Business text messaging software makes it easy for marketers and salespeople to engage their customers. It provides an entirely new channel for companies to promote products, generate leads, interact with customers and collect feedback.
With hundreds of business texting apps available on the market, it can be hard to decide which is best for your company.
In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of using a business texting app and the key features to keep an eye out for. You’ll then be presented with six of the best texting apps for businesses of all sizes.
Why do you need a business text app?
Mobile SMS marketing software is one of the most effective ways for businesses of all sizes to engage customers, clients and team members.
Whether it’s sending follow-up reminders, replying to queries or reaching a customer through their preferred channel, texting apps help improve the customer experience. Even better, text messages have up to a 98% open rate, compared to only 20% for emails.
However, text marketing regulations have resulted in carriers cracking down on spam, resulting in many well-intentioned texts being blocked as well. This has made it harder for businesses to connect with customers at scale.
Texting services for business help ensure compliance with the relevant regulations. Since these providers undergo vetting by carriers, they are approved to send bulk text messaging campaigns.
Texting platforms for businesses also provide a host of features that automate, accelerate or enhance your marketing activities, making it much easier to engage your customers.
What to look for in a texting app for business or text service for business
What you need out of a business text messaging app depends on the size and structure of your business, as well as the nature of your sales cycle and marketing campaigns.
Here are some messaging features to look for:
Ease of use. One of the most important factors in choosing texting software is how user-friendly it is. If an app requires months of setup and onboarding or is difficult to use, you’ll waste valuable resources getting started.
Message management. A powerful texting app needs multiple text management features beyond sending and receiving messages. Some apps offer shared inboxes, which improve collaboration and help with customer service.
Scheduling and automation. An important feature of texting apps is to send automated reminders and alerts to contacts based on their previous activity.
Autoresponders. Some text messaging services offer keyword-based text autoresponders. When a customer texts your number, the app scans the message for keywords and performs an action. For example, if a customer responds with confirmations like “accept”, the software could add them to your subscriber list.
Web and mobile apps. The best business texting software or apps let you work from multiple devices including web browsers, desktop computers and Android and iOS devices.
Message templates. Texting apps often provide various templates and let you make your own to speed up communication. Some also provide more in-depth after-sales service templates, like loyalty programs.
Contact management. You should be able to organize your contacts, add tags and integrate your texting app with existing contact management apps.
Built-in opt-in and opt-out tools. To remain compliant with spam regulations, your contacts need to be able to opt in or out of receiving texts from your company. Some apps offer this as a built-in feature.
Ability to have two-way conversations. Many apps are good for outbound marketing but don’t offer two-way conversation support. If you use text to communicate with customers, you need an app that offers two-way support.
Integrations. Very few apps offer everything you need in an affordable package. Your business will have unique needs that are only implementable using integrations, so you should choose an app that offers as many as possible.
Scalability. A texting app built only for solopreneurs won’t work if you’re going to hire a team. While affordable options are important for small business owners, you also need a solution that can scale as you grow.
Top 6 best texting apps for business
As we mentioned, you may not need all of the features listed above. There are several best text messaging apps available today and which app you choose will depend on your business’s unique needs.
Below, we’ve listed the six best apps for businesses of all sizes, explaining who they’re best for, what features they provide and how much they cost.
Best for Telegram and WhatsApp marketing: Pipechat
Pipechat connects your CRM directly to WhatsApp Web and Telegram Web so that you can send text messages, add contacts and schedule activities with your leads and customers.
When installed, Pipechat adds a sidebar on your WhatsApp Web or Telegram Web messaging app. From this sidebar, you can easily perform CRM actions without switching apps. It’s perfect for salespeople who use these messaging apps to nurture customers and create deals.
While you can’t send SMS messages or mass texts, Pipechat offers a two-way messaging app for marketers and salespeople who use Telegram and WhatsApp, as well as specific CRMs.
With WhatsApp Business becoming the most in-demand text messaging platform for companies today, it makes sense to use an integration that connects to your CRM.
Pipechat’s key features
Pipechat lets you:
Add contacts, deals and activities without leaving your messaging app
Close deals faster by performing CRM activities within Telegram and WhatsApp Web
Save and reuse templates to speed up communication
Schedule your next chats
Save important messages to add context to your customer profiles
Pipechat pricing
Pipechat is charged per user. You get a reduced rate if you pay annually or opt for a multi-seat subscription.
The bottom line
While it doesn’t have all of the features of traditional SMS marketing apps, Pipechat is perfect for marketers who use WhatsApp and Telegram to communicate with the customers on their CRM.
By connecting these best sms text messaging apps to your CRM, you can save time, avoid switching between apps and streamline communication. Integrate WhatsApp and Telegram with Pipedrive to centralize your contact history, close more sales deals and create a CRM with text messaging functionality.
Best for small businesses and startups: EZ Texting
EZ Texting is a fully featured text message marketing platform with an easy learning curve and intuitive functionality. Beginner marketers and experienced marketers alike will find it easy to get up to speed with this simple text messaging app.
Onboarding and switching from another texting app is simple. With a custom CSV template, you can import your entire contacts list with a few mouse clicks. EZ Texting is ideal for users who don’t need to send large volumes of texts. After a point, EZ Texting charges additional costs per text and when adding new numbers, users and keywords to your plan.
The app integrates with some major customer relationship management (CRM) software, email marketing apps, website hosting platforms and other companies, including Shutterstock and Squarespace. For additional tools and features, you can integrate Zapier into your CRM.
You can connect EZ Texting with Pipedrive and implement more integrations with Zapier. Having a working knowledge of Zapier or custom API support will help during the setup process.
EZ Texting’s key features
EZ Texting has plenty of features to set up text-based marketing, sales and customer support workflows:
A detailed online knowledge base with tutorials and FAQs
Automated SMS drip campaigns (available in Premium plans and above)
Bulk and recurring texting
Group messaging
MMS support with a built-in image editor you can use to create branded messaging (available on some plans).
QR code generator
Marketing analytics providing delivery reports, bounce rates and more
Contact list segmentation
Opt-out management
Toll-free texting options
Text scheduling
EZ Texting pricing
EZ Texting offers a 14-day free trial with basic features.
The platform currently provides four pricing tiers, ranging from a starter plan to a fully-featured enterprise solution. Each plan increases the included texting volume and reduces the cost per message.
All plans include unlimited incoming messages, contacts, keywords and two-way texting. To get your hands on a dedicated short code, opt for the enterprise plan.
The bottom line
EZ Texting’s features make it perfect for small businesses, startups and marketers who are new to SMS marketing. It’s easy to implement, offers an excellent user experience and is affordable if sending a low volume of texts.
For larger, service-based businesses that need to send reminders, there are other options below.
Most affordable option: Sakari
Sakari is one of the better options if your needs are mostly outgoing – like confirming bookings or notifying customers of deliveries. It offers all foundational functions at an affordable price point, making it ideal for small-scale operations and companies just starting out with SMS-based marketing.
Sakari’s pricing model includes inbound messages in their monthly message limits, so it’s mostly suited to companies who send rather than receive messages.
Sakari’s key features
Sakari includes most of the features you’ll need from a texting app solution, including:
Unlimited users and contacts
MMS messaging (only available in the US and Canada)
Two-way texting
Messaging credits that roll over each month (and last for 90 days)
Scheduled mass texting campaigns
For a CRM with SMS messaging, you can integrate Sakari with Pipedrive and several tools, or use the APIs
Response notifications
Text template creation tool
Auto-reply capabilities
Sakari pricing
Sakari offers a range of pricing options based on the number of messages you’re likely to send each month. Their lowest option, aimed at 500 texts per month, is affordable and includes all of the basic features you’ll need in a texting app.
The more expensive options increase the number of included texts per month, rather than adding additional features.
They also offer a 14-day free trial that includes a number of messaging credits.
Sakari includes both incoming and outgoing texts in its plans. Every text you receive from your customers counts toward your limit.
The bottom line
Sakari is excellent for solopreneurs, small businesses and startups who don’t need to accommodate hundreds of contacts or more.
Best for developers and complex setups: Twilio MessagingX
Twilio’s MessagingX platform is messaging software that offers complete customizability over its features and implementation. Although it offers out-of-the-box features for non-technical users, it really shines when its massive range of APIs is fully utilized.
Another way Twilio stands out from the crowd is in its pricing model. Rather than offering tiered plans, Twilio uses a “pay as you go” pricing structure.
Twilio’s key features
Some of Twilio’s most important built-in functions include:
Multi-channel support for SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Google’s Business Messages from one platform
A large range of APIs to add several functions, including promotions, notifications and marketing campaigns
A CRM text messaging integration: Twilio integrates with Pipedrive and many other tools
VOIP features, including phone call redirection
The Message Insights feature lets you assess marketing and sales metrics
Message delivery reports
Twilio pricing
Twilio only charges customers for what they use. This depends on your monthly messaging volume as well as any fees associated with your APIs and channels.
Incoming and outgoing messages incur a small cost. Some additional fees are also charged, including a monthly cost to get a local number, high-volume shortcode or toll-free number.
The bottom line
With proper implementation from experienced developers, Twilio can be one of the best SMS platforms. It offers the most customizable platform by far and can also be quite cost-effective when set up well.
However, users who aren’t well-versed in integrating marketing software are better off choosing a prebuilt solution that comes with easy onboarding and implementation.
Best for scalability: Textedly
Textedly is a complete text message marketing platform. It includes SMS and MMS messaging along with several other marketing features that are available in-app or as optional add-ons.
Where Textedly stands out is in scaling with businesses. It’s used by companies of all sizes, including huge multinational corporations like Walmart, FedEx and Coca-Cola.
Textedly markets its services to all industries, including retail, education, healthcare, sales and real estate. They’re also one of the most highly rated messaging solutions, with (at the time of writing) a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on Trustpilot, Google and G2.
Textedly’s key features
Textedly offers features you’ll need from an SMS marketing platform, including:
Easy opt-in process
Text scheduling, automatic reminders and autoresponders
Extended character limits (300 characters rather than the usual 160)
In-depth analytics to measure text message performance metrics
Keywords
Free incoming messages
Mass SMS messaging
Two-way messaging
Social media messaging
24/7 customer service
Connect Textedly with Pipedrive, Slack, Zapier, Shopify and hundreds of others
Textedly pricing
Textedly offers a 14-day free trial that includes all features and 50 free messages. After that, there are 13 different plans for companies of all sizes.
With each price increase according to plan, you’ll get more text messages per month, along with other benefits. For example, some plans include more custom keywords, text-to-pay payments, Google Business reviews and more.
When you pay annually, you gain an extra 20% in text messages per month.
The bottom line
Textedly is one of the best SMS marketing platforms available because of its wide range of features.
Textedly integrates with the most popular sales and marketing apps on the market, making it easy to connect to the software you already use and pay for.
If you need a scalable option, and you have the budget, Textedly is a good choice.
Best for growth marketers: SlickText
SlickText is a robust SMS marketing tool that offers advanced campaign creation, segmentation and data collection tools. Marketers will find the diverse range of powerful features more than suitable for any campaign.
SlickText offers many of the same features as the other apps on this list, but with much more of a focus on marketing.
For example, the platform offers opt-in web forms, pop-ups and customer surveys. It also provides templates for coupons, posters, contests, promo codes, loyalty programs and more. With these tools, you can collect new phone numbers and use advanced marketing tools to send effective mass campaigns.
SlickText’s key features
Here are some of the platform’s highlight capabilities:
Automatic URL shortening
Bulk SMS text messaging
Text scheduling
Keywords for fast text-to-join signups (phrases that trigger a specific auto-response, like “Get newsletter”)
Text-to-landline texting
QR codes for opt-in messages
Unlimited contacts on any plan
MMS messaging
Real-time live chat support and one-on-one onboarding
Unused texts rollover each month
Dedicated phone numbers and business shortcodes
On higher plans, SlickText provides automated workflows to create powerful SMS marketing campaigns
SlickText pricing
SlickText offers seven paid plans, each offering more texts per month and keywords than the last.
SlickText also offers a 14-day free trial with 50 included text messages and all available features.
The bottom line
SlickText is a strong choice for companies that want to use advanced SMS marketing campaigns to engage and grow their audience. If you have the budget, it is arguably the most robust out-of-the-box SMS platform and a powerful tool for marketers.
Why you should integrate texting into your CRM
An integrated texting solution can help you save money and time while increasing operational efficiency. Performing all sales and marketing activities from one dashboard helps reduce context switching and improves productivity.
You can add SMS-based workflow automation to your CRM, set up automatic triggers or follow-up messages in your CRM and engage your customers more effectively.
Further, integrating SMS into your CRM helps you sync data so that you can get more out of your marketing campaigns. You can track key metrics, improve open rates and uncover easy opportunities to generate more conversions.
That’s why Pipedrive works hard to develop integrations with the most powerful marketing, lead generation and customer support tools on the market. Easily integrate your Pipedrive CRM with EZ Texting, Sakari, Twilio, Textedly and more.
