Top 25 SMS Marketing Software For Small Businesses
Chad Faith
Director of Content
Regardless of which industry you are in, small businesses cannot afford to neglect the potential of SMS marketing software, or business text messaging services. Making use of short text messages sent directly to customers’ mobile phones, SMS marketing software enables businesses to send both personalized and promotional messages to leads.
In addition, customers can engage in two-way conversations with businesses, whether that is to address a product inquiry or if they are having a problem with an order. With many customers preferring text communication over more traditional forms of communication these days, small businesses who leverage on SMS marketing software can expect to see an increase in customer engagement and conversion rates.
Understanding SMS Marketing Software for Small Businesses
Have you received a promotional SMS that required you to flash the message in store to enjoy a particular discount? If so, you have been the target of effective SMS marketing. SMS gives businesses an easy and convenient way of reaching out to customers instantly. With email, your message can easily get lost amongst the tons of incoming mail customers receive every day, most of which are never opened.
When customers sign up to a SMS subscription, businesses can be assured that there is a higher likelihood of them having a vested interest in the brand. As opposed to email, which some people may not even check once daily, almost everyone checks their phones numerous times a day. That said, customers who choose to receive SMS updates likely want to be kept in the know about the latest promotions your business is offering. Using a SMS marketing software to manage this aspect of marketing can help small businesses save time without compromising on customer service quality.
Below is a list of the 25 SMS marketing software your small business can use:
#1 Trumpia
Founded in 2006 in Southern California, Trumpia has a team of more than 80 members today. Making the Inc. 5000 list in 2012, Trumpia has since gone on to pioneer omni-channel automation with a focus on text messages. It comes with features that include mobile keywords, smart targeting, link and event tracking, personalization and more. To this end, their SMS marketing software offers much more than simply sending mass messages. Trumpia can learn more about each individual subscriber to ensure that the text messages they receive are relevant and welcome. Automated workflows allow for interactive conversations with subscribers, dynamically sending different messages based on how they respond or interact with the system.
Trumpia Is Our Choice of Top SMS Marketing Software for Small Businesses
Trumpia is one of three successful companies founded by CEO Ken Rhie, who previously served as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte and Director of Marketing at Symantec. Working tirelessly to offer the world’s leading engagement platform via SMS and email, Trumpia works with a variety of clients from small startups to Fortune 500 companies.
After extensive research, we chose Trumpia as our SmartSites Technology Partner for SMS marketing software. SmartSites Technology Partners are an exclusive selection of technology solutions that are each top of their respective category.
Here’s the top 5 reasons we believe TrumpiaI is the best SMS marketing software out there:
- Automated lifecycle engagement ensures that subscribers are engaged every step of the way from initial sign-up to the ongoing feedback loop
- Smart targeting learns about each individual subscriber to send only the most relevant text messages to them
- A single integrated platforms allows you to send SMS, MMS, voice messages and emails all in one
- Can be integrated fully with your existing systems
- Fully scalable with the size and needs of your business
#2 Zipwhip
Zipwhip is based in Seattle, Washington and is the first company to enable texting on existing business phone numbers. This led to a successful SMS marketing software that is used by a large base of clients today, from SMEs to Fortune 500 companies. As the preferred communication mode amongst today’s customers, investing in SMS marketing software can help to improve customer engagement for your business and build brand awareness.
With Zipwhip, businesses can send out automated appointment reminders to prevent no shows, promote contests, events, sales and campaigns, remind customers of upcoming payments and more.
#3 Postscript
Postscript is made up of a fully remote team across 9 states in the US, and to that end, their goal is to build the world’s greatest remote organization through modernizing communication between brands and consumers. Postscript works on the premise that implementing a successful SMS marketing strategy is a fine line between being a game changer and annoying customers. Hence, they not only work hard to make SMS marketing a success for your business, but to prevent the latter.
From building a SMS subscriber list to automating messages and conducting two-way conversations, Postscript can do it all. In fact, you can instantly sign up to receive a series of interactive text messages from Postscript if you need to be convinced of the power of SMS marketing software.
#4 Textline
What would later become Textline started as a project in 2015 in San Francisco. Originally known as OtterChat, Textline was launched as an independent startup company in early 2016, in answer to the question: with so many of our daily conversations taking place via text, why can’t we text businesses, too? To this end, Textline’s SMS marketing software enables businesses to communicate with customers using their existing number or add new numbers as they wish.
Other features of Textline include the ability to personalize conversations by adding emojis, send links, images and other file attachments, multiple device and platform access that enables businesses to always stay connected, integration with existing systems such as Shopify, Zapier and more.
#5 Tatango
Tatango is based in Seattle, Washington and makes use of both SMS and MMS in its marketing software. Their newest offering, RCS messaging, closely matches the features available in iMessage, which is exclusive to Apple devices. With verified sending to ensure security, custom branding that allows you to customize the appearance of your chat widget and rich cards to replicate “app like” experiences without the customer having to open an additional app.
#6 CallHub
CallHub does not cater to just businesses, but entities who require voice and SMS marketing solutions such as political parties and advocacy groups. To this end, they have helped with voter registration in the US, the presidential election in Colombia, advocacy campaigns in Australia and more.
Their SMS marketing software includes mass texting, an opt-in subscription service as well as two-way peer to peer conversations. With a team of support engineers always on hand to provide assistance, businesses can collect data about their subscribers, use MMS to drive engagement, respond faster by creating message templates and more.
#7 SlickText
Started in Jamestown, New York, in 2012, SlickText’s mission is to connect the world through text messaging. With texts being read almost instantly and coming with the ability to reach a wide scale of customers, SlickText’s founder, Matt Baglia, found it to be much more effective than email and an underadopted form of marketing communication.
SlickText’s SMS marketing software allows businesses to reserve keywords, which is then used by customers to subscribe to their marketing list. With a customized auto-response to confirm their subscription, watch your mailing list grow and easily send out text blasts to customers the next time you want to get word out about an event or promotion.
#8 Textellent
Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Textellent delivers automated, personalized marketing campaigns that can be fully integrated with your existing CRM system. Textellent is able to text-enable your existing business lines and toll-free numbers to open up a new channel of communication between your brand and customers. With a read rate of 98%, businesses can leverage on texts to empower customers to book their own appointments, increase sales through text drip campaigns, acquire more customers by using keywords and more.
#9 Avochato
Avochato is based in Mill Valley, California and launched in 2017. On a mission to promote dialogue through building business communication tools, Avochato works on the belief that businesses should evolve with customers’ needs and to this end, they have embraced texting as the primary method of reaching out to customers.
Combining live chat and SMS features in a single dashboard, let your customers choose how they want to reach you with Avochato. When customers visit your site and engage with your brand through live chat, keep the conversation going after they have gone offline through SMS. With Avochato, you can create campaigns to send out automated personalized marketing messages, gather valuable customer feedback through surveys and more.
#10 ShoutOUT
Previously known as Square Mobile, ShoutOUT was founded in 2014 with the objective of building tools businesses will require to build winning customer relationships. ShoutOUT enables businesses to reach out to customers via multiple platforms including SMS, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and email.
With a user-friendly platform that segments customers by profile in order to send the most relevant marketing materials, ShoutOUT comes with many other features besides. These include triggered messages that can be set up to your specifications, two-way conversations that allow customers to receive the support they need instantly, pre-designed message templates and more.
#11 ManyChat
ManyChat has clients across more than 190 countries and provides solutions that range from SMS marketing to integrations for Shopify and ecommerce. As the most effective platform for time-sensitive messaging, businesses can send out promotion alerts, coupons and more to a list of subscribers through ManyChat. In addition, Facebook Messenger and email can be combined with SMS to bring conversations offline and keep your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds.
With the option to personalize every conversation, easily send order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders and more to individual customers. SMS marketing software also enables businesses to quickly and easily collect reviews and feedback, which can range from asking customers to text back a single number on a Likert scale or leave a more detailed review online.
#12 TextMagic
TextMagic was started in 2001 when text messaging was booming. Today, its applications go beyond personal use, with many businesses leveraging on SMS and other messaging apps to reach out to customers. Based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, TextMagic has teams in the US and Australia as well.
TextMagic enables businesses to send online texts to staff and customers, convert emails into SMS, engage in remote two-way conversations and more. With a downloadable desktop program, businesses can send targeted text messages to their audience, whether individually or in bulk. In addition, global SMS coverage ensures that texts can be received worldwide, reaching out to the largest possible customer base.
#13 TextUs
TextUs is headquartered in Colorado and works on the mission to make business communication personal, to deliver authentic experiences that are akin to face-to-face interaction. TextUs can text enable your business phone numbers to give customers an easy and direct way to get in touch. Freeing text messages from individual inboxes, your entire team can assist in answering customer inquiries, ensuring that none goes unanswered.
With numerous features to manage subscribers on local and global scales, enabled access to templates for individual team members and more, businesses can choose to upgrade to TextUs Next to unlock enterprise-level features.
#14 Attentive
Attentive was founded in 2016 by the previous founders of TapCommerce, which has since been acquired by Twitter. Having adapted to remote work in 2020, the team of over 500 at Attentive is passionate about empowering leading brands to create meaningful customer interactions through personalized text messaging.
The PlayBook feature of Attentive’s software delivers integrated reports and analytics as well as a dedicated strategy, allowing businesses to review how their marketing efforts are doing and make changes as desired. By integrating SMS and email subscriber lists, Attentive’s “two tap” sign-up feature allows you to build both lists simultaneously. Complemented by triggered messages and robust segmentation, you no longer have to agonize over sending the right message at the right time again.
#15 Omnisend
Omnisend started out as an email marketing platform, Soundest, in 2014. Working on a mission to make marketing relevant, Soundest became Omnisend in 2017, expanding beyond email to become an omnichannel automation platform. SMS was added as a new channel for automation and campaigns in 2018.
Omnisend believes in tailoring messages to ensure an unique shopping experience for each customer. To this end, their software operates on robust segmentation based on shopping behavior to improve conversion rates, leveraging on multiple platforms to reach the same customers, With automation platforms and SMS available worldwide, businesses can easily complement their email marketing efforts with Omnisend.
#16 SimpleTexting
Based in Miami Beach, Florida, SimpleTexting aims to put the “simple” in texting. Whether you wish to keep your existing number or get a new one for free, SimpleTexting can work with you to select the right number, ranging from toll-free to local and short codes. Their software enables you to build SMS marketing campaigns and engage in 1-on-1 interactions with customers, coming with options to include photos and links as well as track who opened your texts.
With autoresponders that are dropped to customers immediately following a signup, businesses can organize sweepstakes where customers send in a text to enter, collect feedback through text surveys, send extended messages of over 300 characters and more.
#17 Sendinblue
Founded in 2007 with offices in Seattle, France, Germany and India, Sendinblue integrates email, SMS, Facebook Messenger and more into one user-friendly CRM system. With over 40 nationalities represented within their diverse team, Sendinblue is a team-focused company that offers scalable solutions for small businesses.
With contact lists you can instantly send time-sensitive bulk messages to, Sendinblue also allows businesses to keep their contacts up to date with order confirmations, shipping updates and more. Personalized marketing based on segmentation ensures that messages are always relevant to recipients and key engagement metrics allow for easy tracking and derivation of actionable insights.
#18 Heymarket
Heymarket offers a simple and secure solution to communicate with people outside your organization, namely your customers. With the ability to centralize SMS and Facebook messages within a shared inbox, businesses can create as many inboxes as they want, granting access to team members who are working remotely. Whether your business needs a solution for sales, logistics or customer support, Heymarket’s SMS marketing software can be utilized to suit your needs.
Chats can be assigned to individual team members based on area of expertise, and typing indicators allow team members to keep in sync and avoid conflicting replies. With a private comment feature, easily add context to messages that pertain to individual team members without everyone else being able to see it. Working on iOS, Android and web browsers, Heymarket allows businesses to work from anywhere.
#19 TextMarks
TextMarks focuses on using SMS to cut through the noise amongst the numerous advertising platforms out there, from email to social media and print ads. TextMarks helps businesses handle every step of the SMS marketing process, from navigating regulations, opt-ins and opt-outs to leasing a short code. With solutions for industries such as marketing agencies, schools and universities to churches and nonprofits, TextMarks can implement a SMS marketing solution that meets the specific needs of your organization.
#20 Sonar
Sonar was established in 2014 and acquired by Marchex Inc., in 2019. Through the utilization of AI and chatbots, Sonar helps businesses optimize their mobile channel performance including that of SMS, chat and email. Analyzing your customers’ behavior to develop an unique communication strategy that will work for your business, Sonar then goes ahead to execute this plan through individual scheduled messages, leveraging on campaigns, follow-up sequences and more. Even after your campaign has been launched, Sonar Analytics delivers real-time results that allow you to constantly revise your strategy to reach your goals.
#21 TXT180
Founded in 2010, TXT180 is based in St. George, Utah, TXT180 offers SMS packages for businesses that include unlimited subscribers, free inbound messages, expert marketing advice and more. On the TXT180 platform, unique features such as dynamic date, where customers receive a deadline to redeem a promotion based on the day they opt in, are available.
In addition, customize the software to work for your needs with multiple user access, MMS messaging, message templates and many more. Set up campaigns such as Text 2 Win easily and conveniently, with TXT180 able to pick a winner at random and notify them via text.
#22 Mobiniti
Mobiniti was founded in 2014 and works on the premise that SMS marketing support and services should be free, and that businesses should only pay for the messages. To this end, their text marketing software features numerous growth tools such as text to join keywords, opt-in pages, QR codes and more to suit the unique needs of your business. Top features such as contests, mobile coupons, MMS messages, loyalty program and birthday messages are all included free of charge.
#23 Octopush
Based in Marseille, France, Octopush was founded in 2006 and offers user-friendly SMS sending solutions that can be adapted for all types of organizations, regardless of size and industry. With voice SMS and WhatsApp solutions, Octopush offers a full range of text messaging services businesses can leverage on to complement each other. Features include bulk SMS, transactional SMS, customizable sender and more, with the ability to keep track of your performance through statistics.
#24 Mozeo
Founded in 2007, Mozeo is based in New York and focuses on helping businesses turbocharge their marketing through better communication processes. With three main purposes, their SMS marketing software can be used for sending out alerts, marketing, and conducting two-way conversations with customers. User-friendly with a variety of features including mobile keywords, group text messaging, MMS and real-time responses, businesses no longer have to worry about customers not engaging with their communication attempts or missing out on time-sensitive promotions with Mozeo’s SMS marketing solutions.
#25 YetiText
YetiText offers a full featured text messaging solution for businesses and can be fully integrated with CRM systems including HubSpot, Zapier, ActiveCampaign, Drip and more. From keyword initiated conversations to follow up messages after sales campaigns, YetiText enables businesses to have more live conversations with their customers in a non-intimidating manner with the purpose of driving sales and conversion rates.
Ready to Get SMS Marketing Software?
Today, customers expect faster responses than ever before. If your small business has yet to go onboard with SMS marketing software, there is no better time to do so. With text messages being opened in an average of 90 seconds, businesses have a much higher likelihood of engaging customers through SMS as opposed to email. In fact, many businesses use SMS marketing to complement their email marketing efforts, finding that a combination of the two makes for much faster growth and more efficient communication processes.