The best SMS marketing platforms [2024] : the different types, key features, with pros and cons

Jax Connelly
24 min read
SMS marketing
6 May 2024
Reach your most engaged customers
Explore SMS Marketing

Every company that offers SMS marketing capabilities boasts dozens of features for brands. But not all SMS marketing platforms are created equal—which makes choosing the best SMS marketing automation platform for your business a complicated challenge.

SMS marketing automation, or text message marketing automation, refers to the ability to create, send, and deliver bulk SMS communications at scale. Vendors make promises ranging from sophisticated personalisation and segmentation to A/B testing, artificial intelligence-led analytics, and more.

But what’s the best SMS marketing platform for your specific business needs? Which one will best help you meet your goals, appropriately track SMS attribution as part of your holistic marketing funnel, segment your audiences based on zero- and first-party data, and use that data to personalise your text messages for higher, long-term customer engagement?

We’ve got you covered. Here, you’ll learn about:

  1. SMS-only vs unified marketing platforms
  2. 3 benefits of unified email + SMS software
  3. 4 of the best SMS marketing platforms reviewed
  4. How to choose the right SMS marketing solution for your business

SMS-only vs unified (SMS+email) marketing platforms

In general, you have 2 options when it comes to SMS marketing software:

1. SMS-only solutions

An SMS-only or SMS point solution is a platform that only provides SMS marketing services—not SMS marketing in addition to email marketing, push notifications, etc.

Point solutions are often the first SMS tools brands use as they explore this new marketing channel. Marketers choose point solutions because they believe they are focused on a specific problem and thus provide a best-in-class solution.

But point solutions present a few key problems:

  • They don’t connect to key components of your marketing funnel.
  • They have limited integrations with the rest of your tech stack.
  • They offer only basic data gathering and cross-channel reporting.

These tools also tend to over-attribute their impact on your bottom line—similar to how, before Apple’s iOS update, Facebook ads used to over-report revenue generated from ads.

This led many brands—and arguably the entire direct-to-consumer industry—to over-invest in performance marketing. In the wake of privacy-first changes, many of those brands have struggled to correct their marketing activities to balance paid and owned marketing channels.

A similar reckoning may be coming with SMS point solutions that have long attribution windows associated with SMS marketing, rather than a cooperative model that more accurately shows how SMS is contributing to your bottom line.

2. Unified SMS and email marketing platforms

Finally, a unified marketing platform, which pulls email, SMS, and other marketing services under the same roof, helps you more effectively automate your text message communications and more accurately measure the performance of your marketing efforts.

“My No. 1 piece of advice for brands launching their SMS marketing programs is to go for an all-in-one platform like Klaviyo,” says Loretta Doria, head of strategy at full-service digital agency Ragnarok. “I just really believe that fewer tools is better in almost all scenarios.”

3 benefits of unified SMS and email platforms

1. Improve the customer experience

Blair Peterson, VP of strategy at Dana Rebecca Designs, says the best thing about using Klaviyo for both email and SMS is “centralised segmenting.”

The ethical jewellery brand has some customers that subscribe to email only, some that subscribe to both email and SMS, and some that subscribe to SMS only. Using a marketing platform that handles contact management for both channels under one roof helps Peterson’s team ensure they’re delivering marketing experiences that align with customer preferences.

“That’s one of the best reasons to have email and SMS in the same platform—the ability to house all your customer journey data in one place,” Peterson explains. “You’re not having to segment in one place and then segment in another, and worry about whether there could be overlap or not.”

That’s one of the best reasons to have email and SMS in the same platform—the ability to house all your customer journey data in one place.
Blair Peterson, VP of strategy, Dana Rebecca Designs

With a unified platform like Klaviyo, real-time data determines which experience each customer receives—which means you never send a text message about the same deal someone already shopped over email.

2. Save your team time and effort

If you’re like most ecommerce businesses, your marketing team is lean—and all of you are constantly “being pulled into all these different things in the business,” points out Jacob Sappington, head of email at ecommerce growth marketing agency Homestead Studio.

And because email marketing has been around longer than SMS, “email takes up a lot of the focus” on most ecommerce marketing teams, Sappington observes: “There’s a larger list and there’s a larger payout from it, so it is really, really easy to ignore SMS if you have to go to another platform to manage it. Those effects compound over time.”

That’s why, “if a brand is self-managing, they should probably be on a unified platform like Klaviyo for email and SMS,” Sappington believes. “When it’s all in the same platform, it makes it so much easier to use, especially for a lean team.”

3. Understand what actually drives revenue

When you have email and SMS “all under one umbrella, attribution is aligned,” says Elliot Scott, founder and CEO of London-based retention agency ElliotDigital. “You don’t get a distorted view of things. You can look at performance on both channels combined, but you can also look separately.”

Klaviyo, for example, uses a cooperative last-touch marketing attribution model, which more accurately measures email and SMS ROI and doesn’t overprescribe revenue to your SMS efforts. The platform also allows users to customise their attribution windows based on what makes the most sense for their business.

4 of the best SMS marketing platforms

Below is our 2024 list of the top 4 SMS marketing tools for delivering the kind of customer experience today’s consumers demand. It’s not a comprehensive list, and of course we’re a little biased. But we’ve tried to select a list of marketing platforms that encompasses a wide range of different business sizes and use cases.

Here, we break down why you might want to use each SMS platform—and why you might not.

1. Klaviyo

Founded in 2012, Klaviyo launched SMS in 2019 and now offers a unified SMS and email marketing solution for any growing business, from solopreneurs to small businesses to large enterprise companies.

With high customer ratings on both G2 and TrustRadius, Klaviyo is “the leader of the industry,” says Elliot Scott. “It’s clear Klaviyo is going to become, if it’s not already in certain parts of the world, the biggest player in SMS. You want to bet on a company that’s progressing and is innovative, and that’s Klaviyo at the end of the day.”

Why you might want to use Klaviyo for SMS

  • All-in-one intuitive platform for:
  • Fast, user-friendly set-up, including a variety of sending options:
    • Toll-free number
    • Short code
    • Vanity code
    • Branded sender ID (a.k.a. alphanumeric sender ID), popular for sending outside the US
  • SMS marketing deliverability and compliance features including:
    • Automatic consent management when someone opts in or out of receiving SMS marketing
    • Customer profiles that show exactly when and how each subscriber provided consent
    • Active membership in compliance organisations like the CTIA and CWTA
    • Conservative approach to SHAFT to help keep Klaviyo customers safe
    • Automatic removal of phone numbers attached to:
      • Known litigators
      • Landlines
      • Subscribers who change carriers
    • Built-in SMS compliance tools, including:
      • Quiet hours
      • Mobile terms of service (TOS) builder
      • Smart Sending
      • Branded short links
      • Deliverability reporting to ensure your messages consistently reach your audience, including the SMS deliverability hub, which provides a comprehensive view into deliverability trends and proactive alerts to address issues in real time
  • Deep ecommerce focus
    • Pre-built use cases for brands using Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix, Adobe Commerce, Prestashop, and custom ecommerce platforms via APIs
    • 350+ integrations with leading ecommerce tools and plugins
  • Wide array of powerful list growth tools, including:
    • Desktop and mobile sign-up forms
    • SMS sign-up forms targeted to current email subscribers
    • Multi-step sign-up forms
    • SMS consent at check-out
    • QR codes
    • Smart Opt-In: allows visitors to quickly join your list with a one-time passcode
    • AI-powered forms display optimisation
  • Extensive options for SMS communications, including:
  • Hyper-personalised SMS segmentation allows you to:
    • Include in-message syntax that makes messages feel personal
    • Include or exclude multiple segments based on real-time data from your entire tech stack, including factors like:
      • Granular purchase history, down to the SKU
      • Discount code usage
      • Predicted customer lifetime value
  • Conversational SMS options including keyword response and helpdesk integrations with Zendesk and Gorgias
  • Sophisticated SMS reporting and optimisation functionality, including detailed deliverability reporting and a cooperative last-touch attribution model and customisable attribution windows
  • AI features like SMS AI, which helps you generate SMS copy and SMS replies, and Segments AI, which allows you to quickly create a desired language by describing the people you want to reach in plain language
  • Complete control over your account and data
    • Unlimited access to all your customer data and contact lists
    • Flexible month-to-month plans or long-term contracts
    • Ability to take your SMS marketing phone number with you
  • Guided platform with SMS training, education, and support, including a wide array of free live trainings and on-demand learning

Why you might not want to use Klaviyo for SMS

  • You need your provider to offer a fully managed SMS program. While Klaviyo doesn’t run your SMS program for you, we do work with a wide range of SMS-certified agency partners that can. Klaviyo also offers onboarding to help you get your SMS program up and running, as well as customer success managers to help your SMS and email program see better results.
  • You’re looking for a more ad-hoc pricing model, rather than one that’s inclusive of carrier and platform fees. Klaviyo offers transparent monthly plans and annual contracts with no additional fees, so you can choose whatever path makes the most sense for your business.
  • You need access to SMS campaign features such as audio and video messaging. Klaviyo does not support these features at this time.
  • You need to send transactional SMS notifications in an ecommerce platform other than Shopify. Klaviyo only supports Shopify transactional SMS at this time.
  • You need advanced conversational SMS capabilities. Klaviyo does not offer live sales agents or a concierge team to respond to customer inquiries via two-way conversation at this time.
  • You need to send SMS in South America, Asia, and/or Africa.
You want to bet on a company that’s progressing and is innovative, and that’s Klaviyo at the end of the day.
Elliot Scott, founder and CEO, ElliotDigital

2. Postscript

Founded in 2018, Postscript is an SMS marketing point solution that calls itself “the SMS marketing platform built for Shopify brands.”

Why you might want to use Postscript for SMS

Why you might not want to use Postscript for SMS

3. Yotpo

Founded in 2011, Yotpo acquired SMSBump in 2018 to round out its suite of offerings for loyalty and referrals, subscriptions, reviews, and visual user-generated content. The company’s mission is to help ecommerce brands “create better shopper experiences in every way imaginable” across the entire customer journey.

Why you might want to use Yotpo for SMS

Why you might not want to use Yotpo for SMS

  • You need your provider to offer a fully managed SMS program. Yotpo only offers chat support and support from customer success managers. They do have a professional services team, but not for SMS program management.
  • You want access to a broader array of built-in ecommerce integrations. Yotpo offers around 50 for SMS; Klaviyo, for example, offers over 350.
  • You want to consolidate your SMS program with an experienced email provider. Yotpo officially launched email in 2023 and now supports just a few thousand brands. Klaviyo, by contrast, supports email marketing for over 143K brands and has been an industry leader for over a decade.
  • You have advanced segmentation needs, such as including or excluding multiple segments from an SMS campaign. Yotpo does not support this at this time.
  • You need visibility into multi-channel attribution and reporting. Yotpo reports attribution separately.

4. Attentive

Attentive was launched in 2018 as a point solution providing SMS marketing services for midsize to enterprise online retailers. In 2022, Attentive also launched email marketing.

Why you might want to use Attentive for SMS

Why you might not want to use Attentive for SMS

  • You need a self-serve SMS marketing software. Interaction with your Attentive customer success manager and support team is required to accomplish even basic tasks, such as changing your attribution window or scheduling a pop-up.
  • You want access to a broader array of built-in ecommerce integrations. Attentive offers around 100; Klaviyo, for example, offers over 300.
  • You want to consolidate your SMS program with an experienced email provider. Attentive officially launched email in 2023. Klaviyo, by contrast, has been an industry leader for over a decade.
  • You’re not ready to commit to a long-term contract. Month-to-month services are available, but long-term contracts are the default with Attentive. Make sure you understand the full costs, including potential platform fees, additional carriers, and professional services fees.
  • If you send a lot of MMS, Attentive’s pricing might not be the best fit for your brand. Unlike other SMS marketing services—Klaviyo, for example, gives you 1,600 characters, with or without emojis, as part of a single MMS—Attentive gives MMS the same character count as an SMS message (160 characters plain text; 70 with emojis). The result is that the same MMS message may cost slightly more on Attentive.
  • You want to pick the attribution model that makes most sense for your specific business. Attentive’s default SMS attribution model is aggressive: 1-day view, 30-day click. Technically windows are customizable, but only with help from your CSM.
  • You require sophisticated segmentation capabilities. Attentive’s segment builder only supports a few segment conditions, which limits your ability to reach the right people with the right messages.

The cost of SMS marketing: 3 ways to maximise your SMS ROI

One of the biggest SMS marketing myths that prevents ecommerce brands from investing in an SMS marketing platform is that it’s too expensive. And it’s true that “SMS is more expensive than email,” Sappington says.

But it’s also true that SMS marketing can pay for itself—and then some. “If your goal is net dollars added to the bank account,” Sappington says, “then the dollars generated by SMS need to beat out the extra cost.”

So how do you, as Sappington puts it, “optimise in a way that leads to the most dollars”? There are plenty of smart SMS plays for keeping your SMS marketing program cost-effective and maximising your return on investment (ROI). Here are the top 3.

1. Use SMS automations and flows

When Dana Rebecca Designs first launched their SMS program, Peterson expected SMS campaigns to drive most of the program’s traffic—and revenue. “And we’re still doing campaigns when we have a new launch or Monday motivation,” she says, “but where we’re really seeing more of a lift for the business side is through flows.”

Scott says this is because the shoppers on the receiving end of flows “have really high intent. These are people who’ve not only signed up for SMS, but they’ve also got a product and they come back again and again and again.

“More often than not, in my experience, flows generate more sales than campaigns,” Scott adds.

Sappington has observed the same: “Automations tend to pull in a significant portion of SMS revenue. The efficiency there is just much higher than the efficiency on campaigns.”

With that in mind, Scott and Sappington recommend starting with the highest-intent SMS flows:

  • Welcome series
  • Browse abandonment
  • Abandoned cart
  • Abandoned check-out

“These are the flows you need to be leveraging and testing again and again and again, because they’re the core flows of your entire account that are bringing the most money,” Scott explains. “Instead of sending 10 texts a month through campaigns, which is super high, to have SMS taking over in flows is a really important way to use SMS as a whole for an account.”

2. Don’t be afraid to experiment

That said, you don’t want to halt SMS campaigns altogether. It’s the same as email: “You don’t just send campaigns through email, and you don’t just set up flows for email,” Scott points out. “‘That’s only half the work.”

This is the biggest SMS mistake Scott sees brands making, he says: “They’ve not got it in flows—they’re just using it in campaigns, or the other way around. If you want SMS to be a core marketing channel, you need to do it properly. You need to be smart about it. You can’t do it halfheartedly. That’s the main thing.”

If you want SMS to be a core marketing channel, you need to do it properly. You need to be smart about it. You can’t do it halfheartedly. That’s the main thing.
Elliot Scott, Elliot Scott, founder and CEO, ElliotDigital

In other words, in order to make your SMS program as cost-efficient as possible, use it consistently—but strategically.

“You need to keep the strategy really clear for SMS—when you’re using it, why you’re using it, the messaging you’re using—and you need to test all possible avenues to see what moves the needle the most,” Scott says. “If you don’t, then in 3 months when you’ve hardly used it, you’ll turn around and say, ‘It’s not working.’ Well, it won’t work if you don’t use it.”

“It’s not sending one text every two months. It’s not adding it to one flow. It’s campaigns alongside flows, multiple campaigns, multiple flows, different angles, because people will respond in different ways,” Scott adds. “You have to try it all, otherwise you’re hardly trying.”

Klaviyo recommends starting with these SMS strategies:

  • Offer early access or exclusive mobile-only discounts via text.
  • Drive more conversions by incorporating SMS into your cart abandonment flows.
  • Provide the VIP treatment by including a text in back-in-stock or price drop alert flows.
  • Make your subscribers feel special with a happy birthday text and offer.
  • Close out a sale strong with a text to subscribers who still haven’t purchased.

3. Be diligent with your SMS credits

If you’re worried about the cost of SMS, “the most efficient thing,” Sappington says, “would be to limit your use of MMS, and to use only one credit per send.”

This one is pretty simple: MMS costs more than SMS, and in Sappington’s experience, it’s usually not worth the extra money. “You really have to understand how each different vendor treats emojis and MMS,” Sappington says. On certain SMS marketing platforms, “if you’re using emojis and images, the cost can balloon. It can just go through the roof.”

MMS messages also take a longer time to send, especially to big lists—and, there’s no real evidence that people engage with them more. In an analysis of A/B tests conducted in Klaviyo between SMS marketing messages and MMS marketing messages, 79% of tests showed that SMS had a statistically significant higher number of clicks than MMS, whereas MMS outperformed SMS in only 6% of tests.

Paying close attention to the character counts on your SMS messages, meanwhile, can make sure you don’t exceed your credits threshold—and end up paying significantly more for an extra word or couple of letters. “If you’re allotted so many characters per message, don’t send a text if you can’t get the copy trimmed down to a single credit,” Sappington recommends.

This is particularly important for brands with large SMS lists. “If you have a list of 300K subscribers and you add an extra 2-3 words and you don’t trim it down, you’re effectively doubling the cost,” Sappington points out.

Questions to find the right SMS marketing solution for your business

Keep in mind that when it comes to maximising your SMS ROI, each text message marketing platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. Selecting the one that’s best for your brand is a daunting process, and a lot of it comes down to asking the right questions.

Choosing the best SMS marketing software for your business depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with your SMS marketing strategy. For example:

  • Are you more focused on engaging customers and potential customers, driving revenue, or both?
  • Does your SMS program cater to specific segments such as VIPs and loyal customers, or does it need to have broader appeal?
  • Where does SMS fit in relation to your email marketing program? For example, do you need the ability to launch hybrid flows that involve both emails and text messages?
  • What kind of SMS marketing attribution model makes the most sense to you?

Key features your SMS marketing software should have

Before you make your final decision, there are a few text marketing features no business should compromise on. At a minimum, your text messaging platform should:

  • Provide built-in SMS marketing compliance globally.
  • Offer short code and toll free numbers.
  • Offer options for multi-step sign-up forms, click-to-text forms, and consent forms at check-out.
  • Integrate seamlessly with third-party technology.
  • Allow for A/B testing of text campaigns.
  • Allow for two-way conversations with customers.
  • Provide sophisticated metrics, data and predictive analysis functionality.
  • Enable data capture through actions like browse abandonment and personalisation through MMS, dynamic images, coupon codes, and more.

In an economically challenged, post-iOS 14.5 world, where paid targeting is getting less precise and consumers are getting more selective about which brands they deem worthy of their money, SMS marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience.

Your SMS marketing platform is what powers it all.

Choose wisely.

Want to go beyond these basics? We cover everything you need to know to make sure you start from a place of value and end with loyal, lifelong customer relationships in this ecommerce SMS marketing series. Check out:

FAQs about SMS marketing

Is SMS marketing effective?

Yes, SMS marketing is effective. As part of an overarching omnichannel marketing strategy, SMS marketing is one of the essential touchpoints along the customer journey.

Here’s proof from Klaviyo’s SMS consumer sentiment report:

  • Consumers prefer SMS marketing over post and WhatsApp.
  • 78% of consumers who subscribe to SMS have made a purchase based on receiving a text message from a brand.
  • 29% of buyers say they often make purchases due to their SMS subscription.

Is SMS marketing good for a large contact list?

Yes, SMS marketing is good for contact lists of all sizes. Because bulk text messages are fast and cost-effective, SMS marketing is a great way to market to customers and send reminders at scale.

What is the best way to make my SMS marketing campaign more effective?

Personalisation, quick, catchy phrases, and incorporating SMS messages into your larger marketing strategy are just a few ways to make your SMS marketing campaigns more effective.

Learn why Klaviyo is the top SMS marketing platform on this list.
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Jax Connelly
Jax Connelly
Lead editor
Jax Connelly (they/she) brings 15 years of editorial experience to their role as lead editor at Klaviyo. She started her career doing SEO at a small digital ad agency and spent most of her twenties managing a financial magazine for a trade association based in Washington, DC. Most recently, they studied and taught writing at Columbia College Chicago during the peak years of the pandemic. Outside of her day job, Jax is an award-winning creative writer who has received honors including 4 Notables in the Best American Essays series, contest awards from publications like Nowhere Magazine and Prairie Schooner, and a residency from the Ragdale Foundation. Jax lives in Chicago, a block away from Lake Michigan.

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