8 Best SMS Marketing Software and Services

1. Freshmarketer

Freshmarketer is a powerful all-in-one conversational marketing solution that can help you automate and personalize your SMS marketing outreach. Trusted by over 60,000 businesses worldwide, Freshmarketer is among the best sms marketing platforms. In addition to SMS, you can also run campaigns through email, chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram — all from a single tool.

Top features

Automate SMS campaigns: Freshmarketer offers pre-built, ready-to-use templates for your SMS campaigns. These range from cart abandonment recovery journeys to re-engagement with old customers.

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SMS personalization: Personalized campaigns ensure maximum conversions. Analyze, segment, and text your customers based on their demographics, behavior, and purchase patterns.

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Multichannel engagement: Engage with buyers on their preferred channels and provide consistent multichannel experiences across SMS, email, WhatsApp, live chat, social media, and more using a single solution.

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Integration with other apps: Customized solution for Shopify and WooCommerce. Supports major third-party integrations like Facebook pages, Gsuite and Office 365, Mailchimp, Trello, Calendly, and more

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Pricing: Has a free plan. Paid plans start at $19.

Customer Support: 24x5 customer support on phone, email, and chat across all plans. Also offers an extensive knowledge base of How-To articles.

3rd party rating: 4 out of 5 stars (G2)

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2. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform used primarily for email and SMS marketing. It also offers push notifications as a channel to target buyers who use mobile apps.

Top features 

Sign up form templates: Offers multiple templates for different situations to boost lead generation. Pick from forms that collect emails, SMS-only sign-up deals, and more.

A/B testing SMS campaigns: Klaviyo allows you to A/B test for content variations within the same flow. The content can include text, emojis, etc. Klaviyo automatically finds what resonates best with your audience.

Coupons: You can create coupon codes and add them to your campaign. Use coupons for fixed discounts, percentage discounts, or free shipping.

Integration with other apps: You can integrate with  Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and other e-commerce platforms.

Pricing: Klaviyo’s email and SMS marketing plan starts at $35/month

Customer Support: 24/7 live chat and email support for all plans

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2

Why Freshmarketer is better than Klaviyo: Freshmarketer is affordable and easy-to-use compared to Klaviyo. You can engage with customers on a wide range of platforms, including WhatsApp and Chat. It also provides a 360-degree view of the customer, inbuilt chat support, and more.

Here’s a more detailed comparison of Klaviyo and Freshmarketer.

 

3. Moengage

MoEngage is a full-stack solution consisting of customer analytics, automated cross-channel engagement, and AI-driven personalization.

Top features

Content optimization: The Sherpa AI engine observes the performance of different SMS text messages and automatically picks the top-performing text in real-time.

RFM Analysis: Segment your customers based on their Recency (R), Frequency (F), and Monetary (M). Run personalized SMS marketing campaigns to target each segment.

User paths: Maximize conversions by visualizing the customer journey and identifying areas to optimize in your SMS marketing strategy. User paths help you identify and remove friction points in the customer experience.

Integration with other apps: Shopify, Zapier, Google Sheets, Airtable, and more

Pricing: Information not available

Customer Support: Information not available

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Why Freshmarketer is better than MoEngage: Unified bot builder, better support, chat campaigns, all-in-one solution

Here’s a more detailed comparison of MoEngage and Freshmarketer.

 

4. Active Campaign

Active Campaign is a customer experience automation software that combines marketing automation, sales automation, and CRM.

Top features

Automation: Active Campaign has pre-built workflow automation for use cases like repurchase reminders, abandoned carts, and welcome messages. With these, you can set up SMS marketing campaigns quickly

Conditional content: An easy-to-use If/Then/Else logic is available, which allows you to show specific customers different content based on conditions like interests, links clicked in the past, etc. Using these, you can set up SMS campaigns to trigger only if certain conditions are met.

Product picker: With Shopify or WooCommerce integration, you can send product recommendations to different segments as a part of your SMS marketing strategy.

Integration with other apps: Shopify, Zapier, Facebook, Slack, and many more

Pricing:  Starting at $29 for the most basic plan

Customer Support: Information not available

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Why Freshmarketer is better than Active Campaign: AI-powered answer bots, Conversion Rate Optimization, built-in chat functionality

 

5. WebEngage

WebEngage is an omnichannel engagement tool that helps businesses personalize campaigns based on their interactions.

Top features

A/B testing campaigns: Users can A/B test their SMS and email campaigns to ensure that the best version of your content goes out to buyers

Live segmentation & dynamic profiling: With WebEngage, you can profile and segment users in real-time based on different conditions. You can use data like user attributes and events for dynamic profiling where users roll in and out of segments.

In-depth analytics: WebEngage provides an analytical tool called Paths that displays the most common routes users go through on your app and website. It lets you visualize the sequential actions they take before or after a specific event and the various moments they exit your platform.

Integration with other apps: Google Suite, Mixpanel, Gupshup, WhatsApp and more

Pricing: Information not available

Customer Support: 24x7 support

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2g

Where Freshmarketer is better than WebEngage: Chat campaigns, unified bot builder, 360-degree view of customer

 

6. Growlytics

Growlytics is an omnichannel marketing solution that can help you send personalized and targeted messages to your customers based on who they are and how they interact with your business.

Top features

Personalization: Enrich your SMS campaigns with user data to provide an exceptional brand experience. You can also use pre-built templates and customize them to match your brand.

RFM analysis: Categorize customers into at-risk, hibernating, loyal, champions, etc., and target them with relevant campaigns to improve customer retention

Coupons: Generate and send coupon codes based on custom events

Integration with other apps: Shopify and more

Pricing: Information not available

Customer Support: 24x7 support

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Where Freshmarketer is better than Growlytics: In-built WhatsApp campaigns, 360-degree view of the customer, CRO add-on to help businesses improve page performance

Here’s a more detailed comparison of Growlytics and Freshmarketer.

 

7. Omnisend

Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing automation platform that helps you engage customers across multiple channels, including SMS.

Top features

Automation: Get pre-built SMS workflows for cart abandonment, birthday, order & shipping confirmation. You can also combine automated SMS with email and push notifications into a single automated workflow.

SMS reports: Track SMS performance with channel-level filtering. Analyze how SMS is performing compared to your other channels and tweak your campaigns.

List building: Use TCPA-compliant SMS list-building tools like Wheel of Fortune, popups, teasers, and landing pages to collect your site visitors’ phone numbers.

Integration with other apps: Shopify, Woo Commerce, Wix, Zapier, etc.

Pricing: Free plan available, standard plan starts at $16/month and pro version costs $59/month

Customer Support: 24x7 live chat and email support

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Where Freshmarketer is better than Omnisend: Customizable 360-degree view of the customer, WhatsApp campaigns, Send Time Optimization. 

Here’s a more detailed comparison of Omnisend and Freshmarketer.

 

8. Contlo

Contlo is an AI-native marketing automation platform that enables modern businesses to run and optimize end-to-end marketing.

Top features

Keywords: Capture new customers’ details when they SMS specific keywords. For example, if the keyword is “opt in”,  Contlo will directly subscribe these customers to the storefront’s SMS channel.

RFM analysis: The Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Model provides auto-segmentation and buckets users into categories such as Loyal, Promising, At Risk, etc., based on their behavior. This enables you to…

Integration with other apps: Shopify, Zapier, etc.

Pricing: Has a free plan and starts from $199/mo for paid plans

Customer Support: Email and chat support for a basic paid plan with 48 hours turnaround time

3rd party Rating: Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2

Where Freshmarketer is better than Contlo: Extensive WhatsApp and chat capabilities, e-commerce customizations, 360-degree view of the customer

Benefits of an SMS Marketing tool

 

What makes Freshmarketer the best SMS marketing software?

Simple campaign setup: Creating customized campaigns is easy in Freshmarketer.  Users can drag and drop action boxes and create campaigns based on the use case and their business needs.

Customer 360 view: Provides a comprehensive overview of past and current orders and offers a detailed chronological record of customer interactions and activities. This gives agents and marketers the context they need to solve issues and run targeted campaigns.

Zero-coding chatbot setup: You don’t need to know how to code to set up your chatbot. It comes auto-configured when you integrate Freshmarketer with your website. The bot takes care of all communications, including engaging with your customers and answering their queries.

Effective campaigns: Drive higher open rates and engagement with Send Time Optimization (add-on).

More conversions: Conversion Rate Optimization module (add-on) with features like heatmaps to understand visitor interaction and optimize web pages

Best Practices for using SMS Marketing Software

Build a targeted list: Focus on quality over quantity when building your subscriber list. Make sure your subscribers have opted-in and are interested in your brand.

Use the right CTA: Encourage subscribers to take action by including a clear CTA. For example, "Click here to get an exclusive discount" or "Reply YES to receive our latest updates"

Segment your customers: Put your audience into groups based on their preferences, behaviors, or demographics to send targeted messages that are relevant to their interests.

Personalize your messages: Use data from your sms marketing software to tailor your content, such as including the subscriber’s name or purchase history. Personalized messages have higher engagement rates and increase conversion probability.

Continuously A/B/n test: Test different message formats with your SMS marketing software. Vary CTAs, and sending times to optimize your SMS marketing campaigns. Analyze your results to see what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Schedule SMS at the right time: Timing is crucial in SMS marketing. Test different times to see what time works best for your target audience. Consider your audience’s time zone and schedule messages accordingly.

Provide an option to opt-out: Make it easy for subscribers to opt-out of receiving SMS by including clear instructions on how to do so. This helps maintain a positive relationship and reduces the risk of spam complaints.

Conclusion

Choosing the right SMS marketing software is crucial to reach your customers and stay on top of their minds. The ideal SMS marketing software should allow you to create personalized and targeted campaigns, automate your marketing workflows, and drive higher engagement and conversion rates.

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