One of the biggest reasons 150,000 businesses use Salesforce (including 90% of Fortune 500 companies) is that it’s highly adaptable and can be used to meet a wide range of needs. It goes beyond data tracking—companies and organizations use Salesforce to handle sales, communications, technical support, marketing, and yes, even texting.
Using Salesforce to send SMS simplifies text personalization, allowing you to easily connect with customers or constituents through text. To introduce you to all the capabilities and benefits of Salesforce SMS, we’ll cover the following:
When you start texting from Salesforce, you’ll be able to seamlessly pull stakeholder data to streamline the texting process and track all of your SMS conversations in one place. Let’s explore how you can make it happen.
The short answer is yes, you can send SMS from Salesforce. While you can’t send texts using the base Sales or Service Cloud alone, there are plenty of ways to add text capabilities to your Salesforce org. We’ll discuss your options for unlocking those capabilities in the next section, but first, let’s break down what sending SMS from Salesforce looks like.
Businesses can send a variety of texts from Salesforce, but some of the most common types across industries include:
You can use Salesforce SMS for marketing, sales, customer support, or all of the above. You can also add images or videos with MMS (multimedia messaging service). Salesforce makes sending any of these messages simple and fast by automatically pulling clients’ contact and preference information from your Salesforce data.
To be able to send texts from Salesforce, you will need to go beyond your standard Sales Cloud or Service Cloud purchase. Luckily, there are plenty of additional SMS tools and resources out there that you can add to your toolbox. We’ve grouped your options into three main categories:
Source: Salesforce
Salesforce offers two add-on products with texting capabilities: Service Cloud’s Digital Engagement and Marketing Cloud Engagement’s Mobile Studio.
The main difference between the two is that Digital Engagement focuses on customer support conversations while Mobile Studio provides SMS marketing capabilities meant to fit in with the other marketing channels in your strategy. Here are a few more key differences between the two Salesforce products:
Both Salesforce products come with additional costs and are fairly limited in features. Setup can also be complicated, as it requires you to complete an authorization or new number request process that can take weeks to get approved.
If you want more flexibility, you have the option to create an entirely custom texting solution for your Salesforce org using Salesforce API or another API company. This process involves finding a third-party messaging service provider and building an integration from scratch that connects your Salesforce org to the provider.
By building a custom integration, your company or organization would be able to create any functionalities you need and avoid the subscription costs of an additional Salesforce SMS product. However, this option is complex and time-consuming, with high implementation and development costs.
Your best option is to use an application that is tailor-made for both Salesforce and SMS marketing. By visiting the Salesforce AppExchange, you can find a variety of apps built specifically for Salesforce text messaging to meet the needs of businesses and organizations like yours.
Compared to add-on products and third-party integrations, these Salesforce native SMS applications offer the following benefits:
Overall, investing in a native application will save your team time, stress, and money. These apps allow you to avoid the complexity and cost of custom solutions while providing all the SMS features you need, built directly on Salesforce technology.
Mogli: The Top Salesforce SMS Solution
The easiest way to send SMS from Salesforce is by using Mogli, our highly robust, Salesforce native SMS application. Mogli works seamlessly with Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Education Data Architecture, and the Nonprofit Success Pack, making it an ideal solution for businesses, education institutions, and nonprofits alike. Its features offer limitless possibilities to meet the SMS needs of any company or organization.
Some of Mogli’s standout features and benefits include:
With Mogli, you don’t have to worry about paying a separate fee for every single person who needs to send a text. We offer unlimited users at a fixed price, meaning that everyone at your company or organization can access your Salesforce SMS capabilities when they need to. We don’t place limitations on who you can text, either—unlimited contacts mean you can text any and every customer in your database.
Mogli was designed with organizations like yours in mind. See a straightforward historical view of every incoming and outgoing text message in one place, and easily generate reports to guide your SMS strategy. The app is easy to set up, as well—get started in as little as 30 minutes so you can reap the benefits of SMS marketing as soon as possible.
Mogli includes a variety of SMS automation features that leverage the Salesforce functions you’re already familiar with, like Process Builder, Flow, and Triggers. Customize user journeys and easily integrate text messages with touchpoints on other channels like email. Go beyond simple one-word triggers by:
The above features are just the beginning of what you can accomplish with Mogli’s Salesforce SMS solution. Our app has a 4.99 star rating on the AppExchange, and one of the top reasons clients love Mogli is our top-notch support team. Our fully U.S.-based support team is comprised of Salesforce experts, ensuring you have all the technical support you need during setup, implementation, and beyond.
Some Salesforce SMS options may suit your company or organization better than others. To determine which direction to go in, start by defining what SMS success would look like for you. Do you want to build stronger relationships with prospects, help clients solve issues, or generate more leads for a new product or service?
Discuss priorities with your team, then evaluate your budget for a Salesforce SMS solution along with the most important features you need.
Then, evaluate the pros and cons of each option we’ve covered:
| Pros | Cons | |
| Salesforce SMS add-on product |
Created by Salesforce Fits seamlessly with your Salesforce instance |
Fewer SMS features More expensive Limited SMS conversations |
| Custom solution |
Unlimited customization Built to suit your exact needs Scalable |
Costly, long design process Need technical expertise Build integration from scratch |
| Salesforce native SMS app |
Built for Salesforce More SMS features Easy, fast setup process Expert customer support |
Less customizable than a fully custom solution |
If you have a large budget and need tailor-made features, a custom solution might be your best fit. If you want more features and the support of Salesforce experts, however, consider a Salesforce native app that comes equipped with the best features at a lower cost.
Still have questions about Salesforce SMS? Let’s recap the answers to a few frequently asked questions.
Yes, you can send SMS from Salesforce—if you have the right tools. This means investing in a Salesforce SMS add-on like Digital Engagement or Marketing Cloud Engagement, creating your own solution with API, or using a Salesforce native SMS app. Each of these options will enable you to text directly from Salesforce and track conversations directly in your database.
Sending SMS from Salesforce will work differently depending on the solution you choose, but any option should allow you to send bulk, one-to-one, and automated messages to the contacts in your Salesforce database.
There are a variety of third-party SMS solutions that integrate with Salesforce, but we recommend choosing a Salesforce native app like Mogli instead. This way, you can rest assured that you’ll get all the best SMS capabilities that work seamlessly with the Salesforce tools you’re already using as well as expert support.
With the right resources, Salesforce SMS can be a powerful tool for building relationships, promoting products, and utilizing your Salesforce data effectively. As you explore the best options for your company or organization, remember that trusted, robust solutions like Mogli are here to support your SMS strategy with all the functionalities and help you need.
To learn more about Salesforce SMS before getting started, check out these additional resources: