Broadcast Text Messaging Service

Reach tens, thousands, or more with our easy-to-use text broadcast service.

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Used By the World's Greatest Companies

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Send to Thousands

Send texts to all of your contacts at once, regardless of list size. Our platform supports both SMS and MMS broadcasts and can easily scale up or down as your messaging needs change.

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Get Your Messages Read

Text message open rates are as high as 98% within the first few minutes of sending — meaning SMS broadcasts are one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience.

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Maximize Engagement

With our rich suite of tools, you can easily tune your text messaging strategy to maximize engagement thanks to features like personalization, segmentation, and automation.

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What Is a Broadcast Text Message?

Broadcast text messaging, or SMS broadcasting, is the process of sending a single message to a large number of people. Also called mass texting or bulk messaging, this strategy is most often used for sending notifications and marketing promotions.

While broadcast messaging allows you to reach large lists of people, it also ensures that group details aren't shared. Additionally, since you can send both SMS and MMS messages, you're not limited to just text, but can also send images, animated GIFs, and videos.

Example of a text message broadcast used for marketing
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How to Send a Broadcast Text Message

Wondering how to send your first text broadcast? Even if you have no experience with mass texting, SlickText makes it easy to reach thousands of people in a matter of seconds. Here's how to get started.

Create a Textword List

The first step in sending a broadcast text is to create a textword. This is a word or phrase that people can text to your number as one of the many ways to subscribe. It's also the list that holds all of your contacts. This is what you'll be sending your message to.

Grow Your List

If you already have a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive your messages, you can import them directly into your SlickText account. In order to remain compliant with laws and carrier regulations, each person on your list needs to explicitly opt in to receive your texts.

If you don't have a list yet, we offer a number of list-growth features to help you get started. Some of these include website popups, QR codes, opt in forms, and social opt-in links.

Send Your Broadcast Text

Once you've built your list, you can start sending broadcast messages. All you have to do is select the textword list that you want to communicate with, type out your message and schedule it to be sent or send it on the spot. To maximize engagement, consider using personalization, segmentation, emojis, and/or MMS to stand out in people's inboxes.

Screenshot of how to send an SMS broadcast
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Ways to Use Broadcast Text Messaging

Since text broadcasting gives you the ability to communicate immediately with large groups of people, there's plenty of application potential. Here are just a few ways you can take advantage of text messaging at scale.

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Time-Sensitive Alerts

Have an urgent message? Want to send out a blast for an upcoming event? Or need to send time-sensitive reminders to customers or employees? With text message broadcasting, you can share messages that will be delivered to your entire list just seconds after pressing send.

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SMS Marketing

Broadcast text messaging gives you the opportunity to take your marketing strategy to the next level. Send exclusive offers to targeted lists, advertise in-person flash sales, announce new product launches — no matter what your message is, you can make sure it's seen by as many people as possible, driving traffic exactly where and when you want it.

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One-on-One Support

With SlickText's broadcast SMS service, you can connect directly with your subscribers through our inbox feature, personalizing the mass-message experience. If one of your contacts responds to a message, it'll automatically generate a private text thread where you can send responses directly and answer any questions.

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Important Features

Key Features To Look for in a Text Broadcasting Service

Not all text message broadcasting platforms are created equal, so you should carefully select one that satisfies your specific needs. Here are a few key features to look out for before making your final decision.

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List-Growth Tools

A growing list is the key to your broadcast messaging success. The service you choose should have a number of list-building tools to take advantage of so you can utilize multiple opt-in methods, including text to join keywords, scannable QR codes, and custom web forms.

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Segmentation & Personalization

With segmentation, you can use data you've collected — like order info, location, date subscribed and more — to create subsets of your audience, then send targeted broadcasts to subscribers who meet your criteria. Ideally, the platform you choose should offer segmentation as well as personalization, which allows you to include customer-specific information like names, birthdays, last order dates, and more.

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Automations & Workflows

Text automation can include anything from scheduling out your messages to building two-way conversations based on specific triggers, like abandoned carts or specific link clicks. If you pick a platform with the right automations and workflows, you can significantly reduce the amount of manual work on your end.

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Tracking & Analytics

In order to refine your broadcast SMS strategy, you'll need to analyze how your messages are performing, which links are being clicked, and which offers are being redeemed. You should look for a platform that allows you to track click counts and analytics for each message you send. From there, you can more effectively tune your messaging.

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A Mobile App

Unfortunately, not all providers offer a mobile app for their platform. If you want to be able to manage and send broadcast text messages on-the-go, make sure the service you choose offers mobile app.

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Hands-on Support

Whether it's troubleshooting a question or getting expert advice on your text broadcasting strategy, a dedicated support team can play an integral role in your success. Make sure the service you choose has a customer support team that can respond quickly when a question or concern comes up.

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Text Broadcasting and Compliance

When sending broadcast messages, it's crucial to ensure you're following the proper laws and guidelines. Bulk SMS messages are regulated by the federal government through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The CTIA, a wireless trade organization, also contributes additional guidelines on behalf of the cellular carriers.

The most important thing to know is that you must have explicit consent from people before sending them text messages. You also should tell them exactly who you are, the frequency with which you plan to send messages, and how they can opt out if they choose to stop receiving texts.

At SlickText, we've designed our texting service to meet federal regulations and criteria with the proper compliance already set up for you. No matter how you use our platform, we emphasize the importance of following these rules and regulations, and we'll work alongside you to keep your text broadcasts above board.

Check Out Our SMS Compliance Guide

Common Text Broadcast FAQs

Even though sending text message broadcasts has become more popular in recent years, we find that people still have questions about various parts of the process. Here are the most frequently asked questions we receive by people looking to send text messages at scale.

What's the difference between a broadcast and a group text?

There are two main differences between text message broadcasts and group texts. First, a broadcast can reach far more people than a normal group text. Those are usually limited to between ten and fifty people whereas broadcasts can reach a virtually unlimited number of recipients. The second is that with a broadcast text, group details and individual contact information is not shared unlike group texts where everyone can see who else is in the group.

Are text broadcasts expensive?

Sending text message broadcasts is actually pretty cost effective, especially given the fact that 98% of texts are read. Most texting services offer various plan levels so you can scale up down based on your needs. With most you can get started for less than $30 per month.

Can I send broadcast messages to anyone?

Yes and no. Yes you can technically send broadcasts to anyone however those people must have explicitly opted in to receive your text messages. The fines for unsolicited text messages in the US are fairly steep so it's in your best interest to capture the proper consent.

Are broadcast text messages legal to send?

Yes, broadcast text messaging is 100% legal. With that said, in order for your messages to be legal, you must have consent from each recipient before you begin sending them texts.

What number will I use to send broadcasts?

There are a few different number types you have access to when sending text broadcasts. You can choose between a short code, toll-free, and 10DLC (local number). Each have their pros and cons and will vary in terms of how fast and how much you can send in a single broadcast. Most organizations these days use toll-free because of the minimal cost and ability to send at fast rates.

Are there limits when sending broadcasts?

As long as you have the proper sending number, you shouldn't experience any volume limits when sending broadcasts. Each number type can support a different level of messaging volume. If you're looking to send broadcasts to hundreds of thousands at once, a short code is best. If you're not in need of that much throughput, a normal toll-free number will work just fine.

Why choose us

Why Choose SlickText As Your Text Broadcast Platform?

There's no shortage of text services out there, however our SMS broadcast software has the features, tools, and in-house experts that set us apart from the rest.

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Schedule Your Messages

Once you've drafted your message, you can schedule it to send at whatever day and time is best for your needs. If you have messages that'll be sent out on a regular basis, you can also set them up on a recurring schedule.

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Work Less with Automations

With our automated workflows, you can put your marketing on autopilot. Create messaging flows for lead nurturing and engagement, abandoned cart sequences, data collection, chat bots, and more.

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Utilize Hundreds of Features

Our feature library is equipped with everything you need to run a successful text message broadcasting program. From a wide array of list growth tools to engagement features that help maximize ROI, our platform has it all.

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Integrate with Your Other Software

Our platform supports over a dozen native integrations, including Shopify, Mailchimp, and HubSpot, as well as over 5,000 more integrations through Zapier, making it easy to manage your marketing strategy in one place.

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Benefit from High Deliverability

We take zero shortcuts when it comes to sending your text messages. Unlike some providers, you can rest easy knowing that your texts will be delivered at the fastest possible speed.

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Take Advantage of Our Support

Our support team is one of the biggest reasons why people choose SlickText. From 1-on-1 onboarding sessions to growth and marketing strategy sessions, our support teams are here to help with any and all questions.

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