The evolution of SMS marketing

As time marches on, the track record of SMS for marketing continues to prove itself. Consider these stats:

• 60% of consumers read texts within 1 to 5 minutes

• More than 48 million people opted into texts from businesses in 2020

• Retailers increased their budgets for SMS marketing by 56% last year

Thanks to the rise of smartphone technology, SMS marketing offers one of the highest chances of attracting and retaining consumers. How has SMS marketing evolved so fast? Let’s go back to the beginning to see how far it’s come.

Early development of SMS Marketing

When cell phones were first introduced, they were primarily used for contacting our friends and family. This changed in 2003 when 5 and 6 digit shortcodes were launched. These codes made it easy for consumers to enter a businesses' SMS competition or participate in their campaign.

The iPhone was introduced in 2007, and was one of the first handheld devices to combine a multimedia player, telephone, and internet browsing on a touchscreen display. This propelled the use of mobile phones and with it, took the SMS technology to new heights. At the time, experts predict there were around 2.4 billion mobile users, which promoted more businesses to jump on the bandwagon of SMS marketing.

SMS Marketing grows up

Fast forward to 2022 where SMS communication has far surpassed the 160 character limit. Here's a look at some of the many ways SMS marketing has evolved due to the advancement of technology and the popularity of the channel:

Customer support chats

SMS support allows customers to have direct, simple, and quick one-on-one conversations with businesses. This instant communication fosters brand love and loyalty and is invaluable to creating a positive customer experience. Imagine a customer views your promotional message and sends questions about the latest deals you sent. With a quick reply, you can compel them to place an order by the end of the conversation, or ensure their feedback or concerns are heard and resolved.

Transactional SMS

Businesses leverage transactional SMS or automated messages to assist shoppers throughout their customer journey. These include order confirmation to validate transactions and shipping updates that notify customers about their products' arrival.

Security measures

One-time passwords/pins (OTPs) provide a secure authorization method.  Prior to making a purchase, shoppers are asked to input the alphanumeric code they received to confirm the legitimacy of their purchase. Such messages improve the customer experience and help build trust with your brand.

Campaign personalization

Through dynamic personalization, SMS marketers can create unique experiences to build strong relationships. Include fields like the customers' name as well as custom messaging based on their purchase history to offer relevant deals. Use customer data to make your SMS marketing more effective and to create better campaigns and in turn gather further engagement insights to enrich your data, creating a powerful data capture loop.

Beyond SMS with custom landing pages

New and easy-to-use platforms like Mobiz make it simple for brands to take SMS even further. The platform helps businesses create and send customer-unique mobile landing pages via SMS at scale. By combining the delivery and efficiency of SMS, the flexibility and hyper-personalization of mobile web pages, with professionally designed and customizable templates, Mobiz makes it easy.

The future of SMS marketing

SMS marketing seems to have a bright future ahead as a marketing channel. You can use it for customer service, facilitating legitimate transactions, send transactional SMS, and more!

With Mobiz, you can take your SMS marketing campaigns to the next level with dynamic personalization and custom landing pages.  Sign-up for a free 14-day Mobiz trial to see what the future has in store for your business.