A new white paper titled ‘The State of SMS’ suggests SMEs and start-ups need to mobilise their marketing if they are to compete with more established brands in the marketplace.
The report, commissioned by Textlocal one of the UK’s leading SMS platforms, predicts a sharp rise in mobile usage as Britain boasts nearly 80m active mobile phones in circulation for the first time, with only 50% of SMEs surveyed currently using SMS as part of their marketing strategies.
A full version of the report can be found by contacting Scarlett@thesourcepartnership.com
The need for action comes as Ofcom estimates that a staggering 93% of the UK’s population now own a mobile phone, with the majority keeping them to hand for more than 16 hours a day. The report also highlights that by 2018, 92% of businesses expect to have a mobile strategy in place, highlighting the need for SMEs to act now to remain competitive.
Jason Palgrave-Jones, managing director of Textlocal, @textlocal comments: “Smartphones are transforming the way British consumers behave and businesses need to reflect this when looking to interact with them. We have seen a rise in larger corporates using SMS for their marketing and communications and believe there is a significant opportunity for SMEs to do the same.”
The opportunity is highlighted by the fact that 98% of branded or business-related texts are opened by mobile users, with 90% being read within 3 minutes of receiving them. The report goes on to highlight that 23.5m people will respond to a business text message in 2017, with the most popular uses including marketing offers or confirmation of delivery schedules. In total, more than 7bn texts will be sent this year alone.
Learn about the state of #SMS & how you can use it to grow your #business in our new #whitepaper: https://t.co/lxiVzTucDh @BizGrowthHub pic.twitter.com/EDm4AAj1IV
— Textlocal Mobile (@textlocal) July 13, 2017
The State of SMS report compares the marketing medium against social media platforms in terms of performance. The results highlight that nine out of ten consumers want to use Facebook as a social platform, with only 10% wanting to use it as a tool for interacting with brands. The report also highlights a greater ownership of mobile phones compared to Facebook accounts (30m Facebook accounts compared to 37.2m mobile phone users who have opted to receive text messages from brands and businesses).
The report concludes to show the effectiveness of SMS compared to mobile advertising, with SMS achieving better responses whether targeting a recipient to download an app, purchase goods online or even encourage them into a store to make a purchase.
A full version of the report can be found by contacting Scarlett@thesourcepartnership.com
About Textlocal
Textlocal was founded in 2005 and employs 38 people in Chester and a further 26 in Malvern. Since 2005 over 165,000 users have used the system, sending more than a billion SMS messages. IMI Mobile group bought Textlocal in 2014 to complement its current suite of IMI products, including IMIchat, IMIconnect, IMIsocial, IMIdigital, IMIcampaign, IMIbot.ai.
The company has more than 1,000 5star Trustpilot reviews and direct connections with all the main mobile networks, to ensure messages are delivered immediately. The business has been recognised by achieving the following awards.
For more information visit www.textlocal.com