Mass text messaging offers SMS service features through an SMS API to send mass texts to large volumes of target audiences. Compare the leading mass text message providers for USA businesses with our simple to follow SMS comparison in 2024, reviewing providers such as BulkSMS.
By Max Adler / Updated: Monday, March 11th, 2024
Mass text messaging, or mass texting is a marketing communication tool that enables businesses to send and receive a large volume of bulk text messages (or SMS) to target audiences’ mobile phones. Businesses in the USA and worldwide are choosing SMS marketing as the best way to directly communicate with audiences, whether this is to new or existing customers, staff members, or other stakeholders.
With mass texting services, small businesses and large enterprises can automate and schedule their SMS marketing campaign messages and send mass texts in form of appointment reminders, upcoming sales and promotions, competitions, and alerts in real-time.
Knowing how to compare mass text message providers is crucial to ensuring a business chooses a provider’s marketing platform that will best suit their individual requirements. As SMS providers offer marketing software with a range of services at differing prices, there are multiple factors marketers should consider. The following aspects should be taken into consideration in order to accurately compare SMS providers:
BulkSMS is the best mass texting service provider for USA businesses to conduct bulk SMS marketing based on their:
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The table below displays the prices for BulkSMS, with no hidden fees or contracts.
The only additional cost for United States businesses is for incoming long numbers, which are used for text message marketing purposes. Cheaper mass text message prices are available for larger volume requirements (50,000+ messages). Therefore, American businesses should visit BulkSMS and request a tailored quote to send and receive mass text messages via messaging apps throughout the USA and worldwide. There is a money-back guarantee on all pricing points with refunds offered for unused credits if a client is unhappy with the service provided.
Most mass texting service providers will offer a range of SMS payment methods through a debit or credit card. Payments can be made on a monthly basis (payment plan) or using a pay-as-you-go or pre-paid method, with the more credits purchased, the more low cost per text message.
The BulkSMS text messaging utilizes JSON for requests which are recommended for most API integration. JSON deals with long messages in various languages and multimedia messages, and enables webhooks, which allow text messages to be received back to a web server, as well as publishing status reports for monitoring purposes.
Other 5 best mass texting service features include:
A unique feature of BulkSMS is their Marketo and ClickDimensions integration. This offers two-way text message communications directly with ClickDimensions and Marketo, which allows recipients to reply to a business’s mass text messages. Replies go to the CRM directly allowing for workflow actions. The key benefits are the ability to send messages to large custom group texting segments, improved reporting and Salesforce functionality.
Furthermore, SMS providers such as BulkSMS offer text message marketing automation which enables businesses to schedule their campaigns ahead of time and automate the time and content that messages are being sent.
Such services are highly effective in scheduling messages for drip campaigns (for example, to send multiple automated messages and auto-replies for upcoming promotions), and social media integration. Many SMS providers also offer a text-to-speech function that enables businesses to text particular messages which can then be converted into a voice call or voice mail, which can be highly effective for SMS marketing campaigns.
Being a global mass text message provider, BulkSMS has over 1,000 reviews with a 4/5 on Trustpilot. The key to their positive reviews is their ease of use, the fact that they don’t lock customers into a monthly contract, their reliability (99.9% up-time guarantee), and no credit expiry. Customers can simply text STOP to discontinue receiving the SMS messages from the business, thus complying to the mobile marketing regulations within the USA.
BulkSMS offers both e-mail and phone support from their call center. This enables round-the-clock support for American businesses at any time they require it. The local USA phone number is+27 21 528 3420 and the support team can be contacted via the email address [email protected]
The mass text message provider also offers additional support through video tutorials, FAQs, and government regulation information.
A mass texting service (also known as a bulk texting service) provides business SMS marketing solutions through:
Some mass texting service providers offer SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer). This protocol used by the American telecommunication providers allows exchanging text messages between Short Message Service Centres and External Short Messaging Entities. This protocol is level 7 TCP/IP and can minimise the latency of text messages sent. Version 3.3 SMPP is the most widely used within USA while version 3.4 has transceiver support allowing 2 way SMS solutions.
The above four laws and regulations should be considered nationally while different states may have additional policies. The TCPA act requires communication only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and only when prior consent is provided. The CAN-SPAM policy complements the TCPA and ensures that mass texting has a ‘STOP’ service to opt-out of future communication.
The national do not call registry acknowledged by the TCPA has a list of numbers that can’t be contacted without specific conditions met while COPPA prevents communication to children under 13 years of old. These should all be considered prior to any SMS marketing campaign executed in the USA.
American companies are quickly learning the benefits of using a mass SMS service within their organization. Mass text message services are most commonly associated with SMS marketing campaigns, providing special deals to customers who opt-in to receive special deals and alerts. Thus, US businesses are able to target specific customers on their contact lists, and these users can then simply text STOP to opt-out.
More recently, governments and councils have discovered the immediacy and cut-through of SMS when used as an information tool. With USA’s diverse weather conditions it became apparent that a reliable and scalable alert system was required. SMS can be more than just a mobile marketing solution. With the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of mobile phones on multiple networks within seconds, mass SMS has quickly become a trusted and reliable tool used by hundreds of councils and authorities across the country.
Purchasing SMS in bulk is an effective method of keeping the overall cost per text message to a minimum. Most bulk SMS providers will offer very low rates per SMS when you make a bulk purchase, allowing you to use as many or as few SMS per send without the worry of an expiration date. For this reason, organizations from gyms and social clubs to online services prefer to purchase their SMS in bulk and keep their customers and consumers happy with regular offers and updates.
An SMS Marketing campaign can be an extremely effective communication channel for your marketing messages. However, to ensure maximum efficiency, you want to use SMS segmentation and targeting to ensure your SMS reaches the right person at the right time. Every customer on your list should be segmented across important demographics to ensure that the right messaging reaches the right target.
Types of mobile user segments for SMS marketing are based on:
A number of Bulk Text Message providers in the US (such as Nexmo) enable businesses to rent different types of phone numbers for varying prices. These phone numbers are listed below:
A plethora of mass text messaging USA service offers a trial session where you can see the way the whole text messaging service process transpires from start to finish. There is a range of free trial offers ranging from a time period of 14 days available from Burst SMS to a free trial through a number of SMSes, whether it is 5 SMS to 35 SMS. Other mass SMS providers do charge such as EZ Texting with a minimal cost of US$2.29. Whilst International company MessageBird does not offer a free trial period. By checking mass text messaging USA providers’ websites, you will see what free trial they offer.
Bulk SMS USA companies provide a range of featured Business Texting platforms for sending text messages to customers, clients or employees in a cost-effective, efficient and secure manner. They can be sending an SMS online, importing contacts and managing lists of customers and staff. Bulk SMS USA services are able to integrate their SMS gateway with your website or software using SMS API tools and add text messaging to your business workflow. Business SMS services that are also offered by Bulk SMS USA providers include two-way, online text messaging chat, which is ideal for remote communications and using dedicated SMS numbers to receive inbound SMS and replies to your text messages from customers and employees.
SMS providers such as Messente offer a full range of business-critical solutions, including PIN codes, two-factor authentication, time-sensitive reminders. This can all be conducted through a scalable SMS API gateway.
As discussed in our recent SMS marketing statistics for 2024 article, SMS is very effective as a marketing tool for reaching out to large numbers of present and potential customers through mass text messaging USA providers. 98% of text messages are opened, compared to just 20% of emails. Additionally, SMS messages are more likely to be opened and responded to within just 3 minutes of being delivered. This makes SMS marketing a reliable form of communication, particularly for marketing campaigns, autoresponders, subscriber information for subscribers, confirmations, promotions, contests, and appointment reminders, as some examples. Furthermore, many SMS providers also offer MMS gateway options that enable businesses to send mass numbers of photos, videos and other visual promotional material to selected mobile phones.
Through the customer engagement of mass SMS USA companies, you can evaluate how to improve your campaign or promotion by reviewing detailed reports that will assist you to boost better responses. SMS marketing can assist in organizing campaign creations, automated personalization and unsubscribed management.
Ultimately, SMS marketing is highly effective for any business wanting to improve its customer relationships and brand awareness. Many industries around the globe utilize this messaging platform to connect with their customers in new ways. These industries include:
Learn more about the benefits of SMS marketing for USA businesses in 2024 by viewing our SMS marketing guide below.
SMS Marketing Guide >>
Mass texting also known as Bulk Messaging allows a large number of text messages to be delivered through mobile carriers. This is primarily used by businesses looking to communicate to existing or prospective customers due to the 98% open rate of SMS messages. Mass Text Messaging provider’s software allows integration with CRM, e-mail or databases.
In order to send mass text messages via email (for email marketing services) providers such as Gmail, a paid mass texting service provider such as Clickatell, Clicksend and Direct SMS is required. These gateways can plugin through Google Apps (or any other mass text message app) to Gmail contacts, dates and other information and send text messages. Rules can be set to determine and customize these bulk Text Messaging messages.
Many businesses may ask the question of how to send mass text messages. A mass text messaging program is able to use a specific or originating dedicated short code or long codes methods alongside predefined templates to be able to distribute large volumes of text messages to a mobile phone or mobile devices (including both iOS or Android devices) at a specified time.
Mass SMS marketing has become a highly effective form of communication, with many American businesses utilizing this two-way communication to form long-lasting relationships with target audiences. Every SMS service provider in the USA uses an SMS gateway to send SMS messages to a target audience’s cell phone – whether it be to clients, customers or organizations.
An SMS comparison table has been developed to identify and compare the services and products offered by these SMS providers using an independent yet well-analyzed SMS Bulk Comparison Table. The information has been summarised into a simplified, readable, and easy-to-follow tabulated format to provide you with key information on selection criteria such as message distribution costs, network availability, composing online to single and bulk recipients, credit availability, service support, and so on.
It should be stressed that the information provided in the table should only be used as a guide as prices and features may be updated at any time by the SMS Gateway providers’ websites without any prior notification. This comparison website also reviews Twilio, Textedly Trumpia, Clickatell, Wholesale SMS, SlickText, and SimpleTexting, but they did not make the short-list to five providers in this particular comparison. Also, read our guide to the difference between mass texting and one-on-one texting.
After working with SMS providers over several years, the authors of this site understand how time-consuming and difficult it can be to compare mass texting services. To simplify the process, a set of criteria was created to suit most American businesses’ needs. The information on the table came from the American text message websites. On some occasions, the providers were contacted to verify the information and some providers recommended providing an affiliate payment for traffic to their inventory. We also have a how-to guide and a companies checklist on our site.
Published by Simon Mannheimer
Is sending mass texts legal in the US?
Hi Sam,
Sure is! In fact, sending mass text messages is a great way to reach target audiences in a timely and efficient manner. There are a few laws and regulations as stated by the CAN-SPAM act in the USA that all businesses must abide by when conducting their SMS marketing strategies. Things such as gaining consent from the recipient, not using false, misleading, or deceptive information, and honouring the ability for users to “opt-out” to campaigns are amongst the rules that businesses should follow at all times.
To learn more information, visit the official FTC government guidelines.
You said at the top that Twilio was best for large volume texting, however you haven’t given any info on them. ClickSend – in Perth, Australia. I’m in east coast USA, is phone support a problem in this case???
Hi Ranman,
You can find out more information about Twilio on our Twilio review online. You can also compare Twilio directly with other SMS providers such as ClickSend.
ClickSend‘s head office is based in Perth, Australia, however provide SMS services to USA businesses as they have partnerships with large telecommunication providers such as Virgin, AT&T and Verizon. The provider also has 24/7 support through their website and a dedicate USA customer service number.
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