If you’ve been on the fence about texting, these 51 stats should show you why it’s a hugely powerful tool for business, sales, marketing, and customer support.
Almost everyone is texting
- Over 6 billion texts are sent every day.
- 96% of adults own cell phones today, according to Pew Research.
- 81% of those phones are smartphones, which people rarely go anywhere without.
- 85% of people keep their phone at arms reach at all times.
- 38% of millennials always have their phone with them.
- The average American checks their phone 96 times a day.
- Two-thirds of Americans check their phones 160 times a day.
- 80% of smartphone users in the US check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up.
More businesses than ever are texting
- Half of the top 1,000 digital retailers already use SMS to communicate with their customers.
- According to Juniper Research, business messaging hit an all-time high in 2020, at 2.7 trillion, up 10% from the year before.
- 48.7 million customers opted into business messages in 2020, and that growth is supposed to continue.
- 98% of all mobile business messages sent as SMS, and the trend is likely to continue (over OTT messaging services like Messenger)
- In 2020, businesses sent a total of 2.7 trillion texts, 10% more than the previous year.
- But the market isn’t saturated: Only 39% of marketers overall use text messaging.
Texting gets the best, and fastest, results
- 9 out of 10 people read the texts they receive within the first 3 minutes.
- The open rate for text messages is 98%. (email’s open rate is only 20%.)
- The response rate for text is 45%, whereas for email it’s only 6%.
- On average, it takes people 90 seconds to respond to a text message. (It takes 90 minutes to get a response to an email, by contrast.)
- SMS response rates are 295% higher than responses from phone calls.
Your customers want to text you
- 9 out of 10 consumers say they want businesses to communicate with them via text message.
- 89% of consumers say they prefer texting with businesses over any other mode of communication.
- 63% of consumers say they would switch to a company that offered text messaging as a communication channel.
- 63% of consumers would recommend their friends switch, too.
- 67% of consumers find texts reminding them about upcoming appointments helpful.
- 65% of people want their accounts, billing, and payment reminders sent to them as a text.
- 88% of customers want their order updates, reminders, and order confirmations sent as texts.
- 58% of consumers said they responded to a company’s missed call with a text message but couldn’t get through to anyone that way.
- 78% of people say they’d like to have a text conversation with a business.
- 75% of consumers say they prefer texts to ads.
Texting is king in customer service
- A Forrester study shows that, on average, customer service calls cost roughly $16. Texts, on the other hand, cost only $1 to $5.
- More than half of consumers prefer texting over calling customer support.
- The engagement rate for MMS can be up to 20% higher than regular SMS.
- 56% of consumers said they would text businesses more often if given the opportunity.
Texting generates more sales
- A recent study showed that when companies texted customers after initial contact had been made through another channel, conversion rates increased by 112.6%.
- Sending text messages to prospective clients can raise conversion rates by 100%.
- Prospects who are sent texts convert at a rate 40% higher than those who don’t receive any text messages.
- SMS marketing has about a 14% conversion rate, compared to email’s conversion rate, which is less than 4%. Even compared to online ads, SMS campaigns convert better, on average. Facebook ads convert at an average rate of 10%, and Google ads convert at only 3%.
Texting is for all ages
- Generation Z is top dog of the text, with 18–24-year-olds sending an average of 109.5 text messages a day.
- Boomers are also getting in on the texting trend. They’re now twice as likely to text as opposed to call when they use their phones.
- 4 out of 5 consumers, including Boomers, say they wished businesses texted them more.
- 69% of people from all generations say they’d prefer a text over a call from unfamiliar brands.
- 75 percent of millennials consider phone calls to be “too time-consuming.”
B2B text messaging gets results
- B2B texting has already been on the rise for years, increasing by 197% between 2015 and 2017.
- 61% of people say they’d recommend businesses contact them via text while they’re at work.
- 80% of professionals use text messaging for business purposes.
Texting gets more engagement
- 97% of companies that have launched texting initiatives say those initiatives help them communicate with consumers more efficiently.
- 86% of companies that use text messaging say texts engage customers more than email.
- Text messaging has a click-through rate of 19%, while email’s CTR is 3.2%, on average.
- Retailers that use text marketing to their fullest advantage, with targeted messaging, personalization, time-sensitive promotions and strong CTAs can increase their conversion rate to 23%.
- Incredibly, people are 134% more likely to respond to your text than your email.