Business Communication 
There’s nothing worse than nearly landing a new customer but having it fall through at the last minute because of missed communication. With 92% of people using text-enabled phones daily, the right business text messaging apps can ensure that your company never misses another opportunity.
Texting from your business line is a must these days as it provides many ways to stay in touch with customers, qualified leads, and even employee group texts. A business text messaging platform offers features like mass texting, scheduling, and industry-specific templates, making it an essential tool for managing bulk messaging and automating customer interactions.
Here, we help you choose the best texting app for business so you never miss another lead and your team is always in sync.
Business Text Messaging Basics
Text messaging and text message marketing are now essential tools for businesses of all sizes. With open rates exceeding 95%, SMS messages are highly effective forms of communication.
Far beyond just sending promotional SMS messages or text message blasts, a good business text messaging service provides a wide range of features, including:
- Creating message templates for easy campaign management
- Meeting confirmations and real-time appointment reminders
- Personal thank-you messages and sending coupons to customers
- Multimedia messages and picture messaging for visual effect
- Drip campaign automation
- Team/group texting
Automated workflows streamline business processes by automating text message sending and responses, enhancing efficiency, allowing businesses to schedule messages, and integrate with various applications.
When using text messaging for business purposes, it is important to follow specific guidelines. Before sending text messages, you should always obtain consent from the intended recipient. This means providing an opt-in mechanism if they no longer wish to receive them.
In addition to obtaining consent, a customer’s incoming message on their phone should always use clear and concise business language. Don’t send slang or abbreviations that may confuse readers; personalize your messages whenever possible.
You must also register your business phone number for VoIP texting following an industry requirement known as 10DLC. Here’s a helpful guide that explains it in great detail:
Business Text Messaging Campaigns & SMS Marketing Use Cases
Traditionally, e-commerce businesses have used SMS campaigns to send blast campaigns and alert readers to discounts or sales.
On the contrary, business text messaging campaigns are not limited to e-commerce. In fact, companies in all industries, from tech to healthcare, can benefit from using a business texting app to communicate with their customers and employees.
Uses for business text messaging
Beyond marketing campaigns, some practical use cases for using a business text messaging service include:
- Meeting confirmations & contact information: Send a text message to confirm a meeting time, location, and any necessary contact information.
- Personal thank you messages: Send a personal thank you message to a customer after they purchase or complete a service. These can be set up with autoresponders to ensure each customer receives the same experience.
- Team/group texting: Use group texting to communicate with your team members quickly and efficiently.
- Product/order updates: Send follow-ups and updates on a customer’s order or product delivery status.
- Sending gift cards: Companies can effectively use gift cards to thank customers or offer them as promotional offers. Uber Eats is a prime example.
- Two-factor authentication: Use text messaging as part of a two-factor authentication process to enhance security.
- Customer job-site photos: Send photos of a job site to customers to keep them informed about progress.
- Appointment reminders: Send appointment reminders to customers to reduce no-shows.
- Customer event/community invites: Invite customers to events or community activities via text message.
- Customer satisfaction surveys: Send chat-based SMS surveys to collect feedback and measure customer satisfaction (CSAT). This helps maintain a personal touch, ensures immediate responses to inquiries, and improves overall customer outcomes.
These are just a few examples of how businesses can use text messaging effectively. The key is to think creatively and find ways to use text messaging that will benefit your business and your customers.
Top Business Text Messaging Apps
There are many business text messaging services to choose from. Different texting services offer a range of features and capabilities, from group texting and scheduled messages to auto-replies and custom fields. However, some providers are often too complicated for many businesses’ needs.
With so many business SMS apps available, it can be difficult to choose the right service for your business communication needs.
Here, we’ll compare the best business text messaging apps, both free and paid, to help you choose the best platform for your needs.
- EZ Texting
- Nextiva
- Textla
- SimpleTexting
- Textedly
- Brevo
- Podium
- Salesmsg
- TextMagic
1) EZ Texting
EZ Texting is a top-rated cloud-based business texting services app for the United States and Canada. Their messaging solutions help businesses deliver superior customer service with streamlined communication and improved outreach efforts.
Key features
Key features include bulk texts, MMS messaging, delivery reports, reminder campaigns, text polls, and text-to-landline functionality.
Pricing
Plans start at $20 per month, which includes 500 messages per day for $0.027 per message.
G2 rating
4.5 out of 5 stars from 617 reviews.
2) Nextiva
Built with business owners in mind, Nextiva is a cloud communications company combining many communication channels to improve business sales and communication.
Key features
Nextiva excels at helping businesses of all sizes deliver exceptional customer experiences which drive business results. Features include:
- A clean, user-friendly interface
- Cell phone calls, voice, video, collaboration, SMS, chat, and survey features
- Virtual phone numbers and toll-free texting support
- Generous high-volume text message volumes with both mobile app and desktop functionality
Pricing
As a text messaging platform, Nextiva payment packages start at the Core package for just $30 per user per month, scaling to Power Suite packages for larger teams at $60 per user per month.
G2 rating
4.5 out of 5 stars from 3,239 reviews.
3) Textla
A new addition to the business SMS market, Textla distinguishes itself with the best pricing packages designed for businesses looking for a cost-effective, simple, and intuitive SMS solution. Since it uses the Twilio CPaaS platform, Textla offers total price transparency without the complexity.
Key Features
Key features include Campaign Management, Keyword Opt-Ins, SMS Campaigns, Mass Texting, Contact Management, Reporting, and more. Textla facilitates business text messaging work by providing a centralized platform that automates messaging and enhances customer engagement through familiar communication channels.
Pricing
Textla’s Starter plan starts at $25 monthly ($19/mo annual billing). The Professional plan is $50 monthly ($39/mo annually), including additional team member seats and scheduled text message delivery options. Price per text is ultra-low at $0.005.
G2 Rating
Textla has a 5.0 out of 5 on G2 from 78 reviews.
4) SimpleTexting
SimpleTexting offers a clean and affordable SMS marketing service, primarily for more customer-facing purposes.
Key features
SimpleTexting offers powerful SMS services and text marketing features, such as mass texting alerts, customer service, and automated campaigns. It also offers a mobile business text messaging app for on-the-go communication with thousands of contacts or one-on-one.
Pricing
SimpleTexting offers flexible credit-based plans starting at $39 per month, growing to $909 monthly for businesses with 50,000 text messages per month. SimpleTexting also assesses a $10 monthly fee for a local phone number and $4 one-time carrier registration fee.
G2 rating
4.7 out of 5 stars from 638 reviews.
5) Textedly
Textedly is a bulk-messaging text service that can send SMS and MMS mobile (Android and iOS) text messages.
Key features
Textedly boasts easy-to-build opt-in subscriber lists with simple mobile phone number list import. Scheduling, message delivery tracking, and SMS drip campaigns.
Pricing
Starting from $26 per month (billed annually) for 600 text messages, growing up to $349 per month for 18,000 monthly text messages.
G2 rating
4.6 out of 5 stars from 853 reviews.
6) Brevo
Integrating email, SMS, and chat to build customer relationships across numerous verticals, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) helps businesses stay in touch with their customers and nurture profitable ongoing relationships.
Key features
Brevo’s stand-out features include ease of use, outstanding support quality, and ease of setup. It also has landing pages, and marketing automation functions built in.
Pricing
Brevo has numerous plans for varying features, ranging from a free account to custom options. Its text messaging is sold as prepaid SMS credits. For instance, 500 text messages costs $5.45, in addition to the other marketing software plans.
G2 rating
4.5 out of 5 stars from 2,149 reviews.
7) Podium
Podium is an all-in-one marketing and communication platform designed to help local businesses. The company recently positioned itself as an AI agent that functions as a 24/7 employee.
Key features
Podium’s key features include outstanding customer feedback management, social network monitoring, and sleek dashboard use and integration.
Pricing
Podium’s payment plans start at $399 per month for small businesses or self-employed entrepreneurs just getting started, growing to $599 for larger, mature companies.
G2 rating
4.6 out of 5 stars from 1,811 reviews.
8) Salesmsg
Salesmsg is a dedicated SMS app for small and large businesses. It facilitates two-way texting, SMS marketing, calling, and more.
Key features
Offers transactional SMS messaging, API integration, and two-way text messaging.
Pricing
Credit-based payment plans start at $25 per month, growing to $249 monthly for 7,500 text message credits, with custom options available. Its pricing plans are flexible and allow you to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime.
G2 rating
4.6 out of 5 stars from 286 reviews.
9) TextMagic
TextMagic is a secure and easy-to-use text messaging service that allows 30,000+ companies to send daily notifications, reminders, confirmations, and SMS marketing campaigns.
Key features
TextMagic has bulk SMS text messaging, automatic replies, and two-way text messaging as top features. Its features cater to businesses with high-volume sending needs.
Pricing
Pre-paid plans cost as low as $24.50 for 500 text messages, but their monthly plans start from $80 per month for 2,000 text messages. Its Connect $100/mo. plan allows you to use its text message software to send 10,000 texts using a select CPaaS provider like Twilio.
G2 rating
4.4 out of 5 stars from 109 reviews.
Related: Top 20 Business Communication Apps for Your Team
What to Look for in a Business SMS Provider
When choosing a business SMS service, it’s important to consider the features and functions that align with business requirements. Below are some essential attributes to watch for:
- Virtual phone numbers: A virtual phone number enables you to send and receive texts via a local or toll-free line. They are ideal for businesses keen on sustaining a local image or offering clients a toll-free way to reach out.
- Team messaging: Team-based collaboration facilitates several users to send and receive SMS from a collective inbox, which is ideal for firms looking to encourage team members to support customers and prospects via SMS or MMS.
- Toll-free texting support: Texting customers from a toll-free business phone number lets customers intuitively call your sales or support line who prefer discussing matters verbally.
- Generous text message volumes: A valuable service will grant a generous quota of messages, for instance, 1000 texts for each user every month, catering to businesses with extensive texting needs.
- Desktop functionality: This feature facilitates the exchanging texts from your PC, which is ideal for businesses whose teams prefer desktop-based communication.
- Mobile functionality: A smartphone app is a must if you want to exchange business text messages through mobile or tablet devices, befitting businesses aiming for flexibility and mobility in communication.
In addition to these critical features, excellent customer support, pricing, and positive customer reviews are vital to consider before settling on a business text messaging app for your company.
Before implementing text messaging into your business protocols, you must ensure you do so in a way that complies with industry best practices and legal requirements.
⚠️ Text Messaging Rules of the Road
- Provide clear opt-out instructions: Every text sent out should have straightforward directions for recipients who want to discontinue the service. A typical instruction could be, “To stop receiving messages, reply with STOP.”
- Follow data privacy laws: Following data protection regulations is non-negotiable when handling customer details. Check your state or local authority for more information.
- Comply with industry standards: Phone companies and the government have collectively established benchmarks for unsolicited phone calls and text messaging. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulate message content, frequency, and dispatch.
By following these legal and industry requirements, businesses can ensure that they are using text messaging responsibly.
Nextiva’s Business Texting Solution
Adopting a texting app for business is essential for customer engagement and streamlined communication today. The right tool enhances customer support and drives sales. Nextiva is a proven leader in unified customer experience management — business text messaging is no exception.
Among the many options available, Nextiva stands out as a top solution. It offers unparalleled reliability and enterprise-grade communication features, such as SMS, voice, video, social media, and chat. As a cloud communications leader, Nextiva can help businesses elevate their messaging strategy, deliver a better customer experience, and improve sales.
Customers love businesses that text.
Talk with prospects and customers the way they prefer across every channel, including SMS/MMS.
Business Text Messaging FAQs
Yes, you can add SMS text messaging to your VoIP phones. Business text messaging services offer integration with VoIP phone service, allowing you to send and receive text messages using your existing phone number. This integration enables businesses to streamline communication by using a single platform for both voice and text, enhancing customer interactions and improving operational efficiency.
The Federal Trade Commission has strict guidelines and penalties for businesses that spam customers with unwanted text messages. Messages and numbers marked as “spammy” also often get blocked or filtered, so before sending a text message, we recommend asking yourself, “Would I mind receiving this?”
10DLC, or 10-Digit Long Code, is a messaging system designed for businesses to send SMS messages using a local phone number. This system allows companies to communicate with customers more effectively by providing a recognizable and trustworthy number, enhancing customer engagement and message deliverability.
Unlike short codes, typically used for mass messaging, 10DLC offers a cost-effective solution for businesses that need to send personalized messages. It supports higher message volumes than traditional long codes and complies with carrier regulations, ensuring that messages are delivered reliably and securely.
Yes, several free text messaging services are available for businesses, such as Google Voice, TextNow, and TextFree.
However, these services have limitations on the number of messages you can send, deliverability issues, and are restrictive in the features they offer. Most importantly, these free virtual phone numbers are often reassigned and are blocked from text message (SMS) verification services.
Free text messaging services often come with limitations. Many providers offer free trial periods or basic plans that include a limited number of monthly messages. These options can benefit startups exploring SMS marketing without a financial commitment. However, free plans may lack advanced features like automation, integrations, and analytics, which are crucial for scaling communication efforts.
The terms text messaging and SMS messaging are often used interchangeably, but they are different:
SMS, which stands for “Short Message Service,” is the most basic form of text messaging, allowing users to send plain text messages.
Text messaging is a broader category that includes SMS and MMS messages (Multimedia Messaging Service), as well as internet-based messaging with enhanced features.
