The Ultimate Guide to Text Message Subscriptions

To attract and retain customers, businesses must do everything in their power to ensure the best customer experience. Personalization is the most important factor for delivering the best customer experience. Businesses easily reach their customers with personalized messages thanks to text message subscriptions.

Understanding Text Message Subscription

A business uses this service to create direct customer engagement, ensuring a personalized approach in the process. A customer subscribes to an SMS service to easily communicate with the business and simplify their lives. Advantages include:

• Serving as a bridge
• Improving communication
• Personalizing messages
• Building a list of phone numbers
• Providing an individual approach

Consumers opt-in, thereby agreeing to receive SMS from a business. This allows businesses to send individual and group messages to clients to make the process straightforward.

According to statistics, 75% of clients prefer to receive marketing messages via SMS.

Businesses send newsletters, coupons, surveys, bookings, special offers, discounts, and more via SMS.

Things to Keep in Mind About Text Message Subscriptions

1. Only Send Messages to Users Who Opted in

Businesses can send and receive SMS only to recipients who have opted in for the listing. By opting in, the recipient permits you to send a message to them.

2. Send Messages During Work Hours

Did you know that certain areas prevent businesses from texting subscribers during specific periods? Refrain from sending messages in the early morning and late-night hours.

3. Create an Easy Opt-In and Opt-Out Process

Make sure to require minimum information for opt-in and make the process smooth. The rule of thumb is not to have more than three to five fields in the form.

The same thing goes for opt-out processes. Remember that businesses need to provide information on opt-out during the opt-in process.

How to Create Subscriptions for SMS

You can create and automate texting programs in a few steps:

• No or minimal coding is required
• Choose a payment processing platform
• Connect the payment platform to your SMS provider
• Use autoresponder

An SMS subscription service is helpful to your text marketing campaign. There are many platforms available that businesses can choose from.

Selecting a Platform Provider

1. Ease of Use

User-friendliness is a basic feature that every platform must provide. However, some platforms are relatively easier to use than others.

2. Two-Way Messaging

Most customers opt in to communicate with the business. Therefore, while selecting platforms, it’s an absolute must that they provide two-way messaging.

3. Integration

Ensure that the platform has no issues integrating the product with other apps and services. This will come in handy for automating processes in the future.

4. Affordable pricing

The best solution for small businesses is a pay-as-you-go option. This means that you make the payment as you send the messages. There is no prior requirement or obligation involved.

5. Scalability

Select a provider that will have no trouble taking care of your needs when your business grows.

Budgeting for SMS Subscriptions

If you ask us, it’s best to allocate a budget for your services. Why?

If you want to provide an excellent customer experience, you can’t do it if your customers can’t connect with you. Hence, you need two-way messaging right off the bat. With services that provide free SMS, it’s usually a one-way street.

In any case, before selecting a provider to work with, you need to research to see what works best for you. Determine the best one that suits your budget, marketing strategy, company goals, and what you can get out of it.

Free SMS Subscription Providers for Nonprofits

1. Twilio

• $.0075 per message sent
• $500 in-kind grants for nonprofits available
• Allows custom message flows but requires knowledge of the platform to customize

2. Expert Texting

• $0.0083 per message ($8.30 for 1,000 messages)
• Unlimited keywords
• Free to receive SMS

3. MoboMix

• $50 per month for 2,000 messages
• 1 keyword
• Free to receive SMS

4. Textmarks

• Low-cost texting
• $199 per month for 3,500 messages
• 10 keywords
• Use credits to send and receive messages

5. EZ Texting

• Free messaging tier up to 250 messages per month
• $49 per month for 1,000 messages
• 1 keyword
• Free to receive SMS

6. SimpleTexting

• Starting at $45 per month for 1,000 messages
• Unlimited keywords
• Free to receive messages

7. BurstSMS

• Available pricing volume discounts
• $0.016 per sent message
• 3 keywords for a short shared code
• Free to receive messages

Free Messaging Subscription Providers for Businesses

1. TextEm

• Account creation required
• No anonymity
• Send free messages
• Curate a list of frequently used contacts and get their replies back to your account inbox
• Doesn't support bulk messaging
• Send the same message to several numbers at the same time
• Can’t send messages outside North America

2. SendSMSnow

• Account creation required
• Generate phonebooks
• Receive replies in your inbox
• Paid group messaging
• Works worldwide

3. OpenTextingOnline

• Account creation not required
• Send free messages
• Works with carriers in over 50 countries
• Supports pictures, videos, and audio content
• Supports 140 characters per message

4. txtDrop

• Account creation not required
• Send free messages
• Receive replies in your inbox
• Available in the US and Canada
• Offers a macOS widget

5. SendAnonymousSMS

• Account creation not required
• Send free SMS messages
• Supports 145 characters per message
• Available in over 80 countries

6. TextEmNow

• Supports up to 300 characters
• Send messages to any mobile number worldwide

7. Globfone

• Account creation not required
• Send free local, national, and international messages
• Doesn’t support receiving replies
• Doesn’t support pictures and videos

Additional Message Subscription Services

1. Skype

Skype doesn’t charge you if someone sends you a message. The things to consider are the frequency of messages you send and your target demographic.

2. Bulk 

Bulk SMS messaging helps businesses send discounts, surveys, contests, and any other information deemed relevant. To do so, you must create a marketing list and automate the bulk SMS and mass texting features. Choose a provider with customization features to tweak the messages and target groups.

3. SMS Alert

SMS alerts come with a myriad of benefits. They work for all business types in any industry. From bookings and transactions to news and out-of-stock notifications, SMS alerts are helpful in more than one way. Not only does it automate communication, but it also integrates the alert system with your existing marketing channels.