How is a broadcast text different from a group text?

A broadcast can reach a virtually unlimited number of recipients (versus ten to fifty for group texts), and group details and individual contact information are not shared with recipients, unlike group texts where everyone can see who else is in the group.

Are broadcast text messages legal to send?

Yes, broadcast text messaging is 100% legal as long as you have explicit consent from each recipient before sending them texts.

Can I send broadcast SMS messages to anyone?

You can only send broadcasts to people who have explicitly opted in to receive your text messages, as the fines for unsolicited text messages in the US and Canada are fairly steep.

What number will I use to send broadcasts?

SlickText supports toll-free numbers, 10DLC local numbers, short codes, and RCS (rich communication services). The right number depends on your audience size, sending frequency, budget, and use case. Our team can help you select the right sending number and register on your behalf.

Are text broadcasts expensive?

Sending text message broadcasts is cost effective, especially given the 98% open rate, with most texting services offering various plan levels starting at less than $30 per month.

Are there limits when sending broadcasts?

As long as you have the proper sending number, you shouldn't experience volume limits-short codes are best for hundreds of thousands of messages at once, while toll-free numbers work well for lower throughput needs.

How do I send a broadcast text message with SlickText?

Create a SlickText account, grow your list through opt-ins or imports, then select your list or segment, type your message, and choose to send immediately or schedule it for later.

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SMS Broadcast Service for Business Messaging

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Reach Millions in Seconds

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

Know Your Messages Are 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.

Maximize Engagement

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

At a Glance

SlickText’s SMS broadcast service lets you send SMS or MMS messages to your entire contact list or a targeted segment at once. It’s ideal for time-sensitive alerts, flash sales, promotional campaigns, and important updates. Every SlickText user gets tools for list growth, scheduling, segmentation, and personalization to help you reach the right people, while a shared inbox keeps replies private and easy to manage. The platform also includes built-in compliance tools to help you follow TCPA, CTIA, and carrier requirements.

What Is an SMS Broadcast?

SMS broadcasting, also known as broadcast text messaging, bulk messaging, or mass texting, is the process of sending one message to multiple recipients at once. Businesses commonly use SMS broadcasts to share time-sensitive notifications, important updates, and marketing promotions.

Unlike a standard group text, each recipient receives the broadcast text message in a private conversation, so phone numbers and replies are never shared with the rest of the audience. Although SMS broadcasts are often used for one-way announcements, recipients can still reply directly to your business for a private two-way conversation if you want that functionality.

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.

A young professional receives an SMS broadcast with 25% off if they purchase before midnight

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 millions of people in a matter of seconds. Here's how to get started.

Create a SlickText Account & Register a Sending Number

Sign up for a SlickText account and decide which type of phone number you’d like to send from: toll-free, 10DLC, short code, or RCS messaging. If you’d like to explore the platform before selecting a plan, you have the option of starting a free trial or booking a platform demo with our team. When you’re ready to register your number, we’ll handle everything on your behalf.

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. Managing your contact list and customer data is essential for compliance and effective targeting. 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 tap-to-join links.

Send Your Broadcast Text Message

Once you've built your list, you can start SMS broadcasting. All you have to do is select the list or segment that you want to communicate with, type out your message, and choose whether you want to send immediately or schedule it to be sent later. When creating your broadcast message, remember that it should be concise, clear, and include a call-to-action, such as a link to buy or a reply to confirm. To maximize engagement, consider using personalization, segmentation, emojis, and/or MMS marketing to stand out in people's inboxes.

An SMS subscriber receives a text broadcast delivered by SlickText SMS marketing software

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.

Time-Sensitive Alerts

Need to get an urgent message out fast? Whether it’s a reminder, a last-minute event announcement, or critical information for employees or customers, SMS broadcasting delivers your message instantly. Your entire list receives your message in seconds, ensuring no one misses out.

Example of a time-sensitive broadcast text message sent through the SlickText platform

SMS Marketing

Take your SMS marketing strategy to the next level with broadcast text messaging. SMS broadcasts are highly effective for promotional campaigns, such as limited-time offers and flash sales, allowing you to reach your audience instantly. Send exclusive promotional messages and marketing messages to targeted audiences, promote in-person flash sales, announce new product launches, and more. Whatever your message, SMS ensures it’s seen by the right people at the right time, driving engagement, traffic, and results.

Three consumers receive personalized text alerts from an ecommerce store

One-on-One Support

With SlickText's broadcast SMS service, you can connect directly with your subscribers through our shared inbox, personalizing the mass-message experience. While a personal phone can be used for small-scale broadcast text messages, businesses should transition to dedicated SMS marketing platforms like SlickText as their contact lists grow, ensuring scalability and compliance. If one of your contacts responds to a message, it'll automatically generate a private text thread where you can send responses and answer any questions.

One-on-one customer support conversation using the SlickText shared inbox

IMPORTANT FEATURES

Key Features to Look for in a Text Broadcasting Service

Not every text message broadcasting service is created equal, so you should carefully select one that satisfies your specific needs. Here are a few key features to consider before making your final decision.

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 so you can utilize multiple opt-in methods, including text to join keywords, scannable QR codes, and custom popups.

A User-Friendly Mobile App

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

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.

Fast & Friendly Support

Whether you need help troubleshooting a question or want 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.

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.

Tracking & Analytics

In order to refine your SMS broadcast strategy, you'll need to analyze how your messages are performing, which links are being clicked, and which offers are being redeemed. Make sure you choose a platform that allows you to track clicks and other engagement analytics for each message you send. This will enable you to fine-tune your campaigns and optimize your conversion rates.

Text Broadcasting & 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 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. 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

Example of SlickText opt-out intelligence that unsubscribes a contact based on chat sentiment

WHY CHOOSE US

Why You Should Choose SlickText as Your Text Broadcast Platform

Our SMS broadcast software has the features, tools, and in-house experts that set us apart from the rest.

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 to send on a regular basis, you can set them up on a recurring schedule.

Cut Manual Tasks 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.

Manage Private Replies

Keep responses organized in a shared inbox where teammates can assign, review, and answer conversations. If you don’t want to manage replies, disable the inbox and set an automated message letting subscribers know responses aren’t monitored.

Integrate with Your Current Software

Our platform supports 16+ native integrations, including Salesforce, Shopify, Mailchimp, Meta, Pinterest, Slack, and HubSpot, as well as 7,000 more integrations through Zapier and Make. These integrations make it easy to manage your marketing strategy in one place.

Built for Reliable Message Delivery

SlickText combines number registration support, carrier relationships, compliant messaging tools, and delivery reporting to help you send broadcasts reliably at scale.

Get Number Registration Done for You

Our support team is one of the biggest reasons why people choose SlickText. From registering your phone number to helping you follow the best practices for SMS marketing, our team is here to help with any and all questions.

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 is an SMS broadcast?: SMS broadcasting, also called broadcast text messaging or mass texting, is the process of sending a single message to a large number of people at once, most often used for notifications and marketing promotions.

How is a broadcast text different from a group text?: A broadcast can reach a virtually unlimited number of recipients (versus ten to fifty for group texts), and group details and individual contact information are not shared with recipients, unlike group texts where everyone can see who else is in the group.

Are broadcast text messages legal to send?: Yes, broadcast text messaging is 100% legal as long as you have explicit consent from each recipient before sending them texts.

Can I send broadcast SMS messages to anyone?: You can only send broadcasts to people who have explicitly opted in to receive your text messages, as the fines for unsolicited text messages in the US and Canada are fairly steep.

What number will I use to send broadcasts?: SlickText supports toll-free numbers, 10DLC local numbers, short codes, and RCS (rich communication services). The right number depends on your audience size, sending frequency, budget, and use case. Our team can help you select the right sending number and register on your behalf.

Are text broadcasts expensive?: Sending text message broadcasts is cost effective, especially given the 98% open rate, with most texting services offering various plan levels starting at less than $30 per month.

Are there limits when sending broadcasts?: As long as you have the proper sending number, you shouldn't experience volume limits—short codes are best for hundreds of thousands of messages at once, while toll-free numbers work well for lower throughput needs.

How do I send a broadcast text message with SlickText?: Create a SlickText account, grow your list through opt-ins or imports, then select your list or segment, type your message, and choose to send immediately or schedule it for later.

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