What is the one thing U.S. consumers have on their person at all times? Their smartphone. According to data from validity, on average, smartphone users check their phones 96 times every single day. So, why aren’t more brands investing in SMS marketing? Your client’s local advertisements should also include SMS. Let’s explore why.

Local Advertisements Should Include SMS

Consumers Prefer SMS

What’s the channel that consumers prefer when communicating with brands? Unsurprisingly, the top channel is email. What your client may not expect is that second place belongs to SMS. That’s right, even more than social media:

Email: 52% of consumers prefer receiving emails from brands
Messaging/SMS/Text: 19%
Social Media: 16%
Direct Mail: 6%
App Notifications: 6%

Not only is SMS the second most popular way for brands to communicate with consumers, consumers don’t mind having multiple brands contact them this way. Validity says that, on average, consumers opt into eight SMS programs. Your client’s local advertisements could use the popularity of SMS to their advantage.

SMS Drives Sales

National and local advertisements sent through SMS have major potential to drive sales. According to validity, SMS marketing messages help brands:

Stay top-of-mind with their customers
Influence consumers to finish making purchases in previously abandoned carts
Notify consumers of time-sensitive information, such as flash sales and limited-time offers

According to validity, 57% of consumers say that, “they have intentionally waited for SMS messages hoping for incentives before making a purchase – only to go a long time without hearing from a brand.” So, not only do consumers prefer receiving coupons and special offers via SMS, they crave it.

Overall, 52% of consumers say the brand messaging that they received via text, SMS or other messaging platforms has influenced them to buy a product. Another 38% say that these messages have influenced them to pay for a service. And, according to validity, U.S. consumers are among the most susceptible to SMS marketing messages.

SMS Messaging

Now, just because consumers love SMS for local advertisements and more doesn’t mean that they want unlimited messages. According to validity, 96% of consumers say that they feel at least occasionally annoyed by SMS ads. When 56% of these consumers get annoyed by SMS marketing messages, it causes their desire to make purchases from that brand to plummet.

Don’t worry, though. All you need to know to keep your client’s SMS ads from becoming annoying is to know what kind of messages consumers prefer to receive via text. Validity says that consumers prefer to receive:

Shipping Notifications: 52% of consumers prefer receiving these messages via SMS
Sales and Promotions: 45%
Special Occasion Messages (ex. birthdays and holidays): 30%
Win-Back Messages (ex. messages containing incentives to return and complete an abandoned purchase, including discounts): 26%
New Product Announcements: 22%

Paying attention to these preferred message types will assure that your client’s customers are only receiving texts that they’ll enjoy. Not only that, these message types will limit your client’s message numbers to a reasonable amount. That way, your client won’t be annoying the client and the messages will always encourage sales.

Will Your Client’s Customers Love SMS Ads?

If you're worried your client will need more personalized data before adding SMS marketing messages to their national and local advertisements, we’ve got you covered. Simply look up their target customer’s audience profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you’ll be able to look up what percentage of this audience took action after receiving ads via their mobile smartphone apps or text message within the past year. You can also discover which types of mobile devices these consumers own and use, what percentage believes mobile ads are useful to them and more.

Photo by Jonas Leupe