As technology becomes more embedded in society today, so does our reliance on it; whether it’s the use of artificial intelligence, entertainment purposes, or enhanced ways to communicate with each other.
Businesses are taking advantage of this increasing use of technology to further establish and maintain relationships with their customers through SMS marketing, which continues to be a popular and successful tool for both brands and consumers.
When it comes to determining the reach your brand could develop through SMS marketing, it’s important to understand the impact of smartphones around the entire globe.
According to a study done by Panacea Mobile, predictions show that mobile subscribers will surpass the seven billion mark by 2024. By 2025, 72.6% of smartphone owners will have access to the internet via their smartphones. With those numbers, implementing an SMS marketing strategy is a no brainer!
Below are a few different SMS marketing trends we are predicting for 2024:
Hyperpersonalized Content
Let’s face it: there are hundreds of thousands of brands out there competing for your customers’ attention. The moment a customer no longer feels like your brand values or understands them, it’s easier than ever to take their business to a company that does.
For example, think about the nuances of implementing artificial intelligence into your SMS efforts. Though AI is obviously a reliable tool with many benefits, using AI can run the risk of sounding, well, artificial. This doesn’t mean that AI is all bad, of course! Implementing conversational AI helps reduce the risk of sounding artificial. Voxie’s SmartAI is intelligent enough to understand the sentiment in your customers’ responses and uses it to direct next action. This increases engagement by triggering automated responses based on customer behavior.
SMS subscribers want hyperpersonalized content for humans, created by humans. They don’t want to receive the same messaging from a brand promoting an item they’ve already purchased, or an announcement about an in-store product when they live several hundred miles away. Creating multiple SMS campaigns that are segmented by location, purchase history, or other personalized insights can make a massive difference in the long haul.
Scheduling Via Text Is On The Rise
According to a study done by Text Request, 77% of consumers want to have the ability to text businesses about scheduling an appointment and 87% of consumers want to receive SMS scheduling notifications from businesses. Considering the average person in the US spends 4.5 hours on their phone every day, communicating about appointments and reservations is quite effortless for both brands and consumers: and it saves everyone time.
No need to play telephone tag trying to get a hold of your customer to confirm a scheduling detail: 62% of people read and respond to texts within a few minutes.
Customers Will Make Purchases Through SMS
Conversational commerce, or the act of merging eCommerce and social channels to interact with customers, increases sales and customer loyalty.
Conversational commerce is increasing the amount of customers that are making purchases during SMS conversations with brands.
For example, customers reach out to the brands whose SMS lists they subscribe to, ask to purchase a product via SMS, therefore checking out in a mere matter of minutes. Additionally, this allows for businesses to offer personalized product recommendations in real time (leading back to our point about hyperpersonalized content becoming more popular).
Pro Tip: Offering your subscribers the ability to make a payment through SMS can take some time to set up. In the meantime, your brand can send SMS campaigns to subscribers reminding them of upcoming due dates for orders: 69% of consumers want to receive texts related to making payments.
Need help setting your SMS campaigns up for success? Get in touch with the Voxie team today!