Text message marketing for small business

Text message marketing is a powerful, cost-effective way for small businesses to acquire and engage their customers.

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small business owner scheduling a text message marketing campaign
Large and small businesses choose us for text marketing
Starbucks is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Cisco is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
LEGOLAND is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Century 21 is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Samsung is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Stanford University is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Chick-fil-A is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Marriott is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services
Kaplan is using SimpleTexting for Text Marketing Services

What is text message marketing?

Text message marketing is the practice of sending text messages to market your business. You might also know it as SMS marketing.

How can a text messaging service help your small business grow?

Text message marketing gives you all the tools you need to build and grow your small business, increase revenue, and exceed expectations.

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Reach your customers

Send bulk SMS offers your customers are sure to read. On average, people open 90% of SMS within 3 minutes, and 45% of text messages receive a response.

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Improve customer satisfaction

Produce consistently positive customer service experiences thanks to faster response times and our two-way SMS messaging abilities.

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Recruit stronger candidates

In search of the perfect employee for your tight-knit team? Texting helps you advertise positions and vet candidates via SMS to avoid costly application management.

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Supercharge your sales

From exclusive text-based promotions to one-on-one conversations, strengthen relationships with customers and watch your sales numbers rise as a result.

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Send targeted promotions

Only reach out to your customers with messages they actually care about. Our powerful segments feature lets you organize your contact list based on custom data.

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Save time with SMS marketing automation

Write your text marketing messages in advance and schedule them to send out at a later date. Drip campaigns, templates, and other product integrations help you set it and forget it!
“The learning curve is really low. I’ve looked at quite a few texting platforms so far, and SimpleTexting is my favorite.”
Valerie Blomberg

Valerie Blomberg

Account Manager at Russell Marketing

How should a small business use text message marketing?

SMS marketing lets small businesses like yours raise awareness about their products and services at a manageable scale. Here are some ways your small business can use text marketing:

Share promotions

One of the classic uses for SMS marketing is to send promotions for sales, exclusive discounts, and product launches. The independent retailer Broken Spoke grew its customer base by sharing these kinds of announcements right in its customer’s text notifications.

Send alerts about time-sensitive information

Running a small business requires flexibility. Some situations require fast communication with your customers, like order status updates or a sudden change in hours. Considering that 80.5% of consumers check their notifications in five minutes or less when they get a text, your customers will get updates fast.

Request customer reviews

More than 99.9% of customers read reviews when shopping online, making them a must-have traffic driver for small businesses. Encourage your customers to leave a review by automatically following up with them through triggers and automated text marketing.

Build trusting relationships with your customers

Text message marketing is opt-in, meaning that your contacts want to see your messages. Embrace that fact by building customer trust through post-purchase follow-ups and regular announcements. Loggerhead Fitness nurtures customer relationships with personalized, one-on-one messages.

🔖 Recommended Reading:11 SMS Marketing Use Cases

10 examples of text marketing from small businesses

You can find all sorts of examples of text marketing out there. Here are some of our favorites from small businesses that use SimpleTexting.

Dad Bod Health uses SMS to notify customers of upcoming training sessions on Facebook Live.
small business text message invite to an online training
When the COVID-19 pandemic changed how we do business, Yesterday’s Books began managing book orders over text.
text message from a small business about a book order
Customers of Jurassic Quest can ask questions about the business’s fleet of animatronic dinosaurs using SMS.
text message conversation between customer and business owner, where customer asks how big a T Rex was
Shower Door Experts accept quotes for shower doors through text messages.
text message conversation where small business owner gives customer a quote
The Metals Fabrication team texts employees with info about scheduling, meetings, and employee events to keep everyone on the same page.
small business text message about appointment date
One service that Natural Born Organizers offer is a subscription to an SMS list that sends out a simple cleaning challenge every day.
small business text message about organizing service
The Barn Bowl & Bistro sends text-exclusive offers to encourage customers to come in for bowling and dining.
small business text message with limited time offer on prime ribs and bowling
Real estate agent Josh Barker counts on a system where potential buyers can text house-specific keywords to learn more about a property.
real estate text message example where prospective buyer texts in a keyword and real estate agent sends more information about the property
Lindsey Eryn, an independent creator, built a personal brand through a SimpleTexting list that sends out mini pep talks to subscribers.
small business owner sending pep talk to clients via text message
Fans of Blu Moon get visual product announcements thanks to SimpleTexting’s MMS support.
small business text campaign with image of new product

What features should you look for in a text messaging service for your small business?

The best SMS marketing tools for small businesses save you time and grow your business at a scalable price. Look out for these features when shopping for a service:

Text-enable your existing number

Establish a more professional business presence by making your existing voice phone number text-enabled. Chances are your customers are trying to text your number already. SimpleTexting lets you add texting to a landline number or any number that doesn’t have mass texting.

Build a contact list quickly and easily

Making it as easy as possible to add new contacts for your and your customers frees up your schedule and encourages more people to join your list. Add numbers to your SimpleTexting list through a textable keyword, your established contact list, or a form on your website.

Save time with templates

Your big competitors don’t type out every text they send, and you don’t have to, either. Create a bank of automatic replies, answers to frequently asked questions, and templates for regular texts using SimpleTexting’s templates and duplicates.

Scale your pricing with your business

It can be tricky to tell how much you want to invest in text message marketing when you start out. SimpleTexting takes off the pressure with pricing based on the number of texts you send per month. Raise your plan tier as your texting needs increase with your business.

“We see an increase in foot traffic because of the text promotions we send.”
Jordan Glenn

Jordan Glenn

Owner of Harmony Tea Bar

How does Simpletexting compare to other SMS apps for small businesses?

We know you’re researching multiple services because it’s the smartest thing to do for your business. So, what makes SimpleTexting stand out from the other tools you’re looking into?

We tested the top seven text messaging services for small businesses and found that SimpleTexting excels in these areas:

  • Flexible pricing: All of our plans have rollover credits, unlimited keywords, self-service billing, and three user seats. Don’t sweat the small stuff — just pick a plan that offers the credits you need every month.
  • Ease of use: SimpleTexting has a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate SMS marketing experience. We built everything with small businesses in mind so you can have the same texting power as your larger competitors.

Use with other apps: Connect SimpleTexting to your other marketing tools with our intuitive integrations. We support some of the most popular apps out there, like Mailchimp and HubSpot. And if we don’t have your tool on our list, you can connect to an automation app like Zapier or Integrately to integrate it yourself.

How to start text message marketing for your small business (step-by-step)

Register for SimpleTexting with an email and password, or connect an existing service. We don’t ask for your credit card information for the free trial.

During sign-up, we will ask for your current business number to verify your identity.
sign up page for SimleTexting's SMS platform for small business
When you sign up with SimpleTexting, you have the choice: Register a new local number, verify a new toll-free number, provision a dedicated short code, or text-enable your current number.

If you’re not picky, we’ll assign you a number automatically. Learn more about the different number types available.

During the free trial, you’ll use a local number we’ll generate for you. Once you upgrade, you can choose the type of number you want by going to Settings in the left-hand menu and choosing Numbers.
choose your texting number in simpletexting's SMS marketing platform
If you have an existing list of contacts, now’s the time to add them.

Click Contacts in the left-hand menu, then choose the Add contacts button to enter contacts manually. Select the arrow on the right of the Add contacts button to add contacts from an existing app through an integration.

Click the + New list button to create an additional list of contacts. Lists let you segment contacts into different groups with unique goals.

Note: You can’t send messages to any contacts besides your own number during the free trial, but you can add them for use when you upgrade to a paid plan.
button to import contacts in SimpleTexting's SMS platform for small businesses
Go to the Keywords option in the left-hand menu to create a keyword — a word that people can text to your number.

A good idea for a first keyword is one that customers can use to sign up for your list. Set it up in our Keywords menu and share your number and keyword through:
  • Email
  • Social media
  • Physical marketing materials like product inserts
  • Your website
creating a keyword for a small business in SimpleTexting's SMS marketing service
We also have tools to enable your customers to sign up for your list on your website. Select Apps in the left-hand menu and choose one of these two options:
  • Web Sign-Up Images: Create an image sharing your sign-up keyword and number that you can add to your website or anywhere online where you can upload pictures.
  • Web Sign-Up Forms: Build a form for customers to fill out to join your texting list. We’ll generate a code to paste into your website.
web sign up forms and web sign up images apps in SimpleTexting
With your contacts all set up, you’re ready to send your first message. Go to Campaigns in the left-hand menu and click the New button.

Here, you’ll name your campaign, enter the content of your message, and choose what list you want to send the message to. You can then decide if you want to send the message immediately, schedule it for the future, or send it on a recurring basis.
setting up your first SMS campaign in SimpleTexting

SMS for small business success stories

Explore SimpleTexting's case studies to learn how small businesses around the country use our SMS service to drive sales and connect with their audience.

Image for How Toroe Eyewear Generated an Extra $7K in 30 Days with Our Mobile Sign-Up Widget
E-Commerce

How Toroe Eyewear Generated an Extra $7K in 30 Days with Our Mobile Sign-Up Widget

Using SimpleTexting’s Mobile Sign-Up Widget to advertise a 10% discount, Toroe Eyewear generated an extra $7,028 in store revenue in a month. That’s a 156x return on its text marketing channel.

Read their success story
Image for Whisker Seeker Tackle Sees a 25% Conversion Rate From Its MegaDeals Text Promotions
E-Commerce

Whisker Seeker Tackle Sees a 25% Conversion Rate From Its MegaDeals Text Promotions

Whisker Seeker Tackle spotted a glaring gap in the market and turned it into a thriving e-commerce and wholesale business. Learn how entrepreneur Matt Davis leverages SMS text marketing services to drive sales.

Read their success story
Image for Aubrey’s Bead Closet Uses SMS to Drive a 400% Increase in Mobile Web Traffic
E-Commerce

Aubrey’s Bead Closet Uses SMS to Drive a 400% Increase in Mobile Web Traffic

Aubrey’s Bead Closet has a loyal fanbase known as the “ABC family”. Learn more about how this e-commerce store uses SMS to communicate with its fans, launch new products, and drive mobile purchases.

Read their success story

More Success Stories

How small business SMS boosts customer engagement

Research shows text marketing for small businesses outperforms other channels, including email marketing. That’s why we built our platform to be both scalable, and easy-to-use.

Mass texting

Mass texting

Mass texting helps drive business when you need it the most by making it easy to engage customers with mobile coupons and other promotions. Keep your contacts happy with exclusive deals and see offer redemption rates dramatically increase!
  • Send a text to large groups of customers with one click
  • Include photos, links, videos, etc. even when texting in bulk
  • Segment your audience and send mass texts to different groups for added personalization
Text-to-join keywords

Text-to-join keywords

Make it easy for customers to subscribe as you work to grow your list and reach a larger audience.
  • Create a short, easy-to-remember keyword customers can text to your number
  • Capture more numbers with a customizable widget on your website
  • Place a web sign-up form on your highly trafficked pages
Two-way texting

Two-way texting

Your Inbox is a space where you can chat freely with customers and hold real-time conversations.
  • Use our Click-to-Text button generator to instantly launch your customer’s messaging app
  • Cut down on response time with templates aka canned replies
  • Manage conversations with features like snooze, notes, and sort

Frequently asked questions about small business text message marketing

What Is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing refers to the use of text messages to promote a business’s products and services, as well as build customer loyalty.
According to Business News Daily, SimpleTexting is the best overall text message marketing service. Of course, we recommend you do your due diligence.

Before choosing a platform, you’ll also want to read real customer reviews on third-party websites such as Capterra and G2 to see what customers say. Once you’ve done that, the last thing is to sign up for a free trial.
Absolutely! However, it has to be done within certain guidelines. You should never purchase a list of phone numbers and you must have consent from your contacts to text them. After all, why would you want to spend money sending texts to people who aren’t interested? Especially when we have countless methods to build your list.
]SMS can help businesses in a variety of ways, from boosting sales through promotions to building relationships through 2-way text conversations. This article covers the 13 most popular SMS marketing use cases.
Text message marketing is a relatively simple yet effective process that consists of two primary steps. First, you need to enable your customers or supporters to opt in to receive your messages. Second, you’ll need a service to send messages to your contacts once they’ve signed up. The best way to get started is to sign up for a 14-day free trial.

Get started with small business text message marketing

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Published: October 9th 2023