When people think of modern marketing channels, they typically think of email or social media marketing, maybe search engine marketing. But one cost-effective, impactful option that’s easy to overlook is text message marketing, also known as SMS marketing.
SMS marketing might be just the strategy you need to connect with customers and grow your business. Let’s dig deeper into the effectiveness of this marketing channel with in-depth insights from SMS marketing statistics.
What is SMS marketing?
Businesses use SMS marketing to send promotional marketing messages via text to customers who provide their phone numbers. It’s similar to email marketing, except the messages are generally shorter and go straight to the recipients’ smartphones.
It is by no means a new strategy, but as phones have become more and more powerful, SMS marketing has become a more versatile tool for businesses. Marketers can send images, links, forms, and more via SMS, giving audiences new ways to engage.
Key texting and SMS marketing statistics overview
Every day, users worldwide send billions of texts, not even including messages sent through non-texting apps. Nearly 70% of people worldwide have a smartphone, which means more people have access to cell phones than safe indoor toilets.
In North America, smartphone usage and text messaging are even more prevalent. Ninety-seven percent of Americans own a cell phone, and 90% have a smartphone.
Those text messages are incredibly valuable for brands, so they’re investing more and more in this marketing channel. In 2024, companies are expected to spend $790 million worldwide on SMS marketing. Think of how many text messages that adds up to! U. S. companies invest the most in SMS advertising, making up around 40% of the SMS ad spend.
You’ve probably received plenty of promotional text messages from brands, letting you know about things like sales and exclusive deals. Across industries, 47% of businesses use mobile messaging to promote their products and services. Some of the major brands taking advantage of SMS marketing are Michaels, Domino’s, and Kohl’s.
Companies use SMS marketing because it drives measurable results. Across industries, the average conversion rate for SMS marketing messages is between 21% and 30%. That’s up to ten times higher than the average email marketing conversion rate. You can expect a large portion of your SMS subscriber list to engage with your promotional text messages, making texting a very effective marketing channel.
Consumer response to SMS marketing
One of the greatest advantages of SMS marketing is that it’s almost completely instantaneous. Within seconds of pressing send, users all over the world can read and engage with your message.
The majority of people read new texts within five minutes of receiving them. When you extend that time frame to within 30 minutes of delivery, over 90% of people read their messages.
If you have a time-sensitive message for your customers, texting is the best way to reach them. For example, brands often announce flash sales with text messages. Promoting a flash sale with a social media campaign or email marketing campaign might not get the message across fast enough.
Organizations can also use SMS to provide important informational updates, such as announcing new business hours or sharing changes to an upcoming event.
Attitudes toward SMS marketing
You might be surprised to learn that consumers are very open to receiving brand texts. Over 90% of consumers worldwide have either already signed up for an SMS marketing program or are interested in joining one.
Consumers are more likely to sign up for these programs when brands offer strong incentives, such as complimentary gifts, discounts, or free shipping. You can also entice consumers to provide their phone numbers for SMS marketing by offering personalized recommendations.
Engagement with SMS marketing messages
Typically, customers don’t just provide their phone number and then ignore your messages. Consumers are more willing to read and engage with promotional text messages than you might think.
SMS marketing stats show around two-thirds of consumers interact with marketing text messages from brands at least twice per week. They open these texts, read the content, and even click links included in the messages.
Generally, consumers prefer mobile messages to come by text rather than messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. If you make customers download a new app, especially your own branded app, they’re less likely to sign up for mobile messages. Stick to texting for the best results.
When you get your SMS marketing messages right, they greatly impact customers. Close to 50% of customers consider taking action and choosing one brand over another after getting promotional texts.
You don’t have to worry about your SMS marketing going off into the void, never to be seen again. While engagement rates vary, you can trust that many customers will read your messages.
Benefits of using SMS marketing
Some motivations for using SMS marketing include:
- Cost-efficiency: SMS marketing offers strong results at a relatively low cost, especially compared to other digital marketing channels like social media and email marketing.
- High open rates: Marketing text messages have very high open rates, boosting the odds that your message will affect your target audience.
- Immediacy: SMS messages reach the intended audience immediately, so you don’t have to wait to share time-sensitive alerts or promotions.
- Customer engagement: Every time customers get a marketing text from your business, they think about your brand and can engage further.
Another benefit of SMS marketing is that it easily integrates with your campaigns on other marketing channels. For example, you can announce a flash sale with a marketing text, then follow that text up with an email that provides personalized product recommendations to buy during the sale.
Assessing SMS marketing growth and potential
The SMS marketing industry is expected to reach $12.6 billion by the end of 2025. SMS text marketing statistics show its projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is also quite high, at 20.3%. SMS marketing is growing the fastest among retail brands and media and entertainment brands.
In other words, marketers are interested in text message marketing. They’re investing more money in this channel over time and have high expectations of the results it can provide.
Launching mobile loyalty programs is one of the most popular forms of text message marketing. In these programs, brands send exclusive deals and benefits via text message to customers who provide their phone numbers. SMS loyalty programs encourage customers to stay engaged with your brand and boost retention rates.
Comparative insights: SMS vs email marketing
Email marketing and SMS marketing overlap a lot, so it’s worth comparing the two.
Open rates
Marketers spend many hours writing and designing the best messages, but those marketing messages don’t have any effect unless recipients actually open them. That’s why keeping your open rates as high as possible is so important.
You may have heard that SMS marketing has sky-high open rates, but is that true?
As of 2024, the average SMS campaign has an open rate of around 98%. That means in a standard campaign, almost every customer you send SMS messages to will open those messages.
Email marketing is a very different story. On average, marketing emails have a 26.8% open rate.
That doesn’t mean email marketing isn’t effective—it’s just that a smaller percentage of recipients will read the messages. Check your email marketing analytics to see the open rates on your email campaigns.
Click-through rates
You don’t just want recipients to read your marketing messages—you want them to engage with them and click the links they contain. That’s how you drive conversions and sales from your mobile marketing efforts.
Click-through rate is another metric where SMS beats email by a wide margin. The average click-through rate on SMS messages is over 6%, more than double the average rate for email marketing messages.
Return on investment
These statistics might make you think that SMS marketing is a much better option than email marketing, but that’s not necessarily the case. While open rates and click-through rates are certainly important, return on investment is the best metric for evaluating marketing opportunities.
The average ROI for email marketing is $36 for every dollar brands spend. SMS marketing is actually very similar, albeit a little lower. The majority of small and medium businesses report an average ROI of $21 to $40 on SMS marketing campaigns.
Both email marketing and SMS marketing are cost-effective options for connecting with your customer base and promoting your products and services.
Challenges and best practices in SMS marketing
It’s normal to encounter some challenges while running SMS marketing campaigns. If you’re aware of these potential hurdles ahead of time, it’s much easier to leap over them later.
Managing subscriber sign-ups
Step one in SMS marketing is getting customers to sign up for your text list by providing their phone numbers. But how do you collect these numbers? And what do you do with them once you have them?
When you start out, you might be able to collect numbers with a simple sign-up form and manage your subscriber list manually. However, as your list grows, managing all those phone numbers will get tricky.
That’s when you should turn to software tools to help you track subscriber sign-ups. Software tools collect subscribers’ phone numbers, organize them, and make it easy to send out your promotional texts.
For example, SMS marketing software like Constant Contact helps you write, test, and track your text campaigns. Try Constant Contact’s SMS software today to launch your text message marketing campaign.
Incentives for joining SMS programs
Most customers don’t want to just hand over their phone numbers without getting something in exchange. You have to draw them in and convince them to join your SMS program by offering incentives.
Some common incentives for joining SMS programs include exclusive deals, advance notice of sales, and free products. Just keep the cost of your incentives low so you don’t damage your return on investment.
Adhering to laws and regulations
If you operate or contact customers in the United States, you must follow the CAN-SPAM Act, which sets out rules for marketing messages. One important rule to note is that you must get permission before sending marketing text messages to customers. Buying a list of phone numbers or simply choosing random numbers for your SMS marketing recipient list is prohibited. Instead, only contact customers who provide their phone numbers and explicitly agree to receive marketing text messages from your brand.
You also need to allow customers to opt out of future messages. Somewhere in your message, there should be an easy-to-understand way for recipients to unsubscribe from your SMS list.
As you prepare and launch your text message campaigns, be sure to follow all these SMS marketing best practices.
The present and future of SMS marketing
Like other forms of mobile marketing, SMS marketing is always evolving. Stay on top of developments in SMS marketing to create the most impactful campaigns.
For example, expect to see artificial intelligence become a key part of SMS marketing campaigns. With AI, brands can build more personalized, targeted campaigns. AI analyzes customer preferences, demographics, and behavior to create messages tailored to each person. More personalization equals even better marketing results.
As SMS marketing continues to grow in popularity, marketers will keep finding new ways to optimize their SMS campaigns. The future of text message marketing is bright, and there’s no time like the present to get started.
If you’re interested in creating your own SMS campaign but don’t know where to begin, consider using text message software.
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