the essentials like bulk sending, campaign analytics, and automations, plus extras like opt-in collection, customer segmentation, and even artificial intelligence (AI) copy and image generation tools to help create your campaigns. The only feature it lacks is an email-to-SMS converter, which you’ll find on ClickSend instead. And, you get all of SimpleTexting’s tools on any plan—pricing only increases the more texts you send.
Here are all of SimpleTexting’s features:
- Two-way text messaging
- Shared platform for team collaboration on messages
- Bulk message sending
- Campaign analytics
- SMS automations for drip campaigns
- Opt-in collections (web forms and SMS keywords)
- MMS messages
- AI text and image generating tool
- Customer segmentation with custom fields
- Mailchimp and Zapier integrations
- Phone and chat support
On the whole, SimpleTexting has the basics for creating an SMS campaign, plus extras like two-way messaging, opt-in collections, and AI writing tools. However, while these are all helpful features, its team collaboration platform isn’t likely very useful for small business owners—it’s better suited for larger companies with an already-established text marketing strategy. Still, for easy two-way conversations, SimpleTexting is one of the best candidates.
ClickSend: Best for Converting Emails to SMS Campaigns
Pros
- Automatically convert emails to texts from any email provider via an API
- Pay-as-you-go pricing scheme, no locked-in contracts
- Two-way messaging, MMS messages, and text automations
- 700+ app integrations, including Shopify, Zapier, and more
Cons
- No extra features like opt-in collection tools (forms, keyword replies, etc.) or SMS personalizations
- Campaign reports are limited to Google Analytics
ClickSend’s most standout feature is that it automatically converts your email campaigns into text messages, making it an easy integration if you already have an email marketing campaign. Plus, it works for any email provider, whether you use Gmail or GMX. You can also get message replies directly in your email inbox.
We also like that it allows you to manage everything via an easy-to-use dashboard, which you can use to monitor your campaign results and analytics. It also has automated texting software that you can use for marketing campaigns or appointment reminders, and all customers get 24/7/365 chat support.
ClickSend operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme, so you’ll only need to pay for each text you send, nothing more. The price per text message decreases as you go over 5,000 messages, then over 50,000, then over 150,000. For more than 250,000 messages, you’ll need to contact the ClickSend team for custom pricing.
Number of Messages | Cost per SMS |
|---|---|
Up to 5,000 | 2.39 cents |
Up to 50,000 | 1.71 cents |
Up to 150,000 | 1.16 cents |
Up to 250,000 | 0.85 cents |
Over 250,000 | Custom pricing |
ClickSend is unique for its automatic email-to-text message converter, so it’s the best SMS marketing software if you already have an ongoing email marketing campaign that you want to extend into SMS. However, it doesn’t have any features for collecting opt-ins (for example, web forms or keyword replies), so it may not be the best choice if you’re building your text marketing campaign from scratch—for that, Textedly would be better equipped.
Here are ClickSend’s features:
- Email-to-SMS converter API
- Bulk SMS sending
- Two-way messaging
- MMS messages
- SMS automations
- Automated text notifications
- 700-plus app integrations
Extend your email campaigns into text messages easily with ClickSend’s email-to-text converter API. Or, send mass text messages at affordable rates with a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme.
Twilio: Best for Fully Custom SMS Campaigns
Pros
- Fully customizable API to provide the exact SMS marketing campaign you need
- Create campaigns for regular SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business Messages
- Two-way messaging, personalization, and campaign analytics
- Pay-as-you-go or monthly plan
Cons
- Requires coding setup
- No free plan
- There’s also a cost for incoming messages
Twilio is one of the best-known communication API (application programming interface) platforms around, so we like it best for being 100% customizable to build the exact campaign that your business needs, and which you can also edit later on if your priorities shift as your business grows. This is something completely unique to Twilio—no other SMS marketing software has the same level of customization.
Twilio supports both pay-as-you-go pricing and plans with a monthly SMS allowance—find out more on both below.
Pay-as-You-Go-Pricing:
Cost per Outbound SMS | Cost per Inbound SMS | Cost per Outbound MMS | Cost per Inbound MMS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Long Codes Number | 0.79 cents | 0.79 cents | 2 cents | 1 cent |
Toll-free Number | 0.79 cents | 0.79 cents | 2 cents | 2 cents |
Short Codes | 0.79 cents | 0.79 cents | 2 cents | 1 cent |
Monthly Plans:
Cost per Outbound & Inbound SMS | |
|---|---|
Up to 150,000 Monthly Messages | 0.79 cents |
Up to 300,000 Monthly Messages | 0.77 cents |
Up to 500,000 Monthly Messages | 0.75 cents |
Up to 750,000 Monthly Messages | 0.73 cents |
Up to 1 million Monthly Messages | 0.71 cents |
Over 1 million Monthly Messages | 0.69 cents |
As an API, Twilio’s SMS marketing platform is completely customized for each business. Therefore, it’s the better option for larger businesses with a broad recipient base spanning regular SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business Messages, and that already have a specific SMS marketing strategy in mind and need custom tools to execute them.
For example, if you need to create an automated drip campaign on SMS and Facebook Messenger, Twilio’s API is the best-equipped tool—you’ll only need to do some coding. However, this very same feature is also Twilio’s biggest difficulty—because everything is custom-made, you’ll need to do some coding, which can be tricky and time-consuming, although Twilio offers plenty of support.
Another drawback is that although two-way messaging is allowed, there’s also a cost for incoming messages, which on other SMS marketing platforms is usually free.
Take a look at Twilio’s features below:
- Fully customizable API for sending marketing SMS campaigns
- SMS marketing automations
- Campaign analytics with click tracking
- Two-way messaging (with cost for incoming messages)
- Customer segmentation and personalizations
- MMS messages
- Messaging on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business Messages
- Built-in link shortener
Overall, for a fully customized SMS marketing platform, there is no more comprehensive tool on the market than Twilio. With a little coding know-how (which you can learn on their site or by contacting the Twilio team), you can build powerful, custom, diverse text campaigns that target your specific needs.
Pro tip: If you need coding help to build your SMS campaign with Twilio, visit Fiverr and hire a freelance professional coder. Some start as low as $20 and can set your system up with Twilio, build your campaigns and automations, and more.
EZ Texting: Best for MMS Messages
Pros
- Comprehensive features for MMS message marketing: image editor, library, and templates
- All the SMS marketing essentials: bulk SMS sending, automations, and analytics
- Two-way messaging, customer segmentation, and opt-ins
- All plans have extra message credits as a freebie
Cons
- No free plans
- Plans are capped by a daily message limit
We like that EZ Texting takes MMS messages seriously and has a suite of tools for creating impactful media messages, making it a great platform to use if you’re keen to try out MMS message marketing for your business. But it also doesn’t compromise on the text marketing essentials—it has bulk messaging, analytics, and text automations too.
Launch Plan | Boost Plan | Scale Plan | Enterprise Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Cost* | $20 | $60 | $100 | $3,000 |
Daily Message Limit | 500 | 2,000 | 50,000 | 1 million |
MMS Image Editor & Shutterstock Library | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Bulk SMS Sending, Automations & Analytics | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Customer Segmentation, Opt-in Collections & Two-way Messaging | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Message Credits per Month | 500 | 500 | 500 | 200,000 |
*Based on annual billing, or pay a higher cost month-to-month | ||||
EZ Texting’s MMS messaging features stand out from others in that it has the most comprehensive tools. With a built-in image editor and library via Shutterstock, you won’t need another design platform to design your MMS content. It even supports GIFs and short videos as well as images.
However, EZ Texting’s overall SMS marketing software is also extensive, with features from SMS automations and campaign analytics to contact segmentation, opt-in collections, and third-party app integrations like Zapier. All of these features are accessible on any plan, and although there is no free plan, paid plans are generally small business-friendly—however, plans are capped by daily message limits.
Here are EZ Texting’s features:
- MMS features include an image editor with templates, image library via Shutterstock, and support for GIFs and short videos
- Bulk SMS sending
- SMS automations for drip campaigns
- Two-way messaging
- Campaign analytics
- Contact segmentation with custom fields
- Opt-in collection via digital forms, SMS keywords, and QR codes
- Built-in link shortener
- Mobile app
- Textable numbers
- Live chat support
EZ Texting’s only caveat as an SMS marketing platform is the daily message limits, which can be a hindrance if you plan to send many campaigns to numerous people each day. Other than that, this text marketing software can fulfill nearly any objective, from growing your subscriber list to creating drip campaigns. And for MMS messages, it has undoubtedly the best tools around.
Attentive: Best AI-powered SMS Marketing Platform
Pros
- Uses AI to optimize your SMS campaigns (e.g., AI-powered customer segmentation)
- Automatically complies with legal guidelines
- Supports customer segmentation and personalization, opt-in collections, and two-way messaging
Cons
- No free plan and no transparent pricing—you’ll need to request a quote
- AI drip marketing tool is still on a waitlist
- No app integrations
What we like best with Attentive is that it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize your SMS campaigns in every stage, from crafting your content to targeting your recipients. AI is built within its platform, which can be very helpful for text marketing beginners as it acts as a built-in assistant. We also like that Attentive automatically complies with legal guidelines so you can easily create campaigns with peace of mind.
Attentive’s pricing is custom—you’ll need to contact the team via the website to request a demo and quote.
Attentive’s integrated AI is easily its biggest standout point. AI is incorporated in all tools, including customer segmentation, message delivery, and drip SMS campaigns—although the latter still hasn’t fully launched, so you’ll need to get on a waitlist. Plus, once customers opt-in to your campaigns, their data points are automatically collected and stored, and then used to refine your segmentation better, allowing for highly targeted campaigns.
However, on the negative side, as it’s such a comprehensive platform, it’s not the best tool if you need a campaign set up and sent quickly. For example, its AI customer segmentation feature won’t be fully utilized if you use your own recipients list instead of the one created with Attentive’s opt-in channels. Another major drawback is that pricing isn’t transparent at all—you’ll need to book a demo and request a quote for a cost estimate.
Here’s a rundown of Attentive’s features:
- Bulk SMS sending
- Detailed campaign analytics
- AI-powered customer segmentation
- Two-way messaging (both AI and human-powered)
- AI-powered delivery optimization
- Automatic legal compliance
- 30-plus opt-in collection channels (landing pages, social media, etc.)
- AI-powered campaign creator and drip campaigns (still on a waitlist)
- Support via email and knowledge base
Attentive is best utilized as an all-around SMS marketing platform, such as if you’re building your SMS campaign entirely from scratch. While the non-transparent pricing can be a drawback, you’ll get a full AI-powered suite of everything you need to build a solid and sustainable SMS marketing strategy, even if you’re a complete beginner.
Did you know? Both text messaging and SMS marketing can be helpful in growing your business. SMS marketing software is similar to email marketing software, in that it’s meant for mass and triggered text messaging. On the other hand, one-to-one text messaging services can be used in the same way as cold sales emails to initiate and further conversations with prospects.
How We Evaluated the Best SMS Marketing Software
With dozens of SMS marketing software available, we used specific parameters to evaluate the best ones for small and growing businesses to include on this list. For example, because cost is a significant factor in small business decisions, we only included platforms with pricing plans that wouldn’t break the bank. We also included only those with the essential SMS marketing features that let you easily set up and send a text campaign.
Here are the factors we considered in choosing the top SMS marketing platforms:
- Cost: Every business has a limited marketing budget, so cost was a substantial factor in choosing the platforms above. While none have free plans, nearly all have a free trial, and all have affordable and scalable pricing for small businesses, whether as packaged plans or on a pay-as-you-go scheme.
- Essential features: An SMS marketing campaign requires three primary features to work: the ability to send bulk SMS messages, SMS automations (such as automatic text alerts or conditional workflows for drip campaigns), and campaign analytics. All of the platforms above have all three to let you send a basic SMS campaign effectively.
- Extra features: While all the above SMS marketing platforms can do the primary task of sending a bulk SMS campaign, many also have extra helpful tools for optimizing them—for example, opt-in collection tools, two-way messaging, and customer segmentation. These help strengthen your SMS campaign and further your chances at success.
- Ease of use: Text marketing isn’t as widely used as other marketing strategies, so we also took into account how easy it was to use each platform. All of the text marketing software above are simple to set up, have easily navigable interfaces even for beginners, and let you build and send an SMS campaign in less than an hour.
- Support: While the platforms above are simple enough to navigate, any user will likely need additional assistance later on, e.g., when using a specific feature like drip SMS campaigns. Therefore, we also considered the support offered by the platforms and ensured that customers can reach them either via phone, email, or live chat, at least five days a week.
Key Considerations When Choosing an SMS Marketing Tool
Along with the parameters above, many other key factors also go into deciding which is the best SMS marketing service for your business. Each SMS marketing platform has unique traits and features that make one a better fit for your business than the other. For instance, if you have an ongoing email strategy, ClickSend would likely be the better fit, while if you need a fully custom solution, Twilio is your best bet.
When choosing an SMS marketing software for your business, these are the key considerations to keep in mind:
- Features: Evaluate the features of each platform against the objectives for your own SMS marketing strategy. For example, if your main goal is to grow your subscriber base, choose a platform with strong opt-in features like SlickText. If you need to send images or video, start with an MMS-friendly platform like EZ Texting, and so on.
- Scalability: You want your SMS marketing platform to be able to grow alongside your business. Evaluate scalability in terms of pricing, plan features, text sends or audience size limits, and so on. This sets you up for growth and eliminates having to switch to other providers later on when your needs evolve.
- Metrics and analytics: Evaluate the analytics offered by each platform to see whether they reflect your objectives as well as your business’ measures of success and growth.
- Reputation: Part of good due diligence when selecting any type of vendor is to research case studies, past work, and clients’ experience. An easy way to do this is to scour review sites like Trustpilot and G2.com, and read customer reviews for real-life insight on each platform and how they work for small business owners.
- App integrations: Most SMS marketing software come with third-party app integrations, but some have more than others. If your workplace already uses a certain app or software heavily (for instance, Salesforce or Shopify), check whether the platform integrates with that app to make your overall process much easier.
- Credibility: Credibility is an equally essential factor in choosing a provider, especially in SMS marketing, as there are legal intricacies involved (e.g., TCPA law compliance). Research each platform to ensure they follow legal guidelines and don’t employ any unethical methods (e.g., “black hat” (a marketing term for unethical tactics) strategies like texting recipients who have opted out).
You don’t want to risk violating any TCPA guidelines and have your entire SMS marketing strategy put to a halt. Carefully evaluate client reviews of each platform and look out for mentions of “black hat” methods like sending texts to non-opted-in recipients. While these tactics promise easy success and returns, they’ll put your business at risk of violations, which can lead to high fines.
Here are other things to keep in mind when doing SMS marketing:
- Make sure your recipients have opted in to your text campaigns before you send them
- Only send marketing messages between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. at the recipients’ local time
- Include the option to opt-out in your messages
- Honor opt-outs when they come
Frequently Asked Questions
Which industry is best for SMS marketing?
The nature of SMS marketing makes it a great fit for retail stores, restaurants, ecommerce businesses, and service providers. SMS is excellent for offering discount codes, announcing time limited offers, and requesting reviews. Service businesses can use them to send appointment reminders, and they work seamlessly with customer loyalty programs. Also, because texts are sent via mobile, they’re great for any ecommerce company.
However, any small business that wants to share promotions, nurture leads who have opted in for information and updates, or generate referrals and repeat business may benefit from SMS marketing. For example, tax prep specialists may want to add text marketing to their local marketing plans and send a seasonal reminder for clients to book a tax session or audit.
Can I automate SMS marketing?
Yes—SMS automations are an available and effective feature with SMS marketing, depending on each platform. They can be as simple as delivery updates or appointment reminders, but some platforms offer more comprehensive automations for drip SMS marketing campaigns. Drip SMS automations can guide recipients through the entire customer journey based on specific parameters (for example, an abandoned cart drip campaign to complete a sale).
How much does SMS marketing software cost?
Most SMS marketing software are free to set up but cost around one to five cents per text message. Some platforms offer packaged plans with a monthly cost for a set number of text messages (most start upward of $20 monthly), while others offer a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme, so you only pay for what you need. For most platforms, these costs include extra features like campaign metrics, automations, and more.
Bottom Line
SMS marketing offers many benefits for your small business, from growing your brand awareness to increasing your revenue, and using the SMS marketing software above can help you do it the right way. These platforms can collect recipients, optimize and mass send your campaigns, and keep track of your performance, among others. For an all-around solution for all these and more, our top recommendation is Textedly, and you can get started with a free trial.
