The average person sends and receives about 120 emails every single day. There’s a good chance that hundreds of unread emails are currently sitting in your inbox, accrued over the past week. But let’s take a look at your SMS inbox, any unread texts? I highly doubt that, because on average, only about 2% of text messages are generally left unread. An SMS is simply hard to ignore!
With an open rate of only 20%, email marketing is no longer as hot and profitable for businesses as it used to be. Your customer’s inbox is so crowded with marketing emails from your competition that they’ll barely see what amazing offers you have for them.
Does this mean the wind is shifting? Is Text marketing the new trend – the new cool?
Let’s find out in this article. We’ll introduce you to the world of text message marketing (if you’re new to it), helping you understand why SMS is becoming such a huge marketing trend in 2022.
What is Text Message Marketing?
Research shows that consumers respond to texts in under 10 minutes, while most people respond to emails 30 minutes or an hour later. Text Message Marketing is simply the use of SMS and compelling messages for marketing purposes – generating leads, driving website traffic, increasing sales, branding, or customer service.
Businesses use SMS to send marketing and promotional messages to present, potential, and inactive customers to get them to take some form of action.
A couple of years ago, SMS marketing was a bit of a trend, providing a colorful ROI that marketers enjoyed. But then the email and social media grew tremendously, causing the SMS to begin to lose its place on the marketer’s checklist. Consumers spent more time sending and receiving emails, or browsing through social media, while text messages seemed to have no place at all. Multiple articles talked about the demise of text marketing.
But a recent trend is starting to surface. Research reveals that SMS marketing is gaining tremendous popularity in recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our email boxes are super crowded, hence a majority of your marketing emails are simply ignored. At the same time, it’s always been really hard to ignore text messages, let’s face it. Safe to say SMS marketing never really lost its place after all.
With an open rate of 98%, SMS now blows email marketing and all other digital marketing channels away. Want consumers to see your content, use SMS! Attentive Mobile Consumer Report revealed that 91% of customers will opt-in for text messages from their favorite brands.
New to text message marketing? Learn how to use SMS to communicate better in business, and drive leads.
But if SMS marketing is becoming the new cool thing, what are some of the other digital marketing channels that are starting to look like ‘old ladies ’?
The ‘Old’ Digital Marketing Trends – What worked
● Email marketing
Almost every business today uses email marketing. This explains why the average person receives between 100 – and 120 emails per day, according to a general expert consensus. Yet only 20% of these emails are read, while about 50% end up in the spam folder. Speaking of click-through rate, the email standard stands at 2.5%.
So even though 82% of marketers still use email, it is becoming more and more difficult to break even, especially for newer businesses still trying to grow a subscriber list. The email formally generated the best ROI; before the noise in the inboxes became too much, and the spam folders started to receive more emails than the actual inboxes.
The biggest challenge with email marketing is maintaining a subscriber list, according to 45% of marketers.
● Social media marketing
Millions of businesses use social media for marketing today. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn have all been good to marketers. But most businesses haven’t cracked it on social media. Who understands those algorithms anyways? Plus paid advertising is almost indispensable if you must see results.
Successful social media conversion rates are around 2.5%-3%, yet only a few companies can unlock that potential because the noise is too much. Without a unique differentiator, a clear plan, and deep pockets, success on social media becomes far-fetched.
● Google advertising
Marketers find Google advertising effective. The problem is the Cost-per-click rate. For very competitive industries, the CPC is so high that a small business without deep pockets won’t be able to make it. Now when you compare the CPC to the returns you’ll be getting, is it worth it?
Plus setting up a Google Ads campaign can be a pain in the ass! You could invest time learning or simply hire a professional. But if your business doesn’t have the money or time, then Google advertising could be a steep hill to climb.
Other popular forms of digital marketing like content marketing, or in-app advertising are not as hot as the above-mentioned three.
All this leaves us with one last channel – SMS marketing. Unlike social media, email, or Google advertising, Text campaigns can reach your customers at all times, regardless of whether they’re online.
The ‘New’ Digital Marketing Trend – Text Marketing
One major advantage of text marketing over email and other forms of digital marketing is the instant notification feature, which most phone users seem unable to disable. This explains the 98% SMS open rate.
As of 2021, 39% of businesses used SMS marketing. That number goes up every day. What’s more interesting is that 34% of these businesses adopted text marketing due to COVID. The pandemic was a turning point for SMS. It is safe to say that texting is a new marketing trend. Here are more reasons why…
6 Reasons Why SMS Marketing is the New Trend – The New Cool
1. Brands become your friends
We know without a doubt, that SMS has a personal touch on customers, to the point where receiving a message from a brand, feels like receiving a text message from a friend or family member. With the help of personalization, you can send bulk SMS to a wide audience and still manage to maintain the personal touch to a good degree.
SmarterContact is the best for all things SMS, a great manager for your text marketing campaigns. You can start with a free trial, or explore our pricing options.
2. Everyone uses SMS, even you!
According to Semaphore, SMS is the most widely used method of communication in the world despite the growth of other technologies – with roughly 4.2 billion people using their phones to text. Approximately 80% of people say they text for business, and SMS is supported by 90% of all mobile phones.
3. SMS offers the best click-through rates
If you want customers to respond to your marketing messages, use SMS! With a click-through rate of 19%, SMS beats email (2.5%), social media (3%), and Google Advertising (0.4%) by very large margins.
4. SMS has the quickest response time
Send a text to millennials, and in 90seconds you will get a response. Emails take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes for responses to come in from the few people who’ve read the email. Plus, only 10% of all emails end up in the spam folder.
5. Text Message Art is cooler than images
This isn’t a personal opinion since many businesses are researching ways to use Text Message Art to wow customers and increase sales. A quick google search confirms that. Text Art is a unique kind of graphic made with standard keyboard characters and serves as a creative way to get marketing messages across to customers using texts. Such art significantly improves engagement and is a big reason why many businesses are looking at SMS.
6. Customers want SMS!
According to VoiceSage, 70% of clients feel that SMS is an effective means to get their attention. SMS messages are generally opened regardless of who sent them. According to the same VoiceSage study, 82 percent of people read every message they get.
Final thoughts
SMS is the new ‘cool’. With customers wanting SMS to continue, businesses are only foolish not to respond to this call. Starting an SMS marketing is as easy as launching an email campaign. All you need is a good text messaging platform to allow you to manage your audience (subscriber’s list), and your campaigns.
SmarterContact is the text messaging platform of choice for many smart marketers. You should use SmarterContact because of its ability to help you grow your subscriber list, manage bulk SMS campaigns, personalize your messages, and track your results effortlessly. We’re so confident about our service that we’re willing to offer you a 7-day free trial.
Start your free trial today!