While the ability to send SMS messages to their Act! contacts is available for US customers making use of Act! Marketing Automation, until now it has not been available in the Act! product as standard. SMS4Act! changes that.

With SMS4Act!, you can quickly and easily send texts to one or more contacts from Act!. The message is recorded on the contact’s record along with any replies. A company called MessageMedia provides the infrastructure that allows the feature to work, so they are the company that will send out the SMS messages on the customer’s behalf. To make full use of SMS4Act! a customer will be required to purchase a MessageMedia plan.

SMS4Act! is a user-based subscription, however users may invite other Act! users to share the same SMS4Act! account by providing an API key. SMS4Act! subscriptions are month-to-month and do not need to align with an Act! subscription. All transactions take place directly with Message Media. A 14-day Free Trial of SMS4Act! is available. A Message Media account is created as part of the trial process and all transactions take place directly with the service provider. 25 SMS messages are provided at no charge in the trial.

The previous SMS functionality in Act! Marketing Automation is an option for communicating with customers as part of a broader campaign process workflow. It requires a paid AMA subscription and an additional fee for text messages. SMS4Act! can be used without a paid AMA subscription and as a direct contact medium, rather than as part of a multi-step campaign workflow. Act! tech support will provide direct support for the feature, whilst Message Media supports the SMS service in the background.