The State of SMS Marketing: 2021 Edition: Ad Oversaturation & Ad Blindness

2/23/2021 The State of SMS Marketing in 2021
The State of SMS Marketing: 2021

Edition
Blog
Jake Meador | Jan 11, 2021
Topics Covered in this Report:
Ad Oversaturation & Ad Blindness

The Future of SMS-Based Strategies
The Rise of Mobile Technology
Why Consumers Prefer Mobile
Is Your Marketing Strategy Up to Date?
Ecommerce Growth from Mobile
COVID and Mobile-First Messaging
Mobile-First Marketing Strategy
SMS Marketing in 2021
Ad Oversaturation & Ad Blindness

https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/sms-marketing-2021 1/12
According to the latest data (https://ppcprotect.com/how-many-ads-do-we-see-a-day/), the
average person encounters somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 ads a day.

This is up from a 2007 study estimating that we saw 5000 ads daily
(https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html) and a 1970s study
that estimated, back then, that we saw between 500 and 1600 ads
(https://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/history-1970s/98703) daily—so we are quite
possibly looking at a tenfold increase in daily ad views over the past 50 years:

Here’s a question for you: How many of the 10,000 ads you saw yesterday do you remember?

If you’re still commuting, perhaps you remember a funny billboard seen along the highway or
on the train to work. Or maybe there’s an ad on YouTube you still remember. But you probably
don’t remember more than ten of the ads you saw yesterday.

You may not even remember more than ve.

This is why SMS marketing has emerged in recent years as a growing channel for many
businesses.
When consumers have become so blind to advertisements, the single hardest thing for
most marketers and advertisers is to successfully reach their target audience.
Because of the growth of mobile technology as well as shifting consumer preferences and
habits, mobile marketing and SMS in particular has become the best way to cut through the
clutter and actually reach your prospects and customers.
The Future of SMS-Based Strategies

In this report, we are going to lay out the reasons that we are bullish about the future of SMS-
based marketing strategies. We will begin by looking at the centrality of mobile phones in
today’s economy, then review some of the data on consumer preferences and purchasing
habits, before considering how the COVID-19 pandemic has a ected these trends before
concluding with a brief summary of the opportunity we see for businesses that adopt SMS as
part of their marketing and messaging strategy.
The Rise of Mobile Technology

The rst step to successfully reaching your target audience is knowing where to nd them.
According to Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/201183/forecast-of-smartphone-
penetration-in-the-us/), as of 2020 72.2% of Americans own a smartphone. This is up from
63.9% only ve years ago. It’s also worth noting that when you include basic phones in this
data, the numbers go even higher. Deloitte reports
(https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-
telecommunications/us-global-mobile-consumer-survey-second-edition.pdf) that 89% of
Americans own a mobile phone. So even if only 72% of Americans are smartphone users who
can reliably access the internet from their mobile phone, nearly 90% of Americans can receive
text messages on a mobile phone.
The Most Popular Way to Access Internet
This trend toward mobile is re ected in other data as well. Mobile tra c now accounts for 52%
of all internet tra c (https://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet),
meaning more people use phones to access the internet than use desktop or laptop
computers. Indeed, for the past several years the data suggests that mobile is the primary way
(https://nypost.com/2016/11/03/mobile-devices-become-most-popular-way-to-access-
internet/) most people prefer to access the internet. In 2021, it is essential to recognize that we
live in a mobile- rst world.
Mobile tra c now accounts for 52% of all internet tra c. In 2021, it is essential to
recognize that we live in a mobile- rst world.
American rms are already responding to these trends. Job listings for mobile web developers
grew 5% (https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/where-are-all-
the-mobile-developers) between 2018 and 2019 and one rm anticipates a 30% growth in jobs
(https://insights.dice.com/2019/10/31/mobile-app-developer-best-states-jobs/) just for mobile
app developers by 2030. Moreover, Google, one of the nation’s largest and most in uential
tech companies, shifted their search engines to a mobile- rst ranking method
(https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile- rst-indexing) in 2018.
This means that Google Search now views a website’s mobile version as the ‘primary’ version of
the website and the desktop version as the secondary version.
Your Audience is on Mobile Devices
If successful marketing relies on knowing where to nd your audience, then all the data is
saying the same thing: Your audience is on mobile devices, mostly smartphones, with nearly 1
in 5 Americans still on basic phones. So your marketing needs to be built around a focus on
mobile and the kind of mobile focus that can include both basic and smartphone users.
Why Consumers Prefer Mobile

It’s not just that your audience is more active on mobile devices, though. It is also true that your
audience would actually prefer you to reach them on mobile. 89% of American consumers
(https://assets.ctfassets.net/2fcg2lkzxw1t/5l4ljDXMvSKkqiU64akoOW/cab0836a76d892bb4a654a4dbd16d4e6/Twilio_-
_Messaging_Consumer_Survey_Report_FINAL.pdf) say that they actually want to hear from their
favorite brands and companies through mobile messaging.
Similarly, 75% report that they want to speci cally receive text messages with special o ers
from businesses they frequent, and 77% of consumers are likely to have a positive perception
of a company that uses SMS as part of their messaging.

None of this should be surprising.

We have already seen that the vast majority of consumers own mobile devices, and that mobile
devices are the primary way people access the internet. Given how central the internet has
become to daily life, it’s no surprise that the shift to a mobile- rst internet would cause notable
changes in consumer preferences.
Is Your Marketing Strategy Up to Date?

Businesses that aren’t thinking about mobile as part of their marketing, sales, and customer
support messaging strategies are simply operating in a world that no longer exists. Your
consumers are mobile- rst. Therefore, your company’s messaging approach should also be
mobile- rst.
Ecommerce Growth from Mobile

Fortunately, we do not need to rely exclusively on reported consumer preferences to
demonstrate the business value of mobile. There is also ample evidence from the way people
make actual purchases that mobile is a vital growth channel for businesses.
In 2019, 84% of holiday ecommerce growth (http://info.attentivemobile.com/holiday-2020-text-
messaging-unwrapped/) came from mobile sales. In gross sales, mobile ecommerce sales
accounted for over $50b in consumer spending during the 2019 holiday season.
COVID and Mobile-First Messaging

Most of the above was clear prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers are active on mobile
devices. They like brands that contact them on mobile. They buy on mobile. These were not
trends that emerged for the rst time in 2020.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these long-standing trends were accelerated
as consumers were forced by necessity to live more of their lives online and, therefore, more of
their lives on their mobile devices.

In particular, we saw a sharp uptick in ecommerce shopping as more purchases had to be
made online due to concerns about in-store shopping during the pandemic.

If you compare ecommerce sales year over year for each of the rst four months of the
pandemic, you’ll see that ecommerce sales went up
(https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2020/08/25/ecommerce-during-coronavirus-pandemic-
in-charts/) 49% in April, 78% in May, 76% in June, and 55% in July. One report
(https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/24/covid-19-pandemic-accelerated-shift-to-e-commerce-by-5-
years-new-report-says/?guccounter=1) claimed that COVID sped up ecommerce growth by ve
years!

Much of the ecommerce growth came speci cally from mobile sales, as consumers spent
(https://www.marketwatch.com/story/covid-related-us-e-commerce-growth-slows-as-store-
reopenings-attract-quarantine-fatigued-customers-adobe-2020-09-14) nearly $200b from
mobile devices alone in August of 2020. (At time of writing, we do not yet have nal holiday
sales numbers for the 2020 holiday shopping season. We will update this report as that data
becomes available.)

To summarize what we have seen:
We know that the vast majority of consumers own mobile phones with most mobile
phone users speci cally owning a smartphone rather than a basic phone.
We know that consumers want to be contacted on mobile. We know that consumers are
buying on mobile.
We know that the trends which were already in place prior to 2020 were accelerated by
the COVID pandemic.
In short, we know that this is a mobile- rst world because the primary way to reach both your
prospects and your customers is through mobile devices.
Mobile-First Marketing Strategy

When we talk about mobile- rst marketing, that can be taken in one of two ways. The rst
de nition begins by taking existing web properties and making them more friendly to mobile
devices.
Step 1
This has meant doing things like:
Mobile optimization
Writing your copy for emails and website pages with an understanding that most people
will read it on a phone instead of a laptop.
In this understanding, mobile- rst marketing actually means “reformatting and redesigning
desktop-based internet content for mobile devices.”
Step 2
But there is a second way to think about mobile- rst marketing: marketing that is designed
from the ground up for mobile devices.

In other words, it is marketing that does not start by assuming that consumers still want
webpages or email when they interact with brands. Rather, it asks “what channels do mobile
device users actually prefer when interacting with brands?”
Mobile- rst marketing is marketing that is designed from the ground up for mobile
devices.
SMS vs. Email
Most consumers prefer texting rather than email. Additionally, texting is a better marketing
channel for most marketing content that a business would want to send to their prospects and
customers.

The data on both of these points is clear.

67% of consumers (https://www.textmagic.com/blog/text-messaging-statistics-for-
businesses/) would rather text with a business about appointments and scheduling than
arranging them over phone or email.
59% of consumers want communication that is built into their phone—meaning they
don’t need to download a separate app to message with a business on their phone.
97% of rms found that they communicated with consumers more e ciently after
launching an SMS messaging plan.
Likewise, texting is a better option for businesses. Whereas email open rates generally hover
(https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/) between 20 and 25%, text
open rates range from 95 (https://moosend.com/blog/sms-marketing/) to 99%
(https://www.tatango.com/blog/sms-open-rates-exceed-99/). The chart below shows a
comparison of open rates/views between text messaging and other messaging channels.
SMS Marketing in 2021

It is for all these reasons that we believe that the state of SMS marketing has never been
stronger than it is as we enter the new year.
Mobile is the primary way most consumers access the internet.
Consumers have embraced mobile devices as part of their relationship with brands and
businesses.
Mobile ecommerce sales are booming.
There has never been a better time to start taking SMS more seriously as a communications
channel with your prospects and customers.
Learn More About SMS Marketing
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/sms-marketing-guide)
SMS Marketing Guide (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/sms-

marketing-guide)
(https://go.mobile-text-alerts.com/sign-up-free)
How to Set Up Text Marketing (https://go.mobile-text-

alerts.com/sign-up-free)
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/sms-marketing-tools-lead-generation)
The Best SMS Marketing Tools and Features for Generating More Leads
(https://mobile-text-alerts.com/articles/sms-
marketing-tools-lead-generation)
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2/23/2021 The State of SMS Marketing in 2021

The State of SMS Marketing: 2021

Jake Meador | Jan 11, 2021

Topics Covered in this Report:

Ad Oversaturation & Ad Blindness

Ad Oversaturation & Ad Blindness

According to the latest data (https://ppcprotect.com/how-many-ads-do-we-see-a-day/), the

(https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html) and a 1970s study

(https://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/history-1970s/98703) daily—so we are quite

most marketers and advertisers is to successfully reach their target audience.

clutter and actually reach your prospects and customers.

The Future of SMS-Based Strategies

part of their marketing and messaging strategy.

The Rise of Mobile Technology

According to Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/201183/forecast-of-smartphone-

penetration-in-the-us/), as of 2020 72.2% of Americans own a smartphone. This is up from

data, the numbers go even higher. Deloitte reports

telecommunications/us-global-mobile-consumer-survey-second-edition.pdf) that 89% of

text messages on a mobile phone.

The Most Popular Way to Access Internet

of all internet tra c (https://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet),

live in a mobile- rst world.

recognize that we live in a mobile- rst world.

(https://insights.dice.com/2019/10/31/mobile-app-developer-best-states-jobs/) just for mobile

(https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile- rst-indexing) in 2018.

the website and the desktop version as the secondary version.

Your Audience is on Mobile Devices

Why Consumers Prefer Mobile

_Messaging_Consumer_Survey_Report_FINAL.pdf) say that they actually want to hear from their

favorite brands and companies through mobile messaging.

of a company that uses SMS as part of their messaging.

changes in consumer preferences.

Is Your Marketing Strategy Up to Date?

Ecommerce Growth from Mobile

In 2019, 84% of holiday ecommerce growth (http://info.attentivemobile.com/holiday-2020-text-

COVID and Mobile-First Messaging

trends that emerged for the rst time in 2020.

their lives on their mobile devices.

pandemic, you’ll see that ecommerce sales went up

years-new-report-says/?guccounter=1) claimed that COVID sped up ecommerce growth by ve

reopenings-attract-quarantine-fatigued-customers-adobe-2020-09-14) nearly $200b from

the COVID pandemic.

prospects and your customers is through mobile devices.

Mobile-First Marketing Strategy

This has meant doing things like:

will read it on a phone instead of a laptop.

desktop-based internet content for mobile devices.”

from the ground up for mobile devices.

device users actually prefer when interacting with brands?”

SMS vs. Email

arranging them over phone or email.

launching an SMS messaging plan.

(https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/) between 20 and 25%, text

open rates range from 95 (https://moosend.com/blog/sms-marketing/) to 99%

(https://www.tatango.com/blog/sms-open-rates-exceed-99/). The chart below shows a

SMS Marketing in 2021

stronger than it is as we enter the new year.

Mobile is the primary way most consumers access the internet.

Mobile ecommerce sales are booming.

channel with your prospects and customers.

Learn More About SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing Guide (https://mobile-text-alerts.com/sms-

How to Set Up Text Marketing (https://go.mobile-text-