Any good marketer knows the importance of technology when it comes to staying on top of the latest marketing channels. One of those channels is text messaging marketing.
SMS As a Marketing Tool
Many businesses are now incorporating SMS texting into their marketing strategies to reach their customers. With over 272 million smartphone users and 98% of adults in the U.S. having access to a mobile device with text messaging services, SMS marketing is fast becoming a growing tool for businesses in 2021.
Given the number of people that have smartphone technology in addition to the amount of time they spend on their phone, leveraging the power of text as a marketing tool is a fast and effective way for businesses to interact with their customers. From personal banking to car dealerships, businesses everywhere are catching on to the advantages that SMS texting can offer when communicating with customers.
From a business perspective, text messaging is a highly cost-effective tool to add to their armory of marketing tactics. The model is simple, and it offers a direct and immediate channel of communication with little need for creative design compared to other types of marketing, making it an inexpensive alternative that offers great results.
Political Text Message Marketing
The use of mobile marketing is not just confined to the business world; it is also being used to great effect in the political arena. Since the Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced that a political party campaign could collect campaign contributions using political text message marketing, the landscape of raising funds for political campaigns has changed significantly.
From organizing rallies and informing supporters to increasing donations, text marketing is a great way to get a message out to the public. When it comes to political mass text messaging, software such as Tatango is now being used by political campaign managers to help raise donations.
Given the unprecedented nature of the 2020 election taking place during a global pandemic, political campaigns were forced to get creative with their marketing and communications strategies. In an attempt to grow support, many political campaigns and organizations added text message marketing to their list of tactics. In total, more than five billion election-related text messages were sent in October 2020 alone!
Does Text Message Marketing Work?
Although it continues to gain popularity, text message marketing has yet to reach its peak. However, SMS messaging is still one of the best ways to reach an audience, and the data speaks for itself:
- SMS message open rates exceed 98% compared to the average marketing email, which sees an open rate of around 20%.
- SMS messages are not only opened, but almost 99% of them are read.
- SMS messages have a 45% response rate compared with email that has just 8%.
Text messaging marketing is a powerful and effective marketing tool, and you can expect more businesses and organizations to begin incorporating text into their marketing strategies over the next several years.
