Almost five years ago, there were reports that SMS marketing was in decline and would soon end.

No, SMS marketing is not dead.

Researchers have shown that SMS messages get a 209% higher response than email, phone, and other marketing channels. This marketing tactic is also very effective in reaching your target audience, especially as mobile users increase dramatically.

I have good news for you!

You probably see the same unexplored opportunities for SMS marketing as we do. Let’s find out which SMS Marketing Software can meet your expectations!

It is time to get started!

What is SMS marketing?

First, SMS marketing refers to the sending of promotional and transactional messages via text messages. These messages inform customers about reminders, promotions, and other updates for those who have consented to receive them.

This tool helps businesses to implement SMS marketing software. It ensures that your messages are written in the correct way, sent to the right people and at the right times, which will help you gain maximum conversions.

SMS marketing software is typically used for:

• Offering discounts and freebies. To increase sales, send discount codes to customers and prospects.

• Notifying and reminding. You can send reminders and notifications to your customers regarding the renewal of product/service.

• Scheduling messages. This tool helps you to schedule messages that should be sent at a specific time and date.

• Automated responses. This allows you to create an automated response that indicates whether the recipient has received the message.

• MMS (Making picture messages) Multimedia messages can be sent and received, including pictures and audio recordings.

• Participating in polls and contests. It allows you to set up tools for conducting polls and contests. This is useful in market research activities.

• Generate leads. This program allows you to send new product launches or membership offers to increase conversions.

• Promoting customer service. To provide a great customer experience, customers will be notified about service requests and order delivery.

• Simple unsubscription. This allows recipients to unsubscribe quickly, which will help you avoid having your SMS marketing campaigns spammed.

SMS marketing software has many benefits

SMS marketing software can be used by almost all businesses. Users can reap many benefits from choosing the right tool, such as:

• It allows you to send text messages to large numbers of people in a simple and easy way.

• By activating permission-based SMS Marketing, you can help your clients stay legally compliant

• Segmenting recipients can be done based on what message you intend to send

• Templates to help you design your SMS in a visually appealing and attractive manner

• You can easily store all messages and recipient information to conduct repetitive SMS campaigns.

• Personalize your text messages to each recipient

• This allows you to import contact information instantly from external tools such as Excel spreadsheets, CRM, and others.

• Sending text messages to existing and potential customers reduces the chance of mistakes

• Results of SMS marketing campaigns that are currently in operation and past SMS marketing campaigns

What features should you look for in SMS Marketing Software?

Businesses have many options when it comes to SMS services or tools.

It is essential that you get the best software to ensure your text-marketing strategies work. Below are some key characteristics of a successful SMS marketing program.

Use it quickly

Many companies desire to incorporate SMS marketing in their strategies, but lack the technical capabilities to properly implement it. It is therefore crucial to make the service easy to use. This process will be easier if you have the right tools and experience in building a functional SMS service.

In-house developers or coders should be able to use the SMS marketing tool to create the perfect service. These programs should be available for everyone in your company to use immediately after the software has been installed.

Integration with other apps

Your company may use a variety of third-party apps and programs to manage your business needs. These functions should not be considered in isolation from your SMS strategy. Therefore, it must integrate well with other apps.

Seamless bulk messaging

You should choose an SMS marketing platform that is easy to use. It should allow you to send bulk messages from mobile to mobile, and PC to mobile. With the help of SMS marketing software, bulk messaging should be easy and fast no matter where you are.

Permission-based messaging

To benefit consumers and businesses, there are rules that have been established in every country. Your SMS marketing software must allow users to subscribe to and unsubscribe easily.

Security products of the highest quality

Your subscribers are vital to you. So is your information. You should choose SMS marketing software with high-end security features to ensure that your most important data isn’t misused. 

Pricing and Scalability

Although SMS marketing is an important step, it is also crucial to find scalable services, especially for new companies with a small customer base.

It is not a good idea to pay for services that are primarily used by large corporations. However, programs that allow you to pay according to the number of customers you have will yield greater rewards.

Top 10+ Best SMS Marketing Software

1. Omnisend

Omnisend , an omnichannel marketing automation platform for E-commerce, is . Although not exclusively for SMS marketing, this robust software offers an extensive SMS set and doesn’t cut corners on it.

Omnisend allows you to send automated workflows and SMS promotions through multiple channels. Omnisend allows you to mix channels and send messages through your customers’ preferred media. This will increase your campaign engagement and reduce the cost per message.

Omnisend works with Shopify, Shopify Plus and WooCommerce.

Pricing plans: Users on Enterprise and Pro plans receive SMS credits equal to what they paid for their pricing plan. Standard plans have SMS credits at no additional cost. In the US, a text message costs $0.015/SMS.

• No Cost Plan
• Standard Plan: $16/month
• Pro Plan: $99/ month
• Pricing for Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing

2. SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting is a great choice if you are looking for an affordable, easy-to-use, and user-friendly SMS platform.

SimpleTexting was originally launched in 2010 as a marketing service provider. One year later, SimpleTexting switched to SMS marketing. Today, SimpleTexting powers thousands of customers, including businesses such as Century 21, Cisco, Samsung, Starbucks, and Samsung.

SimpleTexting allows users to import contacts from other SMS marketing providers. Users can also use their five- or six-digit shortcodes from another software. You can get shared shortcodes, as well as random or vanity shortcodes for businesses.

SimpleTexting provides the most common mass messaging features such as autoresponders and text-to-win, text-to vote, custom fields, scheduling. segmenting. polling. and analytics. You can also sign up via a webform for text messages, including automated birthday texts and self-cleaning lists to check for dead numbers.

SimpleTexting also offers integrations with third-party apps such as MailChimp and Slack. Zapier allows users to choose from thousands more integrations, or they can have their developers create their own using SimpleTexting’s API.

Pricing plan: Subscription pricing depends on how many messages you send (SMS messages are 1 credit each, and MMS messages 3 credits each).

• 500 credits $25/month
• 1,000 credits at $45/month
• 75/month for 2,000 credits
• 3000 credits at $95 per month
• 7.500 Credits: $145/month
• 375/month for 25,000 credits
• 625/month for 50,000 credits
• Custom pricing for more than 50,000

3. ClickSend

ClickSend allows companies to send text messages from any location worldwide. Users can send bulk messages via their service provider, or through their email accounts.

A cloud-based app allows users to manage multiple Miami digital marketing campaigns. They can switch between text, email, and fax and even non-SMS channels such as Facebook and WhatsApp. These options make ClickSend more robust, but it is more suitable for developers and experienced marketers.

ClickSend offers APIs that allow integrations with third-party programs and apps. Many businesses and Phoenix marketing agencies find it easy to use cClickSend for tasks like event management, general reminders, and customer support.

Pricing Plan: The first 2000 customers will receive a $0.0530/message

4. Salesmsg

Salesmsg can be a great option for small businesses located in the USA or Canada. Unfortunately, it is not available internationally.

This software offers the simplest interface of all the services. The sidebar has only four tabs: Broadcasts and Triggers, Conversations, Contacts and Broadcasts. Its power lies in how it is integrated with other apps.

After signing up, you will be prompted to create your local number. This number will be the one that all your text messages will come from. You can also assign a number to each member of your team. You can also set up call forwarding so that customers who call your number will be forwarded to your business and personal phones.

Salesmsg allows users to integrate its features with thousands of other apps via Zapier. This allows small businesses to automate their outreach more easily.

Pricing plans:

• Pro Plan: $35/ month
• Premium Plan: $300/ month
• Custom Plan: custom pricing

5. Heymarket

Heymarket stands out from all other software we have seen. It’s designed to allow teams to collaborate, primarily to support customers.

Let’s suppose a customer texts you asking if a product is available. The notification is sent to you while you’re out and about. You can reply to customers by saying that you will have staff members check it, then in the same chat, leave private comments and assign the task to whoever you choose. The task will be completed by your staff member after they receive a notification.

Heymarket is not just a customer service app. It also allows businesses to engage in SMS marketing campaigns. To ensure that their customers are informed about the latest campaigns, users can send bulk messages or drip-feed content.

Heymarket integrates well with other social media and marketing applications, allowing you to expand your reach to dozens more platforms such as Facebook Messenger Messenger, Line and WhatsApp. Integrating Heymarket with other apps such as Slack or Microsoft Teams can make it easier for your team.

Pricing plans:

• Standard Plan: $59 per month
• Plus Plan: $119/ month
• Pro Plan: $239/ month
• Pricing for Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing

6. EZ Texting

EZ Texting was established in 2004 and is considered to be a top SMS marketing software provider. It serves over 160,000 customers including Viking and Domino’s. This tool allows you to access all contacts and to send bulk SMS messages to them.

EZ texting, as its name implies, makes it simple and easy to market to customers via text messaging. Simply enter a keyword to create a shortcode that can be shared with others.

If your company wants to promote holiday deals, and you choose DEALNOW as a keyword for the campaign, you will get the shortcode 123123 via EZ Texting. The message you can send to your customers is “Text DEALNOW” to 123123. Customers who text this keyword will automatically be added to your list and become subscribers.

EZ Texting also offers automated marketing features such as text forwarding and drip campaigns, recurring messaging, reminders, polls, and recurring messages. Businesses can personalize messages for customers using either an existing list or a list generated by the software.

Plus, EZ Texting can be integrated with a variety of powerful third-party tools such as HubSpot and SquareSpace, MailChimp Zendesk, Constant Contact, MailChimp and MailChimp.

Pricing plans:

• Value Plan: Starts at $24/month
• Essentials Plan starts at $36/month
• Premium Plan: Starting at $61/month
• Pricing for Professional Plans: Custom pricing

7. Twilio

Twilio has undoubtedly been the most well-known name in the SMS industry and is the largest provider on this list. It is a publicly traded company that generated over $1.13 billion in revenues in 2020. It’s designed primarily for developers and enterprises, which is why they are a bit lower on our list.

It relies on its API functionality to create any SMS features that a business requires. Through its Programmable Messaging API, it can send SMS notifications, alerts and reminders. It also allows businesses to set up two-way conversation via its Conversations API.

Developers can send SMS messages by simply writing a few lines of code or using open-source code examples. Twilio can help you if you’re not a skilled developer. It will ask about your knowledge of coding and tailor the interface to your needs.

Twilio offers a useful analysis suite that includes analytical tools that allow you to track the frequency of phone calls used in ad campaigns. Sales reps can receive instant notifications via text message about any new leads.

Pricing plan: Twilio is more a platform than an application, so its pricing plan may be a bit different from other apps. Text messages cost $0.0075 per message sent and received. However, there is an $0.005/message carrier fee. Dedicated phone numbers are available for $1 per month

8. TextMagic

TextMagic, a Cambridge mathematics student, was founded in 2001. It was just as text messaging was exploding. The company now serves over 100,000 small business users worldwide.

TextMagic, like other bulk messaging services, makes it easy to import contacts, organize them and schedule messages to go out. All this is done through an intuitive interface. TextMagic is simple to use. To get started with TextMagic, users simply need to create an account and set up prepaid credits payments. Once that is done, they can start sending and receiving text messages immediately.

Software offers virtual toll-free numbers within the USA and Canada so that customers can reply to messages without having to pay. The software can forward calls to these virtual numbers to any number the user desires. TextMagic also offers standard text messaging features such as surveys, automation rules and attachments. It can also send email-to-text or speech-to-text messages.

Pricing plan: Start at $0.068/text

9. Texted

Textedly is a text messaging platform that provides small businesses with an affordable marketing solution. It serves thousands of businesses, including Chick-fil-A and Reuters.

Textedly provides a simple web-based interface which allows users to access all common messaging features such as picture messaging, scheduled campaigns, custom subscriber data and autoresponders. Textedly is the only platform that allows you to send text messages of more than 300 characters.

Small businesses will find the software easy to use with its basic reporting features. This gives users real-time information such as user history, user activity, interactive graphs and performance metrics. The software supports unlimited users and imports subscriber lists of another text messaging provider. It makes it easy to upgrade to a larger texting plan at any time.

Pricing plan: Starting at $29/month

10. Trumpia

Trumpia offers a variety of services that will suit your business needs, no matter how big or small.

It offers many standard features such as text messaging, including drip campaigns, scheduled reminders, contact importing, mobile keyword, detailed reporting, and contact importing. Advanced engagement tools include auto-responses and yes/no response texts, SMS coupons and text-to vote messages. There is also a shuffle replier that can send random fun messages.

Its automation features are also more powerful than other providers that we reviewed. It automatically collects data from subscribers who respond to text prompts. Then it filters subscribers according to their interests, behavior, or characteristics. This allows businesses to target customers with more specific messages and segment them better than blasting everyone with the exact same messages.

Pricing plans:

• Base Plans: Starting at $45/month (billed annually).
• Premium Plans: Starting at $195 per month (billed annually).

11. SlickText

SlickText was founded in 2012 and has served more than 70,000 users including FedEx, Lyfts, ESPN and IHOP.

It has a simple interface that is easy to use, so even those with little experience in text messaging marketing can quickly get used to it. The website provides detailed instructions on how to create an account, reserve a keyword and set up an auto reply.

It offers many standard SMS marketing features such as autoresponders and drip campaigns, picture messaging, birthday text, scheduling, and text-to-win contests.

Pricing plans:

• Basic Plan: $29 per month
• Step Up Plan $49/month
• The Lil Bro plan: $79/month
• The Big Bro Plan: $139/month
• Boss Plan $189/month
• The Albatross plan: $350/month
• The Whale Plan: $750 per month
• Monstro Plan $1250/month
• Custom Plan: custom pricing

12. Textline

Textline lets you promote SMS marketing activities from any device, including your phone, tablet or computer. It is cloud-based, so you can access it anywhere.

You don’t even need to download any other apps. All your contacts can be texted through one number. The software comes with a responsive web application to ensure your customers have a great platform. It includes whispers attachments, emoticons, and other powerful tools.

It whispers allows you to allow internal discussions within the flow. This feature allows you to manage your customers and provide feedback. You can also create reminders to help you remember when you have to speak with someone else.

Pricing plans:

• Limited Plan: $59.97/month
• Standard Plan $89.97/month
• Pro Plan: $249.95/ month

The bottom line

We’ve compiled a list of 10+ software that can help you get started with your business SMS messaging. We hope these tips and top SMS apps will help you connect more with your customers.