What are the best tools for SMS marketing?

Having run a few SMS marketing campaigns for SaaS and eCommerce businesses, I've experienced which tools can help you perform a good job, sending personalised campaigns through segmentation (must have feature) and good analytics for insights and results. My top 3 recommendations are: Twilio, Simple Texting, and Text Magic.

Are there any free SMS marketing tools/

No tool is truly free, but there are a few options on the market that I've mentioned above that provide some free-tiered options. However, they are limited to certain caps on texts per month, and other limited caps. Other free SMS marketing tools which I haven't mentioned in this article worth checking out are: EZTexting, SlickText, Skebby, and Feedgee.

How much does sending texts for marketing campaigns cost?

Overall, it's worth the investment, especially when you experience high open rates and high reply rates compared to pretty much every other marketing channel. Yep, even higher than email marketing (normally). However, text marketing isn't something you do often (unless you have a specific reason you need to). It's really effective and a powerful strategy to execute for the occasional blast/personalised campaigns such as timely offers.

8 Best SMS Marketing Tools for Startups & Brands (2024)

Favourite

Twilio

About:

Twilio is a popular and widely-adopted platform by many top tech startups, that provides customer engagement solutions.

Top Features:

There are few solutions available as part of the product suite, in particular core functionality such as SMS messaging service, video, email, as well as programmable voice.

Having used the platform numerous times, the messaging features are fantastic. You can buy numbers for your local area, and start sending and reciving messages instantly. Setup numbers for your business for SMS marketing campaigns, conversations at scale whilst keeping personalisation, and a range of other use cases.

To unlock more powerful features, explore the programmable messaging API and conversations API. Use the visual builder to create automated workflows, measure the performance of your messaging, troubleshoot areas to fix and more.

API

Video

Programmable voice

Pricing:

There are a few options available for pricing, depending on which product(s) as part of the suite matters to you the most. For the SMS messaging service, it's pay-as-you-go.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Salesmsg

About:

A platform used by some top global tech and marketing brands is Salesmsg.

Top Features:

With Salesmsg, you can do two-way texting with your customers, stakeholders and your team with an unlimited amount of contacts.

There are a plethora of features to really bolster your communication efforts, from call forwarding, MMS messages, double opt-in, calender scheduling, segmentation and more.

You can also create local and toll free numbers, alongside video messages, group texts and PDF attachments. Measure the performance of your SMS campaigns and communications through analytics.

Toll-free numbers

Shared inbox

Analytics

Pricing:

For $25 per month, recieve 500 credits with unlimited contacts. Then it costs just 4 cents per credit on top of the allocated monthly allowance for that price. Upgrade to a higher plan to recieve more credits.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Dial My Calls

About:

One of the top SMS platforms available on the market that I've seen in action, that makes personalised broadcast (mass) text messages seamless and cost-effective for growing brands, is Dial My Calls.

Top Features:

It's super easy to send automated custom messages to personalised/dynamic lists that you create. The internal UX/dashboard make it really easy/streamlined to get it going.

A great feature which I love compared to some other providers are the polls and MMS capabilities - especially polls for engaging audience segments

Another key capability of Dial My Calls is automated voice broadcasting - lots of conditions you can setup based on user/customer actions (like calling trees, personalised recordings, detection system, and more).

Personalised texts

Automated calling

Voice broadcasts

Pricing:

Pricing works with a mix between usage (credits), contacts and subscriptions - the base plan starts at $9.99 monthly for 150 credits (then you can pay for more credits as you go). Then for contacts, pricing starts $9.99 p/m for 25 contacts (which you then can also pay for more). Overall, there is great flexibility in costs, which makes sense for your SMS campaign objectives.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Clicksend

About:

Manage all your communications in one platform with Clicksend.

Top Features:

Communciate directly with your customers and staff, through SMS, MMS, rich messaging features, voice messaging, email campaigns and more.

Bulk send SMS campaigns, convert emails to SMS, and send transactional SMS messages through the platform or API.

There are over 900 integrations available, to further automate key workflows across your communication efforts.

MMS

Rich messaging

Chatbots

Pricing:

Pricing is pay-per-SMS. Cheaper if you send more messages.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Text Magic

About:

If you're looking for a platform focusing on delivering SMS marketing solutions, then you should check out Text Magic.

Top Features:

It's never been easier to setup SMS campaigns thanks to this platform. Manage all your messages within the one interface. Compose new messages that you can send to your whole database in just minutes.

You can schedule text messages, send texts online through the dashboard, send MMS and attachments, and lots more.

You can also convert emails to SMS, improving your open rates for marketing campaigns you want to ensure gets cut through. There's an API available, as well as a Zapier integration, so there are plenty of workflow opportunities.

Integrations

Bulk sends

email to SMS

Pricing:

Pricing is based on price-per-text. Use the pricing calculator to work out pricing for your business.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Heymarket

About:

Send personalised text messaging campaigns at scale, and manage all conversations with ease thanks to Heymarket.

Top Features:

Have all your SMS campaigns and messages in one place with the shared inbox. This makes it easy for marketing and sales teams know the state of conversations with key customers and stakeholders.

Assign conversations to team members, attach private notes and attachments to conversations, like you would do with CRM tools. Create marketing lists from your contacts, as well as schedule bulk SMS blasts.

What makes this platform awesome is that it supports omni-channel messaging, which means customers can message through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (and others), and have conversations synced into the one platform, where you can reply and send messages directly from Heymarket.

Shared inbox

Automation

Multi-Channels

Pricing:

Monthly pricing begins at $59 per month, billed monthly. That's for up to 1000 text messages per month. For more texts and more awesome features, you will need to upgrade.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Whispir

About:

For a tool that is packed with sms and communications features needed for growing businesses like yours, check out Whispir.

Top Features:

Drag-and-drop messages for SMS campaigns with ease. The team behind Whispir have done a great job with the UX, really slick design and easy for less tech-savvy people to use.

Send messages across email, SMS and landing pages. Learn more about the performance of your campaigns, and areas of opportunity to optimise for future sends.

Automate reporting and build workflows to build personalised campaigns. Measure in real-time the performance. Get the full picture of deliverability, open rates, replies and more metrics that matter to you.

Workflows

Automation

Drag/Drop

Pricing:

Get in contact to find out more about solutions and pricing.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Simple Texting

About:

Simple Texting does what the name suggests - making texts simple to manage, send, analyse and optimise SMS and text campaigns.

Top Features:

Whatever your goals are for text messaging, this platform is built for those wanting to succeed with communications.

From mass text messaging, MMS, link tracking, manage comversations with team members to segmenting audiences for tailored campaigns, you can do it all with this platform.

Go further with building custom solutions you need through the API, and unlock more workflow possibilities thanks to the Zapier integration.

Analytics

Forms

Dynamic content

Pricing:

Pricing starts off at $29 per month for 1000 credits. You can also add additional credits. Recieve a better deal for more credits per month, alongside cheaper additional credits.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

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8 Best SMS Marketing Tools to Drive Open Rates and Targeted Campaigns (2024)

Twilio

Top Features:

Salesmsg

Top Features:

Dial My Calls

Top Features:

Clicksend

Top Features:

Text Magic

Top Features:

Heymarket

Top Features:

Whispir

Top Features:

Simple Texting

Top Features:

Platform

Pricing

Plans

⚡ Frequently Asked Questions ⚡

What are the best tools for SMS marketing?

Are there any free SMS marketing tools/

How much does sending texts for marketing campaigns cost?