It launched in 1992, it has been a staple of personal communication, and it is now beginning a sharp upward ascent as one of the biggest marketing channels of the future: Short Message Service (SMS) – aka texting. Here are 9 reasons why SMS marketing is a massive opportunity and the next big marketing channel for your business:
- Accessibility to your prospects and clients
- Ubiquitous usage of SMS worldwide
- Convenience, easy to communicate
- Speed of delivery
- Open rates or the percentage of people that open text messages vs other marketing channels
- Response rates, the percentage of people willing to respond to your message
- Scale, the sheer enormity of the number of people you can message on every campaign
- Explosive growth as a marketing channel
- The future growth of SMS
Accessibility
9 Benefits and Reasons SMS Marketing is a Massive Opportunity
Two of the fundamental questions for any growing marketing channel are: How many people can easily access the channel every day? How many people have adopted the channel?
Regarding accessibility, 298 million smart phone users reside in the U.S. in 2021. There are 3.8 billion smart phone users worldwide today which equates to 48% of the world’s population.
Usage of SMS
Just because 3.8 billion people own smart phones globally doesn’t mean everyone is texting. So how many people are texting today?
Answer: 5 billion people worldwide send and receive text messages which is nearly 65% of the world’s population. In North America, 292 million people, equal to 80% of the population, use text messaging.
Convenience and Ease of Communication
SMS, texting, is convenient and easy to do.
How many times have you been in a meeting or a place where you can’t openly answer your phone or check voicemail? Maybe you don’t have time to check email or write a response.
It’s much easier to check your phone for text messages and respond on your own time.
It’s also difficult to reach people who leave their phones off or in silent mode when they can’t take calls at work. Texting allows these people to read messages without the inconvenience of leaving the room to answer the phone.
The point: when you send a SMS marketing message to a prospect or customer, they don’t have to be available when the message is sent. Your intended recipient can respond at a time that’s best for them.
Even more important is the fact that you’re guaranteed to get your message through to your intended recipient; conversely if you are calling your prospect or customer most likely won’t answer.
SMS Marketing Open Rates are Unparalleled
SMS marketing is one of the fastest forms of communication available today. Here is something to consider from our friends at Mobile Monkey: SMS messages have a 98% open rate compared to 20% (avg) of emails.
Just as amazing, 90%+ of text messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery.
SMS Marketing Response Rates Continue to Grow
Every time you send a prospect or customer a text message something great happens – a lot of people respond back. What’s that look like?
- Average response rate for SMS marketing is 45% (Optin Monster) or nearly half of all recipients of your SMS messaging will respond back to you!
SMS Click Through Rates Out-Perform Other Channels
Just to be clear, the definition of Click Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of customers who click on a hyperlink within an SMS message you delivered. For perspective, here are average click through rates for the following channels:
- Google Ads: CTR 2% – 3.5%
- Bing Ads: CTR 2.83% (Wordstream)
- Email: CTR 2% – 2.5% (Campaign Monitor)
The average CTR for SMS is 19% (Call Hub)
But Does SMS Scale?
Yes, in a big way! SMS marketing can include thousand, hundreds of thousands, or even multi-million message campaigns. Much of the work and distribution is automated once you have created your message and content, delivery is a simple process.
The number of people you can touch, introduce, remind, excite, help, and support via text messaging is only limited to your list of opted in prospects and customers.
SMS Marketing Explosive Growth
The old pushback on SMS marketing was that people just didn’t want to receive texts from people other than their friends and family. But those days have faded away to the new SMS landscape and how people perceive text messaging by businesses. Here are a few facts to consider from 99 Firms:
- 48.7 million consumers have agreed to receive text messages from brands as of 2020
- 79% of smartphone users make their shopping decisions based on SMS opt-in or similar mobile device services
- 75% of people wouldn’t mind receiving an SMS text message from a brand if they opt-in for the service
- 85% of consumers will redeem a coupon sent via text within one week
- 50% of US consumers make a purchase after receiving an advertising text, a discount coupon, or a QR code
- 64% of consumers have a more favorable opinion of a company that offers SMS text as a customer service channel (buildfire)
And consider this fact when debating the relevancy of SMS marketing today.
A Fair, Isaac and Company (FICO) study found that 80% of people would like the option to use their smartphones to interact with health care providers.
The reasons cited: 76% of consumers worldwide are interested in reminders of their upcoming medical appointments and 69% would like to receive reminders to take medication or arrange new medical appointments.
The Future Growth of SMS as a Marketing Channel
Acceptance and adoption are here in 2021. What is exciting about SMS as a marketing channel is the continued trajectory of growth projected for the near future.
- 7.41 billion mobile users worldwide by 2024 (Statista)
- 6 billion people will send and receive text messages by 2025
- 72.6% of internet users will access the web via mobile only using their smartphones by 2025 according to industry predictions
The anticipated massive wave of behavioral change from people accessing the internet through desktops, then by laptops, and now and into the future, via mobile devices, is a clear call to businesses to adapt their marketing and sales strategies to fit this dynamic.
SMS Marketing is the key new growth channel that will provide consumers with the information they want and businesses with the opportunities they must have to remain competitive, relevant, and necessary to their target audience(s).
Inner Architect has generated $270 million in new revenue for our clients since 2016. Our firm is a Google Partner agency certified in Search. Expertise.com named Inner Architect one of the Top 9 Pay-Per-Click Agencies in San Francisco for 2019, 2020, 2021.
