16 of the Latest Sms Marketing Statistics: Why You Need to Learn More About Marketing’s Dark Horse

Updated · May 20, 2023

So what exactly is SMS marketing?

Even though the answer may seem obvious, it’s not, and you’re here for a reason. There’s a lot more to this practice, not just due to its resurgence.

Today, as it is a dark horse of the marketing world, we will talk about the most crucial SMS marketing statistics you shouldn’t miss!

However, even those not directly related to this method can tell you a thing or two about it. Let’s jump into the vast marketing world and see what the SMS hype is all about!

Riveting SMS Marketing Facts (Editor’s Choice):

  • 75% of consumers are open to receiving special offer SMS from companies.
  • Text messages have an open rate of 98%, with nearly 60% of consumers checking their new texts within five minutes.
  • 64% believe that businesses should send them text messages more often.
  • 14% of companies send SMS to their customers.
  • 6.648 billion people are smartphone users.
  • 2.1 trillion text messages were sent in 2020 alone.

Texting Statistics for 2022

Before we head into details about SMS marketing, you must comprehend the power of the SMS industry. Here are some facts from 2022 and ones that aren’t as new but are just as relevant.

1. As of April 2022, there are 6.648 billion smartphone users.

(Source: BankMyCell)

In other words, 83.72% of all people have at least one smartphone. Given how some people have multiple phones, it’s not surprising to hear that there are 10.57 billion connections.

Then, the overall number of cellphone users rises to 7.26 billion, making for a whopping 91.54% of the world’s population! This is precisely what makes cell phones so attractive for marketing. There’s a near-100% chance people have one, and they carry it with them all the time.

2. The SMS open rate is 98%.

(Source: MobileMonkey)

They may offer fewer options than emails, but you can’t deny that SMS messages are a classic and highly effective method. They’re aging like a fine wine, and you can send them from nearly anywhere.

Consequently, nearly every text message in the world is opened. That’s even more impressive in a time when one can read a message without really opening it. Emails, in comparison, are clicked on much less frequently. On average, every fifth email is opened worldwide. Do you see the pattern here?

3. It takes up to five seconds to read a text on average.

(Source: Trumpia)

You already know that most text messages are short, but how short are they? We can’t confirm that it takes 5 seconds to send a text (however, the assumption is probably true if you’ve already figured out what you’re going to say), but it does take that much to read one.

Most text messages are only a few words long, though the typing speed varies more than the reading one. They also tend to have variable lengths, but reading them nearly always goes smoothly, just like reading text-based ads.

4. Almost 60% of consumers check their SMS notifications within five minutes.

(Source: Startup Bonsai)

Admit it—it straight up feels good when you get a text message. Even if it’s not from somebody they know, people are surprisingly fast to grab their phones.

Most notifications for text messages are checked within the first five minutes. That’s excellent news for anybody into SMS marketing, experienced or not. Better yet, 18.7% of survey respondents open them within a single minute! An additional 40% usually do so within the following four.

How Many Text Messages are Sent a Day?

One of those questions that even non-marketers ask themselves. As such, it’s rather important, so we decided to take the time to answer it and some other related ones.

5. An average person sends 72 text messages per day.

(Source: Vermont State Highway Safety Office)

Let’s get straight to why you’re here. How many texts are sent per day? Well, that depends whether you’re asking per person or overall. The average person sends 72, although that includes app-to-app messages. This further means that they send three messages every hour.

6. 23 billion SMS messages are sent every day worldwide.

(Source: Forbes)

Expectedly, the number of messages sent daily worldwide is much higher. This one is from June 2021, so chances are it’s even higher now. Also, if you’ve wondered how many texts are sent per second, this equates to 270,000. All these numbers still seem to be rising. If forecasts are to be trusted, that will also be the case for the years to come.

7. The world record for the most unread text messages is unknown, unlike the record for unread emails.

(Source: RecordSetter)

Joey Manansala had 4,294,967,256 unread emails, a definitive world record back in 2012. Given how significant the number is, we doubt it’s been bested, and there’s no source claiming a bigger one.

That’s why texting vs. email statistics favor the former. Its open rate is so high that the world record for unopened texts is unknown. This may mean that the average number of unread texts is close to zero, although nobody can confirm that.

8. People worldwide send more than 560 billion text messages per month.

(Source: Vermont State Highway Safety Office)

Somewhat needless to say, America stands out here. Out of all 560 billion messages sent every month, more than 180 billion are sent in the US. Americans are known as huge texters, as they make for nearly 45% of the worldwide text volume.

Text Message Marketing Statistics

On the other side, some SMS marketing stats matter the most, if not only for marketers. If you’re planning on starting an SMS marketing campaign, here’s what you ought to know.

9. The SMS marketing conversion rate can go up to 45%.

(Source: SimpleTexting)

This is the rate that Salesforce noticed for their SMS-based brands. Sure, it’s not always this high, but it’s not much lower on average either.

SMS marketing stats reveal that the average conversion rate for SMS marketing is 29%. If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear about other conversion rates.

Email marketing is doing considerably worse, as its conversion rate is only 3.26%. Google Ads has it even worse with just 3.17%. Facebook ads are significantly better than the former, but their conversion rate is 9.21%.

In conclusion, SMS marketing has a conversion rate nearly twice as big as these three together! It doesn’t seem that bad now, does it?

10. 75% of consumers want to receive text messages from companies on special offers.

(Source: Findstack)

This, of course, applies to companies that customers like. After all, if they opted in to their marketing campaign, why wouldn’t they like to receive text messages?

SMS marketing statistics clearly show that this is a simple yet popular marketing tactic. Companies just don’t seem to get the hint.

11. 64% of customers believe businesses should text them more often.

(Source: VoiceSage)

The same goes, even if we’re talking about companies texting customers for whatever other reason. People are still keen on receiving text messages from them. This, however, can also be mostly tied to SMS promotions. Chances are that consumers would like companies to inform them of special offers even more. In this case, though, it could just as well mean they’d like to know about future plans, e.g., new collections.

12. Only 14% of companies text consumers.

(Source: SlickText)

Despite the astonishing SMS open rates, this form of marketing is still an untapped goldmine. The number of companies that realize its potential is just too low. Almost everybody has a cellphone, yet not one in every five companies uses that to their advantage.

Who sends texts the most? What about senders’ age groups? Trends are also rather crucial for marketers, so here are a few.

13. 2.21 trillion texts were sent in 2020.

(Source: Financesonline.com)

That’s an additional 52 billion text messages compared to the 2019 number. And while these primarily aren’t marketing texts, marketers can still rejoice, especially when they hear about the 2023 forecast.

Experts claim that, in that year alone, 3.5 trillion SMS will be sent. There is no available info for SMS sent in 2021, but at this point, it’s not even needed.

14. Adults aged 18 to 24 send and receive the most text messages monthly.

(Source: Vermont State Highway Safety Office)

Texting statistics by age are what dictates the average monthly SMS numbers.

The youngest adults are the dominant ones here, as they send and receive 3,853 texts per month on average. Adults aged 25-34 aren’t that far off—they send and receive 2,240 texts monthly. Those aged 35-44 are at 1,557 messages, and adults aged 45-54 at 998. Those older than 55 only send and receive 491 texts on an average month.

15. People in the US send text messages twice as much as they call.

(Source: Vermont State Highway Safety Office)

Even texting vs. calling statistics seem to gravitate towards the former. On average, Americans tend to text more often. After all, how couldn’t they? The same stats also show that text messages are ten times quicker than phone calls!

16. Text message analysis is so common that there’s an app that can do it for you.

(Source: The Guardian)

It’s in people’s nature to overanalyze things, so it’s no surprise that this includes text messages. Sometimes, a single word is enough to get someone thinking.

Crussh was made for that exact reason. It’s an app that attempts to analyze messages from an objective perspective. That way, it’s helping you find out whether somebody likes you. If you’re suspicious of your or others’ text communication, perhaps the app can help.

Wrap Up

Running an SMS marketing campaign or not, we hope that these SMS marketing statistics taught you a thing or two.

Thanks to the method’s results, it’s undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. Yet, it’s still somewhat underused, with people thinking it’s not that effective. With many findings proving otherwise, you can be sure it’s about to get revived. You might as well prepare for the storm!

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Nick Galov
Nick Galov

Unaware that life beyond the internet exists, Nick is poking servers and control panels, playing with WordPress add-ons, and helping people get the hosting that suits them.