Business Messaging Blog | Sakari

SMS vs MMS Text Messages: Definition & Differences | Sakari

Written by Adam Horsman | Feb 3, 2025 5:31:23 PM

When it comes to sending text messages to your company’s subscribers, knowing the difference between the SMS and MMS texting technologies is crucial for an effective marketing campaign. Here’s how to tell the difference between the two and how to put them to work for your company for maximum marketing impact.

What is SMS Messaging?

SMS, also known as Short Message Service, is what many people immediately think of when they hear the term “texting.” It is a way to send text-only messages of up to 160 characters to cell phones. SMS can be advantageous for businesses because of its low cost, reliable delivery, and broad reach (including high open rates and response rates). Businesses often use SMS marketing automation text messages such as appointment reminders, transaction confirmations, or emergency alert mass text messages.

What is MMS Messaging?

MMS, also known as Multimedia Messaging Service, is like an expanded form of texting. It gives users the ability to send images, GIFs, audio, and video, plus up to 1,600 characters. MMS messaging can allow businesses to send even more robust messages to subscribers with rich multimedia support, engaging communication, and improved retention rates. Companies may send MMS to announce new product launches, include promotional materials, or send event invitations.

SMS vs MMS: Key Differences Explained

To recap, here’s a table that shows the differences between SMS and MMS:

Feature

SMS

MMS

Content Type

Text-only

Text + Multimedia (images, videos, GIFs)

Character Limit

160

1,600+

Cost

Lower

Higher

Best For

Alerts, reminders

Promotional campaigns, branding

When to Use SMS vs MMS for Business Communication

So, as you look to incorporate text messages in your marketing mix, when should you use SMS or MMS formats?

When to Use SMS

SMS marketing is the ideal form for concise and straightforward messages. SMS is perfect if your business sends essential details or time-sensitive information such as appointment or order confirmations. It can also help customers follow their purchases from your website to their front door with order updates and package tracking.

SMS is also incredibly useful for security-based texts such as two-factor authentication messages (2FA) and password resets. Finally, you’ll use SMS when setting up shortcodes that send automated replies or keyword-trigger responses. 

When to Use MMS

As you’ve seen, MMS messaging is ideal for those businesses that want to send more robust messages to customers. Maybe you’re a retailer launching a new product, and you want to send an announcement with pictures or videos of the new product. Or you could be a company that’s hosting an event, and you’d like to send subscribers a hype video. Or maybe you want to send a limited-time coupon to mobile subscribers. These are perfect use cases for MMS.

Combining SMS and MMS for Maximum Impact

As you develop your company’s marketing mix, look to combine both SMS and MMS messaging. By using these text marketing messages together, your business can create a cohesive and impactful omnichannel campaign, a campaign that reaches beyond just texting. When you need quick and straightforward messaging, utilize SMS. But to make an even more significant impact utilizing multimedia, implement MMS. For example, if you’re a retailer, you may use SMS for a flash sale announcement with a link to the sale page.

You can follow this up with MMS messaging that includes pictures or videos of the most popular sale items with a link to the specific items. Adding MMS pictures and videos to your other marketing channels, such as email and social media, creates a well-rounded marketing campaign that can effectively reach a broad audience. Now, let’s check out some of the biggest benefits of SMS and MMS.

Benefits of SMS and MMS Messaging for Businesses

SMS and MMS messaging allow businesses to reach customers right in the palms of their hands. This immediacy allows for timely and compelling messaging. Here are some benefits of using SMS and MMS messages in marketing.

Benefits of SMS Marketing:

  • Cost-effective for large-scale campaigns: If you’re sending messages to a large audience, SMS messages are a cost-effective way to reach these customers.
  • Universally compatible across all devices: SMS messages can be received by both Apple iOS and Android devices, making it easy to reach your customers, no matter their device.
  • Immediate and reliable delivery: SMS is a fast and reliable way to reach customers, with higher open rates than other forms of marketing, such as email blasts.

Benefits of MMS Marketing:

  • Enhanced engagement: MMS allows businesses to create more engaging content by implementing picture messages and multimedia elements.
  • Rich storytelling capabilities: The extended capability of MMS and higher character counts allow companies to tell deeper stories about their products and services.
  • Higher click-through and opt-in rates: Because MMS is often more engaging for consumers than SMS, these messages generally have higher engagement.

Cost Comparison: SMS vs MMS Messaging

In general, many business text providers charge more to send MMS than SMS. The difference in this cost can vary, but the increased cost is due to the larger data size and the multimedia transmission in MMS versus the short messages of text transmitted with SMS.

Therefore, it’s cost-effective to send short messages via SMS and more robust messages via MMS. If you need to send a lot of information, consider sending a single longer MMS instead of multiple SMS messages. An MMS can have up to 1,600 characters and may be more cost-effective.

Sakari supports two-way MMS messaging in the United States and Canada, and our pricing reflects the difference in messages between SMS and MMS. At the time of this article’s writing, MMS messages are priced at a $0.02 USD premium to whatever plan rate your account is on. For example, if you're in the $25 plan with a rate of $0.0304 USD per segment in the United States, an image message would be $0.0504 US.

Best Practices for SMS and MMS Campaigns

An effective SMS marketing campaign relies on reaching your audience at the right time with the right message. Here are some best practices to ensure your success:

  • Know your audience: When deciding between SMS and MMS, take your customers’ preferences into account. Testing can provide valuable insights into how your audience wants to be reached, so put this information into practice to ensure your message is well-received.
  • Keep it clear: No matter your messaging type, having a clear message is crucial. For more concise communication, opt for SMS. For more detailed information, utilize MMS.
  • Leverage analytics: As you develop your campaigns, be sure to utilize Sakari’s analytics dashboard to gain insights on what types of messages perform the best. 
  • Ensure compliance: Follow all relevant regulations in your jurisdiction when sending marketing text messages. Working with a partner like Sakari can help simplify your subscribers' opt-in and opt-out process.
  • Optimize visual content: When sending MMS, use high-quality images and videos.

Now that you’ve seen some of the best practices for SMS and MMS campaigns, let’s look at a few ways businesses in a variety of industries can put SMS and MMS to work.

Real-World Use Cases for SMS and MMS Messaging

While virtually any industry can use SMS and MMS messaging, here’s how a few broad industries might use SMS and MMS:

Retail:

  • SMS: Flash sale notifications, updated location hours, weather-related store notifications, and asking for online reviews
  • MMS: Product previews with images, behind-the-scenes videos before a new store opening, and thank you videos from the owner

Healthcare:

  • SMS: Appointment reminders, links to patient portal, and notifications about doctor messages
  • MMS: Prescription updates including visuals, physical therapy reminders with exercise videos, surgery prep instructions and videos

Real Estate:

  • SMS: Open house invitations, showing signups, and asking for online reviews
  • MMS: Property images and information and links to virtual home tours

Financial Services:

  • SMS: Account alerts and transaction confirmations
  • MMS: Fraud prevention instructions or additional account creation instructions

How Sakari Supports SMS and MMS Messaging

Sakari is a trusted leader for business communication with SMS and MMS. Our platform offers advantages such as native integrations with CRMs like HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce, and Pipedrive via our powerful API, plus automated workflows to make managing messaging campaigns a breeze. Plus, track your campaign’s success with our robust analytics dashboard.

Why Choose Sakari for SMS and MMS Messaging? 

Sakari offers affordable SMS marketing pricing to businesses of all sizes, whether you’re sending SMS or MMS messages. With our scalable solutions, we can help you send business text messages no matter how big or small your business is. Plus, our platform offers reliable text messaging to over 200 countries, so you can reach your audience no matter where they are.

Sakari Success Story

Our messaging platform helps countless businesses increase their engagement with their customers every single day. In fact, a recent customer achieved 30% higher engagement rates using MMS campaigns powered by Sakari.

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