SMS Marketing: Statistics, benefits, automation, and best practices

The marketing industry is constantly evolving. But some strategies are evergreen.  

So is the case with SMS marketing.

Yes, most of the marketing campaigns are carried out via emails and social media platforms. However, when you look into text messaging, it’s still an effective channel for your marketing campaigns. 

SMS marketing is emerging as a successful strategy for many businesses, and for all the right reasons!

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of SMS marketing, let’s first take a glance at some interesting statistics of SMS marketing. 

Interesting SMS marketing statistics and facts

Some other text message marketing stats and facts:

1. Over one-third of the world’s phones are best suited for reach by text. 
2. 77% of consumers say that they are more likely to trust a company if it’s offering SMS. 
3. 67% of customers would rather use text messages than calls when receiving appointment reminders or any confirmations. 
4. 58.7% of consumers respond to their text messages within five minutes. 
5. The CTR rate for offer messages is higher by 9.18% compared to any other digital channel. 

What is SMS marketing? 

SMS marketing is a strategy of sending text messages to customers and subscribers for promotional offers and transaction updates.  

Such kind of messages usually require immediate actions and provides alerts to the customers that have agreed to receive text messages from your company. 

75% of customers are comfortable with receiving marketing SMS. So, if SMS marketing is not in your marketing strategy, I’d highly recommend it. 

Why you should implement SMS marketing: 10 solid benefits 

SMS marketing has numerous positive factors for businesses of all types. Whether you have B2B or B2C company, text messaging will remain effective no matter what.  

Here’s how SMS marketing works for every company: 

1. Direct and instant communication

Unlike other forms of marketing, SMS marketing provides the advantage of direct and instant communication.   

Based on the attentive mobile consumer report and other SMS marketing statistics, text messages, whether part of bulk text message marketing or individual sms campaigns are read within a few minutes of receipt.   

This rapid, two-way communication model aligns seamlessly with mobile phone usage patterns, presenting a huge opportunity for businesses to reach customers quickly and effectively.

2. High engagement rates 

The benefits of SMS marketing are underscored by impressive text message marketing statistics. Engagement rates for SMS messages far outpace marketing efforts through email marketing campaigns or even phone calls.   

SMS messages have an average click-through rate significantly higher than other marketing channels. This increased engagement is partly due to the ubiquity of mobile devices and the ease of text messaging, making it a core part of any SMS marketing strategy.

3. Cost-effectiveness 

One of the top benefits of SMS marketing, particularly bulk SMS marketing, is its cost-effectiveness.  

Compared to other marketing efforts, the low cost per SMS message means businesses can achieve more sales without overextending their marketing budget.  

The attentive mobile consumer report supports this, showcasing impressive SMS revenue returns relative to investment. 

4. Increased customer retention 

SMS marketing services, such as appointment reminders and personalized offers, are practical tools for increasing customer retention.  

According to SMS marketing stats, regular SMS messages can keep a business at the forefront of SMS subscribers’ minds more effectively than sporadic sales calls or push notifications. 

5. Personalisation and targeted marketing

SMS marketing programs offer advanced personalization and targeting features. For instance, according to marketing statistics, messages can be customized using real-time data, which leads to higher customer engagement.     

Moreover, businesses can use SMS marketing automation strategies or an SMS marketing automation platform to deliver personalized messages to potential customers based on their interaction with the company. 

6. Mobile-first strategy alignment:  

With the global population increasingly shifting towards smartphone usage, a mobile-first strategy is essential for businesses.  

SMS marketing aligns perfectly with this trend, mainly when utilized through top SMS marketing platforms.    

By implementing SMS marketing best practices , businesses can tap into the rise of text messaging to enhance their marketing strategy and gain an edge in the market. 

7 . Integrability of SMS marketing 

Integrability enhances SMS marketing’s effectiveness, allowing it to blend with other marketing methods. For instance, it can amplify social media campaigns, such as a product launch on Instagram.  

An SMS alert to customers can increase event attendance. Likewise, text message marketing can boost the reach of email marketing, reminding customers to check emails for detailed information. This synergy of SMS with other channels reinforces a comprehensive, multi-faceted marketing strategy. 

8 . Ubiquity

Considering the staggering sms marketing statistics, the fact that almost everyone owns mobile phones and uses SMS is an absolute win for businesses.  

This makes SMS marketing universally accessible since it doesn’t rely on internet access, unlike email marketing or social media.   

Text messages are received by almost all mobile devices, from the latest smartphones to basic feature phones, reaching a broader spectrum of the global population. 

9. Real-time analytics

One of the most impressive benefits of SMS marketing lies in its real-time data analytics capabilities. Not only can businesses monitor how many of their SMS marketing messages are delivered, but they can also track click-through rates.  

With a good SMS marketing automation platform or SMS marketing automation software, you can have real-time insights into your marketing efforts. For example, an attentive mobile consumer report suggests a higher average click-through rate for SMS than other marketing channels. 

10. Enhances customer experience  

By leveraging top SMS marketing platforms and sms marketing automation strategies, businesses can provide a seamless experience to their customers. This includes sending appointment reminders, order updates, and personalized offers.  

These transactional SMS messages greatly enhance customer engagement by keeping them informed and engaged. These two-way conversations via text messages can be a game-changer, turning the cold calling approach into a more warm and personalized interaction.

How can you leverage text messages in your marketing campaigns? 

83% of millennials open SMS within 90 seconds of receiving them. So, the probability of reaching them via text messaging is way higher than any other mode of communication. 

Before we understand how to leverage SMS marketing campaigns, let’s take a look at some of the types:

1. Marketing campaigns
2. Customer feedback
3. Transactional messages
4. Cart abandonment alerts

Here’s how to do SMS marketing for your business:  

• Marketing campaigns: SMS marketing can work wonders for instant sales or discount offers. You can shoot texts before the offer and provide a discount coupon code. This practice would directly impact your overall revenue.  
   
• Customer feedback: One of the most common approaches for SMS marketing is to initiate a small feedback survey to your customer. In fact, text messages have a 7.5x higher response rate than email response rates. Therefore, the SMS marketing campaign is a better choice if you want to get feedback from existing customers.  
   
• Transactional messages: Whenever any online transactions take place, customers need to know whether they were successful or not. Therefore, sending text messages for declined or completed transactions will gain credibility from your users. 
   
• Cart abandonment alerts: It’s always difficult to retain someone’s attention. For example, your prospect could be browsing through your website, adding products to their cart, and in between, they receive a call. They’ll leave the website and focus on their call, resulting in cart abandonment. Here, you can use SMS to send primary texts for cart abandonment text to re-capture your prospect’s attention.     

You can also use SMS marketing campaigns for use cases like a product launch, sharing content and resources, automated responses, etc. 

SMS marketing automation: What are the best practices? 

Yes, SMS marketing is effective, but if you want to take it to the next level, you can implement marketing automation in your campaign.  

What is SMS marketing automation?

SMS marketing automation is an engine that helps you respond to customers faster with personalization and bring more business. It is super easy to execute and cost-effective. So, all kinds of businesses can include it in their marketing budget. 

Let’s check out some best SMS marketing practices that’ll take your marketing efforts to the next level.

1. Personalize your text messages

Personalization is the key to capturing the attention of your prospects/clients.  

If you send a text with just “hello,” most audiences would ignore it, assuming it’s spam or irrelevant.   

However, receiving a message with their name in the opening line will grab their attention, making them more likely to read your text.

All your customer contact information is in CRM. So, executing SMS marketing from your CRM is the most sensible choice. 

You can send personalized text messages to your customers directly from Salesmate CRM, saving you the hassle of switching between multiple platforms.    

2. Share promotional offers with bulk messaging 

You can create a promotional text message whenever you’re running a promotional offer or discount on your website.   

Using automation, you can send your text to a segmented audience from your SMS marketing software.   

Bulk marketing SMS works best when there’s a limited-time offer, or you want to share a special discount coupon code with your customers.

3. Schedule marketing SMS to connect at the right time 

Your prospects will only be checking their text messaging sometimes. In this case, you can experiment with different time slots and find out which one gains more traction.  

Based on that, you can automate your text sequences via SMS marketing software to take follow-ups or reminders. 

4. Craft appealing & reusable templates 

Your prospect must receive tons of text messages daily, so how do you make yours stand out?   

You must get creative and craft templates based on events and occurrences.   

For example, a discount offer should have a separate text template, and a feedback text message should appear differently.   

With Salesmate’s text messaging CRM, you can create and reuse various text messaging templates.

5. Analyze your SMS marketing campaign

 

You won’t know whether your campaign was successful if you don’t analyze the performance.   

Executing an SMS marketing campaign is crucial, as is analyzing the results.   

With Salesmate’s text messaging feature, you can easily analyze your SMS marketing campaigns with insightful reports. This way, you can optimize your marketing strategies and increase your response rate.

Best SMS marketing software to scale your SMS campaigns

Here are some of the top SMS marketing software and tools that you can use to level-up your SMS marketing game.

1 . Salesmate 

Salesmate’s SMS marketing automation strategies are amongst the best practices for SMS marketing. It’s a top SMS marketing platform that integrates seamlessly with mobile and text messaging services, enabling businesses to achieve higher customer engagement. 

2 . Omnisend

This email & SMS marketing automation software is known for its powerful tools that help streamline your SMS marketing efforts. Omnisend’s statistics for SMS marketing success reinforce the benefits of SMS marketing, with high click-through rates reported by businesses using this platform. 

3. SlickText  

This SMS marketing platform is recognized for its user-friendly interface and robust features. SlickText excels in providing real-time data on your SMS campaigns, enabling businesses to reach customers more effectively. 

4. Trumpia  

A leader in SMS and text message marketing, Trumpia provides comprehensive SMS marketing services that include automation, two-way messaging, and appointment reminders, demonstrating the benefits of bulk SMS marketing. 

5. Sakari  

Sakari offers a range of SMS services and strategies, including the automation of SMS messages. It’s designed to help businesses send SMS messages to their potential customers, offering a huge opportunity to increase SMS revenue. 

6. TextMagic  

TextMagic’s SMS marketing program is built for businesses seeking a simple, efficient way to manage their text marketing efforts. From sending SMS text messages to receiving SMS messages, TextMagic covers all the bases. 

7. EZ Texting 

This platform offers extensive SMS marketing benefits, including text messaging strategies that optimize click-through rates. It’s a great platform for companies trying to profit on the popularity of mobile phones. 

8. ClickSend  

ClickSend enables businesses to leverage the power of SMS marketing automation. It offers an array of services, including text message advertising and SMS campaigns. 

9. Podium 

Podium is a versatile platform that combines SMS marketing automation, customer engagement, and reputation management. It’s a comprehensive tool that supports the mobile-first strategy, meeting the needs of the attentive mobile consumer. 

These top SMS marketing platforms provide the tools necessary for businesses to optimize their SMS marketing strategy, improve customer engagement, and ultimately drive more sales.  

Remember, an informed choice based on your unique business needs can yield significant marketing statistics, confirming the effectiveness of your SMS marketing program. 

For a detailed comparison of features, take a look at our listicle on the best SMS marketing software and tools.

Conclusion 

SMS marketing has remained prevalent over the decades and for all the right reasons!   

It’s a quick communication mode that works well for marketing campaigns and is even better when you automate your SMS marketing process.  

I’d highly recommend that you adopt an SMS marketing software like a CRM inclusive of all features. It will save you a lot of costs, and you don’t have to struggle with multiple apps. Salesmate is a perfect tool for this scenario.   

It’s easy to use, affordable and can help you automate your marketing campaigns. You can take a 15-day free trial and see for yourself!