SimpleTexting Review

Why SimpleTexting Is Best for Customization

Of the text message marketing services we reviewed, SimpleTexting goes the furthest to provide a customized experience to all users. It includes unlimited custom keywords with all plans, whereas some of SimpleTexting’s more affordable competitors, such as Textedly, set keyword caps. The top of your dashboard shows the number of keywords you’re using, and this number can keep growing without limits.

If you sign up for a plan that gives you at least 7,500 messages per month, SimpleTexting will build custom integrations in-house at no added charge. You’ll also be paired with a dedicated success manager whom you can regularly meet with to get tips and build an SMS marketing strategy. These services are uncommon among competitors; only EZ Texting comes close on either front.

FYI: If you pay for more than 7,500 messages per month, SimpleTexting’s team can build you custom integrations at no added cost.

Usability

It’s in the name: SimpleTexting’s user interface is simple to learn and use. The reason SimpleTexting is not our top pick for ease of use – see our ProTexting review for that use case – isn’t that it’s hard to navigate. Rather, SimpleTexting’s advanced features are even more notable than its user-friendly design, so we decided to focus on customization as its unique core strength.

Pretty much everything you need in a text message marketing platform is visible and accessible from the SimpleTexting homepage. Only the Settings tool lies slightly out of view, and bringing it up is quick: Just drag your cursor to the navigation column on the left and scroll down.

Other than that, everything is in plain sight: Your inbox, campaigns, autoresponders, keywords, apps, contacts, analytics and integrations are on the left side of the screen. In the center, additional windows indicate your plan and current number, and you’ll see your inbox and analytics yet again. The inbox looks like this:

You can access the SimpleTexting help center from the top-right corner of the screen. There are 10 how-to videos in the help center, including one with a full demo of the dashboard. This is the closest you’ll get to guided training. However, if you buy more than 7,500 message credits per month, you get a dedicated account manager for one-on-one support. Although this person helps primarily with more advanced concerns, they can presumably show you the basics, too.

Integrations are fully customized to your needs, so they are easy to use by default. Lower-tier customers can integrate SimpleTexting directly with Mailchimp or use Zapier to build other connections. These integrations are usually simple to use, but nothing is quite as seamless as a customized experience.

Features

Analytics

As with most other text message marketing services we reviewed, SimpleTexting includes analytics for messages sent and delivered alongside the number of recipients who unsubscribe. Unlike some (but not all) competitors, SimpleTexting allows you to see click-through rates and total clicks on any links you include in your texts. You might find this feature useful if you’re sending a customer loyalty survey via text and you want to track engagement levels, for example.

Web Sign-Up Forms and Images

SimpleTexting gives you tools to customize and embed a text list sign-up form on your website. You can use these tools to generate web forms and images for customers to easily sign up for your texts. A video on the SimpleTexting website shows a great use case for this tool. You can create a “claim discount” button that appears when someone shops on your website; when the person clicks this button, your sign-up image appears.

Custom Integrations

Abundant integrations are key to any great software platform, and most SMS marketing companies adhere to this principle. SimpleTexting goes a step further: If you sign up for a plan with 7,500  or more credits, you can request custom integrations. SimpleTexting will create these integrations in-house based on your specifications and needs. These integrations will be exactly what you want them to be – no more, no less. No competitor provides this level of care and service with integrations.

Dedicated Success Manager

If you send 7,500 or more messages per month, you get a dedicated account manager who can provide text message marketing tips and help you with your text message marketing strategy. In our reviews and research, we found that SimpleTexting is one of just a few SMS marketing companies that provide these kinds of tools and strategic planning.

Custom Keywords

Custom keywords let you designate your own sign-up words and tether subscribers to these keywords. Alongside this feature comes, more importantly, an unlimited number of keywords.

You can create a new subscriber list for any keyword or add a new list with every new keyword. This keyword can send an autoresponse to the customer, as is par for the course. In addition, you can connect each keyword to SimpleTexting apps and track engagement.

Text Campaigns

The best text message marketing services include a campaign tool; an SMS marketing platform isn’t quite complete without one. SimpleTexting does include a campaign tool, and it’s outstanding. You can set filters so that only certain campaigns appear and view analytics directly from each campaign. SimpleTexting also lets you export these analytics in a CSV file.

Cost

SimpleTexting offers a 14-day free trial that includes unlimited use of all features, as well as 50 free messages. If you’re happy with SimpleTexting, you can sign up for one of eight pricing plans, which vary according to the number of credits. SMS messages use one credit, and MMS (picture or video) messages use three. You also get free incoming messages, unlimited contacts and keywords, a dedicated toll-free number, customer support seven days a week, rollover credits and five users.

SimpleTexting’s rates are on a par with the industry standard.

• 500 credits per month: $29 per month when paid monthly, or $23.20 per month when paid annually; each additional credit costs 5.5 cents.
• 1,000 credits per month: $49 per month when paid monthly, or $39.20 per month when paid annually; each additional credit costs 5 cents.
• 2,000 credits per month: $79 per month when paid monthly, or $63.20 per month when paid annually; each additional credit costs 4 cents.
• 3,000 credits per month: $109 per month when paid monthly, or $87.20 per month when paid annually; each additional credit costs 4 cents.
• 7,500 credits per month: $229 per month when paid monthly, or $183.20 per month when paid annually; each additional credit costs 3.5 cents, and you also get custom integrations with over 400 apps and a dedicated account manager.
• 25,000 credits per month: $549 per month when paid monthly, or $439.20 per month when paid annually; each additional credit costs 2.5 cents, and you also get custom integrations with over 400 apps and a dedicated account manager.
• 50,000 credits per month: $899 per month when paid monthly, or $719.20 per month when paid  annually; each additional credit costs 2 cents, and you get a dedicated account manager and custom integrations.
• More than 50,000 credits per month: Contact SimpleTexting for a custom plan.

All SimpleTexting plans include all features (minus the custom integrations and dedicated account manager available with the higher-tier plans). The only add-ons are extra phone numbers beyond the dedicated toll-free number that comes with your account. Each number you add to your account costs $10 per month.

Setup

As with most text message marketing services, SimpleTexting arrives pretty much ready to go. You might need 10 minutes or so to add your keywords, contact lists and autoresponders. You might also need a few more minutes for each app you integrate with SimpleTexting. After that, you’re mostly ready to go.

Though custom integrations are a unique feature that separates SimpleTexting from the competition, they can take a long time to develop and implement. You can use the platform just fine without them, but in the meantime, you’ll have to manually execute the workflows that your integrations will cover.

Of course, these custom integrations are special partly because they come at no additional cost. The same can be said for all parts of the SimpleTexting setup, which is typical for SMS marketing services. You’ll pay extra only for any phone numbers you add to your account besides the included 10-digit toll-free number.

Customer Service

SimpleTexting provides customer service nearly around the clock on weekdays, always at no extra cost. You can call SimpleTexting’s customer service line Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to midnight ET. Customer service is available on weekends too, including on Sundays, which is rare among the other text message marketing services we reviewed. On Saturdays and Sundays, the SimpleTexting customer service line is active from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.

Did you know? SimpleTexting is one of only a few text message marketing services with Sunday customer service hours.

Live chat is also available from the SimpleTexting dashboard and the company’s website. When you open the live chat tool, you’ll see suggested articles, step-by-step videos and guides to new changes. In some cases, these features can solve your problem before you contact a live chat agent. If you do reach out, you might receive some links to potentially helpful articles as you await a response. That said, although the SimpleTexting live chat tool states a typical response time of under five minutes, we waited 15 minutes to hear back.

Notably, SimpleTexting does not appear to have a customer service email address, so you can’t reach SimpleTexting for help outside its customer support hours. However, because SimpleTexting offers more extensive customer service hours than most of the other services we reviewed, the lack of email support may not be significant.

Drawbacks

Although most text message marketing companies have begun to include QR codes, SimpleTexting has yet to do so. That places the company behind the curve on what’s rapidly becoming a major SMS marketing tool. With QR codes, your small business can print a graphic that customers can use to preload their texting app with your number and sign-up keyword, but you can’t do this with SimpleTexting.

Another minor drawback is that the company lacks email support, which most competitors do include. However, SimpleTexting is available via phone or live chat for a total of 94 hours per week, which is considerably more than the hours offered by other text message marketing services.

Methodology

SimpleTexting is one of over a dozen SMS marketing platforms we reviewed. It’s also one of five text message marketing tools for which company representatives gave us a guided, recorded demo and a free trial. These demos were the bedrock of our research. We also browsed SimpleTexting’s website for additional information and paid close attention to customizable features throughout our research. On that front, we found that SimpleTexting hit the marks better than any other brand, which is why we selected it as the best text message marketing service for customization.

Bottom Line

We recommend SimpleTexting for …

• Small businesses that need pitch-perfect, low-cost integrations between their text message marketing platform and a variety of other platforms.
• Small businesses seeking strategic advice and consultations from their text message marketing provider.
• Small businesses that send enough text messages to qualify for plans that include the two above services.
• Small businesses looking to embed SMS subscription forms on their websites.

We don’t recommend SimpleTexting for …

• Small businesses that plan to use QR codes to grow their text message subscriber list.
• Small business owners who prefer to receive customer support via email.