SMS is King in 2026
Let’s face it: in 2026, email is great, but SMS is king. When you need to reach your customers right now—to fill a schedule gap, announce a flash sale, or confirm appointments—nothing beats the 98% open rate of a text message.
But for most small business owners, running a text campaign is a logistical nightmare. You’re juggling spreadsheets, manually formatting phone numbers, trying to remember who opted out, and fighting with CSV upload errors. Marketing should feel like a performance, not a wrestling match with Excel. That’s why we are thrilled to unveil the newest addition to the Marketing (Kabuki) workspace: Text Blasts.
Precision Targeting, Zero Headaches
Gone are the days of exporting your entire contact list and hoping for the best. The new Text Blast tool connects directly to your Markets defined in Operations. Want to run a promo specifically for your “North Shore” customers? Just select the market from the dropdown. Hello Gekko instantly grabs the right contacts, filtering out anyone you’ve archived or blacklisted.
One-Click Export for RingCentral
We know many of you use RingCentral (and similar dialers) to send your actual messages. We also know that these platforms are notoriously picky about CSV formatting. One wrong column header, and the whole upload fails.
With Text Blasts, you hit one button: “Download RingCentral CSV.” Gekko instantly generates a perfectly formatted file containing only the data you need (Phone, First Name, Last Name, Company), stripped of special characters and ready for immediate upload. No more formatting errors. No more wasted time.
Close the Loop with Campaign Logging
To grow, you need to know what happened after you hit send. The new Run History log allows you to record the results of every blast immediately. You can log:
- Total Sent: How many people did you reach?
- Opt-Outs: Keep your list clean and compliant.
- Duplicates: Spot data quality issues instantly.
- Response Rate: Are people actually replying?
Monitor Your Health (The Opt-Out Rate)
We’ve added a dedicated dashboard widget that tracks your Opt-Out Rate across campaigns. If your rate starts creeping above 2%, Kabuki gives you a visual heads-up. It’s a simple way to ensure you aren’t burning out your audience, helping you adjust your messaging before you lose valuable customers.
Ready to Make Some Noise?
Head over to the Marketing workspace and click on the new Text Blasts tab to start your first run. Stop wrestling with data and start connecting with your customers.
Happy Blasting!
