Is SMS Still Viable in 2021?
There is a contradiction at the center of modern marketing. We never had more ways to reach people and yet people have never been harder to reach as well. To cut through noise, we run more ads on social media platforms, send more emails and write more unique content. Study shows that we send more than 100 trillion emails every year and more than 500 million tweets everyday.
While doubling down can help hit short-term goals and visions, it does not fix the underlying issue: there haven’t been any genuine noteworthy digital marketing strategies in the last couple of years.
What does all of this have to do with SMS marketing?
Texting is not a new marketing channel used by different brands that have sent texts since the early 2000s using the services of different SMS marketing companies especially for businesses that are not that successful yet. There are also SMS marketing for small businesses but SMS marketing is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Brands are searching for new places to talk to customers-places where they are not yet sick of hearing from them. What’s even better is that channel preference studies and research show that customers want businesses to text them.
That’s just the thousand foot view of why SMS is still important and relevant today but let’s dive a little deeper into the numbers to flesh it out.
The numbers behind the growth of businesses texting
The fintech startup company called Stackin uses text messaging or SMS to give money tips to its target audience-young consumers. The company sends sms about half a million users money tips, which equals more than 100 million text messages to date. In May last 2020, it raised an enormous $12.6 million in a Series B funding round and the takeaway for this: entire businesses are using SMS or text messaging as their main communication channel. They are raising huge sums of money because of it.
A solid majority of business and enterprise owners are going to spend more money and resources on SMS marketing than they did a year ago.
How does SMS stack up?
Marketers sometimes fall for shiny new object syndrome wherein they learn about something new and subsequently believe that it is the answer to everything. It can lead businesses to jump into new channels with the clind confidence of a dog.
So it is fair to ask whether sending text messages or SMS is just another example of this. Declining performance across different digital channels is just one part of the story - the impressive performance of SMS marketing campaigns is the other. According to a research made by Frost & Sullivan, over 90% of SMS are read within 3 minutes compared to 22% for email, 29% for tweets and 12% for Facebook related posts.
Biggest benefits of texting your audience
- Fast Delivery
- Strengthens customer engagement
- Cost effectiveness
- Higher open rates than emails
- Wide Demographic reach
- Another way to integrate their marketing campaigns
- Flexibility of message
- Opt in/Opt out options.
- Higher conversion rate for different campaigns
Nice note, Serra!
SMS was killed by over usage to communicate by marketers. Since the SMS was used more as a SALES technique, rather than a makreting technique, it is considered SPAM. On top of it, no control of the recipient on who can send an SMS (a non-existent Opt-in) killed the golend goose.
But with the need for AUTHNEICATING a person and the ubiquitous ONE TIME PASSWORD, SMS is back in play, that too a critical play.
So, the SMS is very crucial for the authentication, but for customer acquisiton, it may not be there at. But for transactional conversations, SMS works good. Of late, WhatsApp is trying to get into the shoes of SMS.
#My2satoshis
SMS marketing is a really great marketing option for small businesses. As you have already mentioned, it is cost effective, it is a good way to get your message to your target audience, and you can expect higher open rates.
But then, acquiring contact numbers of prospect customers can be difficult, your message is only limited to a certain number of characters, and it might give an impression that you are sending out spam messages.
Yes, texting is still relevant and popular. With the advent of social networks in our lives, texting is not used as often, but it is not forgotten. I also use it and for me it is important to have a function where it is easy to send email to text. Luckily I can do it so you can try it yourself to see if it is up to date.