It’s 1995. A new company named eBay just launched, along with a new media format called a DVD. The average American user sends about 0.4 texts per month. Times sure have changed.
Fast forward to today.
There are a plethora of online retailers with broad product assortments to fulfill even the most specific buyer searches. DVDs are outdated and replaced with streaming and on-demand content. The average American smartphone user sends around 20 text messages a day.*
Not only do people text more frequently with family and friends, but they’re also texting with companies. SMS marketing is growing in popularity, and customers are eager for more two-way text messaging with businesses.
So is SMS marketing effective? With so much information out there, we’ve compiled the most important text message marketing statistics for you. Keep reading for a deep dive into the top stats for business text messaging.
Business text messaging is growing.
Text messaging isn’t new. We’ve been doing it for almost 30 years now. But with our emails full of junk and people more attached to their phones than ever, text messaging is emerging as a high ROI marketing tool.
Notably, smartphone use continues to rise. The number of smartphone users in the United States alone is expected to reach 301.65 million in 2022, according to Statista, and the Pew Research Center reports that 81% of the U.S. owns a smartphone. There’s no denying that people live digital-first lives.
Mobile devices have given consumers the ability to search, shop, and discover 24/7, forcing companies to reimagine the customer journey. And companies that fail to provide high-touch and high-tech experiences get left behind.
Messaging offers just that: A customer experience that fits with modern lifestyles. Customers get effortless and convenient interactions with businesses, and businesses get a cost-efficient and more meaningful way to connect with customers.
Americans are attached to their phones.
Phones are how we stay connected to the world around us. The majority of Americans spend their waking (and sleeping) hours next to their phones. It’s our go-to for everything. Phone calls, sure, but phones also provide social and emotional connections, entertainment, networking tools, healthcare advice, and access to an endless amount of information.
A Reviews.org survey identified some staggering statistics about our phone usage:
- Americans check their phones roughly every 4 minutes. That’s 344 times per day, on average, and a 31% increase from 2021.
- 71% of Americans say they check their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up.
- 70% of Americans check their phones within five minutes of receiving a notification.
- 61% have texted someone in the same room as them before.
- 41% of people even admitted to checking their phone on a date.
And our phone dependence is only growing. The U.S. reached a new app-usage high of 4.2 hours, up from 3.9 in Q2 2021, according to a report from data.ai.
What do these stats tell us about your marketing efforts? Anything mobile-friendly or mobile-first is going to get the attention of your customers. It’s easy to ignore emails but harder to miss a text notification.
You can’t sleep on text messaging.
Texting has become part of our daily lives. It’s a casual, fast, and efficient way to connect with people. (You can work and have a text conversation, but you can’t chat on the phone.)
The numbers are truly staggering. 2.2 trillion MMS and SMS text messages were sent in the U.S. in 2020, reports Statista. There’s no denying that text messaging is a popular form of communication that’s here to stay.
What about business text messaging?
Business text messaging is also on the rise. In 2020, business messaging traffic hit 3.5 trillion. That’s up from 3.2 trillion in 2019, a 9.4% year over year increase, reports Juniper Research.
Even though we’ve been using it for years, this shows how widespread the adoption and growth of text messaging have become.
How effective is SMS marketing?
Do people really read text messages from businesses? Yes!
Business text messaging still far outperforms the average email open rate. In 2022 the average email open rate across industries is 29.55%, and click-through rates are 1.27%, reports Smart Insights.
Key SMS marketing statistics to know.
Customers are eager for more options to interact with businesses over text messaging.
Here are some enlightening statistics from Forbes:
- It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message.
- 64% of consumers believe that businesses should use SMS messages to interact with customers more often than they currently do.
- 74% of customers report an improved overall impression of businesses that interact with them via text messaging.
- 70% of customers agree that using SMS text messaging is a good way for an organization to get their attention.
And why are customers opting into text messaging?
- 77% of customers opt into a brand’s text messages for coupons or deals.
- 50% said personal alerts.
- 48% said they wanted to be in the loop.
- 33% wanted more meaningful content.
The impact of SMS text messaging on customer service.
Messaging enables customers to get the service they desire in a fast, convenient way that puts them in control of the conversation. The ability to text message businesses has become more than a nice to have—it’s a customer experience must.
Quiq commissioned Market Strategies International to conduct an independent research study into mobile messaging and its growing value as a customer service channel—and we found some convincing results:
- 70% of respondents want to use mobile messaging to troubleshoot an issue, and 64% to make a purchase or booking.
- 66% of consumers rank mobile messaging as their first or second choice to contact a company.
- 66% of respondents rank messaging as their preferred channel for contacting a company.
- 66% of respondents would pay more for a product/service supported by messaging—an average of 17% more.
When it comes to sales, experience is everything. Salesforce emphasized the importance of the customer experience in their 2020 report:
- 79% of consumers say a business’s experience is as important as their goods or services.
- 71% of customers say they have made purchase decisions based on the quality of customer service.
Top brands see tangible results from messaging.
Companies have increased sales, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction by using text messaging. These results span companies of all sizes and industries such as financial services, retail, consumer services, and many more.
We know customers like texting, but what do businesses think? The benefits are clear. eMarketer reports:
- 62% of businesses say customers like it.
- 58% said it reduced their costs compared to voice-only.
- 48% said it improved customer satisfaction.
- 35% said it improved their Net-Promoter Score®.
Quiq clients have also seen tremendous results using SMS text messaging to reach out to their customers. Here are just a few of the success stories:
- Overstock.com achieved higher engagement rates with text messaging’s 98% open rates.
- Jackson Hole Mountain Resort experienced a 75% reduction in phone calls because of its focus on text messaging.
- Brinks Home Security converted 10% of their phone calls to text messages while realizing a 14 ppt uptick in CSAT.
Text messaging: Good for your bottom line.
The statistics tell us that text messaging is a highly effective way to communicate with your customers while also saving your customer center time and money.
One thing remains clear: Customers need and expect companies to provide products, services, and support in the most convenient way to them. Join other companies that have enthusiastically embraced text messaging and start seeing real results.