Podium Text Message Marketing Review and Pricing

Why We Chose Podium for Businesses Serving Local Markets

Podium is an excellent text message marketing provider for established single-location or multilocation businesses that rely on local customers and the community’s goodwill for the bulk of their sales. Setting up bulk messages to — and having one-on-one conversations with — customers is easy and quick on this straightforward platform.

Podium also offers a highly intuitive way to solicit, manage and respond to online reviews on Google, Facebook and other sites — a critical feature when building trust with your local community. According to Brand Rated, 95 percent of consumers read online reviews before buying something, with slightly more than two-thirds saying they only trust high ratings if a potential supplier boasts numerous reviews. 

With Podium, you can manage online reviews across multiple platforms directly. Additionally, its integration with messaging services, including short message service (SMS), Facebook, Instagram and Google, makes turning positive reviews into repeat business a breeze. For example, let’s say you see a Google review you don’t recognize. You can reach out to the reviewer directly via Podium, thank them for the review and invite them to join your texting list. 

For these and many other reasons, Podium is our choice for the best text message marketing service for businesses that serve local markets.

Podium makes it easy to manage all your messages in one location. Source: Podium

Ease of Use

We found Podium very straightforward to use. When you log in to Podium, you’re greeted by your inbox, where you can check incoming messages and reply to customers. You can access your contacts, marketing area, payment dashboard and campaign reports easily from the top of the screen. We like that an always-on blue button gives you immediate access to your inbox, review feed, campaign center, contact list and payment options. This tidy and uncluttered layout makes for a very pleasant user experience overall.

Syncing contacts with Podium is faster and more straightforward than with many competitors. You can upload a comma-separated values file with up to 100,000 contacts or rows less than 5MB in size. As with opt-in email marketing rules, you must check a box to confirm that each contact has agreed to receive promotional messages. We like that you can segment your list across various branches or areas. 

We also appreciate that the site’s knowledge base link is permanently placed in the top navigation bar. The knowledge base has 13 sections on all aspects of using Podium, including setting up your account, sending bulk messages and making the most of AI features.

Podium smartly separates its over 200 custom-built integrations into five industry sectors for easy identification: Automotive, healthcare and dental, retail and hospitality, home services and financial and professional services. Public application programming interfaces are available for companies that want to develop their own integrations. However, if creating your own integrations sounds complicated, check out our review of SimpleTexting. This platform builds custom integrations for its customers.

You can send review invitations to customers directly and reply to their reviews in Podium Source: Podium

Podium Features

Podium comes with a bevy of intuitive features, depending on the service level you choose for your business

List-building Tools

Podium supports keywords, which allow subscribers to join texting lists for products and services they’re interested in. For example, a fashion boutique might choose “BAGS” or “SHOES” as keywords. A subscriber chooses a keyword that interests them to help you send them relevant offers. However, unlike its competition, Podium doesn’t group new subscribers by keyword automatically. Instead, you must tag a user’s listing manually to indicate which campaign they came from after they’ve joined. This is a surprising annoyance and makes building messaging lists more complex than it needs to be.

Meanwhile, we were impressed that creating website widgets to increase messaging signups took us 20 seconds. Podium will install the widget directly on your site if you have shareable logins. Alternatively, the vendor can email you the code and installation instructions. The platform supports several web-building tools, including BigCommerce, Duda, GoDaddy, Joomla, Shopify, Wix and WordPress.

Podium offers other list-building tools, including quick response codes, pop-up boxes and social media links. Additionally, it has an excellent YouTube video on building subscriber numbers, including suggestions like having a dedicated laptop in your store where people can sign up and how to capture cell phone details from clients who’ve just purchased something.

Contact Management

We like Podium’s robust contact management features, including the following: 

• Detailed subscriber directory: Select the Contacts tab to see a subscriber directory, including names, cell numbers, email addresses, record creation dates and tags. When you select a contact’s name, their history appears on the right side of the screen, including previous conversations and reviews they’ve written. You can also add, delete or amend tags, helping you segment customers for future marketing campaigns and request payments when appropriate.
• Centralized interactions: We love how Podium centralizes every customer’s or prospect’s text message conversations and other interactions. This function makes it much easier for sales and customer service representatives to understand clients’ needs and issues if they contact you.
• Built-in voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP): The system also includes a built-in VoIP system for making and receiving calls from your desktop or mobile app. You can forward and transfer calls to co-workers and place customers on hold. We were very impressed by how, at the end of a call, the system’s AI will create a bulleted summary of the conversation and add it to the customer’s history.
• Date-based automations: We appreciated Podium’s addition of date-based automations, allowing you to send birthday messages to customers with special offers or  coupons to drive engagement. You can also schedule appointment follow-ups.
• Customer tagging: We like that Podium lets you tag customers at different parts of the customer journey, allowing you to create and manage the sales pipeline better. Thanks to its automation capabilities, you can task team members with particular actions, such as pursuing payment, alerting customers to a product’s arrival or reminding a client of an upcoming appointment. We found it very easy to automate lead assignments to help your sales team respond as quickly as possible.

Podium offers easy access to your contacts list and centralizes all pertinent data. Source: Podium

Customer Communication 

Part of running a successful local business means excellent communication with the customers in your community. Whether it’s answering calls about business hours, responding to texts about in-stock items or sending out loyalty rewards, Podium excels at keeping you in touch. We love that one-to-one texts are free, so no matter how often you need to respond or reach out to an individual customer, you won’t pay extra. 

Keeping track of interactions, no matter the medium, is straightforward thanks to Podium’s multifunctional inbox. From one central location you can access text, email, phone, web chat, Instagram and Facebook messages. You can send leads from other platforms directly to your Podium inbox so all inquiries and service requests are easy to locate and answer. Even messages sent through your Google Business profile appear in your Podium inbox.

We especially love Podium’s unique video chat feature. You can seamlessly move any conversation from text to video, which can be useful when you need to show a customer a specific item quickly or help troubleshoot a problem they are having with your product. Podium will send them a link to initiate a video chat immediately. No software downloads are necessary, making this feature even more appealing.

Text Marketing Campaigns

Brands should use text message marketing as part of their strategy to reach new customers in the local community and offer incentives to turn one-time shoppers into loyal supporters. To launch effective campaigns, an SMS platform with useful templates can streamline the process. Podium is one of two platforms we reviewed that helpfully include marketing templates on their campaign pages. Podium has five sets of templates: 

• Customer support and experience texts
• Operational and appointment texts
• Review and feedback texts
• Popular promotional texts
• Seasonal promotion texts

We like that it’s easy to start new marketing campaigns by selecting Marketing > Bulk Messages > Create bulk message. Next, you’ll name the campaign, select subscribers, write your messages and schedule the campaign. However, we would have liked to see more bulk messages come standard and a simpler way to send segmented mass marketing campaigns.

AI Features

Podium includes a number of AI features with every plan, but some of the most advanced tools don’t come standard. We like that all users get suggested replies to incoming texts or reviews, so you can respond quickly and effectively. You can also automate reminders for customers to leave a review or make a payment, saving your team the time of having to constantly follow up. After a voice call, AI will create a summary in the contact’s file. 

Podium’s signature AI tool, AI Employee, is available with the top-tier plan or as an add-on. We found it to be one of the more powerful uses of AI among the platforms we reviewed. No matter how a customer contacts you, the AI Employee can respond, carry out a natural conversation, provide up-to-date information and schedule appointments. If the interaction requires a human to take over, the AI will elevate the conversation to the appropriate team member automatically. It can even draft bulk campaigns and send personalized promotional messages to contacts based on their past purchases and interactions with your business. 

Podium’s AI Employee can respond in real time to customers, provide accurate information on inventory and make appointments. Source: Podium

Review Management 

If you run a local business, you know your reputation in the community is vital to your success. Responding to your online reviews is critical to managing local opinions of your company. We love that Podium makes responding to online reviews, no matter where they come from, painless. You can see every review and respond right from the Podium platform. 

In addition to crafting responses, we like that you can use Podium to encourage clients to leave a review. Write a short message to a customer and select Review Invitation. The recipient will see a short URL in their message that takes them to a web page where they can leave a review. 

The default option is for a Google review, but we like that Podium also integrates with a wide range of third-party review sites, from general sites like Yellow Pages to more specific sites like Angi and Thumbtack for home services businesses or DealerRater and Edmunds for automobile dealers. You’ll be able to meet your customers where they are, no matter what site they use for their online research.

In the dashboard’s Reporting section, you can check where reviews originate and see overall rating scores on each platform. We like that you can directly message customers who have left a review to ask them to opt into your text message lists. AI can even assist you in composing responses and requesting reviews.

You can track and manage your reviews across multiple sites with Podium. Source: Podium

Payment Processing

We like that Podium facilitates accepting SMS payments. Send a customer a text with a link to Podium’s dedicated secure payment page. They’ll see what they owe and can pay their bill with a credit or debit card. If you accept payments this way, the credit card processing fees are as follows, depending on your plan.

Bank transfer payments are also available at $5 per transaction; international payments are an additional 1 percent of the transaction cost.

Analytics 

Podium boasts impressive analytics functions that can ultimately help you increase sales via text messaging. The Analytics dashboard details your inbound sales leads, the median time it takes your team to respond to messages and the total number of conversations by month and year. However, we were disappointed that, unlike other platforms, there’s no option to set a custom date range to run reports. That said, we appreciate that Podium lets you run reports on your online reviews and customer payments. You can track employee performance and identify training opportunities.

Podium offers two types of analytical leaderboards: 

• Employee Leaderboard: The Employee Leaderboard helps managers understand how well employees are performing, including how long they take to respond, how many customers they’ve spoken to, their feedback scores, how many review invites they’ve sent and the number of review invites that turned into actual reviews.
• Location Leaderboard: The Location Leaderboard provides insights into each location’s performance, keeping updated metrics on inbound leads, first response time, total conversations, review invites, reviews garnered, average review ratings and more.

Podium Pricing

We were disappointed that Podium isn’t transparent about the cost of its three plans. Previously, prices for the Core and Pro plan were listed online, but that is no longer the case. You’ll have to speak to a sales rep to get a quote. Pricing for additional bulk messages isn’t available online either. We think small businesses shopping around for an SMS marketing solution would benefit from the ability to estimate costs as they compare options. 

In general, Podium is more expensive than other text message marketing platforms we reviewed, but that is because you’re paying for a comprehensive customer communication portal. Considering it includes free one-to-one messages, Podium is a great choice for small businesses that need conversations, not mass messages, to convert leads. However, if you’re looking for a simple and affordable platform to run frequent bulk messaging campaigns, Podium probably isn’t the best choice.

Podium’s three subscription options are as follows: 

Additional phone numbers cost $5 per month; you can request a higher bulk message limit for an additional fee. No free trial is available, but the company offers a free demo.

Implementation and Onboarding 

Account setup for Podium is simple and free. You’ll receive an email from the platform inviting you to accept its invitation. Select the link and follow the on-screen instructions to get started. You’ll also input general account information on your business that you can later edit if necessary.

Podium is one of the easier platforms we’ve reviewed for adding extra users: Go to account settings and select Users > Invite users. A pop-up appears where you can enter employees’ email addresses or phone numbers. You can assign each new user as a supervisor or staff member.

What makes implementation even easier is that you control Podium in your web browser. You don’t need to download separate applications to use the platform. 

We were impressed that all subscribers get a personalized one-on-one onboarding manager initially, followed by a dedicated customer success manager. An integration support team is available if you want to integrate Podium into your other business apps. 

Customer Support

If you have an issue, you can get assistance anytime through the AI chat tool or the Help Center Knowledge Base, which has around 100 well-written, easy-to-follow articles split into 13 categories. You could also visit Podium’s extensive YouTube library, which has over 100 videos containing tutorials and customer success stories.

If you need live support, you can reach out to your customer success manager for help with account management or billing issues. Right from the platform you can schedule a call or send a text. For all other issues, Podium provides live customer service via chat or text weekdays from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mountain time and weekends from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. MT. Alternatively, you can call Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. MT. Signature plan subscribers receive priority phone support. 

We appreciate that Podium offers such extensive hours for live support as well as a dedicated point person. Not many platforms offer a similar level of customer service. However, some online reviewers pointed out that they were disappointed with the support they received.

Limitations 

Podium has many compelling benefits, but we did identify the following limitations: 

• Bulk messaging limits: For a platform that does so much, we were disappointed with the limits around bulk messaging. The entry-level plan only offers 250 messages per month, which is quite low despite the price estimate of over $300. We were also disappointed that unused credits don’t roll over and add-on bulk messages are limited to 10,000 a month. If you need to send frequent, high-volume mass SMS marketing campaigns, Podium might fall short. 
• No automatic tagging: Most text messaging marketing platforms group subscribers initially by the keywords they opt in with but Podium doesn’t. Instead, you must watch for keywords and tag customers with them in your inbox, which can be frustrating. It can also be cumbersome when trying to create segmented bulk campaigns. An automatic tagging feature would save time organizing contacts, building subscriber lists and sending out targeted mass messages. If you’re looking for a platform to painlessly send segmented groups mass texts, read our review of Textline.
• Relatively high, opaque pricing: We would have liked to see more transparency around pricing. Previously quoted prices for even the 250-message Core plan are much higher than entry-level offerings from competitors. Considering the add-on costs of AI Employee and extra bulk messages, the cost of Podium could be prohibitive for small businesses on a limited budget. If all you want to do is text, more cost-effective options exist. 
• No Yelp integration: Podium doesn’t integrate with Yelp, which is somewhat shocking when you consider the review site’s popularity. While plenty of Yelp alternatives exist, the lack of a Yelp integration could sway you to a competing vendor if Yelp is a big part of your marketing strategy. It’s worth noting that Yelp forbids businesses from asking for reviews, which may be why it’s absent from the Podium platform.

Methodology

We spent several weeks researching the top text messaging service providers to determine the best solutions. As part of our analysis, we looked at ease of use, features, pricing, customer support and integration options. To determine the best text messaging service for local markets specifically, we evaluated granular list segmentation capabilities, campaign analytics and tools available to help a business build subscriber lists.

Bottom Line

We recommend Podium for …

• Established one-branch businesses that want to drive sales and attract positive reviews from their local community.
• Multibranch companies that want to increase local community connections, increase sales and get more good reviews.
• Businesses without a CRM that want to centralize communications and lead-gathering on one platform.

We don’t recommend Podium for …

• Startups or very small local businesses looking for a simple, low-cost SMS solution.
• Businesses that don’t want to spend a lot of time tagging contacts by keyword.
• Companies that need to send a lot of mass SMS marketing campaigns each month.