Top SMS marketing platforms are attracting businesses now more than ever. The reason behind it is their accessibility.
People rely on text messaging to communicate with their friends and family, so they check their messages quite often. The same is true for your customers, which makes SMS marketing a direct and quick communication channel.
If you’re planning your next marketing campaign through SMS automation platforms, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to explore the best SMS marketing tools that will improve your customer engagement and return on investment (ROI)!
SMS marketing platforms send promotional campaigns to customers via text messaging. They allow brands to send flash sales, reminders, order confirmations, and bulk SMSes.
You can also use these tools to segment contact lists based on triggers and to schedule your campaigns. Moreover, you can analyze your campaign’s effectiveness through analytics and reports.
However, every message marketing software varies in its integration abilities and features. So, let’s explore the different types of platforms to help you understand which one better fits your needs.
First, advanced SMS service providers offer enhanced integration and features. These tools are ideal for larger businesses that need more channels to connect with the audience.
On the other hand, you can keep it basic with a dedicated SMS solution. These are simpler tools with straightforward functions. However, you might not get multiple marketing integrations since these tools only act as point SMS solutions.
Then, there’s another type of marketing software that combines SMS and email marketing. These tools are great for streamlining communication on both channels and driving better customer engagement.
Furthermore, you can take advantage of integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Combining this tool with SMS allows you to manage campaigns, customer interactions, and sales from a single platform.
Almost every business (large and small) uses such SMS marketing platforms for multiple purposes. Marketing teams send targeted offers to improve a campaign’s effectiveness.
Alternatively, sales teams use these tools for lead generation and moving potential customers up the sales funnel. Lastly, customer support teams take advantage of SMS marketing to answer queries. They collect feedback and directly communicate with customers to build loyalty.
Since every phone has a messaging app, it may be unnecessary to invest in a separate SMS marketing tool. However, an average messaging app doesn’t give you the capabilities you need for business communication. For that, you need dedicated SMS tools that help you reach your desired customer base through automation.
These tools analyze customer behaviors and triggers to send out more relevant offers. Therefore, they help you to create personalized messages without investing too much time in the process.
Moreover, you can use analytics features to get insights into the campaign’s effectiveness. This process helps you make improvements and build better marketing strategies.
Lastly, there’s the legal aspect. According to the SMS compliance guidelines, you need permission from your prospects before sending offers. SMS tools help you stick to these guidelines so you don’t end up getting a legal penalty.
How To Choose the Best SMS Marketing Software
Now that you’ve learned why SMS texting software makes a difference let’s talk about how to choose one.
The first thing you should do is define your objectives. Decide why you want to use an automated texting tool. Is it for improving your engagement rates or for customer services? You also need to define your audience and their preferences for receiving SMS marketing messages.
The next step is to look for software that’s not very demanding to use. Avoid tools that have complex interfaces and need more attention to navigation. After all, you need quick solutions instead of having to deal with a steep learning curve.
Another thing to look for in SMS marketing software is scalability. Make sure the software you’re choosing can grow with your business.
Next, you must evaluate the security and privacy policy. Prioritize your customers’ safety and ensure the software has enough data protection measures.
However, all of this would be baseless without considering your budget. So, compare the costs and buy the one that fits your budget range.
Once you narrow down to a few options, look for reviews and testimonials. This will allow you to make an informed decision. In the end, test the software and see if it works for you. Use free trials and demos before making the final call.
You always need a balance in the features, whether you’re using SMS marketing services or any other customer engagement tool. Too many features can overwhelm you and take things out of budget. On the other hand, fewer features can get in the way of productivity.
The only way to balance things out is to learn about the essentials of an SMS marketing platform:
- Convenient dashboard: A tool’s dashboard has the ability to make or break your experience. So, choose a marketing platform with a unified dashboard to manage everything from a single place.
- Contact segmentation: Segmentation helps you divide the contact list based on demographics, preferences, and recent actions for better personalization. Without this, your campaigns won’t be as effective, so choose wisely.
- Content personalization: A top SMS marketing platform allows you to send personalized messages based on triggers. Make sure your tool has this feature to send highly relevant messages.
- Quick automation: Automated texting saves plenty of time and effort while making your campaigns more effective. You can automatically send a message as soon as a customer takes any sort of action.
- Two-way communication: SMS marketing becomes more successful once you let your customers text you through two-way messaging. It also helps in gathering feedback.
- Campaign analysis: Analytics and reporting features enable businesses to get a deeper look at the campaign’s statistics, like response rates. In this way, they can make the necessary improvements in the strategy.
- Multiple integrations: Another essential feature is the ability to work with other marketing tools, such as a CRM. This allows more comprehensive marketing and better engagement when you have a diverse audience across different channels.
Every business needs a different set of features to successfully run an SMS campaign. Some tools have great features but are also very expensive, while others are cheap yet effective. It all depends on your needs.
Therefore, keep your business’s requirements in mind before opting for any software. After all, you don’t want to spend money on a tool that doesn’t cater to your needs. However, if you’re not sure about the software that’s good for you, explore the eight top SMS marketing platforms below.
Sender is one of the most affordable SMS and email marketing companies. It has a free plan that allows you to manage 2,500 to 15,000 subscribers per month. Therefore, it is a top SMS marketing platform for new businesses.
Moreover, its free plan contains some amazing features such as text automation, contact management, and metric analysis. Besides, its SMS costs start at $0.014 per message, which makes it quite cheap.
Additionally, Sender is really easy to use. It has a simplified dashboard that allows you to manage everything from one place.
2. EngageBay: Take Advantage of an Integrated CRM
As the name suggests, Enagagebay is an excellent platform for enhancing customer engagement and is definitely one of the top 10 SMS marketing platforms out there. It has CRM integration that allows you to manage sales, marketing, and customer support all at once.
It also improves contact segmentation based on customer behavior and allows you to send more personalized SMS messages.
The software’s interface is also quite neat. Everything is straightforward, with separate sections. If you want to use message marketing services, you’ll find a dedicated section to help you navigate further. It even has a free version.
On the other hand, the basic package is around $11.04. It includes 500 contacts and features like a landing page builder, third-party integration, and more. For an option with integrated CRM capabilities, EngageBay is quite reasonable.
3. TextMagic: Pay as You Go With Advanced Features
TextMagic offers several advanced features. You will get SMS scheduling, Zapier SMS integration, and SMS opt-out to create a compelling campaign.
It also offers two-way chats for customer engagement and SMS templates, so you don’t have to create messages from scratch.
Moreover, its interface is great. You can easily find all the functions and analytics at one glance. TextMagic also offers a pay-as-you-go price plan. This type of pricing helps you manage your budget without committing beforehand.
4. SlickText: Best Analytics and Reports
SlickText helps you run your campaign seamlessly and ensures a high response rate. It allows you to add special codes and loyalty reward coupons in the SMS to win over your customers. You can also use its one-on-one chat feature to have personalized conversations with customers and encourage them to take action.
However, SlickText’s greatest strength is its reporting feature. It provides in-depth statistics on the analytics dashboard. These reports tell you all about the sign-ins and click-through rates.
It also informs you about abandoned cart revenue. You can use this data to improve your personalization and campaign strategies.
5. Mobile Text Alerts: User-Friendly Interface
A steep learning curve is enough to break your productivity charts. But with Mobile Text Alerts, you don’t have to worry about this. Once you purchase a plan, you start right away. Even the dashboard is quite easy to navigate.
It also offers mobile surveys to collect valuable data. Similarly, you can add QR codes and use built-in templates to create convincing short messages.
Moreover, you can import data spreadsheets to streamline the workflow without having to go back and forth between different platforms. It even has a mobile app that you can use to check in on campaign analytics anytime, anywhere.
6. EZ Texting: Easy Two-Way Communication
EZ texting makes SMS marketing simple and effective. First of all, its interface is effortless, so you don’t have to worry about spending countless hours on the setup. You also get progressive features that help you build a successful campaign.
One of the most popular features of EZ Texting is its two-way communication. You can allow customers to contact you anytime they have a query. As a result, you gain their trust and build better relationships.
Moreover, there are QR codes and sign-up forms to expand your audience. You can even redirect customers to your website to increase click-through rates.
Lastly, you don’t have to worry much about the pricing plans. EZ Texting offers transparent plans. You don’t pay anything for additional features, regardless of the plan you’re using. The only difference in the cost is due to the number of messages per month.
7. Textedly: Get More for Less
Textedly is another tool that works like magic. You don’t even have to be technical to understand this platform because of its uncomplicated interface.
This platform offers some exciting features on a tight budget, like inbound messages to improve customer service. Also, the contact management and automated response features help drive and engage prospects.
Its pricing ranges from $26 to $3,000 per month based on the number of messages and some other features. However, you can use a 14-day trial to understand the software before making the final purchase.
Every business dreams about expanding its customer base overseas. If you share the same dream, EngageLab is for you. You can use it to send messages to more than 200 countries with its unified API without spending a penny.
Moreover, it offers four types of marketing solutions. You can use a One-Time Password (OTP) to ensure a safe registration process or build campaigns via marketing and promotions. Alternatively, you can use transactional SMS for order confirmation and sending receipts, which improves your brand’s credibility.
Its automated features for personalization and two-way communication are essential for prospect engagement. EngageLab also integrates multiple channels and allows you to switch between them automatically.
Finding the top SMS marketing platforms is hard but not impossible. All you have to do is understand your business objectives and compare the features with your campaign needs. Think for the long term and choose scalable and affordable tools. Once you’re sure about what you need, you can land on the right tool.
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If you still have any queries about SMS marketing platforms, let’s look at some FAQs to clear up your mind.
The benefits of using an SMS marketing platform include better workflow and effective campaigns. An SMS marketing platform sends direct messages to your prospects.
You can manage your contact list based on triggers and send personalized messages. In short, these marketing tools take care of all your needs, from initial opt-ins to analytics.
Yes, there are various legal regulations you need to consider when using SMS marketing platforms. For example, the Telephone Consumer Protection ACT (TCPA) protects people from unsolicited texts.
You can’t just randomly send an SMS to anyone. If you’re starting a campaign, you must comply with the consent law and disclose your intent to send messages.
Does SMS marketing still work?
Yes, SMS marketing still works. It’s the most cost-effective and accessible way to attract and engage customers. It helps you send direct and personalized messages to subscribers.
You can send sign-up codes, special offers, and appointment reminders via text messages to keep your customers in the loop.
