SMS Usage Statistics 2022

SMS is known to offer many advantages over other communication tools for businesses, such as cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and extensive reach. A review of key statistics, however, helped us to reveal the true and real-world efficacy of SMS campaigns. In this analysis, we explore the effectiveness of SMS communications in today’s world, highlighting the role SMS plays in customer engagement, conversions, and consumer preferences, as well as its growing relevance in fostering stronger customer relationships.

Unparalleled reach

About 7.33 billion people – which makes up 93% of the global population as of March 2023 – use mobile phones, with 97% connected by mobile networks such as 2G, 3G and 4G. In contrast, only 60% of the world population regularly accesses the Internet, making channels like email and apps like WhatsApp less effective for reaching the masses. SMS messages have a high engagement rate, with most consumers responding within three minutes and nearly 90% replying within 30 minutes. This prompt response shows the effectiveness of SMS as a communication tool for reaching people quickly.

Click-throughs and conversions

SMS marketing boasts high click-through rates (CTR), leading to impressive conversion rates. According to Postscript, abandoned cart messages for inexpensive recurring purchases like coffee can achieve a CTR as high as 20% via SMS, while keyword opt-in messages register a 25-38% CTR.

A Klaviyo survey revealed that nearly 3 in 4 consumers have made a purchase because of an SMS text from a brand, with half of the respondents reporting this happened 2-3 times. 24% of respondents admitted they were not considering a purchase until the text message inspired them to do so. These statistics underscore the significant impact of SMS marketing on consumer behavior and conversions.

Fostering two-way interaction

SMS proves to be an engaging marketing communication channel, as people enjoy responding to businesses that send them text messages. Gartner reports that around 45% of people reply to SMS messages, compared to just 6% for emails. About 55% of people use built-in default SMS apps instead of third-party messaging options, making them more likely to engage with businesses via SMS.

Over 45% of respondents value two-way conversations and find the ability to text businesses back useful, according to a Simpletexting survey. This shows the growing preference for SMS as an interactive medium, nurturing stronger connections between businesses and consumers.

CRM and brand loyalty

SMS communication is a popular method for people to stay connected with their favorite brands. A Cloudli Communications survey found that over 80% of respondents across all generations wanted to text their preferred brands and businesses. Klaviyo’s survey reveals the most preferred SMS messages from brands revolve around delivery confirmations (51%), shipment confirmations (46%), and birthday deals (36%).

Nearly two-thirds of consumers would switch to a company offering text messaging as a communication channel, according to a survey commissioned by Avochato. The study found that 60% of respondents would rather schedule hair care appointments via text, 65% prefer financial services that communicate account details, bills, and payment reminders through SMS, and 72% would choose a travel company that provides travel plans, reminders, and updates via text.

These statistics highlight the growing preference for SMS-based customer communication in enabling businesses to build stronger customer relationships.

SMS: Growth and future prospects

SMS continues to grow in popularity and relevance. Juniper Research predicts that 3.5 trillion business application-to-person (A2P) messages will be delivered by 2023. Postscript notes that the most successful brands send a minimum of five texts per month to every subscriber on their list, further emphasizing the importance of SMS in modern communication strategies.

SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway enables brands to send up to 240 messages per minute, effectively meeting customer expectations for prompt communication. This powerful marketing automation tool ensures personalization and simplifies the sending process, allowing businesses to maintain strong connections with their audience while maximizing the benefits of SMS marketing.

Curious to explore further? We have compiled additional resources worth exploring.

Create the right solution for your operation

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allow any business to incorporate SMS communications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how SMSEagle will allow you to create the solution you need, get in touch with our team.

Expanding Customer Reach and Engagement via SMS Marketing

A trend of the 90s, SMS is all set to make a stellar comeback in enterprise marketing. SMS marketing involves the use of SMS communications to run promotional campaigns and engage customers. Being simple and personal, SMS messages easily attract the trust and attention of users. As such, SMS messages are reaching record visibility rates, with 90% of all text messages being read within three minutes and 99% being read eventually.

Being hassle-free and allowing for unlimited recipients, SMS messages can be delivered to anyone with a phone, even if it is a feature phone, and to any location regardless of Internet connectivity. Beyond this, a simple and standard textual layout make SMS messaging a no-frills communications channel that is ideal for large-scale marketing activities.

Enterprises wishing to take their SMS marketing a notch higher can leverage SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway for an integrated SMS solution that is compatible with 2G, 3G, and 4G networks across the globe. The gateway uses local SIMs, allowing enterprises to reap substantial cost savings by using the local mobile network. Enterprises with bulk messaging needs can register further savings by not having to pay third-parties for orchestrating their campaigns as is typical in pay-per-message models. Besides this, the gateway boasts multiple useful features for SMS marketing activities including templated messaging, scheduling, and MMS messaging for richer promotional content, as well as a range of ready-to-use APIs for integration with popular subscriber database and CRM systems.

Across all phases of the customer lifecycle

Successful marketing campaigns are key to customer acquisition. By feeding leads or potential customer databases into SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway, enterprises can send hundreds of messages per minute to their target audience, promoting products, services, apps and deals via SMS hyperlinks. As building a convertible sales funnel requires forging deep connections with recipients, enterprises can tap into the gateway’s user-friendly interface to personalize messages based on the recipient’s context.

By leveraging SMSEagle’s API integration with CRM systems such as Zoho CRM, enterprises can automate the delivery of messages to keep their customers updated and engaged. Enterprises can enrich their loyalty programs with automated welcome SMSs and membership offers whenever a new contact is added to the CRM system. Likewise, regular updates such as birthday month deals or text-to-win contests can be programmed based on the field values stored in the customer’s CRM profile. This mechanism works both ways – SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway is able to receive responses to these messages and feed them back into the CRM system by using APIs. By incorporating artificial intelligence, these responses can be used by a CRM system to initiate automated, intelligent SMS-based conversations with customers.

Enterprises can also use SMS communications to drive sales by facilitating enquiries, appointment scheduling and purchasing. The SMSEagle API integration with Zapier allows the gateway to connect with multiple customer/order management applications. For example, reminders for appointments scheduled in Google Calendars or Acuity Scheduling can be sent to the SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway for onward forwarding to the customer. Likewise, Zapier integrations with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce enable the sending of SMS voucher redemptions or reward points whenever an order is placed, prompting further purchases.

SMS: the next ‘in’ thing for mass marketing

Messaging via SMS keeps communications with existing and potential customers simple, succinct and real-time, all of which make it an ideal channel for sending out quick reminders, flash deals and last minute promotions. By merging together great campaign messages, rich CRM databases and the capabilities of a robust SMS-based communications solution such as SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway, enterprises can successfully launch and run zero-touch outreach campaigns and take their marketing efforts to the next level.

Create the right solution for your operation

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allow companies to incorporate SMS communications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how SMSEagle will allow you to create the solution you need, get in touch with our team.

Daily SMS Mobile Usage Statistics 2021

With the growing popularity of communicative services like social media, FaceTime, and now VR, it is perhaps surprising to see that the numbers tell a different story. As popular as the aforementioned may be, none seems to come close to SMS in the realm of marketing.

Featured below are some of the statistics that spell out that your customers want you to contact them via SMS. Not email, not ads on other mobile apps. And definitely not social media DMs!

Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the most intriguing data on mobile usage and SMS out there –

This might be no shocker to a lot of people. 83.96% of the total population of Earth owns a smartphone. That is 6.64 Billion users with active SMS services.

For businesses that have been hesitant to use text message marketing, never has been a better time to launch your SMS campaign. The number of people you can reach via this communication method is simply gigantic.

Texts intended for marketing are just not perceived as spam. Perhaps it has something to do with just how old SMS is as a service. Perhaps it is about how well the text is written.
Regardless, with an open rate of 98%, there is no excuse to not employ text messaging in your marketing campaign.

This is one of those facts that reflects just how much the world has changed. According to this survey, 48% of people felt like smartphones are now a part of their lives that they just couldn’t make do without it in 2021.

SMS marketing’s biggest benefit has been agreed upon by the majority of marketers to be its speed – followed by heightened customer engagement and cost-effectiveness. The same survey also revealed that 50% of respondents said that flash sales and time-sensitive promotions would encourage them to opt into a business’s text messages.

Most of the participants of this survey were also open to receiving text notifications about the following:

  • Shipment tracking (75%)
  • Order status/confirmation (65%)
  • Scheduling reminders/alerts (46.3%)

For whatever reason, the newer generations are expected to be more in-touch with portals like SnapChat or Facebook. However, this report found that users preferred communicating with businesses via SMS, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z alike.

Expanding upon the previous finding, millennials claim that they are more likely to open/respond to marketing texts.

  • 83% of millennials would rather text your business than call a customer service helpline.
  • They prefer not being contacted via social media channels like Twitter or Facebook.
  • Texting is the most preferred channel for notifications.
  • A fifth of respondents had never received a text from a business.

This brings us one step closer to uncovering the mystery of SMS marketing’s efficiency. 59% of people want their communications to be built into their phones and don’t prefer using a separate app for the same.

As opposed to the 49.7% of marketing emails being marked as spam, SMS is only viewed by a selected few to be undesirable.

This is yet another step forward into understanding why there is no generational gap when it comes to the preference of SMS as a means of communication with businesses. With over 56% finding SMS to be faster and 74% of users feeling no difficulty with the mode, a text marketing campaign just cannot go wrong.

In Conclusion

These findings clarify one thing – mobile phones and SMS marketing are thriving right now. Text marketing is changing the way companies communicate securely with customers and should be on the campaign bucket list of every business.

Create the right solution for your operation

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allow companies to incorporate SMS alerts and notifications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how SMSEagle will allow you to create the solution you need, get in touch with our team.

Why SMS is so Effective at Prompting Action

The masses view texting as a trusted means of communication. Probably due to its lack of connection with the internet. SMS campaigns can prompt action because of their closeness to the user.

And due to this very reason, SMS marketing campaigns have been utilized by companies for years before Email marketing, or Instagram Ads were a thing. In this article, we will be going over why SMS is so effective at prompting action and how you, as a business owner, can leverage the power of SMS marketing.

Time & Cost Effective

SMS marketing is extremely beneficial for starting campaigns almost instantaneously. SMS campaigns are time efficient because there are only two things that need to be decided on before commencing it: the message and the senders’ list.

On the other hand, for things like offering customers information about deals and discounts, and responding to company information. It was found that 90% of most messages are read between 3 minutes of them being sent. This makes the click through rate of SMS much more effective than most channels.

The time efficiency of SMS campaigns comes from it being a two-step process. This also means that most SMS campaigns are highly cost effective too. SMS marketing can amount to significant savings in time and finances with a high click-through rate. This is what makes SMS such a high ROI channel.

Text Messages Are Direct

While channels like email have entire sections dedicated to spam messages, it is found that only 1% of receivers consider their text messages spam. SMS is especially more effective because it arrives directly in the recipient’s inbox. Moreover, these SMS notifications will often  remain as an alert on the receiver’s device until it is opened and/or responded to.

The reason SMS works has to do with it being a direct feature of cell phones. Users don’t need to login or open any apps as they would with other channels.

There is an overwhelming amount of content created each day. Users are, therefore, much more wary of where they invest their attention. However, SMS overrides this challenge by dropping right into a person’s phone.

SMS Can Be Used As Appointment Reminders

At the event of your company organizing a fundraiser, seminar, or just a simple exhibit, attendance is key. And there’s only one thing worse than low sign-up rates, people who sign-up but don’t show up.

While trying to theorize the reasons behind their absences goes nowhere, we can theorize possible solutions. And arguably, the most effective of them is SMS reminders.

SMS services, if used as reminders, can do wonders for this problem. A simple text reminding each employee about an oncoming appointment significantly improves attendances and can be the way out for many companies going through a rut.

Call-to-Action Text

Incorporating call-to-action (CTA) text can increase customer engagement by a great margin. When customers have a clear idea of what their next step should be to consume your product, they are much more likely to click through. Some of the best ways to include CTA in your SMS campaigns are as follows:

  • Attention-grabber texts followed by “Click here” are very likely to get receivers signed up for your events.
  • Asking customers to enter “Text-to-Win” contests can highly increase customers’ engagement. Even when huge events are not in your schedule, Text-to-Win campaigns can remind customers of your existence and continue to increase traffic and sales.
  • Ending your targeted messages with “Buy now” can drive sales on products that your regular customers might be unaware of. A text promoting that product with a “Buy now” button makes it easier for routine customers to make purchases.

Conclusion

With millions of SMS getting sent every day, it isn’t even a huge challenge to incorporate SMS messages into your marketing strategy. Oftentimes businesses reap more benefits by complementing an email marketing strategy with SMS. Craft effective messages, analyze your buyer demographics, and invest in SMS-specific sales marketing to explore the true potential of your SMS campaigns.

SMS and RCS – What to expect in the coming decade?

SMS will reach the milestone of 30 years of continuous service in December 2022. For a modern electronic communications protocol, that is a ripe old age indeed! The humble text messaging protocol has defied numerous predictions about its impending demise for more than a decade now.

At least 2.85 billion mobile phone users across the globe rely on SMS for sending messages and receiving business notifications. Despite the challenges posed by internet-based instant messaging services like Whatsapp and Messenger, SMS is still going strong in 2021.

The main reason is its simplicity – as a universal standard, it works across all mobile devices and telephone networks, old and new. There is no need for extra software, data packs, or third-party apps/services. All you need is a mobile phone and a cellular network.

But with the rise of Rich Communication Services (RCS), is SMS finally on its way out? What does the future hold for SMS users, especially businesses that use it for everything from sales to customer support?

What is RCS and How is it Different From SMS?

The original Short Messaging Service protocol was championed by the Franco-German GSM Group in 1984. Similarly, RCS is a next-generation messaging protocol championed by not one, but many entities – Google, Samsung, and GSMA are the main proponents.

RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. It works like SMS but has modern features comparable to online messaging apps. These “rich” features include:

  • Sharing video/photos
  • Audio messages
  • Add/remove group chats
  • Map directions
  • Enhanced chat suggestions

In fact, RCS is not a competitor of SMS – it is like a bigger, better, upgraded version of SMS fit for the new, digital world. Like SMS, you don’t have to download separate apps to use the RCS feature – it will be available by default on mobile phones.

However, RCS is different from SMS in one area –  required communications protocols. SMS was created many years before mobile internet – it uses a universal standard that works both on traditional signaling networks (TDM) or modern internet-based protocols.

As it is relatively new, RCS requires a data connection – it will work with either mobile data on 3G/4G/5G networks, or WiFi broadband internet. This also opens up a new world of possibilities. With SMS you are stuck on a mobile number – meanwhile, RCS can be accessed on a wide range of internet-enabled devices.

Why is SMS Still Around?

If RCS is patently superior to SMS in every way, why has it not replaced its predecessor yet? After all, it has been around since 2008. The answer, it quite complicated, just like the modern mobile and online markets.

One reason for the slow adoption of RCS is the current state of mobile and internet connectivity across the world. Many regions still don’t have 100% 4G coverage, even as 5G is already here. In areas with poor internet connectivity, SMS is still essential.

Another major issue is carrier support. Even in regions with adequate network coverage, all carriers do not support the RCS Universal Profile – the current standard pushed by Google and others. This is due to fragmentation in the early days of RCS – there were several competing standards, none of them were compatible with each other.

But this could change within the next decade as countries slowly catch up with modern cellular networks. Meanwhile, Google has already unveiled RCS messaging on its Android mobile platform. Plus, the consortium has the support of Samsung, one of the biggest smartphone brands in the world.

However, one name is conspicuous by its absence – Apple. The company controls around 23% of the global smartphone market. And it is holding back the progress of RCS. Apple does not have an urgent need for RCS – its iMessage app has most of the advanced features of RCS.

Apple has not yet indicated an interest in supporting RCS. If an iOS user sends a message to an Android phone, that message has to be converted SMS. Until Apple accepts the RCS standard, this impasse will continue.

Does The Future Belong to RCS?

With Google making deals with many network providers, especially in markets like North America, RCS is finally in a position to gain traction. It holds a lot of benefits for businesses as well. Customers these days demand personalized experiences and enhanced features which RCS can provide.

SMS/RCS marketing can finally compete with other forms of digital marketing in areas like content delivery, and seamless experiences across devices. But as long as the Apple-Google impasse continues, the transition will be further delayed.

And in the meantime, SMS still has some gas left in its tank. Half the world population still don’t have access to mobile internet – over 3 billion people (PDF link). And progress on this front is slowing down, due to the pandemic and economic recessions.

Despite all its flaws, it will continue to have a place on our mobile devices until networks across the globe upgrade to RCS-compatible LTE and 5G networks. Given the ongoing pandemic disruption, that could still take a decade. So, a safe prediction for the coming decade would be – the (immediate) future belongs to both SMS and RCS.

And last, but not least: In SMSEagle team we keep an eye on the RCS evolution. SMSEagle software will be ready for RCS support once it reaches global popularity among users.

Update on 2023.07.25

The passage of the Digital Market Act by the European Union means, among other things, that the largest communications service providers must ensure interoperability within them. That is, to allow other providers of such services to access a given network. In simple words, this means that Android phone users are to be able to communicate with iMessage users.

Google Messages (SMS, MMS, and RCS application from Google) will soon gain the support of the MLS protocol. MLS is the newest standard for encrypting data in communication services. It can be used as an interoperability means between Google Messages and Apple iMessage.

Create the right solution for your operation

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allow businesses to incorporate SMS communications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how SMSEagle will allow you to create the solution you need, get in touch with our team.

Are you ready for the “new normal”?

As governments issued stay-at-home orders and non-essential services closed their doors, the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses and institutions around the world to adjust to what has become the “new normal.” And now that we’ve begun to accept it—even if begrudgingly—it appears that work-from-home and video conferencing is here to stay.

In his book, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman discusses how new technologies can and will transform the way we work, live, and interact. Referring to global events and political leaders, Friedman states that “some of our leaders want to build a wall against the hurricane … my argument is you have to build an eye that moves with the storm.”

Encouraging the development of an agile communications strategy, Deloitte reinforced Friedman’s message, stating that “the COVID-19 crisis is not a single, one-time event, but a series of circumstances that are constantly updating with new information and directives, and businesses must be able to adapt continuously.” Given the pandemic’s lessons, many organizations have found new ways to use reliable communications technologies that can easily be adapted for multiple use cases.

Increase engagement despite the COVID-19 pandemic

Despite having been around for decades, SMS messaging is one of the fastest-growing communication channels. Forrester predicts that messaging volumes will increase by 40% in retail alone in 2021 as brands launch campaigns to attract and retain customers.

Often considered low-tech compared to other technologies, the advantage of SMS is that almost anyone can use it, and procedures for signing up or stopping communications are simple, immediate, and effective. Moreover, as a disruptor, messaging demands an instant response, resulting in high engagement and an excellent investment return.

Deploying SMS to keep people and businesses safe, productive, and profitable

Here are a few examples of how SMS has been leveraged during the pandemic to keep people and businesses safe, productive, and profitable.

  • Healthcare: Limited only by an organization’s imagination, SMS has proved to be a highly effective way of communicating with vast numbers of people during the COVID-19 health crisis. Whether identifying or notifying potential carriers or providing accurate, reliable information, state and local authorities are actively using SMS as their go-to technology for managing the emergency. And with anxiety and depression symptoms of pandemic fatigue, dedicated SMS channels are being used to assist with suicidal tendencies. and mental health.

Countries are using SMS to speed up the delivery of COVID-19 test results and arrange for immunization and vaccinations. Moreover, with internet access unavailable to billions of people worldwide, texting is the only way to reach vulnerable populations. A platform for developing and sharing mobile services, a UNICEF project, RapidPro, is an open-source solution enabling anyone to build and scale mobile healthcare services anywhere in the world.

  • IT & Facilities: With offices emptying overnight and remote access skyrocketing, IT and facilities found themselves cut off from their computer rooms, data centers, and Building Management Control Systems (BMCS). Enabling many IT and facilities staff to work remotely, deploying reliable 2-way SMS systems allows them to monitor and manage business-critical systems while complying with government regulations.
  • Customer Service: With brick-and-mortar stores closed and SMS marketing offering the ultimate personalized customer experience, many brands shifted to 2-way texting to connect with customers during the health crisis. According to Forrester, this trend will most likely continue as retailers seek to amplify their brand and retain—or grow—their share of wallet in the months to come while maximizing their reach with reduced staff.

Technology is playing a critical role during the COVID-19 health crisis, and SMS is at the forefront. Whether a health authority, IT department, or B2C, if you aren’t currently using text messaging to engage your audience, now’s the time to rethink and implement a strategy that allows you “build an eye that moves with the storm.”

About SMSEagle

SMSEagle is a leading global brand of hardware SMS gateways. Designed for reliability and easy integration with existing systems, SMSEagle supports bi-directional SMS communications via your web browser, email system, or an API. It also converts email messages to SMS and can send SMS alerts from network and security monitoring systems and SMS tokens from authentication systems. For more information, visit smseagle.eu.

Network Security Essentials: A Checklist for your Business

I hardly need to labour the point that network security is essential in an age where companies of all sizes are hacked. Hardly a week goes by without data breach headlines in the mainstream media. 2021 is so exception so far, with high-profile hacks including LinkedIn, Parler (an almost complete website scraping in this case), Mimecast, U.S. Cellular and many more. The reasons for these successful breaches, which compromised the data and privacy of clients, ranged from targeted attacked, exploits on misconfigured cloud services and unsecured data to malware injection and scamming. Many of these data breaches could have been prevented. It makes you wonder why, in 2021, companies (large and small) are still so careless and cavalier with important client data, especially when you consider that lack of IT personnel or funds is not an issue for the global giants. Didn’t these companies have a simple checklist or basic code of practice for network security? Remember to protect all client data as if it were your own data by using encryption, authenticated access and any other precaution possible. Consider the following an overview or starting point for creating your own checklist.

The Basics

Let’s assume, as many do, that larger companies have a handle on the basic elements of network security. Firewalls are configured correctly. Administrators have a full list of their hardware and software and all security updates and patches are installed promptly. They have a robust backup procedure that ensures prompt restoration of company data even after a ransomware attack. Brilliant! Now what?

Despite the naysayers, password management is still an issue and not due to password length, authentication method or complexity but instead due to longevity i.e., passwords are in use too long without being changed.

Employees will also log into personal solutions during office hours and if part of a BYOD policy, ALL will have devices approved and with OS versions approved by IT? Again, let’s assume enterprises have no flaws in all these areas, despite almost daily reports of data breaches. Enterprise-level solutions seek to address more advanced problems…

SIEM, NGF and User Error Prevention

Modern network security is aimed at identifying emerging threats and reducing the impact of human error (which is still the biggest threat to your data). In fact, a recent joint study from Stanford University and Tessian indicates that 88% of all data breaches are caused by employee error. The Blame Game is not the solution here as the study also points out that “Your employees are focused on the job you hired them to do and when faced with to-do lists, distractions, and pressure to get things done quickly, cognitive loads become overwhelming and mistakes can happen.”

Therefore, recognising that security awareness training is not the entire solution and that employees are not cybersecurity experts, companies must use technology to help with the problem. While classified as enterprise solutions, most of them are available to smaller companies, whether it’s next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), analytics-driven security information and event management (SIEM) or remote solutions offered as-a-service. All companies should perform a risk assessment and identify their greatest threats to network and data security, then and then arranging a trial of available solutions.

Even a brief look at NGFWs will confirm they are a key step in enhancing cybersecurity, including basic firewall function with several additional benefits. These include intrusion detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), application awareness from Layer 2 to 7, reduced infrastructure footprint, and antivirus and malware protection. Finally, NGFWs do not affect your network speed. Surely, a worthy purchase that can help reduce user errors by blocking threats?

Email & Internet

Your anti-malware solution (if not part of a NGFW) must scan incoming emails and monitor internet traffic. Companies need to decide if they prefer to only allow certain websites (based on a whitelist) or block some (based on another list). Whatever you decide, security (and perhaps productivity is the primary consideration). Different companies will have different ideas on this and are free to do so, since company-owned equipment is involved. However, I’d advise against keyloggers, surveillance cameras and the like as they can affect employee morale.

Ransomware and Backups

There is always the possibility of an emerging threat penetrating your firewall and ransomware is the worst of these, requiring that a ransom is paid (and that we ‘trust’ the cybercriminal to act ethically?) or full restoration from clean backups. Therefore, your backup and disaster recovery plans must be fully tested and verified as working before the worst happens. It’s obviously too late when it’s discovered the backup is worthless. Industry practice is to have at least three backups with at least one air-gapped (drives or tapes stored in a fireproof safe, for example). Backup verification is worth emphasising… Ever heard of bit rot? It’s the death of hard drives, SSDs and tapes (all magnetic media, in fact) over time and underlines the need for regular backup or archive verification.

In conclusion, all the above and any additional technological solutions you wish to make to mitigate identified risks should be part of an overall IT policy, outlining security goals with examples and user scenarios where possible. Security is an ongoing task and is constantly evolving as new threats emerge. That is the reason for data backups, penetration tests, encryption and other processes. If BYOD is present, do you have a mobile device management (MDM) solution? An employee has left the company. How long do you wait before disabling the user account and all LAN credentials? How about DHCP? These and other questions are yours to answer when ensuring maximum LAN protection. How will you proceed, or do you already include all these recommendations in your security posture? If so, well done, you’re immediately ahead of many global companies…

Use Hybrid IT To Maximise Remote Working Benefits

At its simplest and according to industry insiders, the term ‘hybrid IT’ is used almost exclusively to describe a combination of on-premise and cloud-based services. In my opinion, it could also be used to describe the IT infrastructure and processes necessary to allow office-based employees to work from home when necessary. For many companies and indeed governments, it became necessary during the current Covid-19 pandemic and unfortunately, they soon discovered that their business continuity/emergency response plans failed in many areas.

Allowing Working from Home

The decision to allow working from home (WFH) is never taken lightly by company management as many believe that employees require supervision, direction, or management and that a lack of these leads to a lack of productivity. Among professional employees, the reverse is often true. Business or organisational stakeholders must embrace the concept of remote working, especially true during a pandemic. However, they don’t have to blindly accept it and will follow a logical process before rolling out a remote working solution that minimises risk and secures data.

As Przemysław Jarmużek, IT Administrator at SMSEagle, is quick to point out,” From an operational perspective, it’s essential that IT and all department heads perform a brainstorming exercise to not only define all remote requirements and offer some proposed solutions but also to identify the potential risks involved. The ideal solution will maximise efficiency and minimise risk to your organisation’s digital assets.”

Is Remote Working Viable?

Remote working is only a viable solution for your organisation if it allows business continuity, even if solutions are provided in a reduced manner. Not all companies or industries benefit from it. Anything requiring hands-on interaction with the public is impossible during pandemic lockdowns, for example. This can include barbers, brick-and-mortar retail outlets or indeed hotels, restaurants or trade services such as plumbing, electrical or construction. “To benefit from remote working, your organisation is comprised of an office-based environment, where the fixed office setting is duplicated at home and allows the completion of tasks normally performed while connected to the company LAN,” said Radosław Janowski, Product Manager at SMSEagle.

The Home or Remote Office

Have your employees the space or equipment necessary for a home office? Most will agree that access to high-speed broadband is essential. If your employee is in an area that does not support it, then remote working is doomed to failure unless a solution is found. Should your employee invest in broadband (unlimited 4G, for example) and office equipment such as a printer without compensation? I don’t think so and good companies will ensure that at least a percentage of any additional setup costs are reimbursed.

While it’s certainly true that most households will have a family computer or two, it’s unreasonable (and poor security practice) to expect employees to use these workstations for work. IT need access to all systems used for work and unless a BYOD policy is in play, it’s best to avoid using an employee’s own equipment. Why? Because IT will need to audit the device before remote working takes place. They will need to install additional security software as users no longer have the protection of company firewalls, endpoint protection etc. In additional, IT must ensure that the device is ‘clean’ before allowing remote connection to the company LAN or related services. They must install a secure VPN to ensure permission-based access only – secure user authentication is often a problem for a variety of reasons. The list goes on, suffice to say that any devices used remotely must be as secure as any on the company network.

Collaboration and Interaction

Once the overall IT security strategy for remote working is decided on, it’s up to each department to recommend their chosen solutions for remote connection to the network (document access, for example) and any tools they need for effective collaboration with clients, suppliers and colleagues. You are effectively replacing onsite processes and operations with virtual ones over a remote connection.

To give one example, your company may have weekly, biweekly or daily internal meetings. When working from home, if you do not have a VoIP solution in place, what will you choose? Zoom got a new lease of life during the pandemic, but many companies use Skype or WebEx. There are many other options to choose from.

How about document management and sharing? Will you choose cloud solutions such as OneDrive or Google Drive? Perhaps you use a lot of cloud-based solutions such as Office 365, Salesforce. OR you prefer to access an internal document management system with full tracking, versioning etc. Whatever you decide, data security is a must as governing laws, privacy regulations and compliance requirements remain unchanged. You can use any combination of private, public or hybrid cloud solutions in addition to remote connection to the company LAN for internally managed data.

In conclusion, the main thing to remember is that remote working has its place, even without a pandemic, and once set up correctly by IT, poses few security risks. The process of extending the security perimeter to include remote workers is quite painless, should involve company-owned and monitored equipment (using approved software and services) and compensate employees for any expenses in initial setup and ongoing costs. Uptime is even more critical and network monitoring and alerts should be considered on the company LAN.

Remote working is possible for all companies who can benefit from it and as someone who’s worked remotely for more than ten years, I can state that morale is not an issue. In addition, productivity is higher as there are no distractions or conversations around the water cooler.

Two-way SMS communications

Are you connecting via your customers’ preferred channel?

Skip phone calls and emails and start texting.

Here’s why.

With an open rate almost five times that of email, Gartner states that “SMS remains an effective, yet underutilized, mobile tactic among marketing leaders.” And that’s not surprising. According to some sources, 98% of text messages are read—and 90% within the first three minutes. That makes SMS the most effective means of improving customer engagement by far. With every mobile phone able to send and receive SMS messages, no other messaging channel approaches SMS in its reach.

Text messaging allows businesses to share snippets of information and start meaningful conversations with individuals or groups. With 75% of consumers wanting to receive special offers and 64% asking for more communication via text,  SMS marketing is the optimal channel for brands to engage—especially with time-sensitive promotions.

Two-way SMS offers the ultimate personalized customer experience. As a direct message to a specific customer and either a real, live agent or well-trained bot on the other end, it’s easy to carry on text-based conversations using your customers’ preferred channel. Irrespective of your business’s size or the interaction’s complexity, customers prefer two-way SMS because they get an immediate response.

Include 2-way SMS in your omnichannel marketing strategy

With millennials (24 to 40 years old) overtaking baby boomers, holding much of the buying power (along with Generation Z  comprising those 18 to 23 years old), and preferring digital to human communication, using SMS marketing to reach them is essential for your survival. Used in conjunction with other channels, 2-way SMS can boost your marketing by simply speaking the native language of your customers and increasing:

  • Engagement: Reach your audience where they are—on their cell phones. With Gen Z on their smartphones an average of five hours or more each day—and with other generations not far behind—text messages deliver real-time alerts and messages with push notifications, nearly instant open rates, and rapid response times.
  • Intimacy: With personalization a critical differentiator in an impersonal world, 2-way SMS marketing positively impacts brand awareness, with retailers personalizing communications and recognizing special days with offers and promotions tailored to each customer.
  • Reach: Since it isn’t dependent on an internet connection, SMS is unique. It offers a far wider reach than channels built for the internet, even in remote areas or developing countries with limited infrastructure.

So if text message marketing hasn’t been on your radar and you’re fed up with receiving little response to email campaigns, it’s time to look at 2-way SMS.

Analyze campaign stats, refine your approach, and increase efficiencies

Text message marketing is also easy to track, allowing you to monitor your metrics and ensure the success of your campaigns. With up-to-date stats of messages sent, texts received, and overall contact counts, you’ll be able to analyze the data, see when engagement spikes, refine your approach, and increase your revenue and profits.

Unique versatility of SMS communications

Despite the vast number of messaging apps on the market—including Messenger, Signal, Skype, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, and WhatsApp—the versatility of SMS communications remains unparalleled. Anyone with a mobile phone can receive and send SMS messages without needing to install a messaging app, making it easy to engage in two-way communications with your target audience anywhere in the world—even with local numbers.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to nurture future generations of customers—today.

About SMSEagle

SMSEagle is a leading global brand of SMS gateway hardware. Designed for reliability and easy integration with existing systems, SMSEagle supports bi-directional SMS communications via your web browser, email system, or an API. It also converts email messages to SMS and offers the ability to send SMS alerts from network and security monitoring systems and SMS tokens from authentication systems.

Create the right solution for your operation

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allow businesses to incorporate SMS communications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how SMSEagle will allow you to create the solution you need, get in touch with our team.

SMS Usage Statistics in 2019. Market Predictions for 2020-2023 and Beyond

It was December 3, 1992. That’s the date that Neil Papworth sent the world’s first text message. More than 26 years later, SMS has grown into a powerful marketing and communication tool.

Today, trillions of SMS text messages connect billions of people and benefits millions of businesses and marketers immensely. SMS helps businesses generate outsized positive ROI.

In this article, we’ll review the most recent SMS usage statistics. Be warned! These stats might compel you to take your SMS marketing seriously.

Global SMS and Usage Statistics


Image Credit: GSMA Intelligence

The number of mobile users is increasing and will continue to soar. In a GSMA report, mobile users will go from five billion users in 2019 to 5.7 billion in 2020. This growth will increase market penetration of mobile phones from 67 percent to 72 percent in that period. Hence, an increase in the use of SMS.

The GSMA statistics support Statista’s predictions that smartphone users will grow from 3.2 billion to 3.8 billion from 2019 to 2021. Another Statista report posits the number of mobile subscribers globally will reach 7.33 billion in 2023.


Screenshot from Statista

The growing number of mobile devices means SMS remains a viable communication platform.

In America, over 272 million people own smartphones. And they collectively check their phones tens of billions of times every day; an average person picks up their phone 58 times a day.

Let us look at some of the global SMS and usage statistics.

  •  In 2024, the global application to person (A2P) SMS API market will reach $245.9 million based on a CAGR of 4.1 percent from 2017 to 2024. However, the A2P SMS market will grow at a CAGR of 4.2 to reach a valuation of $86.53 billion in 2025.
  • The A2P SMS market is stronger in the USA, growing at 6.2 percent to reach a valuation of $31.7 billion in 2022.
  • Phone users read over 90 percent of text messages within three minutes of receipt.

SMS Marketing Statistics for Businesses


Screenshot from Ericsson

According to Ericsson, the number of mobile subscriptions in 2020 will exceed eight billion. Smartphones and feature phones will contribute to 73 percent and 23.4 percent of that growth, respectively.

Let’s explore the conversion and response rates of SMS.


Screenshot from Finances Online

  • Retailers that use promotional SMS for their CRM initiatives enjoy a 23.3 percent conversion rate.
  • Compared to calls, 64 percent of customers prefer using two-way text messages when interacting with customer service. Most of these customers are younger people and they cite efficiency and convenience as their top reasons for preferring text messages.
  • About 75 percent of customers enjoy receiving special offers by text message. Messages sent this way convert at 9.18 percent, which is several times higher than the 0.9 percent and 1.91 percent of Facebook and Google Ads, respectively.


Image Created by Nicholas Godwin for SMSEagle.eu

  • The fastest growing marketing channel is customers opting in to receive business text messaging services. In 2016, 37.2 million customers used this channel,  in 2020 48.7 million customers in the US are choosing the channel.
  • In 2019, businesses spent $165.7 billion on mobile ads. In that year, 90 percent of US consumers indicated that they prefer to receive text ads.
  • In 2019, the conversion rate of SMS campaigns stand at 45 percent.


Screenshot from Finances Online

  • Eighty-five percent of consumers and buyers want to go beyond receiving just information from businesses, they want to hold text conversions with these businesses.
  • SMS open rate stands at 98 percent because receivers must read them before they delete them. Whereas, open rates for Facebook posts, email messages, and Tweets stand at 12 percent, 20 percent, and 29 percent, respectively.
  • HubSpot reports that the average click through rate of URLs in text messages is 19 percent, meanwhile, email stands at 4.2 percent.

Marketing SMS Usage Statistics


Screenshot from GlobalWebIndex

  • According to a 2019 Social Flagship report by GlobalWebIndex, 48 percent of internet users share content with their peers through text messages. Only 37 percent of users share information via email.


Screenshot from eMarketer

  • The US mobile messaging app usage, including SMS app usage, will go from 161.6 million users in 2020 to hit 171.3 million users in 2022. This growth will go from 56.1 percent of the US population to 58.1 percent of US users.
  • SMS Comparison further reveals that SMS has a higher clickthrough rate (CTR) when compared to other marketing like Facebook and Google AdWords. The Click-through rate for SMS stands at 9.18 percent, while Facebook and Google AdWords have a CTR of 0.90 percent and 1.91 percent, respectively.


Screenshot from OpenMarket

Sixty-two percent of buyers are not getting SMS notifications from retailers. In Travel and Hospitality, 75 percent of travellers and vacationers are not receiving any SMS communication from train operators, hotels, and airlines.

  • According to SMS Comparison, nine out of ten customers will prefer to communicate with companies via text message. That stat applies to one-way communication by alerts, reminders, and notifications, or two-way communications.


Screenshot from Finances Online

  • Mobile marketing, including SMS marketing, is driving more purchases for businesses in 2020. Businesses in these three industries are seeing the most increase in sales due to mobile marketing: 54 percent of restaurants, 40 percent of apparels and beauty, and 36 percent of electronics.
  • According to Rebrandly, using branded links on your SMS campaigns will increase clickthrough rate by 39 percent and boost brand visibility.
  • The top four reasons why consumers pay attention to a marketing message in their mobile phone are:  brand familiarly at 54 percent, content that’s interesting and creative at 52 percent, excellent timing at 41 percent, and promotional offers such as coupons at 41 percent.


Screenshot from Finances Online

  • By end-of-year 2019 the mobile phone sales market would witness a 19 percent drop because of longer phone replacement cycles.


Screenshot from Finances Online

  • Researchers expect to see 49 million consumers opting to receive marketing messages from brands in 2020. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, Gartner says that SMS will become vital for businesses that want to keep touch with their audiences and customers at this time.

SMS Statistics from the Financial Service Industry

Mobile SMS banking has become a dominant trend

  • According to the Business Insider Intelligence Mobile Banking Competitive Edge study by Business Insider,  89 percent of customers say they utilize mobile banking services.
  • According to Coherent Marketing Insights, the transactional SMS market share will reach 47.4 percent by 2027.

What Does the Future Hold for SMS and SMS Marketing?

The SMS industry will continue to witness an upward swing. Future projections have shown that recent advancements in technology will shape consumers’ behavior and how businesses utilize SMS.


Screenshot from Juniper Research

Let’s take a look at some of the predictions.

  • According to the Coherent Marketing Insights, the global bulk SMS marketing industry will hit a CAGR of 7.4 percent between 2019-2027.
  • Juniper Research estimated that the number of business text messages in 2020 would reach 3.5 trillion messages from the 2.5 trillion messages in 2019.


Screenshot from Juniper Research

  • Given the high engagement rates of SMS marketing and the intelligent automation capabilities of chatbots, experts expect that SMS chatbots will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.


Screenshot from OpenMarket

  • From 2019 to 2027 the global market for bulk SMS marketing service will grow at a CAGR of 7.2 percent.

Final Words

From the usage statistics we have outlined here, it’s clear that the future of SMS is promising.

SMS remains the most underutilized, yet most engaging marketing and communication channel. And it’ll continue to witness adoption across multiple industries including financial services, healthcare, hospitality, transportation, and more.

With a massive open rate of 98 percent, SMS has the potential to deliver significant value for businesses. As a marketer, SMS communications means your customers will most likely read your message.

Furthermore, SMS marketing can help businesses boost customer reach. They can improve customer engagement and increase revenues. Businesses that engage in SMS marketing will continue to enjoy these enormous benefits if they employ the right strategies.

The beautiful thing about SMS is that it is cost-effective and can form an essential part of your integrated marketing strategy. You should go ahead and invest in SMS. I’m sure you will be glad you did.

Create the right solution for your operation

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allow businesses to incorporate SMS communications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how SMSEagle will allow you to create the solution you need, get in touch with our team.