People ask a lot of questions these days regarding the current effectiveness of SMS marketing in the face of other digital marketing channels. In this post, we will give our clarification to clear the air on the mind bugling misconceptions.
It is true that nowadays business owners can be overwhelmed by the number of channels out there for marketing their products and services. Much of the focus involves modern marketing techniques on the internet such as SEO, social media, content marketing, Facebook Ads, Google ads, WhatsApp and other online marketing communication tools. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to these. It makes many people ask: Is SMS Marketing Obsolete?
In the buzz of mobile marketing, instant messaging and proximity technologies, SMS is staying in the spotlight. Just take a look on a search engine to see for yourself.
Most Customers Still Don’t Use Smartphones
Actually, if you look at the current state, the way we receive or send texts, nothing has changed. You don’t need a smartphone costing hundreds of dollars to receive or sent texts. A N5,000 phone reads and replies texts the same way a N200,000 iPhone does.
In fact, with so many businesses today concentrating their efforts online, you can often gain an edge by seeking out creative offline-online marketing techniques which is Bulk SMS Marketing.
People Read SMS Faster than Email, etc
SMS Marketing is a very efficient alternative to email and social media as one of the biggest advantages of text messages is that people read them far more often than emails. In fact, 98% of text messages are read by the recipients, 90% within 3 minutes of receipt.
The time when SMS used to be merely a medium for individuals to have a casual chat is long gone. Today, businesses are more considerate about the true potential of this rediscovered messaging medium. They are looking at new ways to harness its true potential.
SMS is far from becoming obsolete, in fact, businesses increasingly switching from a pure email based marketing to a mixed bag. SMS is now the medium for reaching masses. Businesses of different sizes now use SMS as a security tool for identity authentication, one-time password (OTP), etc.
SMS, and the way we use it, will keep evolving at its own pace. Only time will tell “How”. In the time being, let the end users be the time bearers. Presently, any ecommerce company that refuse to integrate the use of SMS as part of their business armor is heading to failure.
Most Customers are Still Offline
One thing you need to know as an entrepreneur especially in Nigeria is that over 60% of your customers are still offline and the best means of reaching them is through SMS.
Perhaps one of the secrets of SMS is indeed its brevity: 160 characters, like a tweet (more or less) but quiet, direct and without the sense of over-saturation found with message boards, inboxes, walls, etc.
How Old is SMS Marketing?
SMS now has 25 years of history and although its golden age came to a close in the 1990s, it has retained some special features that distinguish it from other channels: first and foremost, its one-to-one communication potential. An email may end up in the trash without even being opened, and a Facebook post can easily be ignored with a simple scroll. The features of SMS, on the other hand, mean that they are opened in 98% of cases. Many messaging platforms like 2go, bbm, etc have come and gone but SMS still stands the test of time.
What will happen when the sending volumes increase and SMS boxes become just as crowded as email inboxes? This means that the channel will have reached full maturity and awareness. And as this awareness gives rise to experimentation, SMS Marketing will evolve even further to increasingly refine the resources at its disposal.
Conclusion
SMS marketing is not obsolete even in the face of many other messaging channels such Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc. In fact, statistics show that the amount of people who send and receive text messages is predicted to rise to 5.9 billion by the year 2025 globally.
Comment below to give your opinion on whether SMS Marketing is obsolete or not.
Thanks a lot for the useful contribution bro.
Sms marketing is not obsolete is still very vital and useful because not all customers are accessible to whatsapp and Facebook
You are quite right Michael.
WhatsApp message features beats bulk SMS. Although bulk SMS can be sent to as many people as possible via text and receiving in the offline mobile process whether big or small phone. But trust me, the world has really gone digitalize that even children of 10years and 60years old people now need Android phone due to it’s vast usage.
To wrap it up, bulk SMS has different methods of payment which is costlier than getting data. You can imaging a boy getting N100 data and using Whatsapp can send messages to friends as many times as possible, either in a voice, video, image, audio, PDF, docs, xls,CDR, etc format.
In my own view people need multifunctional system to operate.
That not withstanding, I like Bulk SMS but the disgusting part is that, you send message and wait to have response; not knowing that due to the sender’s name chosen, do not disturb numbers which the user may not even know that his or her phone number is in DND mode, network from subscriber and even the platform used don’t allow messages sent to reach recipients.
That alone can make SMS marketing obsolete.
Thank you Peter. Please be aware that SMS is powerful and at the same time sensitive. That is why there is need for its regulation by the government to curtail any incidence of abuse. Meanwhile, we are here to make sure that genuine users get the best even with the regulations such as sender ID registration and Do Not Disturb (DND) delivery.
Dear there are facts in this blog but what if any other bulksms managers or company offers opportunity for clients to share or retail their subscription or transfer to third party, that only sometimes gives an edge over yours. Consider this as observation.