Curious about the latest SMS marketing statistics? I’ve got you covered.
In this post, we’ll be looking at some eye-opening data pulled from the latest studies, surveys, and reports on SMS marketing.
These stats will shed light on the current state of SMS marketing, highlight how consumers feel about marketing text messages, and reveal useful benchmarks you can use to measure your own performance.
Plus, they’ll also highlight the trends shaping the SMS marketing industry, as well as the challenges and hurdles that marketers still have to overcome.
SMS marketing at a glance: Key insights
We’ll get to the full list of statistics in a moment. First, I’ve put together a summary of the insights we can glean from all of this data. Use this data to inform your own marketing strategy and slap up your competitors.
These insights show that SMS isn’t just a standalone tool; it is the most effective way to drive immediate action from your social media marketing and email efforts.
| Metric | The Data | Strategic Insight |
| Open Rates | SMS marketing boasts a 98% open rate. | No other channel comes close to the visibility of a text message. It is the gold standard for time-sensitive content distribution. |
| Response Speed | 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of receipt. | Speed is the key to conversion. Use SMS to announce “flash” offers or new SEO research to your most engaged audience. |
| CTR Success | SMS click-through rates (CTR) are 6x to 8x higher than email. | If you want to drive sales, SMS is the most reliable channel. |
| Consumer Desire | 91% of consumers are interested in signing up for texts from brands. | Your audience wants direct access. Integrating an SMS opt-in into your marketing strategy is critical. |
| Lead Generation | SMS can increase lead conversion rates by up to 100%. | Direct communication removes the friction found in traditional lead generation funnels. |
| Automation Flow | 60% of marketers say SMS is their top-performing automated channel. | When paired with chatbot automation, SMS becomes a 24/7 sales and support engine. |
| ROI Impact | SMS campaigns often see a 25x+ return on investment. | Because the overhead is low and the engagement is high, it’s one of the most profitable personalization tactics available. |
General SMS marketing statistics
First, we’ll kick things off with some general SMS marketing statistics. These stats tell us more about how many businesses are utilizing SMS in their marketing campaigns, the ways in which they’re using it, and the benefits it offers.
1. Up to 40% of businesses make use of SMS marketing
SMS marketing might have been a niche channel at one point, but that’s no longer the case. Almost 40% of businesses now utilize text messaging as part of their marketing strategy, making it one of the top marketing channels. That’s still much less than email, but it’s catching up.
Source: Blogging Wizard
2. 19% of surveyed consumers prefer to communicate with brands over SMS
It’s not brands that are increasingly seeing the benefits of SMS as a marketing channel—it’s also consumers.
According to a recent survey from Validity, almost 20% of consumers around the world selected SMS as their preferred brand communication channel. This puts it second only to email (52%), but above social media (16%), direct mail (6%), and app notifications (6%).
Source: Validity
3. 52% of surveyed consumers said they’ve been influenced to buy a product because of a marketing SMS message
That’s right, more than half of the people who receive SMS messages end up buying a product as a result, which shows just how useful SMS marketing can be at driving sales.
In addition to the 52% of respondents that said they were influenced to buy a product, a further 38% said they’d been influenced to purchase a service as a result of an SMS message, and 23% had been influenced to sign up for a paid subscription. Only a quarter said none of the above applied to them.
Source: Validity
4. People check their smartphones 96 times a day, on average
This stat highlights one of the biggest advantages SMS marketing has over email marketing—it gives you a lot more opportunities to connect with your customers.
Most people only check their emails a handful of times a day, but we’re seemingly never off of our phones. By sending out marketing communications via text rather than email, you’re making it more likely that consumers will see your messages and engage with them.
Source: Validity
5. 79% of marketers use SMS as a retention channel
Another area where SMS stands out is when it comes to customer retention. Many businesses use SMS as a post-purchase retention channel as it can be great at keeping customers coming back again and again.
In fact, 58% of surveyed marketers said that SMS supports their retention strategy by helping them to re-engage lapsed customers.
Source: Attentive
6. 53% of marketers say SMS is one of their top 3 revenue-driving channels
And 22% of those say they drive over 20% of their revenue from SMS marketing. The upshot? If you’re not utilizing SMS marketing, you could be missing out on sales and revenue.
Source: Attentive
7. 25% of marketers use SMS as a customer service channel
SMS isn’t just good for delivering marketing messages. It’s also a great channel for providing customer service.
For example, you can use SMS to send out feedback surveys to your customers asking them to evaluate their experience with your brand, which helps to show you care and keeps your customers happy. Simple post-purchase thank you messages also go a long way.
You can also use it as a communication channel for problem resolution. Instead of resolving tickets over email, making phone calls, or answering queries over live chat, you can have your customer support agents connect with your customers directly over SMS.
Source: Attentive
8. 93% of surveyed brands have some integration with SMS
The vast majority of brands have already integrated SMS with their existing software stack
Integration with ecommerce software is the most common form of SMS integration. 78% of marketers say they’ve hooked up their SMS program to their ecommerce solution.
26% had also integrated SMS with their CRM (customer relationship management) platform, 25% with their ESP (email service provider), and 9% with their CDP (customer data platform).
Source: Attentive
SMS marketing benchmarks
Next, let’s take a look at some useful SMS marketing benchmarks. You can measure your own SMS marketing campaign performance against these benchmarks to figure out whether you’re performing on par with other companies in your industry.
9. The average click-through-rate (CTR) of abandoned checkout text messages is 10.1%-14.2%
Abandoned checkout messages are simple reminders that invite customers to come back and complete their purchase after they leave your site mid-way through the checkout process.
Amongst restaurant businesses that send out these abandoned checkout messages via SMS, the average CTR is 10.1%-14.2%. This is a good benchmark to aim for and evaluate your own performance against.