SMS marketing has become a critical, although contentious form of marketing over the past decade. As text messaging became an essential part of most people’s daily communication, marketers began utilizing SMS marketing strategies to reach customers on their personal devices.
Like email marketing, SMS marketing is a form of opt-in marketing and requires user subscription. There are many ways in which marketers can acquire these contact lists, from inquiry forms to online orders.
SMS marketing differs from email marketing in that it is less popular among users, making clever strategy and easy-to-access opt-out options essential for customer retention. When done well, however, SMS marketing is more effective at driving conversion and encouraging previous customers to make another purchase.
Some of the most effective marketing messages to send via SMS are:
- Surveys
- Remarketing
- Discounts or sales
- Exclusive promotions
Why marketers choose SMS marketing
There are several reasons why SMS marketing is a good choice for marketers looking for another avenue for customer communication. While unpopular with some demographics, reaching customers through texts can be very effective because it’s direct and to the point. 
One reason many marketers choose SMS is because of its high level of engagement. Text messages are personal and encourage strong interaction from recipients.
Text messages also have higher click-through and open rates than other forms of messaging such as email and social media marketing.
There are a few reasons for this. Two major contributing factors are:
- customers who’ve opted into SMS messaging are more likely to be interested in communications from that brand
- the direct nature of texts
Text messages, more so than emails, tend to encourage curiosity among recipients.
In certain use cases, SMS also makes the most sense. For instance, when customers need to interact with tech support, SMS is the most practical tool for the job because text messaging makes quick communication with representatives easy for customers, with as little interruption to their day as possible.
Does SMS marketing work?
Many marketers long to know if SMS marketing actually works. The answer depends on how effectively marketers use it.
When used strategically, SMS marketing is incredibly impactful. Marketing communications platform Attentive attributed $1.8 billion to SMS marketing initiatives sent via its platforms during Cyber Week 2023. The platform’s users sent over 2.2 billion text messages over the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with the largest number of texts sent on Black Friday itself.
SMS marketing has also proven effective for mobile sales. Attentive reports that brands on its platform have a 36.6% mobile conversion rate for behavior-based SMS messages. It also reports that sellers on their platform were able to recover $148 billion from abandoned carts.
When used strategically, SMS marketing is an incredibly effective way to communicate with customers. By giving customers abandoned cart reminders or sale notifications, marketers can nudge consumers along the bottom of the funnel toward conversion without causing ad fatigue and irritation.
As digital marketing has shifted over the years to keep up with the times and adapt to new technology, SMS marketing, like email marketing, has remained steadfast in its effectiveness. Marketers with an eye for short, eye-grabbing massaging can easily take advantage of the benefits of SMS without contributing to ad fatigue.
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