Future Is Business Texting: Are You Onboard?

Think of a day without texting. Does it sound impossible? Same is true for your customers too. Based on a survey from Gallup, 68% of millennials accept that they text a lot. Average text sent per individual per day for the US is around 32 messages. Your business might be losing valuable leads if you are not on the channel that customers prefer. In this blog, we have compiled texting facts that will make you rethink about including texting in your channel strategy.

Texting Has Wide Penetration And Reach

People are still using SMS, and the numbers are increasing year on year. It is the simplest yet most effective way to communicate and engage. In last five years, world wide smart phone installed base has increased by 180% from 1.03 million to 2.89 billion (Statistica), with 98% of smartphone users using texting on regular basis (AT&T)

(Source: Statistica 2017)

Customers Are Open To Receiving Texts

People have an inherent need to connect with others, be it family or businesses. Based on IDC survey, the services that drive the highest levels of connectedness across the largest number of people are texting/messaging followed by talking on the phone, and direct messaging via Facebook.

(Source: IDC)

And They Prefer Business Texting Over Other Modes

Unlike other modes, texting has high open and response rate, based on a report from Gartner, various sources report SMS open and response rates as high as 98% and 45%, respectively — in contrast to corresponding figures of 20% and 6% for email. Only 17% respondent of a survey conducted by SAP & Loudhouse Research, consider SMS messages sent by companies to be intrusive.

Market Leaders Are Already Adopting Business Texting

According to the Gartner 2016 Digital Channel Survey, SMS (i.e., text messaging) is currently one of the top four most-adopted mobile marketing tactics. And based on Salesforce 2017 State of Marketing report,59% marketing leaders are already using texting as a channel and 20% marketing leads plan to use texting in next 12 months.

(Source: Salesforce)

Are You Onboard?

Based on Gartner research, SMS, along with consumer messaging apps, will be a primary way for organizations to engage with their customers. However, even after knowing the benefits of texting, many businesses face ongoing challenges in adopting and integrating texting with their existing engagement model, citing technology as the prime reason.

If you are thinking of adopting texting for your business, outdated solutions will not cut the mark. Having the right tool to seamlessly integrate texting with your existing channel is the way to go. You should opt for a tool that let you integrate texting with other modes like voice calling, allow customers as well as sales to switch modes effortlessly, record and analyze customer journey across multiple channels and last but not least is TCPA compliant.