SimpleTexting Review, Pricing & Features

What is SimpleTexting?

SimpleTexting is an SMS marketing platform that helps over 10,000 businesses such as ecommerce stores, nonprofits, and dental practices execute successful SMS marketing campaigns. SimpleTexting is best for small businesses looking for an affordable yet powerful SMS marketing tool. For ecommerce stores, SimpleTexting can drive success home for your business, but segmentation and analytics will feel limiting.

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Table of Contents

• What is SimpleTexting?
• SimpleTexting Review Summary
• SimpleTexting Pricing & Cost
• SimpleTexting Features
  • Subscriber List Building
  • Segmentation
  • Message Creation
  • Campaign Building
  • Two-Way Conversations
  • Automations
  • Analytics
• SimpleTexting Integrations
• SimpleTexting Customer Service
• SimpleTexting Alternatives & Competitors
• Is SimpleTexting Right For You?

SimpleTexting Review Summary

SimpleTexting was founded by Felix Dubinsky and Gene Sigalov in 2010. They made the full transition to SMS marketing in 2011 after starting in email marketing. Today, SimpleTexting is based in Miami Beach, Florida. They cover a vast array of industries and have serviced over 10,000 businesses.

SimpleTexting offers all the features most major SMS marketing tools have. Standout features are its list and campaign builders, which feel effortless for both experienced and new SMS marketers. Segmentation, however, is limiting for those looking to hone in on their subscriber data.

SimpleTexting’s pricing is based solely on texting credits, or the amount of messages you’ll send per month. This means you have full access to its features no matter what plan you have. Prices range from $25 to $625 per month, with a 25% discount for annual plans.

Ultimately, SimpleTexting is an effective, affordable, and user-friendly tool that caters to a diverse range of small business owners. We highly recommend SimpleTexting for industries like nonprofits, schools, or dental practices. Ecommerce businesses, however, might find specialized alternatives like SMSBump or Postscript ideal for their use cases.

SimpleTexting Pricing & Cost

SimpleTexting pricing is based on the amount of messages you will send per month. None of their plans contain contracts or setup fees. Annual plans are 25% cheaper than monthly plans. Additionally, Churches and Nonprofits are eligible to receive 15% off any monthly plan.

SimpleTexting Features

Now let’s discuss the major features that SimpleTexting offers and how they can help your SMS marketing and business goals. Product screenshots are included to present the user interface and design.

Subscriber List Building

More often than not, building your subscriber list is a critical first step to your SMS marketing success. SimpleTexting allows users to build lists through keywords, manual imports, and web forms. This variety of list building options is diverse and user-friendly.

Keywords

Keywords are one of the most efficient ways to build an SMS contact list. Potential subscribers text your customized keyword to a number to opt-in as a subscriber. SimpleTexting makes the process of creating a keyword incredibly simple, and offers a number of creative ways to share it with potential subscribers.

Creating a keyword is a guided, simple process. You can choose to add your keyword to a new list, which SimpleTexting automatically creates and names for you, or add it to an existing one. You’re also provided a complimentary compliance message that ensures you’re on top of TCPA compliance.

Manual Importing

SimpleTexting allows you to import contacts through .CSV, .XLS, .XLSX files. Express written consent is, of course, required for all subscribers.

TCPA compliance can get complicated when it comes to manually imported contacts. Luckily, SimpleTexting sends a free compliance text to all new contacts with your first message.

Web Forms

Although keywords are the primary way to build lists in SMS Marketing, creative strategies can always help with customer acquisition. Through SimpleTexting’s apps section, you can easily make a web form that’s sharable on your website.

The apps section goes beyond web forms by allowing you to run text-to-win contests, text-to-vote surveys, and even custom polls. These are all creative solutions built to get the most out of your keywords and ensure a successful SMS marketing campaign. We’ll talk more about these solutions in the Campaign Building section.

Segmentation

Segmentation in SimpleTexting is good for small businesses who are getting used to SMS marketing. For businesses that want to hone in on their subscriber lists for more personalized messages, however, SimpleTexting is limiting in its options. This is primarily because there is no way to group segments with and-or conditions.

Segment Conditions

SimpleTexting has a decent amount of conditions to filter through your list. Here are some of the segmentation conditions available:

Your options for customer activity and demographic data are limited. The addition of custom fields, however, gives users flexibility in what data they want to store.

Specific operators included in SimpleTexting’s application are:

Segments dynamically change as your lists grow. There is also no limit to how many segments you can create.

Luckily, once you create segments they can be utilized in every part of SimpleTexting. That means keywords, campaigns, and autoresponders all allow you to send messages to your segments.

Message Creation

SimpleTexting’s message creation is flexible and guided, but doesn’t sacrifice complexity. You’re given a variety of numbers to choose from, curated message templates, and unlimited amounts of custom fields. Message creation has the same ease as keyword creation.

Coverage

SimpleTexting provides both SMS and MMS coverage in the U.S., Canada, and some Caribbean countries like the Domincan Republic and the Dominican Republic. Upon signing up, you’re given five number types to choose from:

Note that switching numbers is free of charge, but short codes are available on a case-by-case basis through the compliance team.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields are a great way to personalize your messages and automate your workflow. In addition to their default fields, SimpleTexting gives you the ability to create your own custom fields. You can use them on your web-forms, autoresponders, campaigns, and segmentation.

Templates

SMS templates are great for communicating effectively with subscribers, or working as inspiration for your own campaigns. SimpleTexting takes a curated, user-friendly approach with their templates.

Instead of having a masterlist of templates, SimpleTexting curates its templates based on what sort of message you’re sending. Luckily, there are plenty to choose from. Here are some of the different types of templates:

Campaign Building

Campaign building in SimpleTexting is diverse and easy to set up, but there aren’t many opportunities to store subscriber data for segmentation. Still, custom campaign creation is just as intuitive as keyword creation. Alternative campaigns such as custom polls and contests are also available, and unique ways to engage with your growing subscriber list.

Custom Campaigns

Building a campaign in SimpleTexting is straightforward. Just choose your campaign name and message type. From there, you can pick any custom fields, templates, or media you want to send out. You can then choose to send your message to any list or segment you’ve created.

Usually, it’s best practice to send a test message to yourself to see what your campaign looks like for your contacts. Unfortunately, there’s no way to send a message to yourself without spending credits. SimpleTexting provides a message preview to make up for this, but if seeing how the text looks like in a real use case is important for you, this could be an issue.

Alternative Campaigns

Custom campaigns are the main way to utilize SMS marketing, but SimpleTexting doesn’t just stop there. Here are some premade campaigns SimpleTexting provides you:

If you’re looking for a variety of campaigns that take minutes to get running, SimpleTexting is for you. Still, there are a few concerns to consider, the first being segmentation opportunities.

The only subscriber data that’s storable comes from the Data Collection campaign. Even then, it can only be used once when you’re building your list, not with existing subscribers.

This doesn't necessarily make the other campaigns useless. In fact, they’re still all personable ways to engage with new and existing subscribers, and we highly recommend them if you’re looking to build customer engagement. But if data collection and subscriber information is important for your work, alternatives like SlickText might better suit your needs.

The second concern regards the user experience. These campaigns can only be found in the Apps & Integrations tab. It would be helpful if they were all choosable from the keywords or campaigns tabs instead. To customers who are new to SMS marketing and looking for a guided experience, this could be an issue.

A/B Testing

SimpleTexting does not support dedicated A/B testing. You have to set up A/B tests yourself and import them into SimpleTexting.

In order to set up A/B tests, you must first export your subscriber list, then open it up in a spreadsheet software like Excel. You must then split your list in two, and randomize one of the columns. After you cut half of your contacts and paste them in a new sheet, you import both new sheets back into SimpleTexting. Only then can you start A/B testing.

SimpleTexting excels in usability and design, but A/B testing feels unintuitive. Options like SMSBump and Postscript have user-friendly A/B testing functionality built into their product.

Two-Way Conversations

SimpleTexting has a dedicated inbox where you can manage two-way conversations with subscribers. If you’re looking for a user friendly way to communicate with your subscribers or delegate conversations to internal employees, SimpleTexting is perfect for you.

Inbox

Whenever a subscriber responds to a message, be it automated or not, you’re immediately notified in the Inbox tab of SimpleTexting. The interface you’re greeted with is sleek and optimized for efficiency.

On the side, next to messages, is the subscriber’s contact information. Having access to contact info and the ability to change it during a conversation is very convenient. You’re even given the contact’s opt-in method and date for additional context.

Teammates

As your subscriber list grows, there are cases where you’ll want to delegate team members to text given customers. SimpleTexting allows you to add up to four teammates to your account, and assign them to any available phone number.

Once teammates are added to the phone number of your choice, you can assign conversations accordingly. Because every inbox conversation has a section for notes, you can provide any advice or context on your end to ensure your teammates are informed.

Automations

SimpleTexting has basic automation features. You can use triggers and autoresponders to automatically reply to customers who text a keyword or join your list. However, SimpleTexting does not have drip campaigns or advanced automation capabilities. More sophisticated marketing teams will find the tool limiting.

Triggers

Triggers, or sub-keywords, are an effective way to deliver information and engage with new subscribers. Once a subscriber opts-in through a keyword, your automated response can include trigger words that, once texted by the subscriber, trigger a new message.

You can set up triggers in your keyword campaign to respond to common questions, provide more information, or anything else you want to share with subscribers. There’s no limit to the number of triggers you can set up, but unfortunately, there’s no way to utilize data pulled from triggers in segmentation.

Autoresponders

Like keyword and campaign building, setting up your autoresponders is straightforward and intuitive. You can choose to send your message immediately after an opt-in, or after a delay of up to a month. There are also advanced scheduling options that allow your auto responses to only be sent on certain days and times.

These advanced scheduling options are very helpful. Unfortunately, they’re only available for autoresponders, which are for users who have recently opted-in. This puts limitations on your customer retention.

Analytics

When it comes to SMS Marketing, analytics can be used in a number of ways. SimpleTexting’s base analytics page is detailed enough depending on what line of work you’re in. If you want to access ecommerce-specific statistics like ROI and revenue, alternatives like Postscript or SMSBump might be better for you.

Dashboard

The analytics dashboard is comprehensive and easy to navigate. You can navigate through two different reports, your messaging report and subscribers report. Here’s the metrics they include:

Each report includes detailed statistics. Sifting through data feels seamless. Be forewarned, though, you can only export your report as a CSV.

SimpleTexting Integrations

SimpleTexting has a diverse selection of integrations – here are some of the most popular ones:

API

SimpleTexting also has a REST API that’s available with all plans. Some common uses of SimpleTexting’s API include:

SimpleTexting Customer Service

SimpleTexting’s customer support team is efficient, helpful, and available to tackle a diverse range of questions 7 days a week. You can reach them through live chat or phone. Hours for phone calls are 9am-9pm EST Monday through Friday, and 10am-5pm EST on the weekends. Weekend hours are the same for live chat, and 8am-12am EST on the weekdays.

SimpleTexting has one of the most robust libraries of educational material we’ve seen SMS tools provide. On their website, you can find free demos and tutorials on SMS marketing, and a wide selection of free guides they’ve written for various industries. These secondary materials are valuable for new and experienced players in the SMS marketing space.

SimpleTexting Alternatives & Competitors

SimpleTexting competes with a number of SMS marketing tools that either support all businesses or hone in on specific industries like ecommerce. Here are some of their top competitors:

Learn more about how SimpleTexting stacks up against its top individual competitors:

For a full breakdown, read our analysis of SimpleTexting Competitors & Alternatives.

Is SimpleTexting Right For You?

SimpleTexting is an affordable and powerful SMS marketing solution used by over 10,000 businesses. It includes essential features most SMS marketing tools have. Its strongest features are its campaign builder, keyword builder, and user interface.

SimpleTexting’s intuitive design, ease of use, and affordability make it a perfect choice for small businesses, especially those new to SMS marketing. Its segmentation, however, will limit marketers looking to target their subscriber base as specifically as possible. If this is the case, alternatives like SlickText might be more ideal.

If you're interested, you can try SimpleTexting today.