by JCDunn
29. April 2010 22:56
The CWTA, Canada’s telco regulatory body, has released statistics on Canadian’s text messaging use for 2009. You can get the full low down here but I wanted to pull out a couple highlights:
• 35 Billion peer-to-peer SMS sent in 2009. A 70% increase over 2008
• In December 2009, we sent an average of 121 million SMS/day
• 1.66 billion SMS were sent and received from short codes. A 54% increase over 2008
These are big numbers by themselves, but it’s the growth that is more striking. SMS often gets forgotten in the hype surrounding the app ecosystem but it’s an important, even foundational, mobile channel for marketers.
The reality is that it’s the most widely used mobile channel and vital for reaching certain high value audiences as the Pew Internet and American Life Project has recently reinforced.
What isn’t clear from these statistics is what combination of more programs and increased participation - either with more individuals opting into SMS marketing or more marketing messages being deployed - is behind the 54% increase of short code SMS.
It’s most likely a combination of the three.
Since any SMS marketing has to be opt-in, it can be a powerful acquisition and direct marketing channel. People who participate in your programs are doing so because you’ve offered something that resonates with them.
Where many SMS initiatives fail is in not thinking through how to capitalize on the permission you’ve gained to create an ongoing value exchange that offers repeat branded communication events or drives a customer-brand interaction.
Nearly all SMS messages are opened – between 90-98% depending on which study you read – so compare that to email open rates when thinking about how to increase the effectiveness or maintain the momentum of your CRM programs.
As the numbers above show, just about everyone’s texting. It’s got reach, familiarity, measurability and a massive variety of activations from the informational to the transactional.
SMS is a foundational tactic for the new direct marketing. Is it in your toolkit?
-Jonathan
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