Agencies · 5 min read

Clients love SMS: open rates are high and replies are instant. Agencies often avoid offering it because credit-based platforms turn every campaign into a cost-plus exercise. Here’s how to add SMS to your services without becoming a credit reseller.

The credit problem

With a per-message platform you either absorb the cost (and watch the margin shrink with every send) or mark it up (and invite comparison with the platform’s own price page). Either way, you’re selling messages instead of results.

A different cost structure

SwarmSMS sends texts through Android phones using their normal SIM plans. If those plans include unlimited texts, your marginal cost per message is effectively zero. Your costs become predictable: the plugin license and a phone plan or two. That lets you price on value.

What to sell

• Appointment and order updates — transactional texts wired to the client’s booking or WooCommerce system.
• Lead follow-up — a text within a minute of a form submission.
• Offers with a deadline — an offer now and a reminder three days later, with an end date.
• Review requests after a completed job.
• OTP login and 2FA for membership and shop sites.

How to set it up per client

1. Install SwarmSMS on the client’s WordPress site (Pro covers five sites; the Agency plan covers 25 and lets one phone serve up to 25 client sites).
2. Give the client a dedicated phone, or share a small pool of phones across clients with failover.
3. Set sending hours, the opt-out wording and the country code.
4. Connect their forms or WooCommerce under Automations.
5. Add a consent checkbox to every sign-up form.

Protect yourself and your clients

Only text people who agreed. Keep consent records (SwarmSMS stores source and date). Use the message gap and daily limits so you stay inside your carrier’s fair-use rules, and put each client’s data in their own site. Read our acceptable use policy.

Report like a pro

Per-step delivery reports, click rates and per-phone stats make monthly client reports easy. With the MCP connection you can even ask an AI assistant to produce them.