Key SMS Marketing Statistics for Growth in 2020+

As a marketer, you have probably heard about the effectiveness of text marketing for quickly and effectively reaching out to your customers. In fact, many brands prefer text messaging over email marketing nowadays due to its faster and more reliable engagement. This preference is backed by SMS marketing statistics for 2020 that highlight the advantage of text marketing over other conventional ways of connecting with your target audience. Here are some key SMS marketing statistics you need to be aware of before planning your next marketing campaign.

Some Interesting SMS Marketing Statistics for 2020

It is estimated that about 95% of text messages are read within the first three minutes. That is a degree of visibility that cannot be ignored in your overall marketing strategy. However, when talking about email marketing, there is more than an 80% chance that the mail will not be read. This is where SMS marketing bridges the communication gap between you and your audience. Let’s look at some of the interesting SMS marketing statistics for 2020 based on the following three parameters:

Usage

The widespread usage of smartphones and the number of text messages sent and received everyday emphasizes the powerful role that text marketing can play in business communication. Not to mention, many people associate text messages with information they want to receive while they associate email with things they would typically rather ignore.   

• In 2020, the total number of smartphone users in the U.S. is expected to reach 275.66 million.
• The number of text messages sent in the U.S. increased by 15.8% during the period between 2017 and 2018. As the number of smartphone users increases, this number can be expected to increase as well. 
• 53% of marketers already use text messaging to reach out to their target audiences.

Demographics

With more than 81% of adults in the U.S. owning smartphones, it is interesting how the audience demographics of text marketing are rapidly changing. 

• On average, consumers in the age group of 18-24 years check their phones 86 times per day.
• The smartphone ownership rate among Americans aged 50 years and above has risen from 53% to 67% during the period between 2015 and 2018.
• Text messaging is the preferred mode of communication among millennials.

Effectiveness

The high open rate and faster response rate of text messages over emails show their effectiveness in connecting with your target audience. 

• 95% of texts are read within 3 minutes of being sent, with an average response time of 90 seconds and a 6X higher engagement rate than emails.
• 75% of customers like to receive special offers through texts. The Click Through Rate (CTR) for such texts is much higher (9.18%) than other channels such as Google AdWords (1.91%) or Facebook (0.90%).
• More than 50% of consumers depend on QR codes and coupons received through text messages to make purchasing decisions.

These SMS marketing statistics in the U.S. speak for themselves. With a growing number of consumers preferring text messages over emails or phone calls and responding to them much more rapidly, it is time you focus on an affordable and reliable text marketing provider to deliver engaging messages to your target audience.

Strengthening Your Text Marketing Campaign with an Innovative SMS Delivery Platform

Whether your text marketing strategy is aiming for a niche audience or just trying to connect with the masses through bulk messaging, you need an integrated SMS delivery platform with innovative features at an affordable price. Here are some of the essential features that you need to look for in a text marketing platform:

• Auto-response: Your customers need real-time responses to the queries they have after reading your message. With an auto-response feature, you can create different responses for an unlimited variety of keywords, allowing you to reach endless unique customers with certainty and ease.  

• User groups: Your text messages should be specific to your audience demographics, so you should be able to create different user groups with the right SMS management platform.    

• Survey creation: Surveys help you understand your customers’ responses and approach them accordingly with the right coupons and discounts. An SMS marketing platform can help you create such surveys for your audience. Having surveys right within your SMS messages also yields more client feedback than linking to external, third-party survey sites. 

• Unlimited keywords: Your SMS marketing message needs to grab the attention of your audience through the characters available to you. The best way to optimize your messages is by using the right keywords that identify with your brand. A text marketing platform lets you create unlimited keywords for every user group or campaign.   

• Incoming message dashboard: When you are sending bulk messages to many recipients, you need a platform that keeps it all organized. With an incoming message board, you can just glance through this compiled information to initiate one-on-one conversations with your subscribers.  

• Audit trail: Keeping clear documentation of all text messages that are sent and received is the only way to keep you safe from legal liability. Choosing an SMS marketing platform that cannot perform this job for you could be a costly mistake. 

• Expanded character limits: The industry-standard character limit for most SMS marketing tools is 160. However, more innovative SMS marketing tools allow for up to 240 characters per message. While you may not always need these extra characters, there could be times where they might make or break your SMS campaign’s success. 

Perhaps most importantly, you need an affordable pricing plan to deliver your text messages to your audience without depleting your whole marketing budget. An easy-to-use SMS marketing platform with all these features can help you take advantage of the current SMS marketing statistics of 2020 and strengthen the communication of your brand.     

Jeff Winaker

Jeff Winaker is the CEO of NorthText. He’s passionate about helping clients reach their customers faster with SMS marketing. He resides in the Bay Area with his family.