When inquiring about marketers’ preferred engagement channels, you’d be surprised to discover that SMS marketing is not a top choice for many.
With 80.5% of mobile phone users checking their text notifications within five minutes of receiving a message, businesses should increasingly leverage SMS marketing for quick and impactful customer interactions.
The channel is useful for Shopify businesses looking to improve their performance and audience reach.
In this article, we’ll share tips to help you find the best SMS marketing app for Shopify. We’ll also highlight the most promising options for your consideration.
What is SMS marketing software?
SMS marketing software is a tool that allows you to send targeted marketing messages to your subscribers as a regular campaign or part of marketing automation. It works like email marketing software, or sometimes even can be the same that collects and helps to manage subscribers and implement effective communication strategy.
SMS marketing can help you organize special promotions, boost revenue through personalized product recommendations and deals.
You can also use the best SMS marketing app for Shopify to share critical updates. These updates include order confirmation, shipping details, and other post-purchase communications.
In addition, you have the option to set up automated messages based on specific triggers, such as new users joining your SMS list and cart abandonment.
Moreover, over 50% of consumers say texting is a faster and more convenient way to reach them. As a result, Shopify text message marketing is a powerful strategy to grow your online business.
SMS marketing software solutions differ in build and functionality. Nevertheless, you can enjoy the following SMS marketing services:
- Bulk messaging: To help simultaneously send promotional messages to many subscribers
- Two-way conversation: To facilitate one-on-one engagement with customers
- MMS: To allow you to add rich media like images and GIFs to boost engagement
- Opt-out management: To enable subscribers to opt out of your SMS list so you can stay compliant.
- SMS list building: Features like popups and signup forms help you build a robust SMS list
- Omnichannel capabilities: While SMS is powerful alone, combining it with another channel like email marketing greatly enhances your outreach efforts
- Automation: This helps you deliver automated messages based on specific triggers, such as abandoned carts
- Tracking and analytics: This helps track the performance of your Shopify text marketing campaigns and provides insights to improve your strategies.
How do you choose the best SMS marketing platform for Shopify?
Now that you understand the role of SMS marketing software, let’s examine factors to consider when choosing the best SMS marketing app for Shopify.
Features and functionalities
We’ve already explored the top features of an SMS marketing app. However, it’s important to evaluate the app’s features and only choose one that aligns with your business objectives.
Specifically, you want to prioritize platforms with advanced personalization and automation capabilities. This will help you run targeted campaigns that get customers to act.
Ease of use
Your preferred SMS Shopify app should have an intuitive interface and a user-friendly design to navigate the platform easily. It will help you save time and make campaign management a breeze.
Compliance and regulations
Promotional text messages are subject to consumer protection regulations, such as GDPR in Europe and TCPA in the US. The SMS marketing app you choose should help you adhere to these regulations. Ensure the app offers the following features:
- Double opt-in for SMS subscribers
- Opt-out mechanisms
- Consent management
Integration with Shopify
The SMS marketing app you choose should integrate seamlessly with your Shopify ecosystem. A seamless integration creates a streamlined campaign management experience.
To determine if an app integrates seamlessly with Shopify, check the app’s rating on the Shopify app store and read reviews from past users.
Scalability
The platform you choose should be capable of scaling to accommodate your growing business needs.
Cost
Look for a robust SMS marketing platform that fits within your budget. Avoid extremely cheap tools because they may lack the essential features you need to run successful campaigns.
Most popular Shopify SMS marketing apps
To help you effectively communicate with your audience via text messages, we have compiled a list of the top SMS marketing apps for Shopify.
1. Omnisend
Image via Omnisend
Rated 4.8/5 on Shopify, Omnisend is a reliable SMS marketing tool for text campaigns. The platform has an intuitive interface that makes designing SMS campaigns easier.
The tool has advanced personalization capabilities to help you deliver relevant messages to your audience.
You can personalize your customer’s name and text messages based on different actions. This includes personal details such as the customer’s purchase history, browsing behavior, and more.
Customers love personalized messages, and it increases your chances of successfully converting them.
The tool makes it easy to build your SMS list through popups and signup forms.
With Omnisend, you can run SMS campaigns independently or combine them with email marketing to maximize the impact of your marketing messages.
Key features:
- Ready-to-go SMS automation workflows for different scenarios
- Fully compliant with consumer protection regulations
- Multiple list-building tools such as popups, landing pages, signup forms, and Wheel of Fortune
- Robust analytics to help you improve your campaigns
- Combined email+SMS Campaign Booster
- Has award-winning 24/7 support for all users
- Easy-to-use SMS campaign builder
- Simple and transparent pricing
- Worldwide SMS
- All features available on all plans
- Its many features might be daunting for users who are looking for a basic platform
- The signup forms on the free plan look basic
Pricing
Omnisend has a free plan and two paid plans:
- Free: Up to 60 SMS per month
- Standard: From $16 per month. Gives you 60 SMS credits. The free SMS credits are commensurate with the price of your plan and number of subscribers.
- Pro: From $59 per month. Gives you 3,933 free SMS credits The free SMS credits are commensurate with the price of your plan and number of subscribers.
- $0,015/SMS in US
- $0,045/MMS in US
2. Klaviyo
Image via Klaviyo
Klaviyo has a rating of 4.0/5, making it one of the best SMS marketing apps for Shopify. The platform’s features include dynamic signup forms and popups to help you add more subscribers to your SMS list.
Klaviyo also supports audience segmentation, allowing you to deliver relevant messages to specific audience groups. Additionally, the SMS function supports two-way communication to foster direct customer engagement.
Creating SMS campaigns is easy with Klaviyo. The platform comes with 20+ pre-built automated workflows you can customize to your brand’s needs. The SMS campaign builder is intuitive to help you create captivating messages effortlessly.
By simplifying the campaign setup process, Klaviyo allows you to focus on creating compelling content to convert more users. You can also add MMS and GIFs to your SMS to amplify your message.
Key features:
- Built-in compliance features help you run your SMS campaigns with confidence
- Collects first-party data to help you personalize your text messages
- Delivers real-time analytics for each campaign and automation to help you gauge your performance
- It can combine SMS and email marketing to increase your customer touchpoints
- Supports A/B testing to help you determine winning campaign elements
- Omnichannel marketing tool for enhanced visibility
- Easy to set up and build campaigns
- Robust reporting and analytics
- Limited support compared to other Shopify text marketing apps
- It doesn’t provide sufficient onboarding for new users
- Although the price per SMS is smaller, overall this platform is more expensive than Omnisend.
Pricing
Klaviyo has a free plan and two paid plans:
- Free: 150 free SMS/MMS credits per month
- Email: From $20 per month, gives 150 free SMS/MMS credits
- Email & SMS: From $35 per month, gives you 1,250 free SMS/MMS credits
- $0,01/SMS in US
- $0,03/SMS in US
3. SMSBump
Image via SMSBump
SMSBump is a robust SMS marketing app that Yotpo recently acquired. Rated 4.9/5 on Shopify, many consider it the best SMS marketing app for Shopify. The app uses data-rich segmentation to deliver personalized customer experiences.
It also comes with robust automation capabilities, allowing you to send the right message at the right time. To make it easy for you to build your SMS list, SMSBump offers multiple subscription methods, such as:
- Branded popups
- Subscription forms
- Floating buttons
- Footers
When you’re ready to build your first SMS campaign, SMSBump provides multiple templates for you to choose from. You can also create triggers for specific campaigns to ensure you engage customers effectively.
Key features:
- The flow builder allows you to deliver relevant messaging at each stage of the customer journey
- Supports two-way communication to improve your customer interactions
- Built-in compliance features ensure your campaigns are compliant with privacy regulations
- Provides real-time analytics to help you define winning strategies
- Offers international texting to help you connect with a global audience
- Allows you to send text messages in the customer’s time zone
- Offers 24/7 customer support
- High SMS deliverability rate
- More expensive compared to other Shopify text messaging apps
- The interface can be a little bit confusing for first-time users
- Lacks sufficient onboarding resources for new users
- Doesn’t have features to send combined email+SMS campaign
Pricing
SMSBump has a free plan and three paid plans:
- Free: $0.0165 per SMS (US)
- Growth: $19 per month–$0.0149 per SMS (US)
- Prime: $59 per month–$0.0142 per SMS (US)
- Powerhouse: $199 per month–$0.0130 per SMS (US)
4. Postscript
Image via Postscript
With a rating of 4.9/5 on the Shopify app store, Postscript is one of the best SMS marketing apps for online merchants. The app caters solely to SMS marketing and has robust features to help create meaningful conversations.
The user-friendly tool comes with a seamless builder to help you create campaigns in minutes. The tool’s flow builder also allows you to schedule messages depending on predetermined conditions. You can schedule the messages to be delivered at certain times.
Growing your subscriber list is easy with Postscript. The tool offers dynamic subscription forms and popups you can use to collect user information.
The tool also has segmentation to help you engage with your audience. However, the segmentation isn’t as robust as other tools on this list offer.
Key features:
- Personalizes your SMS campaigns to help you deliver awesome experiences
- Offers scalable two-way communication
- Allows you to A/B test different campaign elements and strategies
- Built-in campaign analytics
- Supports rich media such as images and GIFs
- It’s easy to personalize your text messages
- Reliable customer support
- Provides lots of onboarding material
- It doesn’t provide popup analytics
- The UX is a bit clunky
- Limited segmentation options
Pricing:
Postscript has a free plan and two paid plans:
- Starter: No monthly fee. $0.015/SMS, $0.045/MMS + carrier fees
- Growth: $100 per month. $0.01/SMS, $0.03/MMS + carrier fees
- Professional: $500 per month. $0.007/SMS, $0.024/MMS + carrier fees
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
5. Privy.com
Image via Privy
Privy is an easy-to-use, well-known platform for Shopify merchants. It has a 4.6/5 star rating and hundreds of good reviews.
Primarily, Privy was built as a list-building solution, but over the years, it has expanded tremendously and now offers emails and SMS. Privy isn’t as robust as Klaviyo or Omnisend. However, ecommerce beginners can find many sufficient features on this platform, and SMS marketing is one of them.
Key features:
- Beautiful signup forms, including gamified Spin-to-Win
- Easy-to-use drag-and-drop email editor and plenty of modern email templates
- SMS marketing: after-signup and cart-saver texts
- Good customer support
- Beginner-friendly interface
- Beginner-friendly interface
- Quite pricey
- Some marketers may lack flexibility
- SMS is available for US and Canada recipients only
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Starter Plan: starts from $30 (doesn’t include SMS functionality)
- Growth plan: starts from $45
SMS marketing apps for Shopify: Wrap up
Utilizing the apps mentioned above can be a game-changer for your SMS marketing. SMS has a higher engagement rate, allowing you to deliver marketing messages effectively to your audience.
The highlighted tools have advanced automation and personalization capabilities to help you run successful SMS campaigns. They also offer dynamic subscription tools to help you build your email list.
To choose the best SMS marketing app for Shopify, use the highlighted criteria to pick the right tool for your business.