44 Mind-Blowing SMS Marketing and Texting Statistics
Updated March 19, 2024
More than twenty years ago, American Idol invited millions of viewers to vote via text message, and consumers have been texting with their favorite brands ever since.
Texting apps were originally created for personal connections, but individuals are becoming more and more comfortable with SMS from businesses. Last year alone, more than 70% of consumers opted in to receive texts from restaurants, retail stores, and enterprises of all kinds.
To help you make the best decisions for your organization’s communication methods, we’ve tracked down the latest research on digital messaging, and it all points to the same conclusion: Texting with your audience is here to stay, and it’s more powerful than ever before.
Whether you’re a marketer, business owner, or community leader, you need the most effective means of getting your message out. The stats make it clear that texting and SMS marketing is an essential part of any communication or marketing strategy.
Global Text Messaging Stats
Throw a dart at a map. If you hit dry land, you’ve successfully located a community of mobile phone users.
1. Globally, there are even more mobile phone subscriptions (8.31 billion) than people on the planet (8.02 billion), and 65% of those subscribers communicate via text message.
2. In the U.S. and Canada, 80% of inhabitants send messages via SMS. That’s 292 million people.
3. The country with the highest percentage of mobile users is Russia, where 89% of the population sends and receives text messages.
4. China and India have the most people who send SMS messages — China comes first with 1.081 billion people and India second with 730 million.
5. In 2023, the global smartphone market earned $411 billion in revenue.
6. 3.3 billion people access the internet via mobile. It’s predicted that by 2025, 72.6% of internet users will access the web via mobile only, with no desktop device in reach.
7. Smartphone ownership continues to rise by at least 5% every year, with 7.3 billion smartphone users expected in the year 2025.
The Future of Texting
Stats show that text messaging and mobile usage isn’t slowing down any time soon. In fact, reports project it will keep growing at a strong pace until at least 2025. Even statistics on spam texting show that SMS is starting to trend ahead of spam calls. It’s easy to see that mobile messaging is a force that’s here to stay.
8. Globally, the amount of people who send and receive text messages is predicted to rise to 5.9 billion by 2025.
9. Smartphone usage is expected to increase to 77% of the global population by 2025.
10. By the end of 2025, there will be 1.2 billion 5G connections.
11. The global monthly average usage per smartphone is forecast to reach 56 GB by the end of 2029.
12. Two-thirds of mobile connections will be on high-speed networks by 2025.
13. Researchers predict 6 billion people will send and receive SMS text messages in 2025.
14. By 2025, a predicted 61% of the world’s population will access the internet from their mobile phones.
SMS Marketing Statistics
Even if you know a lot about the market now, how does any of that apply to your business? These SMS marketing stats will give you an idea of how text messaging is catching the eye of marketers and ways they’re trying to adopt it in 2024.
15. People will definitely see what you send them — SMS open rates are as high as 98%.
16. You can start a conversation easily with SMS (or conversational marketing). As many as 45% of people reply to branded text blasts they receive.
17. If you’re not using SMS yet, you’re letting your competitors move ahead. As of 2023, 87% of businesses had used an SMS platform to communicate with customers.
18. Even though it hasn’t been fully utilized, across markets, mobile use is becoming more commonplace. 52% of business leaders in North America said it’s already a major disruption in their industry.
19. Out of all the consumer behaviors that mobile is changing, 46% of North American marketers said it’s having the biggest impact on mobile commerce.
20. 40% of North American marketers said the ability to make mobile payments is the most disruptive consumer behavior to come with mobile’s rise. Text-to-pay plays a large role in this growing trend.
21. Retail is viewed as the industry in North America using the most innovative mobile marketing techniques by 47% of marketers.
22. Despite statistics on mobile’s rise, 65% of brands still don’t have a formal strategy in place for broadcast text messaging to take advantage of the amount of time we spend on our phones.
23. Stats show that almost 70% of businesses expect their budgets for text message marketing and SMS short codes to increase in the next year.
24. About 33% of marketers expect to prioritize mobile loyalty schemes and coupons in their plans for next year.
Other Important SMS and MMS stats to know for 2024
One specific way to reach people on their mobile devices in 2024 is through SMS and MMS marketing. Research shows this is a very effective way to talk to your consumers. More importantly, polls indicate this is the way they actually want to hear from you.
People don’t enjoy receiving phone calls or emails from brands as much as text messages. They’re enthusiastic about text messages from businesses — the stats prove it.
25. 80% of people surveyed said text was the number one thing they use their phones for, and they use their phones all the time!
26. Don’t rely on the old methods of getting in touch in 2024. 90% of brands said they leave voicemails to talk to consumers, while 29% of consumers said they don’t listen to voicemails at all. There’s a good chance that if you’re resting on outdated methods, your voicemails are going into a black hole never to be heard from again.
27. If you’re hesitant to text your audience, let this stat calm your concerns: more than 90% of customers claim they want to receive text messages from businesses.
28. 90% of customers in 2024 prefer receiving text messages over a phone call or email. You can even use AI text messages to increase customer engagement without overwhelming your support team or marketing team.
29. 78% of consumers want to use mobile messaging to troubleshoot issues. How would it change your business if you offer customer support over text instead of putting people on hold? SMS chatbots can help you save time, money, and manpower.
30. 68% of consumers would like to use mobile messaging to contact a company with billing questions or concerns.
31. Stats demonstrate that 64% of customers want to use text messaging to make or update a reservation.
32. When it comes to updating or changing a purchase, 64% of customers say they’d prefer to use mobile messaging.
33. A majority of people — 71% of consumers — say using text messaging to communicate with a business was effective.
34. As many as 66% of consumers say they would pay more for something if it was supported by a mobile messaging channel.
35. More people send text messages than own personal computers or landline telephones.
36. 64% of consumers think companies who text value their time, are progressive, and would recommend them to others.
37. 53% of consumers say they feel more positive toward a brand that uses mobile messaging to communicate.
38. 45% of consumers say the ability to send mobile messages is what could convince them to choose one brand, product, or service over another.
39. 97% of companies found they communicated with consumers more efficiently after launching texting initiatives.
40. One group of early adopters of MMS for business is insurance agents. A full 67% of agents send and receive MMS messages to mail quotes and claims. They report consumers respond “within minutes” to text messages.
41. 94% of organizations already using SMS for communications would recommend using a mass texting service to their colleagues.
42. Interactive content (links, surveys, and responsive features within your SMS or MMS campaigns) generates conversions 70% of the time, compared to passive content which leads to conversions only 36%.
43. 95% of millennials send messages daily, while 4 out of 5 consumers in total send daily messages.
44. More than 83% of millennials view text messages within 90 seconds of delivery.
How to get started with SMS or MMS marketing
If reading these statistics has you interested in trying mass texting or SMS marketing for your business, 2024 is the year to get started. Here are a few simple actions you can take to jump on the texting bandwagon — and keep your customers engaged and active for cents on the dollar.
1. Find an easy-to-use platform
Choose a trustworthy partner, and you’ll be sending mass texts in no time. Start your free trial now to test our easy and effective platform. If you run into any questions, our customer support and onboarding specialists are always within reach.
2. Create a text marketing plan
Like any marketing initiative, it’s important to go into text marketing with a strong plan in place, so that you can be decisive and cohesive with your communications to consumers. Remember to familiarize yourself with common text marketing best practices if you’re just starting out.
There are some legal requirements to fulfill when you’re sending a text message for business. For example, you must keep a record of consent that proves the people you’re texting have actually agreed to receive text messages from you. A reputable SMS marketing platform should be able to help you with this quite easily.
3. Review your strategy
Once you’ve initiated a marketing plan, make sure you regularly review it against key performance indicators throughout 2024. After all, you’re likely putting a decent amount of money behind your marketing, and you want to make sure it’s well-spent. You can be successful at SMS marketing with a simple plan, but if you’d like to add in intelligent automations or unique coupons, SlickText is full of options. Hop on the platform today to explore our marketing and promotion tools, automated workflows, text-to-win capability, QR codes, and more.
One of the great advantages of text message marketing is that you’re able to see what actions your recipients are taking after they read your text message. Even if you just start out by tracking links they click inside of your text messages, this is a good way to review how strong your strategy is and make tweaks when necessary.
Start Your SMS Marketing Program
The text messaging statistics speak for themselves — mobile is growing and businesses that take advantage of this channel position themselves to keep customers satisfied and coming back for more. Don’t be afraid to embrace mobile in 2024.
Want to kick off your SMS marketing strategy? Start your free trial with SlickText today, and get in touch with our team if you have any questions.
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