Mailchimp SMS Marketing Tools – Unified Email and Text Campaigns for Small Businesses

If you rely solely on email marketing to reach your customers, you’re missing out on the channel they control most: their text messages. While emails sit unopened in crowded inboxes, text messages have sky-high open rates and immediate attention.

Mailchimp SMS Marketing brings text messaging capabilities to the platform best known for email campaigns. Complementing Mailchimp’s paid plans, SMS marketing allows you to reach customers directly on their phones while managing everything from one unified dashboard. But is adding SMS to your Mailchimp account worth the extra cost, or should you look elsewhere for your text marketing needs?

Main features

Mailchimp SMS integrates text messaging into the email marketing platform used by millions of businesses worldwide. The tool focuses on creating omnichannel campaigns that align email and SMS for maximum impact.

Plans and prices

Unlike Mailchimp’s tiered email subscriptions, SMS works on a credit-based system available to anyone with a paid Mailchimp account. You need at least an Essentials subscription ($13/month for 500 contacts) before you can add text messaging capabilities.

SMS credits start at $20 for 1,000 credits and increase in blocks from there. Sending each standard text message costs 1 credit, while multimedia messages (MMS) with images or longer text cost 3 credits each. Credits are purchased monthly and automatically renew on the billing date, but the catch: unused credits expire at the end of each month without being carried over.

You’ll also need to complete an SMS Marketing application and get approval from Mailchimp before purchasing credits, which adds an extra step to getting started. The good news? Qualified customers have access to a 14-day free SMS trial to test the waters.

Unified email and SMS platform

The standout feature here is integration. Instead of juggling separate platforms for email and SMS, manage both channels from the same Mailchimp dashboard. According to Mailchimp data, users who send both email and SMS campaigns see up to 97% higher click rates compared to email-only campaigns.

This unified approach means your customer data, segmentation and automation workflows work across both channels. You can launch an email campaign and follow up with an SMS reminder, all from a single customer journey builder.

AI-powered messaging with Intuit Assist

Mailchimp’s AI assistant helps craft SMS copy and generates message ideas based on your campaign goals and brand voice. The tool has helped customers send more than 3.1 billion emails with AI-generated content, and is now expanding this capability to text messages.

While you still need to review and refine AI suggestions, having a starting point speeds up campaign creation – especially valuable given the 160 character limitation of text messages.

Automation and customer journeys

Pre-built automation workflows let you send triggered messages based on customer actions. The most valuable automation? Abandoned cart recovery. Mailchimp claims that users see up to 16.5x ROI after launching their first SMS campaign, thanks in large part to timely cart abandonment reminders.

Other automation options include welcome sequences for new subscribers, post-purchase follow-ups, appointment reminders, and birthday messages. You can also set up keyword-triggered responses where customers text a specific word to your number to receive automated information or offers.

SMS short codes

Mailchimp now offers SMS shortcodes – those memorable 5-6 digit numbers you see from big brands. Shortcodes can send up to 100 messages per second and look more professional than standard 10-digit numbers, potentially improving open rates and brand trust.

The registration process takes 8-12 weeks from application to approval, but you can continue to use your default number while waiting. Shortcodes require an additional monthly fee on top of the SMS credit costs.

Compliance and consent management

Text messaging has strict legal requirements, and Mailchimp takes on much of the compliance burden for you. The platform includes built-in consent management, quiet hours settings (preventing posts during nighttime hours), easy opt-out management, and guidance on double opt-in requirements.

With over 24 years of experience in data security, Mailchimp applies the same privacy standards to SMS that have made it trusted for email marketing.

Advantages

1. Seamless multi-channel marketing
   The ability to coordinate email and text campaigns from one platform eliminates the hassle of managing multiple tools. Your customer segments, automation triggers, and analytics all work across both channels, creating a truly unified marketing approach.
2. High involvement and ROI
   SMS marketing produces results that justify the investment. Mailchimp users report up to 58% higher click rates when using both email and SMS, compared to email alone, and new SMS campaigns generate an average 16.5x return on investment for ecommerce businesses.
3. Automation that actually saves time
   Pre-built customer journey templates take the guesswork out of SMS automation. Set up abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase sequences, or re-engagement campaigns in minutes instead of hours. The AI ​​copywriting assistant further accelerates campaign creation.
4. Flexibility without long-term commitment
   Thanks to the pay-as-you-go credit system, you are never tied to expensive contracts. Scale your text volume up or down monthly based on your needs, and pause text messages completely when you need a break, without impacting your email subscription.

Disadvantages

1. Geographic and functional limitations
   SMS marketing is only available in certain countries, mainly the US, UK, Canada and Australia. MMS (multimedia messaging) is limited to the US and Canada for Standard and Premium plans only. If you have an international customer base or need global texting capabilities, you’ll need a different solution.
2. Expiring credits create pressure
   Unlike Mailchimp email credits, which previously never expired, SMS credits disappear at the end of each month. If you don’t use all your credits, you’ll lose them, creating pressure to send messages you might not otherwise have sent, or you’ll simply waste money on unused credits.
3. Higher costs per message
   With 1 credit per text message and $20 per 1,000 credits, you pay $0.02 per text message. Dedicated SMS marketing platforms often offer lower rates per message, especially at higher volumes. For companies that send tens of thousands of messages every month, those dollars add up quickly.
4. Additional approval hurdle
   The application and approval process makes it more difficult to get started. While Mailchimp claims this protects against spam and maintains relationships with providers, it means you won’t be able to start sending text messages the moment you decide to add the feature.

Last word

Mailchimp SMS Marketing makes the most sense for businesses that already use Mailchimp for email and want to add text messaging without the complexity of managing multiple platforms. The unified dashboard, shared customer data, and coordinated automation create real efficiency gains that justify the higher prices for many small businesses.

Combining email and SMS in one platform delivers measurable results: up to 97% higher click rates and 16.5x ROI on SMS campaigns tell a compelling story. If you take omnichannel marketing seriously and value simplicity over rock-bottom prices, Mailchimp SMS deserves attention.

However, businesses that need international text messaging capabilities, very high message volumes, or maximum cost efficiency per message should explore dedicated text messaging platforms. The declining credit structure and geographic limitations make Mailchimp SMS less suitable for certain business models.

For most small to mid-sized US businesses that are already part of the Mailchimp ecosystem, adding SMS capabilities provides an easy path to increased engagement and revenue. Just make sure you use these credits every month before they expire.