The untapped power of SMS marketing in banking
Text messaging is a highly effective, yet underutilized, communication strategy that can build engagement with customers and prospects at any stage of the buying journey. With open and response rates far exceeding any other channel, financial institutions should consider adding SMS to their marketing arsenal.
Think about how you use your own mobile device. When do you first look at it during the day? What messages do you check first? Which messages are you most likely to respond to? For most people, the mobile phone is looked at within minutes of waking up in the morning and text messages are viewed before any email is opened.
When it comes to direct marketing, no channel is more immediate or impactful than SMS marketing. 68% of people say checking, sending, and answering text messages is the activity that they’re most engaged with on their phones throughout the day. In addition, 82% of consumers say they open every text message they receive.
Since the pandemic, more and more firms have leveraged SMS marketing to communicate with receptive customers. With much higher and faster open rates than email, SMS marketing is an extremely effective way to reach a massive audience of consumers with important messages.
Research has shown that it takes 90 seconds for someone to respond to a text message compared to the 90 minutes or more that it takes for someone to respond to email. Since most consumers carry their phones at all times, SMS is a highly reliable way to reach your target audience. And, while text messages can’t have the depth of other forms of communication, the simplicity of linking content and compatibility with all brands of mobile devices are why text messages have become so popular.
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