6 Latest SMS Mobile Trends, Backed by Statistics
In 2020, COVID-19 necessitated new levels of creativity for businesses reaching out to their customers. In addition to these rapidly changing consumer behaviors, shifts in email privacy with the latest iOS update also created a strain for businesses in regard to how they communicate with their customers.
Enter: SMS marketing. In fact, more than 30% of businesses adopted SMS during the pandemic and plan to continue using it. SMS is quickly becoming the preferred tool for connecting with customers due to its reliability. Consumers trust mass texting more than email and statistically prefer to be contacted by their favorite brands via text.
Adopting SMS as a marketing/communication channel starts with strategy. How you can use SMS most effectively will rely on your audience and even industry, but considering emerging mobile trends can help increase the effectiveness of your strategy.
Payments by Text
Accepting payments by text is a convenient addition to your suite of payment methods. Here are some statistics on the rise of mobile payments:
- A study from 2020 found that 35% of customers are interested in paying with a text from
- When you look at responses from people under 35 years old in that same study, that number jumps up to 65%.
- Unfortunately, only 4% of small businesses actually offer text-to-pay options
- Cash is no longer king — in fact, people 18-35 view cash as an inconvenient payment method, and 63% of Millennials prefer using their smartphones to complete transactions.
- Anecdotal evidence from the US Chamber of Commerce has found significant financial benefits from texting to pay — one appliance rental company that uses text-to-pay has had a 40% conversion rate and recouped almost $1 million in overdue payments.
Luckily, implementing text-to-pay can be quick and easy — when you work with SMS provider that knows how to implement conversational marketing. Some examples of how to implement payments by text for your business include:
- Paying invoices using secure payment links: A link directs customers to their final statement and allows them to input their payment information.
- Setting up text-to-pay commands: Businesses can leverage card information saved on file and send text commands like asking them to confirm payment of (x) by replying YES; replying YES could then complete the transaction.
How and when you use pay-by-text is completely up to your business, but accepting payment by text is a great way to meet your customers where they’re at — and it’s likely to continue growing in popularity as an SMS mobile trend.
Text-to-Pay Examples
- Thanks for using Mario Brothers Plumbing Service! Your total is $150. Visit the link below to see your bill, and complete your payment.
- Thanks for scheduling a delivery with Ophelia’s Flowers! Please confirm your payment of $20 by replying YES. We’ll use the card we have on file to complete the transaction.
Customer Support
Having effective and prompt customer support is critical to keeping your customers satisfied. In fact, 89% of customers have stopped using a business after a bad customer service experience. Not only that, but people are twice as likely to share a bad experience with others as opposed to a positive experience.
Most customers have high expectations throughout the pre-and post-sale process. It’s important to consider all pain points along the way, even going so far as to think about individual customer needs and preferences.
More than ever, the general public prefers a text message to a phone call regarding customer service questions. SMS for customer support is quickly becoming more mainstream, and businesses are using it to streamline quick communication.
- The average response time for email is usually around 90 minutes, compared to only 90 seconds for an SMS message.
- Interestingly, while 89% of customers want to communicate with businesses via text, only 48% of companies actually do so.
- For 80% of customers, a personalized experience directly correlates to whether or not they purchase something.
- 9 out of 10 people want to hear from customer support within 10 minutes of reaching out.
- 80% of customers reported that speed, convenience, and competence were essential in their customer service experience.
With SlickText’s Inbox feature, you can keep customers from going out of their way to get questions answered via long phone holds or contact forms. Instead, you can offer support by engaging in real-time, private, two-way conversations.
Adding SMS as a communication method with your customers will not only enhance the customer experience, but also helps your organization stand out from the crowd. Best practice for using SMS for real-time customer support is to keep it personalized and conversational.
Influencer/Brand Marketing
Influencers have become integral to many social strategies as businesses shift more resources toward digital. Consumers love to interact with their favorite personalities, and brands are seizing the opportunity to use influencers for campaigns that cross-promote, boost brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales.
Research from SlickText has shown the following about influencer marketing:
- A majority of Gen Z (45.07%) said text messaging is the number one way they’d prefer to communicate with an influencer outside of social media marketing.
- Instagram is regarded as the platform with the most genuine influencers.
- Too many sponsored posts erode the trust of ⅓ of people.
- 1 in 2 people looks to online reviews before they make a purchase.
- Reviews are by far the most popular type of influencer content.
As younger generations start making purchases of their own, influencer marketing is becoming less of a mobile trend and more of a necessary strategy. Overall, it’s an effective way to increase the visibility of your brand, reach more consumers, and build trust by associating with an influencer’s already-established reputation.
Educational Text Messaging
Everyone loves receiving discounts and special deals from their favorite brands, but that can’t be the only way businesses communicate and engage with an audience. Instead, brand loyalty can be nurtured by providing educational content alongside promotions.
For instance, a food brand might send an SMS with a linked recipe using one of their popular food products. Or, a tech brand could send an MMS with a how-to video for recent buyers of a product, showcasing how to set up/use their new purchase. Sending helpful content will help you build a trusting and engaged audience, but be careful not to overwhelm your audience with irrelevant texts.
Collecting Reviews and Feedback
As consumers, we can all agree that checking reviews prior to a purchase is common practice — and it’s arguably one of the most crucial moments in a consumer’s purchase journey. We want to know before we buy something that other consumers recommend the product and that we can trust the goods/services. In fact, roughly 89% of consumers worldwide rely on the opinions of others before making a purchase
SMS is a more practical and time-saving way to communicate with your customers and gather feedback via surveys and review links. Plus, you can potentially boost your sales by influencing other shoppers’ buying decisions in doing so.
With SlickText, you can use our Workflow tool to create conditional feedback campaigns that will satisfy the customer’s expectations by responding to their reviews automatically. You can even set up a sequence to follow up based on the responses you receive, or send text promotions as an incentive for finishing.
Collecting Reviews by Text Examples
- Hey [Name], thanks for shopping with us! How satisfied have you been with your recent purchase? Just respond with the number–we’d love to hear from you.
1: Terrible
2: Room for improvement
3: Okay
4: Above average
5: Outstanding
- Hi [Name], thanks for visiting our [City] location! Let us know what you though, so we can make your next experience even better: [link]
- Hi [Name], congratulations on your purchase of a new [product]! How would you rate your satisfaction on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest?
- [If rating below 5] We’re sorry the product hasn’t met your expectations. Would you mind telling us why in a few words?
- [If rating above 5] We’re happy to hear you’re enjoying your purchase! If you have a minute, we’d love to add your review to our page: [link]
Renewal Reminders
Subscription models have long existed but businesses are starting to pick up SMS as a way to communicate re-order reminders, shifting away from exclusively sending email alerts. According to Shopify, during Black Friday in 2020, roughly 67% of sales were made on mobile devices (versus 33% on desktop). In fact, about 15% of US adults are mobile-only, meaning a smartphone is the only device they use.
Because consumers are spending more time than ever on their mobile devices, sending replenishment reminders via SMS makes it easy for customers to instantly place their re-orders through their smartphones. You can even use AI texts to write your messages for you, then tweak copy as needed.
Stay Up-to-Date on Mobile Trends with SlickText
In the past couple of years specifically, digital behavior has shifted and SMS marketing/communication is being steadily adopted by many industries since customers prefer to be texted by their favorite brands throughout the consumer lifecycle. The outlined mobile rends are only just a few of the many creative ways that you can leverage SMS in your marketing and communication strategy.
Want to learn more? Reach out to the SlickText team, or start your free trial today.
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