Group Texting for Business: How Group MMS Works

Group Texting for Business: How Group MMS Works

Nowadays, you may only associate group texting with friends or family—not as a tool for business. While that might have been accurate a few years ago, group texting for business is becoming more popular.

Texting is the prevailing form of communication with others, as 83.07% of the world population in 2022 now owns a smartphone. In fact, 48% of consumers say they prefer to communicate with businesses via text—more than email, apps, and direct mail combined. Best of all, 95% of text messages receive a response within 3 minutes of receipt—allowing businesses to reach targeted audiences sooner.

While SMS remains a powerful way to engage with your customers, sometimes you need to go beyond a 2-way communication method. What if you need to add a third person to the conversation? Or a fourth? Do you have to move the conversation to a messaging app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, or should you move it to an email thread?

Group texting for business eliminates the move away from text messaging. With MMS groups, you can exchange ordinary text messages between a group of 3 or more people. Each participant has a unique, identifiable phone number, and they can read and reply to messages with the entire group.

Read on to learn how group texting for business works, why MMS group texting is great for business, and how to choose a group texting app to get started right away.

What is a group text for business?

Group texting allows businesses to market to wider audiences with one simple click. It also helps your business to create more efficient communication while connecting with employees or customers. Regardless of your businesses’ size, group texting can prove beneficial.

And since 89% of people say they want to text a business, it’s time to start integrating group texting for business into your marketing plan. Group messaging can help your business compete in different ways:

• Restaurant/retail: Do you have a sale or meal discount coming up? Let your customers know about the special offer by sending a mass text. Or limit scheduling issues by creating an employee MMS group when someone needs a shift picked up.
• Real estate: Group texting is an efficient way for real estate agents to stay on top of important property developments. And they can send texts to interested parties.
• Nonprofits: Automated mass texting for nonprofits can help secure attention from potential donors, volunteers, and board members. This can also help gather feedback and send monthly updates to supporters.
• Political organizations: Local, state, and national political parties benefit from MMS group and mass texting. Use it to encourage citizens to vote, remind them of registration deadlines, communicate policies, organize volunteers, and solicit contributions.
• Universities/colleges: MMS group and mass texting can even help higher education. Provide staff, administrators, and students with critical information on closures and emergencies faster than email and almost immediately.

How does group texting for business work?

While some may opt to conduct business over the phone or through email, time and time again, the most effective way to communicate is through apps for group messaging. And since 42% of online customers prefer instant messaging for business matters, group text messaging for business is one of the best ways to communicate across industries.

However, MMS group conversations differ from mass texts. Group texting works a lot like the group chats found on popular apps for group messaging, such as Slack, WhatsApp, or iMessage. Every recipient can read all the correspondence in the group, and when they respond, everyone sees it.

Some group texting tools, like Twilio Conversations, even allow you to bring in parties from multiple channels. For example, you could have a group MMS conversation between 2 SMS users and someone using a chat application.

This functionality allows users to build group texting into applications and workflows. That means a user could use the Twilio Conversations API to build group texting into something like a customer relationship management software, empowering customers and employees to initiate group texting conversations from a chat window rather than their cell phone.

Top 5 benefits of MMS group texting for your business

Group text messaging for business allows you to easily message multiple people at once with a single, convenient text. Whether you create a managers-only group message, a larger group for the entire office, or a group for a particular project, you can craft your desired message and send it to a specific group with the click of a button. But if you’re still unsure if MMS groups are right for your business, consider these benefits:

1. Have a conversation with 3 or more participants: You can engage more people in a group conversation. This is especially helpful for real estate agents, wealth advisors, personal shopping aids, and others.
2. Keep people in the loop: You don't need to send multiple 1:1 texts anymore. Instead, keep everyone connected and communicating in a single conversation.
3. Consolidate apps: You no longer need to move conversations over to Slack, Facebook Messenger, or communication apps with group texting for business. Additionally, your customers won't have to download any new applications and can communicate with the easy-to-use texting they know.
4. Engage audiences fast: You can send your messages in seconds, reaching your audience faster and where they’re more likely to engage with you.
5. Is applicable to all businesses: You can implement MMS group texting for your business, no matter the size and across various industries.

Simply put, group text messaging for business is necessary—and it’s not complex to implement either. Unlike SMS, which limits your conversations to 2 parties and iOS devices with iMessage, MMS groups support additional parties and images.

How to start group MMS texting with your business

Starting MMS groups for group texting is easy with the Twilio Conversations API. Here’s how:

1. Acquire an MMS-capable Twilio Phone Number

First, you'll need to purchase a Twilio Phone Number. If you don’t already have one, you can search for and purchase an available MMS-capable number in the Twilio Console.

2. Create the conversation

Second, create the conversation by making a request to the Twilio REST API.

<?php

// Update the path below to your autoload.php,
// see https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md
require_once '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

use Twilio\Rest\Client;

// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
$sid = getenv("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
$token = getenv("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");
$twilio = new Client($sid, $token);

$conversation = $twilio->conversations->v1->conversations
                                          ->create([
                                                       "friendlyName" => "Home-buying journey"
                                                   ]
                                          );

print($conversation->sid);

3. Add the first participant

Next, add the first participant. For this example, your contacts will join via chat.

<?php

// Update the path below to your autoload.php,
// see https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md
require_once '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

use Twilio\Rest\Client;

// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
$sid = getenv("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
$token = getenv("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");
$twilio = new Client($sid, $token);

$participant = $twilio->conversations->v1->conversations("CHXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX")
                                         ->participants
                                         ->create([
                                                      "identity" => "realEstateAgent",
                                                      "messagingBindingProjectedAddress" => "+15017122661"
                                                  ]
                                         );

print($participant->sid);

4. Add the second and third participant

Now, you can include additional participants. They can join through native texting (SMS) apps on their phones or a chat application. Repeat the process to add the second and third participant.

<?php

// Update the path below to your autoload.php,
// see https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md
require_once '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

use Twilio\Rest\Client;

// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
$sid = getenv("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
$token = getenv("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");
$twilio = new Client($sid, $token);

$participant = $twilio->conversations->v1->conversations("CHXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX")
                                         ->participants
                                         ->create([
                                                      "messagingBindingAddress" => "+15558675310"
                                                  ]
                                         );

print($participant->sid);

Repeat the process to add the third participant.

5. Send a message

Finally, start sending messages.

<?php

// Update the path below to your autoload.php,
// see https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md
require_once '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

use Twilio\Rest\Client;

// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
$sid = getenv("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
$token = getenv("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");
$twilio = new Client($sid, $token);

$message = $twilio->conversations->v1->conversations("CHXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX")
                                     ->messages
                                     ->create([
                                                  "body" => "Hi there. What did you think of the listing I sent?",
                                                  "author" => "realEstateAgent"
                                              ]
                                     );

print($message->sid);

Need help kick-starting the conversation? Here are a few examples from our SMS templates post.

Group texting best practices

Enabling group texting is just the first step—next, it's time to execute engaging, high-quality conversations. Here are a few tips to help improve your MMS group chats:

• Make introductions: Ensure everyone on the group text knows who everyone is before moving forward. This will help avoid any potential confusion.
• Set expectations: Prepare everyone for what you’ll discuss in the group texting conversation to avoid any surprises.
• Respect timing: Keep time zones in mind. Not everyone wants to receive text messages early in the morning or late at night.
• Keep your messaging succinct: Don’t write a long message—an email might be better for that.
• Get permission: Don't start an MMS group conversation unless you have permission from all parties, as there’s nothing worse than getting a text from an unknown number. When in doubt, ask.

Mass text vs. group MMS

People often confuse MMS group texts with mass text messages. Here’s how they differ:

• Scope: MMS groups involve at least 3 or more participants, while mass text messages go to thousands of people at once. Keep in mind that the maximum number of participants in an MMS group text depends on the mobile device and carrier used. Some allow 10 participants, while others allow closer to 30.
• Cost: Group messages charge per recipient, whereas mass texts charge per message.
• Management: Standard SMS conversations happen one-to-one, while mass text for businesses (SMS campaigns) occurs from one user to many. However, when recipients respond to a mass text, they don’t respond to everyone who received the message—they just respond to the sender. Unlike mass texting, MMS group texting doesn’t support BCC or no-reply text messages.
• Software: Businesses can send MMS group texts through a mobile device with an enabled setting. Additionally, with mass texting, you’ll typically need to install special software or work with a mass texting agency to send your messages.
• Use Cases: If you want to message small groups of customers, consider group MMS vs. mass text. Mostly used for large-scale promotions, marketing messages, and announcements, mass texts are ideal for small groups, such as appointment reminders or personalized marketing campaigns.

Choose Twilio for your group texting app

Are you ready to incorporate group texting into your business communications? Get started with the Twilio Conversations API. On top of group texting, you can scale your communications with a single API for multiparty conversations across SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and chat.

Check out our quickstart to create your first conversation, experiment with adding and removing participants, and build a proof-of-concept app in no time.