MMS Marketing: What You Need to Know for 2025

We all know that texting is one of the best ways to reach people in the 21st century.

(With a 100% view rate and 55% open rate, to be specific.)

And we all know that people love things that are visual rather than just plain text.

That’s why it just makes sense that you should incorporate MMS marketing into your business’s marketing strategy.

MMS (“Multimedia Messaging Service”) refers to multimedia text messaging and is a common tactic for business to engage with customers and prospects on a personal level: directly on their phones (often through picture messages specifically).

So how can you use MMS marketing for your own business?

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get started with MMS marketing in 2025.

How to use MMS marketing

The concept of MMS marketing sounds great in theory.

But how can you actually use it? How does it work? How do you get started?

How MMS marketing works

Here’s the step by step on how MMS marketing works.

1. Build your campaigns via a text message marketing system

MMS marketing is handled via a text message marketing system—either an online platform or an API provider.

The process is similar to implementing email marketing through your email service provider.

You can build your MMS campaigns via the online platform or API (if you have developer resources).

2. Automate or send out your campaigns

After your campaigns have been built, they can be set up to go out automatically, or you can send them as one-off blasts through your text message marketing system.

The campaigns will be sent to whatever subscribers or contacts you designate within the system you’re using.

3. Monitor your campaign performance through your platform’s reporting tools

Text message marketing systems include reporting tools that you can use to help monitor the success of your campaigns.

Since MMS aren’t able to report back open rates, one of the most common ways to track the success of MMS marketing campaigns is to track clicks to a link you include within your campaign.

As with email marketing, you can narrow down your link tracking to the specific individuals who actually clicked on the link within your MMS message.

4. Adjust as needed and repeat

Make any adjustments that you need to make to your campaign based on the campaign results and then keep on sending!

You may be surprised at just how well your MMS marketing campaigns go.

How to get set up with MMS marketing

The setup process for MMS marketing is not extensive.

Here’s what you need to do.

1. Find a text message marketing system

Pick a text message marketing system that is a good fit for you and your business.

(You can find more info on how to pick a system in the “What MMS marketing platform should I use?” section below.)

2. Fill out appropriate registration forms

Most text message marketing systems will have registration forms you’ll need to fill out so that you can pre-register your traffic with the mobile carriers.

This pre-registration process helps make sure that the mobile carriers don’t flag your messages as spam and prevent them from being delivered.

Your text message marketing provider should provide all of these forms for you so that all you have to do is fill them out, and your provider will handle submitting them to where they need to go.

3. Get contacts added into your database

Before you can send out any MMS marketing campaigns, you’ll need to either have contacts loaded into your texting system’s database, or you’ll need a process in place to collect subscriber phone numbers moving forward so that they can be added in as time goes on.

Text message systems include several different ways to load in subscribers or to allow subscribers to opt in—for example, importing a spreadsheet from an existing list, integrating with your other services via API or Zapier, offering a “text-to-join” option, and sharing a web sign-up form, QR code, or web banner.

4. Create your first MMS campaigns

You can then build out your first MMS marketing campaign.

You can set this up either on a recurring basis via a drip campaign workflow or as a one-off campaign.

All that you need to do is input your message content/attachment and select the recipients in the appropriate places within your text marketing system’s online dashboard, or input the message content via the system’s API.

What MMS marketing platform should I use?

There are a lot of platforms out there that allow you to send MMS marketing messages.

How do you know which one to pick?

Here are some criteria to consider when you’re evaluating services and engaging in free trials.

Platform vs. API

You’ll want to think about whether you’d like an out-of-the-box platform that you can use without any coding needed or an API that you can program and customize to your liking (or a combination of both).

Many platforms offer both a platform and an API, but some are platform-only and some are API-only.

If you’re going the platform route, make sure the platform is easy enough that it won’t be a huge headache to use, but also well-featured enough that you’re able to actually accomplish your goals.

If you’re going the API route, make sure the API capabilities and documentation are robust enough that you’re able to do what you’re trying to do.

Multichannel or no?

Some text message marketing services are multichannel, particularly incorporating email and texting (and sometimes other marketing channels) together.

This could be helpful, or it could be unnecessary if you already have an email service provider that you use.

You can consider whether a multichannel tool would be of use to you or whether a single-channel text messaging service will suffice.

White glove support

Many text message marketing services are pretty similar from a features perspective.

But one thing that can make all the difference is your support experience.

Is support willing to help? Are they knowledgeable? Are they available? Are they hands on?

Do you get the white glove treatment?

This can be especially important during setup, because navigating the registration processes with the mobile carriers can sometimes get complicated.

Large volume performance

If you have a large audience, you’ll need to make sure that the service you choose is able to handle that large volume.

Some service providers may not be equipped to handle text message sending in large quantities.

Of course, if your audience is smaller, this criterion won’t matter as much—but it could still be something to keep in mind as your business grows.

Price

Obviously, pricing is always a consideration.

What’s the right price point for your business’s budget?

A few things to keep in mind about pricing:

• Pricing is most often based on the number of messages you’ll be sending
• If you’re sending MMS, it is often counted as 3 “regular” messages or it is otherwise priced differently from regular messages
• Listed pricing often doesn’t include carrier fees and other fees, so you’ll want to make sure you know all the actual fees associated with the plan you choose

MMS marketing providers

Here are some MMS marketing providers you can explore:

• Mobile Text Alerts—platform and API that offers white glove onboarding and support
• SlickText—platform and API that is focused on customer relationships
• Twilio—robust communications API service well known in the industry
• Klaviyo—SMS and email service known for serving ecommerce
• Textedly—platform-only SMS service that has a 300 character limit
• SimpleTexting—platform and API that targets small businesses
• EZ Texting—platform and API that positions itself as a leader
• Attentive—SMS and email service known for serving ecommerce

MMS marketing examples

You can use MMS marketing for use cases such as:

• Promos
• Flash sales
• Announcements
• Event reminders
• Product launches
• Business updates (such as holiday hours)

Here are some examples with different brand voice approaches.

Playful

How’ve you “bean”? ☕ 😄 Don’t forget our Spring Break sale: 20% off all coffee blends all week! Shop here: [Link]

Casual

Hey [First Name]! Winter’s coming ❄️ – we’ve got the snuggly vibes covered. 15% off all throws and mugs this weekend only! Check it out here: [Link]

Professional

Time is money. Invest wisely! Schedule your free investment consultation here: [Link]

Energetic

🎉 It’s our anniversary, and YOU get the gifts! 🎁 BOGO FREE on everything in-store and online. But hurry, party ends at midnight! Shop here: [Link]

Sentimental

This holiday season, let’s make every meal count, homemade with love. Check out our new holiday menu items: [Link]

How much does MMS marketing cost?

How much MMS marketing costs is dependent on a few factors.

General cost considerations

Determining the cost of MMS marketing can be a bit more complicated than determining the cost of “regular” SMS.

That’s because with most text message platforms and services, MMS is typically counted as three times the cost of SMS.

So if you will be sending a lot of MMS, you’ll need to factor that you’ll probably need more messages than you might expect.

That being said, another mistake people make when looking for a text message service is that they expect it to be similar to email and are therefore surprised about the cost (since texting and especially MMS costs significantly more than email on a per-message basis).

But you’ll want to keep in mind that with email, open rates are a lot lower, so you need a larger audience to make an impact.

With texting, almost all your recipients will at least notice the text message in their inbox. So you don’t need as large of an audience to make an impact.

Ballpark costs

From a sample of prominent text message system providers, some ballpark figures:

• Lower volume end for subscriptions: $0.12–$0.23 per MMS
• Higher volume end for subscriptions: $0.037–$0.056 per MMS
• Higher volume contract: $.03 per MMS

Costs vary widely depending on what text message marketing system you use and the volume of text messages you’ll be sending (the higher the volume, the bigger the rate).

When to use MMS marketing vs. SMS marketing

Since MMS marketing is significantly more expensive than basic SMS marketing, it’s worth considering which situations are best for MMS and which situations work just as well with SMS.

Use MMS when… your message is long

Most text messaging system providers split up SMS messages into segments of 160 characters each.

If your text message has 300 characters, for example, it would be sent in 2 segments and would actually count as 2 messages.

If your text message has 400 characters, on the other hand, it will split into 3 segments and would count as 3 messages.

If your text message has 500 characters, it will split into 4 segments and would count as 4 messages.

And so on and so forth.

MMS, on the other hand, can allow up to 1,550–1,600 characters. And they will count as 3 messages, regardless of how long they are.

What this means is that if your SMS message is going to be longer enough to reach 3 segments (480 characters), you may as well send it as an MMS, because sending as MMS will open you up to including up to 1,550 characters as well as an image or other media.

In fact, you can actually save money by sending as MMS in some cases (if your SMS is long enough to reach 4 segments).

Use MMS when… money is not a concern

Obviously, everyone is concerned about money.

But some are more concerned about money in particular areas than others are.

If you have a robust text marketing budget in which money’s not too tight, MMS would usually be a better choice than SMS, because it’s a generally-accepted marketing principle that visuals improve engagement.

So if money is more or less not an object for your campaign, going with MMS will likely yield better results.

Use MMS when… visuals add a significant element

Not all text messages necessarily warrant having a visual element alongside it.

Sometimes you just need to communicate simple information, and graphic elements simply wouldn’t add much value.

But other times, adding that visual element will be a real support to your messaging content.

For example, a product launch text message may warrant a picture of the product that’s about to launch.

On the other hand, a notice about office closures may not benefit much from having a corresponding image alongside it.

So you can consider whether adding an image or graphic would even do anything for your message content.

Use MMS when… tests show they resonate with your audience

As you likely know as a business owner or marketer, you don’t just want to take the generally-accepted advice as gospel truth.

You’ll want to test for your specific audience.

Send your messages with and without images to see if images truly resonate in your context.

Because if you find that MMS don’t actually resonate, then you may as well save money by sending regular SMS.

Other misc. things you should know

There are a few other considerations you should keep in mind when it comes to MMS marketing.

File types

Not all file types may be accepted. Standard image files (.jpg, .jpeg, and .png) should be accepted virtually across the board.

But non-standard image file formats and other file types may not be able to be used.

Check with your text message service provider to see what file types are able to be included in your MMS marketing.

File size

Text messaging is not able to accommodate large files, so it’s important to be aware of how big your file actually can be in order to be able to send it.

With Mobile Text Alerts, your file size can be approximately 500 KB or less in order to be successfully attached and sent.

Larger files can be compressed using online compressor tools (there are several of these sites available for free).

MMS marketing FAQs

Check out the answers to some of your other questions regarding MMS marketing below.

What is MMS marketing?

MMS stands for “multimedia message service” and refers to sending text messages that include media files.

Images are generally the most common media file type to be sent via text message, so MMS is sometimes referred to as “picture messaging.”

MMS marketing, then, refers to marketing efforts using the medium of MMS to promote your business or products.

Why use MMS marketing?

Text message marketing in general has significant potential to help you really reach the people you’re trying to reach, because almost everybody sees their text messages (in contrast to emails, for example, which are routinely ignored or sent to “Spam” or “Promotions”).

When you couple that potential with the further potential of including visually-appealing elements to your text messaging campaigns, it makes MMS marketing a very attractive option to help you both reach more people and engage with them.

Is opt-in necessary for MMS marketing?

We would always say that it is best practice to get clear opt-in from people before sending them text messages in generally, whether MMS or not.

It may not be legally required in many cases but it is a way to ensure that you have an engaged and willing audience before you waste both your time and theirs by sending messages that they don’t want to receive.

Take the first step to try MMS marketing for yourself

As you can see, MMS marketing is a solid marketing approach and one that would be worthwhile for you to try yourself.

To give it a try, take the first step by getting a free trial with Mobile Text Alerts (no commitment necessary).

Then you’ll be able to explore the different ways you could implement it for your business!

Go ahead and get your free trial today.

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Sam Pelton is the content director for Mobile Text Alerts, an SMS marketing service that gives businesses an easier way to really reach customers. He has 10 years of experience working with the texting platform in the areas of customer support, quality assurance testing, content creation, copywriting, and marketing strategy.