A business texting services allow you to engage directly with clients and send out newsletters, promotions, special deals, and announcements with just a few clicks. Look for a company that provides a decent amount of monthly or annual SMS messages and free keywords for your company.

SimpleTexting is the most configurable text message marketing solution, Textedly is the most accessible, and ProTexting is the easiest to use, according to our research. For CRM-based text messaging, we recommend Podium, and for advanced functionality, we recommend EZ Texting. This information is for small business owners who want a simple way to communicate with their consumers directly.

According to the Pew Research Center, 97 percent of adults in the United States own a cell phone to receive text messages. It’s no wonder that firms are exploring text message marketing strategies as the amount of time spent on phones continues to rise. Many good services are available, but a handful stands out, particularly for small businesses trying to impress their customers. Based on their features, affordability, ease of use, setup process, and customer service, we evaluated 10 text message, marketing providers:

1. SlickText

SlickText is a feature-rich, easy-to-use service. Its onboarding method is what sets it apart from the competition. You get a free induction session with a member of SlickText’s client success team when you join up for any of its paid subscriptions.

2. ProTexting

ProTexting is a popular alternative for businesses, organizations, and schools that wish to interact with customers, contributors, students, and parents individually and in bulk. From your desktop or mobile app, you may send individual or group texts to your subscribers right now or at a later time and date. With ProTexting’s keyword and custom field functions, you can split your subscribers into smaller, more specific groups.

However, there is a learning experience. While some of the functions are simple, others lack sufficient on-screen instructions to teach new clients how to utilize them. However, if you do run into issues, ProTexting has excellent customer support. Its customer service is so good that it should give entrepreneurs who aren’t tech-smart or haven’t done SMS marketing before the confidence to go ahead.

ProTexting offers seven service options ranging in price from $49 to $1,119 a month, with a free trial available if you wish to try out the services first. There are 19 built-in apps and 42 add-ons to pick from on the platform. Most of them are unrestricted, but a few are not. VerticalResponse, Amazon ($49 a month), Shopify, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact are among ProTexting’s other integrations.

3. EZ Texting

EZ Texting is a user-friendly text messaging platform with many handy features. Because the software is so simple to use, nontechnical business owners and people with little or no marketing knowledge should have minimal issues using it.

We prefer EZ Texting since it has a lot of industry-specific content to help you develop marketing ideas that will get you to take action. The template collection is integrated seamlessly with EZ Texting’s texting apps.

Competitors should note this because most use templates are far more complex than they have to be. EZ Texting comes with 49 pre-built templates, and you can use Zapier to connect it to over 3,000 apps.

EZ Texting has joined with Shutterstock, a photo resource that offers access to 20 million photos for MMS business messaging. A simple Canva-like function is also included to assist you in creating branded announcements, invitations, and promotions. It also provides a lot of design templates if you’re not experienced with graphics software.

The EZ Texting website is full of instructions and helpful information for those who need it (albeit not many wills because the platform is so simple to use).

The platform’s three primary monthly pricing options vary from $19 to $49 and include 200 outgoing texts and unlimited incoming texts. EZ Texting is more expensive than other platforms if you need to send many messages. Unused text credits do not roll over from month to month, which is unfortunate.

There are four plans available, each adaptable to any size or type of business. Because EZ Texting employs a credit system for messages, you have complete control over the number of messages you send and the amount of money you spend. The Value plan costs $24 per month and includes 200 credits, with each additional credit costing 4 cents.

The Custom package costs $374 per month, and while it includes 200 credits, each additional credit costs only 1 cent. Annual plans might save you up to 20% on each package.

EZ Texting and Shutterstock established a partnership in early March that allows users of EZ Texting to send MMS picture messages. Customers of EZ Texting may now use Shutterstock’s library of millions of royalty-free photos to create promotions, announcements, and invitations at no additional cost.

Users may also use an image editor and thousands of design templates to create an MMS marketing campaign to increase sales, drive interaction, and advertise their product or service.

4. Textedly

Any full-featured text messaging network, except Textedly, has the lowest per-text charge. Its main selling point is its low price, but don’t confuse low price with poor quality. You can quickly create lists, have two-way discussions with clients, run bulk campaigns, and connect to dozens of popular tools like Salesforce with Textedly. It’s also one of the few platforms that let you send text messages to your consumers right from your Instagram company page.

The cheapest Textedly service plan costs only 2.4 cents for each text. If you plan to utilize SMS marketing frequently, it’s still affordable: $140 per month for 10,000 texts. You can pay monthly or yearly. Textedly, unlike other carriers, does not offer a monthly discount for annual plans; instead, it gives you 20% extra texts.

So, if you pay for the $140 plan in advance for a year, your cost per message drops to 1.17 cents. However, keep in mind that unused messages do not roll over from month to month, and you cannot lower your plan.

We like how the company’s resources section has 65 templates to pick from, significantly more than most competitors. Text personalization, drip campaigns, and automatic replies are all charged extra by Textedly, although the fees are small and one-time. Some of the more advanced features have a minor learning curve, but the main functions are straightforward for both novice and professional text marketers.

5. TextMagic

TextMagic is a text message marketing platform that offers pay-per-message plans starting at 4 cents per message and monthly service plans ranging from $99 (2,500 texts) to $1,999 per month (66,600 texts). It offers a free one with enough credit to send 10 text messages preloaded. The company serves the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

6. Thryv

Thryv is productivity, communication, and economics that can help you run a more prosperous, effective, and streamlined service-based business. From winning and managing orders to accepting payments, the company wants its software to be at the heart of everything you do in your business. Thryv’s text message marketing functionality allows you to create keyword-driven marketing campaigns to increase your subscriber numbers.

7. Zingle

Zingle has proved popular among hotels and other hospitality facilities, despite being created for client-facing enterprises. The system’s inbox is at its heart, bringing together a variety of communication methods in one place, including SMS, Facebook Messenger, web chat, and other messenger apps. Consumers can conduct conversations using the PC control panel or the mobile app (iOS and Android).

8. Tatango

Nonprofits, charities, and political campaigns that need to text vast numbers of people fast are Tatango’s target markets. Tatango can send up to 6 million texts each hour thanks to its powerful back-end platform. When it comes to fundraising possibilities and voter campaigns, this capability is one of the reasons it has become the most popular SMS marketing tool in the United States.

9. Twlio

We discovered Twilio to be the most developer-friendly text messaging platform in our investigation. It’s the platform that fast-growing companies will love since it gives developers the tools they need to link the messaging platform with the rest of their software.

10. SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting has six service plans ranging in price from $29 per month (500 SMS included) to $899 per month (50,000 texts). The platform has all the tools that most small businesses require to succeed. The software is well-designed and executed. However, some functions are more challenging to use than others.

The analytics are in-depth, but they’re simple enough for a new user to grasp. It’s simple to start campaigns, add custom fields to your subscription lists, and segment clients for more focused marketing efforts. The inbox is easy to use because it provides immediate two-way communication with clients.

SimpleTexting can connect to tens of thousands of software applications using Zapier, including the most excellent CRM platforms and email marketing tools. It also has a feature that no other texting marketing company has: If you have a $229 monthly service plan or more, it will establish free integrations that link the texting platform to the software packages and applications you use (depending on their complexity).

This makes the $229 plan challenging to pass significantly if your company is expanding. To better satisfy the requirements of their customers, growing organizations require a seamless connection between the apps and software they use.

Conclusion:

Customers respond to text marketing efforts considerably more than email marketing campaigns. Because the number of characters permitted in communication is limited, you must get right to the point. Texting has a more immediate and personal feel to it. It also carries a sense of urgency: According to the 2019 Mobile Usage Report from EZ Texting, 97 percent of all text messages are opened within three minutes, while four out of five email marketing communications are never opened.

The top text message marketing solutions make the procedure straightforward to integrate with your other marketing campaigns. We looked at simplicity of use, affordability, functionality, and integration options to find the top text message marketing platforms.