SMS Marketing Softwares For Small Businesses in 2022

As a small business owner, are you finding it difficult to make sure your order conformations, booking reminders, promotions, and discounts are actually getting through to your customers?

Nowadays, consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable interacting with businesses on their mobile devices via SMS, (just two clicks and done).

For example, according to this report, back in January 2020, even before COVID-19, half of US retailers had increased their investment in messaging and SMS marketing.

By June 2020, this number had increased to a whopping 56%, outranking any other area that businesses invest in.

So here’s a simple truth, SMS marketing is a core component of all businesses (irrespective of size). Also, the right SMS marketing software will enable you to effectively engage with your customers and provide them with the best experience while remaining competitive.

In this guide, you’d learn how to find the right SMS marketing software for your small business that can help you achieve your goals.

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What is SMS marketing software?

An SMS marketing automation platform, also sometimes referred to as an SMS marketing software is a tool that is used to create and send text messages to a specified list of phone numbers.

This is quite the bare-bones definition of it.

SMS marketing software can either be used from the web or in the form of an app. It can also be API integrated with your own website/application to send text messages of every kind including OTP SMS, transactional messages, and promotional messages.

However, they do also have other features (which depends on which software you are using), such as email-to-sms, SMS automation, missed call services, and much more.

But an important thing here to remember is that you may have an SMS marketing software that can shoot messages, but you would also need a consenting audience that has opted to receive such messages.

In the sections that follow, you’d learn about the different types of SMS marketing and the four best SMS marketing software to choose from.

Types of SMS Marketing

There are five types of SMS marketing. We explain them in detail below.

As you’d observe, OTP SMS was not added. This is because OTPs traditionally don’t fall under the group of SMS marketing. OTP SMS is more of a tool that is used for authenticating sessions and transactions.

Promotional deals and discounts

Promotional deals are messages sent directly to customers on deals, clearances, special sales, product/service launches, and discounts. If crafted well with time sensitivity, these SMS can create a high-level sense of urgency.

SMS which informs your customers of promotional deals and discounts is one of the most widely-used marketing techniques today in today’s world.

Your customers, when they sign up/opt-in to receive such messages from your business, are mostly looking to have instant access to promotions that are highly exclusive. So, give them exactly what they want.

Alerts and Notifications

From transactional updates to appointment reminders, you can send different types of alerts and notifications via SMS.

So as a business owner, you could send standard updates to your customers in regards to:

• Business hours (on special days)
• Special events
• Product arrivals
• New services
• Restock alerts
• Emergency updates

Loyalty Programs

Who doesn’t enjoy brand loyalty? As a business owner, you need to design loyalty programs that encourage your customers to purchase or engage in your referral programs.

You could run your loyalty programs effectively using SMS such that your customers can sign up to check their points and their rewards easily via SMS

Flash Sales

“26 in stock and disappearing quickly”

How often have you seen this on e-commerce websites? This creates a sense of urgency in your customers. As “26 and disappearing quickly” would mean that your customers need to decide quickly on whether they want to buy it or not.

This can quite easily be converted into flash sales SMS. With a flash sales SMS, you can create a sense of urgency and have your customers flock to buy your products/service.

SMS Coupons

SMS coupons are often sent in Multimedia Messaging Service, also known as MMS. These messages are good for your business as they are visual, have pictures/videos, and share promotional and discount messages with your customers.

In a lot of instances, SMS coupons have a longer expiry date. As a business, you could also enhance your customer’s experience by adding QR codes that can be scanned as they help boost traffic and sales.

Why should your business use SMS marketing?

The following are the many ways SMS marketing will help your business:

SMS has a very high open-rate.

Compared to any other marketing channel, SMS has the highest open rate. With the highest open rate compared to any other channel of marketing, you would be enjoying a lot of customers who actually read, interact, and engage with your business.

Quick Tip: To ensure an even higher open and engagement rate, all you need to do is make your SMS conversational by focusing on your customers’ needs and not on your business. With this in mind, you can now create SMS and marketing campaigns that will be exceptionally effective.

Instant and direct reach

Imagine sending your customers an email and an SMS. Both of them would definitely be read, however, the likelihood of your customers actually interacting with them wildly differs.

Your customer has his phone in his hand, whenever he gets a notification for an SMS, he quickly opens and checks it out, and would also immediately interact with it if it’s something he’d find useful/engaging.

The case with email is different. Even if your customer has it set up on the phone, they need to have a good internet connection and the notification also needs to show up, which means the chances that your message will be read instantly is drastically reduced.

The bottom line is that SMS will help your business to connect with your customers instantly and much more effectively unlike any other channel including email.

Personal touch and brand engagement

SMS allows you to create a deeper and personal relationship with your customers. As they are interacting with your business via an SMS, not only does it promote enhanced brand awareness, but it also helps your business stay relevant in the minds of your customers.

As you are reaching customers on a more intimate level with a direct and instant approach, it is crucial to remember that your SMS reflects this via their context, branding, and tone.

Brand trust and loyalty

With SMS you can build a reputation for your brand and amass a loyal customer base. Using verified SMS ( which is SMS that contains your brand image and a verified badge), you can directly interact with your customers and help cement their loyalty.

Once your customers know your business, the verified badge, and the shortcode, you will find that they are more likely to interact with and respond to your messages.

SMS + other marketing channels = enhanced customer experience

Imagine you post a promotion on your social media and then follow up a day later by asking your customers if they saw that promotion on the social media platform. This works in two ways: you are engaging with your customers on social media and evaluating that engagement via SMS.

Simple follow-ups done by your business can help garner massive brand loyalty for your product/service.

Hence, SMS marketing should be used in combination with other marketing channels. What’s more, you can also integrate them together. For example, you can integrate your email and your social media into your SMS marketing campaigns.

Surveys, polls, and more

A simple SMS with a link to a poll can help you gather a lot of information about your customers’ experience, requirements, thinking, and engagement styles.

With SMS marketing, you can also quite easily understand your customer demographics and use this data to fine-tune your other marketing channels and even your SMS campaigns.

SMS is by far one of the most productive means of gathering demographic data and the persona of your customers.

Easiest to use

Imagine all the other marketing channels and the amount of work that goes into them, designs, creatives, SEO, and keywords. Not only is it time-consuming, but it also requires a lot of resources and time, with the results always falling short if not executed properly.

But with SMS you can keep your message short, simple, and informal, and connect with your customers with a lot more ease and less pain!

The Top 4 SMS Marketing Softwares For Your Small Business in 2022

SMSCountry

SMSCountry is one of the leaders of SMS service providers globally. Since 2003, SMSCountry has been helping businesses like yours deliver SMS to more than 200 countries with over 550+ networks.

SMSCountry is exclusively designed with small businesses in mind and is built to integrate seamlessly with your software/app or website.

SMSCountry currently provides its services to around 600,000+ online users and more than 4000+ enterprises globally.

SMSCountry stands out from others by offering understanding, warm technical experts who are capable of addressing and solving any of your issues 24/7.

Thanks to SMSCountry’s comprehensive platform, your business will effectively communicate with your customers via promotional and transactional SMS and all of this is an automated process.

Further, with a robust, user-friendly, and scalable interface, your business can easily send real-time bulk SMS or schedule them in a way that ensures instant delivery.

Network interferences are also avoided thanks to optimised routing, thus ensuring swift and hassle-free SMS delivery.

Pricing

Starts from: $ 0.0019

Free Trial: Available

Key Features:

1. SMS and SMS API with dedicated short and long codes, helping you connect with your customers easily.
2. Email to SMS, where you can send critical messages via email. Awesome feature, right?
3. Two-way chat SMS with Push Notifications.
4. Lighting fast speed, where 10,000 SMS can be delivered in a click within 10 seconds.
5. 99.9% Delivery Rate.
6. Insightful Reporting and Analytics, which provides detailed reports of your SMS campaign allowing you to realign and adjust the campaign.
7. Intelligent Routing of SMS via re-routing SMS to intelligent channels and optimising delivery.
8. 100+ Direct-to-carrier connections.

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Slick Text

Slick Text is an SMS marketing software that has around 70,000+ users and offers text messaging features. They have an intuitive interface that makes it easy to work with.

Slick Text also offers many text features on their SMS marketing platform and has a very supportive customer support team.

Pricing

They have a couple of different plans ranging from 29$ per month for their basic plan to the 139$ a month Big Bro Plan.

Free trial: They have a 14-day free trial with conditions such as 50 SMS and one keyword only.

Features:

1. Drip campaigns help boost engagement and loyalty amongst your customers.
2. Autoresponders help you trigger responses to customer queries and respond to their questions.
3. Scheduling can help you plan and execute your future SMS campaigns very easily.
4. Rich media messaging, simply put makes your customers interact more with your SMS.
5. Robust reporting can help in analysing your campaigns and in fine-tuning them to your needs.
6. Personalisation of SMS will allow you to interact with your customer on a personal level.
7. Integration with third-party apps such as eCommerce websites helps you directly send SMS from those platforms to your customers.

TextMagic

TextMagic was created in 2001 and since then has served a lot of users globally. Its simple and intuitive interface makes it easy to use.

Pricing

Starts 0.04$ per text in the USA

Free trial: 30 days free trial with a subscription fee of 4$ per month after that.

Features

1. Easy to use and setup
2. Virtual toll-free numbers in USA and Canada which allows you directly send SMS or call from these numbers.
3. With call forwarding, you can reroute the calls to a different number, if one of them is engaged in a conversation.
4. Schedule and automate your SMS campaigns with automated texting.
5. Text-to-speech, which allows you to convert your text into speech.
6. Use rich media to add pictures and videos to your SMS.
7. Directly send your SMS to your customers from your email using Email-to-text.

Twilio

This is a cloud communications platform that has an API allowing users to make and receive phone calls. It is completely hosted in the cloud.

Twilio can be configured to let users send notifications, mass alerts, and targeted marketing messages.

They also have a drag and drop builder for the tech-savvy, which allows you to build and customise your workflow.

Pricing:

They offer pay-as-you-go pricing for its SMS features. Check out their website for a detailed understanding of their plans.

Features

1. Customisable and personalised platform building which allows for a custom tool creation.
2. Scheduling SMS with programmable messaging API to send out reminders.
3. Send mass alerts to your customer base.
4. Send marketing and promotional notifications and messages.
5. Provide 2-factor authentication messages for customers to verify.

With all the information given so far, you must now be sure of which platform to choose for your business and for your SMS marketing needs. However, if you still want an in-depth and detailed analysis of how to choose your SMS marketing software, we got you covered.

It’s your time to move to SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is a productive and simple channel that will exponentially grow and scale your business by doubling your sales and ROI by 3X.

Now, you are aware of the different SMS marketing softwares that are available and how they can help you with your business and your growth, potentially growing your business from a small to a large business.

It is important to use an SMS marketing software, but using the right one is what leads to the growth of your small business

Now that you have all the information about SMS marketing software, try the free trial of SMSCountry. It’s simple to use, scalable, and, most importantly, can help your business 2X sales and revenue if you want to schedule a demo or have any questions, you could also contact our sales team.