How Effective is SMS?

The effectiveness of SMS marketing is indisputable.

Texting has the highest engagement rate of any marketing medium by far¹. 90% of text messages are read within five minutes after receiving². And most powerful of all? Consumers want businesses to use this channel. Over half of all consumers say they prefer to contact a company via SMS over all other channels³. Accessibility and communication mean higher returns and greater customer satisfaction for companies utilizing SMS. The favorite use cases were for order status alerts, confirmations, meeting scheduling, appointment reminders, and follow-ups via text.

You think your favorite social platform has good engagement numbers? Wait until you see what text messages get.

Texting has by far the best engagement rate of any marketing medium. Emails can sit unread for days, phone calls can go unanswered, but text messages historically have a 98% read rate, usually under five minutes. SMS marketing continues to be an under-utilized and underappreciated channel. The likelihood of getting your message to the intended target is vastly higher than email, phone call, online ads, organic, or social.

How Effective is SMS?

Improving customer engagement is great, but how can it drive revenue? So, here are some results that our partners have achieved:

• Realtor.com saw a 4x increase in response rate by adding text to the mix
• American Financial tripled their connect rate from 7% to 21% by sending a text after the first failed phone
• BANGS Shoes showed 27% conversion on those that received a text reminder about their abandoned cart on Black Friday
• StudySoup was able to qualify and convert 4x more prospects with fewer resources and increase engagement from 20% to 70%
• Revolution Prep booked 5 meetings per rep within the first couple hours of launching a 1,600 person SMS campaign

The key takeaway is that SMS messages help businesses achieve extraordinary results. The combination of high open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates is unbeatable.