The Best Text Message Marketing Services of 2021

There are many benefits of using text message marketing, as well as some potential cons. The direct, personal nature of text messaging is a double-edged sword in that it provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to speak directly with customers, but it can also mean a thin line to walk in terms of respecting customers' privacy.

Pros

• The conversion rates tend to be high.
• People quickly open, read and respond to texts.
• It's a cost-effective marketing method.
• You can customize and personalize texts to fit your customers.
• The services offer a wide variety of tracking and analytics features.

Cons

• There can be a learning curve to use the services effectively.
• It can be time-consuming to grow your contact list.
• A text message marketing campaign requires constant attention and effort.

Mobile marketing can be a great tool for your business, but it's not a free-for-all. There are some laws and best practices you should follow and consider when you plan your campaigns.

TCPA

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which the U.S. Federal Communications Commission developed, has laws that you must follow when you're collecting contacts and sending out text messages. Not everything in the TCPA applies to text message marketing, but it's still a good idea to review these laws and ensure you comply. One of the requirements of the act is that you must get permission from each contact before you start sending mass text messages to them. Also, you can only send texts between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. This specific rule refers to the time zone of the person you are texting – not the time zone from where you are sending messages.

CTIA and MMA

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Mobile Marketing Association have similar guidelines for the appropriate use of text message marketing. These guidelines are not laws, but they lay out the best practices you should follow. Here are some of the CTIA's and MMA's guidelines:

• Don't use the term "free" unless you have a program that is truly free to the end user.
• All advertising should include the program name, the product description and quantity if applicable, a link to terms and conditions, instructions for how to stop receiving the messages, and a note that message and data rates may apply. Alternatively, you can provide all this information when the customer texts HELP.
• Get opt-in approval prior to sending messages to any given consumer.
• Allow your customer the choice of unsubscribing.
• Maintain opt-in and opt-out records for at least six months.
• Do not advocate the use of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs.
• You may need to require age verification for some marketing campaigns.

There are many benefits of text message marketing, prime among them the chance to communicate directly with customers. These are some other key benefits:

High open rate

SMS marketing reports a higher open rate than email marketing – nearly 98%. This means that recipients are nearly guaranteed to see your messages.

Cost-effectiveness

Text message marketing is a generally low-cost way to market your business, with many providers offering low monthly or annual plans and even pay-as-you-go options.

Mobile method

One of the key tenets of marketing is to meet your customers where they are, and for most modern consumers, that's on their mobile devices. Text message marketing is a surefire way to reach a majority of your audience.

Complement to a larger marketing plan

Text messaging doesn't need to be your entire marketing effort; SMS marketing works well in conjunction with other types of marketing. For instance, you can include links to your social media profiles in your text messages or offer a discount code for recipients to use on your website.

Higher customer engagement

Because texting is so personal, customers feel valued and like what they have to say to you matters when they receive texts from you, which increases the chances of them engaging directly with you.

Text message marketing services should do much more than just send texts. They are full-scale marketing solutions that help you engage with your audience, track results and improve your customer service.

When you're looking for a text message marketing solution, it's understandable to not know exactly what features you need. Below are the features we think businesses will find most valuable.

• Analytics and reports: Any text message marketing solution worth its salt will offer helpful reports on your campaigns, contacts and keywords that you can use to improve future campaigns.
  
  
• Automation: The best text message marketing companies offer automation tools, which are helpful if you want to send out the same text message on a regular basis, such as recurring reminders.
  
  
• Contact management: Accurate, up-to-date contact lists are vital to successful text message marketing campaigns. If your contact list is full of old numbers, your customers won't receive your messages and your campaigns won't succeed. The best text message marketing solutions make it easy to add contacts, import existing lists and scrub lists to ensure only active numbers are on it.
  
  
• Customization: The best text message campaigns are personalized. Some solutions capture customer data, such as the person's full name, birthday and ZIP code.
  
  
• Drip campaigns: With this feature, you can send out automated customer journeys, with actions triggered based on conditions you set. For example, a welcome text goes out when a customer subscribes, and then they get a thank-you message when they make their first purchase, with other triggered texts to follow.
  
  
• Free incoming text messages: The best text message marketing companies don't charge you for the texts you receive from customers.
  
  
• Integrations: Some text message companies integrate with other platforms, such as email marketing tools like Mailchimp and Constant Contact.
  
  
• Message templates: If you send the same text message frequently, look for a solution that lets you create and save templates so you can send messages faster.
  
  
• Multimedia messaging: Some services allow you to send pictures, videos and audio clips. These are also known as MMS messages.
  
  
• Mobile keywords: The best solutions allow you to choose custom keywords and track the use of these keywords in your campaign.
  
  
• Scheduling: You should be able to schedule text messages in advance to go out at any date or time.
  
  
• Surveys: The best services make it easy to gather customer feedback with polls and surveys.
  
  
• Text-to-landline: This feature lets you send and receive text messages through your business landline phone number with no changes to your voice service.

To get a better sense of what entrepreneurs are looking for in these services, we asked experienced small business owners from our community which text message marketing programs they use and what they like about them. Here's what they said.

Alex Kovalenko, account manager and senior IT recruiter at Kovasys: EZ Texting

"We like how easy it is to use. You can add different groups of people, [and] it's easy to unsubscribe and easy to communicate with [customers] after the message is sent."

Mike Khorev, growth consultant: EZ Texting

"EZ Texting is a major timesaver with all its various features, and I like that it has an intuitive interface that's easy to use. It's also easy to personalize and automate messages. However, there can be a steep learning curve for certain advanced features, and customer service is sometimes slow."

Malte Scholz, CEO and co-founder of Airfocus: SlickText

"We use SlickText for our SMS marketing needs. The ease of use is our biggest pro, as well as the exceptional customer service. It would be nice to have more integration options, but the customer service is definitely a 5/5. They've been there for me every time, and their responses are super quick."

Jane Kovalkova, chief marketing officer at Chanty: SimpleTexting

"We love the fact that the user interface is super simple and that it takes 15 minutes to set up and use. No matter what your background is, you can figure out how to send mass texts and set up autoresponders very quickly. [However], the number of credits you need can be confusing, and importing contacts from CSV lists can be a bit buggy."

Is text message marketing effective?

Text message marketing is a highly effective, quick and easy way to reach customers. More than 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of reception, so your audience will almost always see your messages. Text message marketing messages are also effective because they're so easy to personalize, making the customer feel seen and valued, and thus more likely to engage with your business.

When should businesses use text message marketing?

Businesses should use text message marketing whenever they have quick, pertinent information to distribute to their audience, such as a new discount code, an update on store hours or information about an event. Try to send them only during normal business hours, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. in a customer's local time.

Why is text message marketing important?

Text message marketing is important because it opens a clear, dedicated line of communication between the customer and your business. It also allows you to customize all the messages you send to your target audience, which can improve customer satisfaction, engagement and your brand reputation.

What are the steps to set up text message marketing for your business?

While the precise steps to create a text campaign depend on your provider, the basic steps are the same across most platforms:

1. Create an account.
2. Activate your account.
3. Create or import a contact group.
4. Write a message and select the recipient(s).
5. Send your message to the selected contact or group.
6. Monitor your campaign's performance with the service's analytics.

What do your employees need to know to use text message marketing?

It is not necessary to train all your employees in text message marketing. Focus on training the ones who will be responsible for creating and managing the campaigns. They should understand how to create campaigns, choose contact lists, manage analytics and present the information, and troubleshoot minor issues.

How can text or SMS marketing attract new customers to your business?

The use of text message marketing can show new customers that your business is committed to customer support and a personalized customer experience, since text provides a simple, direct line of communication between your business and your customers at all times. This can add a sense of credibility and transparency to your business.

How can text or SMS marketing help you keep the customers you already have?

Your existing customers can benefit from your text messages if you keep them in the loop about deals, opportunities and news from your business. These updates keep your business on their minds and, especially if you offer them special deals for being loyal customers, incentivize them to keep buying from you.

What do text message marketing services typically cost?

While prices vary by provider, text message marketing services typically offer a variety of monthly or annual plans starting at around $14 to $20 and reaching $2,000 to $4,000 per month for advanced services. The price will also depend on the number of messages and keywords your business requires each month.

Is text message marketing effective?

Text message marketing is a highly effective, quick and easy way to reach customers. More than 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of reception, so your audience will almost always see your messages. Text message marketing messages are also effective because they're so easy to personalize, making the customer feel seen and valued, and thus more likely to engage with your business.

When should businesses use text message marketing?

Businesses should use text message marketing whenever they have quick, pertinent information to distribute to their audience, such as a new discount code, an update on store hours or information about an event. Try to send them only during normal business hours, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. in a customer's local time.

Why is text message marketing important?

Text message marketing is important because it opens a clear, dedicated line of communication between the customer and your business. It also allows you to customize all the messages you send to your target audience, which can improve customer satisfaction, engagement and your brand reputation.