The Most Valuable Thing a Text Messaging Service Can Offer

What's the single most important thing you should look for in a text messaging service?

Is it automated reminders? Reminders can reduce no-shows and increase revenue.

Is it text-to-vote polling? Understanding your customers' preferences can unlock bottom line-boosting gains.

Is it text-to-landline functionality? Customers could be texting your landline now, and you wouldn't know it.

No, it's not a single feature, though features are important.

In this post, we'll show you which overarching platform characteristic is a must-have for the text messaging service you choose.

Text Messaging Service: It Must Be Simple to Use

When looking for the best bulk text messaging service, simplicity should be at the top of your criteria list. You wear a lot of hats and have a long to-do list. Learning to use an unnecessarily complicated text marketing software shouldn't be one of those list items.

And the chances are good that you won't be the only one using the service. Will you be able to cross-train another team member to use it quickly?

Text message marketing is simple, fast, and effective.

You don't have to figure out how to optimize for Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn's mysterious algorithms to get your message to show up for your contacts at the right time. A study revealed that 90% of text messages are read within the first three minutes of receipt.

When composing text marketing campaigns, you won't be at your computer for hours writing and editing in-depth blog posts (like this one). At 160 characters max, Short Message Service (SMS) texts are necessarily brief. You'll be done with the writing task in a minute or two.

You also don't have to write a catchy subject line hoping people will open your message. Our study revealed that 98% of messages sent from our platform are opened. (Compare that with the average open rate of email at 21% and you'll see why marketers are flocking to text messages to connect with their contacts.)

If text message marketing is simple, fast, and effective, your text messaging service should be as well.

How to Know if a Text Messaging Service is Simple (Easy-to-Use)

This simplicity characteristic sounds like a logical litmus test to use when evaluating a mass text messaging service, but how do you know which platforms are easy-to-use? Here are a couple of ways to assess ease-of-use.

Is the sign-up and get started process straight-forward?

Most text messaging services have a free trial to let you kick the tires a bit. You can take advantage of this opportunity to determine if the platform will be easy-to-use. If just getting started is hard, the platform will be a pain.

Does the free trial include an automated tour showing you which parts of the interface are the most important as you begin your small business text message marketing journey? Put platforms at the top of your list which provide quick highlights and logical steps as you get started in their system.

Does getting started feel like completing an obstacle course? It shouldn't.

Do customer reviews mention ease-of-use? 

Look through reviews of bulk messaging services to see if their users talk about simplicity. Do they mention having to contact support just to get started? Look for keywords in these reviews like fast, simple, easy, intuitive, straight-forward, and user-friendly.

Simplicity and More

Simplicity is the most important thing to look for, but that's not all you should consider. It's just a minimum bar a software should pass.

Once you determine that a service is simple, begin considering other factors like customer service, features, and pricing. Checking reviews is a good place to start to judge these components as well.

Even with a simple platform and good help documentation, you'll eventually run into a problem to solve or a question to answer. Is the customer support team responsive, friendly, and knowledgeable?

To get the most from text marketing campaigns, you'll want to go beyond just the normal text blast. Will you be able to chat with your contacts, develop drip campaigns, set up text reminders for business, and send recurring messages? Look for a robust set of features in a text message marketing software.

Will you get a positive ROI from your text marketing investment? If the platform doesn't give you the power you need for the right price, keep looking. Make sure to balance the cost with the factors above and evaluate services based on value.

Is Sending Your First Text Simple?

Now that you know which characteristic is the most important and some additional factors to consider for platforms which get over that first hurdle, it's time to try one out.

We're confident that you'll find EZ Texting to be one of, if not the most easy-to-use text messaging services on the market. We've worked with over 210,000 customers during the past decade, and we've pushed hard to make our interface simple and straightforward.

Put us to the test by evaluating our trial sign-up and getting started process.

Start your timer. EZ is so easy to use, you'll send your first test message in 5 minutes. Click here to get started.

Photo: Getty Images/skyNext