12 bulk SMS trends to watch
The year 2023 will bring plenty of opportunities that you can use to your advantage, including through SMS marketing. It is a powerful tool that can help you build strong relationships with your customers in real time. In today’s article, we’ve put together some key trends that are worth watching and taking into consideration when creating your SMS strategy.
Let’s look at them…
SMS as a tool for instant gratification
Instant gratification is an increasingly preferred indulgence, and SMS has become a powerful tool to deliver that gratification.
By 2025, nearly 6 billion people will send or receive text messages regularly, making them one of the most popular forms of communication worldwide. And it’s no surprise. Our brains release dopamine when we interact positively. One of these might be a notification of an incoming text message with an interesting offer.
SMS as the most powerful marketing channel
SMS messages are the best communication channel for delivering engaging content to customers. Most people check their SMS inbox almost immediately. So marketers can arouse curiosity with emotional messages and get an extremely high open rate of up to 98%.
SMS as a customer service channel
The SMS channel can be a great replacement for your customer support. For example:
- Sending order receipt notifications and payment confirmations.
- Information about the delivery status of a shipment.
- Sending appointment reminders or rescheduling an appointment.
- Answering frequently asked questions.
- Requesting feedback on a product or service.
Sending a text message like this will allow your customers to get a quick resolution to their problem, without a long wait. These quick interactions with customers increase trust and loyalty to your brand.
SMS authentication as protection against cyber-attack
To protect sensitive consumer data, two-factor authentication (2FA) is a must-have in today’s digital world. The easiest and most convenient way to convey this 2FA is via SMS. Within the SMS, you send a one-time password that the user uses to authenticate the login. SMS authentication thus offers an additional layer of protection that is very simple and effective.
SMS as a multigenerational communication channel
Although the 45 to 64 year old segment is indeed a rapidly growing demographic for SMS usage, SMS messages are priceless for the younger generation of users as well. The latter spends a huge amount of time texting on mobile phones.
With SMS messaging, you are able to reach all groups across generations. The magic of SMS is that the message can be read on all mobile devices.
Customers will love you for your SMS offers
What’s easier than communicating with your customers via SMS? SMS messages will be effective this year too. Studies show that over 75% of customers still want to receive marketing offers via SMS.
Texts that influence website traffic
Strong, clear and concise SMS with clear calls to action will help you increase traffic to your website. In fact, nearly 30% of recipients respond positively to interesting and strong calls to action in SMS messages, with over 45% making a desired interaction, such as a purchase.
SMS marketing specialists on the rise
The future of SMS marketing lies in marketers being able to attract the right customers at the right time with the best message.
As a result, there will be a growing number of SMS marketing specialists around the world to help optimise and set up SMS campaigns. SMS marketing specialists need to know how to create the perfect SMS messages in line with the brand’s tonality in order to be powerful and engaging.
SMS marketing as part of an influencer marketing strategy
Online social media and influencer marketers can use SMS marketing to increase brand awareness and higher engagement rates with their followers.
Up to 75% of Gen Z teens and millennials use their smartphones to shop online.
Automated SMS for customer feedback
Using automated SMS to send surveys directly to customers’ mobile devices for feedback will drive and power your marketing strategy.
Because SMS messages are great at their highest open and response rates. Thus, you can use them to survey customer satisfaction, increase customer engagement and overall effectiveness in communication.
SMS is reliable and native
SMS messages are displayed on all mobile phones. As a result, this means that the recipient doesn’t need to download any third-party app to read the message. As a native built-in service, it offers not only instant communication but also reliability. Unlike email, Messenger, WhatsApp or Signal communication platforms, it does not need an internet connection.
SMS should be included in your marketing mix by 2023
If you haven’t already, this year is the perfect time to include SMS in your marketing mix. By creating your own original and personalised SMS marketing campaign that aligns with other marketing channels, such as email marketing, you can further boost and streamline your communications to achieve your stated goal.
Conclusion
In 2023, SMS marketing campaigns will be on the rise. Take advantage of their effectiveness, consider the marketing trends mentioned above and try the GoSMS SMS gateway through which you can send out bulk SMS messages very quickly.