12 Time-Saving SMS Marketing Software Features to Use Today

Thousands of organizations have harnessed the power of SMS to stay in front of customers. If you’re not taking advantage of the latest time-saving text marketing software features, you might be missing out on the flexibility, control and performance you need in your customer communications.

SMS has been proven to reach consumers faster and more effectively than other marketing channels. 90% of text messages are opened within three minutes of being received. Additionally, 50% of U.S. consumers make a purchase after receiving a text that includes an ad, discount coupon or QR code. 

Here are 12 powerful, user-friendly SMS marketing software features that can transform your marketing strategy.

1. Mass Group Texting

Mass group texting is a popular text marketing software feature that allows you to send hundreds or even thousands of texts with the click of a button. These messages typically include more general marketing messages, like:

• Upcoming sales
• Event announcements
• Polls
• Surveys
• Promo codes

Mass texting saves your business considerable time and effort by enabling you to send the same message to your entire subscriber list. Textedly’s sleek, web-based interface allows you to send out group texts to all your subscribers in a matter of seconds.

By using SMS campaigns to share information with your customers, your business will see higher open rates, clicks and conversions as you transform subscribers into an engaged customer base for your brand.

2. Transactional SMS

Transactional SMS campaigns send automatic follow-up text messages after customers complete specific actions to support your audience along the customer journey. These SMS messages include:

• Welcome text messages
• Appointment reminders
• Payment reminders
• Order confirmations
• Shipping updates

Unlike promotional text messages, transactional messages are driven by specific interactions between a customer and your business. Since your customers likely spend a lot of time on their mobile phones, transactional SMS is a helpful tool that communicates necessary or time-sensitive information to your customers.

One of the biggest benefits of transactional SMS texting is that customers read text messages more often than check their email or answer the phone. People also prefer to receive timely information like shipping updates and appointment reminders via SMS.

3. Text Keywords

A keyword is a word or phrase that your customers can text to a 10-digit phone number or short code to sign up to receive text messages from your brand.

Text keywords are usually short and easy to remember, like “JOIN” or “COUPON” -- words that customers are unlikely to misspell. Keywords are powerful tools that build your marketing subscriber list, enabling you to text marketing messages to customers with just one click.

With Textedly, you create multiple keywords at no additional cost, with each keyword representing a group. These groups can segment your subscriber list so you can send out targeted messages about products, sales and promotions that might interest your customer

4. App Integrations

App integration is a popular text marketing software feature that makes it easier for businesses to get started with SMS marketing. With app integration, you can automatically sync data from your SMS campaigns with your existing marketing software and vice versa.

Textedly’s free Zapier integration enables you to connect our platform with over 1,000 apps you already love and use. Our powerful API lets you send data directly to Salesforce, Facebook, Slack, HubSpot, Intercom, Pipedrive and much more.

5. Auto-Reply Texts

Adding auto-reply texts to your SMS marketing means your customers don’t have to wait to get a reply. SMS autoresponders instantly send automated, pre-selected messages based on the keywords used in the text. Auto-reply texts can be used to:

• Confirm appointments
• Send thank you messages
• Share promotions and offers
• Update event schedules

Automated texts give information to customers faster than email or in-person communication so potential clients don’t lose interest in your business. In addition to providing instant communication, auto-reply texts can give you valuable insight into what your customers want.

With Textedly, you can see which of your keywords gets the most traffic and whether customers respond to your automated text messages. You can use this information to make data-driven decisions about advertising, signage and other customer communications.

6. Two-Way SMS

Two-way SMS allows businesses to hold conversations with their customers in real time. With two-way SMS texting, you can provide support, close deals and connect with your customers organically.

Online SMS marketing platforms like Textedly enable you to text with multiple contacts at once without missing any conversations. You can even use your existing business phone number to make it easier for your customers to connect with you.

Textedly’s user-friendly platform provides you with an inbox that allows you to engage your customers one-on-one and answer any questions they may have. You can organize your contacts into groups for specific types of text messages or send group texts to all your contacts at once.

7. Data Collection

Successful marketing campaigns start with gathering information. By using your SMS campaigns to collect data, you can get to know your customers quickly and efficiently.

When you gather information about your customers on your SMS marketing platform, you can personalize future text messages and segment your list to send more targeted messages. You can even adjust delivery times based on audience location to improve your open and click rates.

Textedly’s data collection feature automatically gathers and inputs each subscriber’s city, state,  and ZIP code upon signup. From there, you can adjust the information you collect based on your business’s needs so you can send messages customized by other factors like age range and even birthday.

8. Drip Campaigns

Automation is becoming a more significant part of marketing every day, especially when it comes to SMS campaigns. Drip campaigns use automated text marketing software features to send a series of time-delayed text messages to your subscribers.

With drip campaigns, you can continuously interact with your subscribers and keep them informed about upcoming events and promotions. Like drip campaigns in email marketing, these messages will run in the background without extra attention. In addition to saving time and effort, drip campaigns are also great for driving conversions.

Textedly allows you to manage your drip campaigns in real time using custom parameters. Drip campaigns are perfect for welcoming new subscribers, sending educational content to nurture leads and engaging customers with relevant offers so you don’t let a lead slip away.

9. Link Shrinking

Link shrinking reduces your hyperlinks to just a few characters so they don’t take up too much space in a text message. At Textedly, every plan comes with built-in link shrinking. You can even get analytics reports about how many users clicked on your link.

10. SMS Surveys

While surveys are the most effective way to learn about your customers, it can be hard to get customers to fill them out. But with SMS surveys, you can get quick insights without disrupting their day.

Short SMS text surveys elicit more responses than emails or phone calls, so you can learn how to meet your customers’ needs better and adjust your marketing plans accordingly. Textedly offers multiple SMS survey options that you can adapt to your customized parameters.

11. Text to Join

Text to join allows people to sign up to receive your SMS messages, usually by sending a keyword to your SMS short code or phone number. They will then receive an automated reply confirming they’ve successfully opted in. These auto-reply texts can even offer incentives for joining, like a special offer or discount.

Text to join makes it easy for small businesses to interact with customers on a larger scale. With Textedly’s text to join marketing services, you can grow your SMS marketing subscriber base while collecting valuable data about prospective clients and customers.

12. Email Capture

With email capture, SMS marketing can grow your email list, so you can use multichannel marketing to make an even bigger impact without any extra effort.

By using your SMS campaigns to collect subscriber email addresses, you can easily export this data to your email marketing platform. Email capture makes it easy to grow your email marketing efforts while continuing to drive value to your customers via SMS text messages.

Partner with Textedly to Reach More Customers in Less Time

Textedly creates an exceptional customer experience by providing a familiar communication channel that builds trust. Our time-saving SMS marketing software enables you to communicate time-sensitive and relationship-building information to your customers so your business can go further faster.

With our user-friendly text marketing software features, Textedly makes it easy for you to create business text messaging campaigns and start texting your customers today. With the ability to send individual messages or mass group texts, Textedly allows you to customize an SMS marketing plan that works for your business.

To get started with Textedly’s intuitive SMS marketing software, sign up for a free trial today!