If you want to get your messages through, you text NOT email. Here’s the latest stats on why.
- 1 in 3 consumers checks their text notifications within one minute of receiving a text.
- Over half of consumers (51%) reply to a text message within 1-2 minutes.
- Over half of consumers check their text messages 11 times a day or more.
- On an average day, consumers check their text messages more than any other app on their phones.
- In 2022, 70% of consumers opted in to receive texts from businesses.
- 61% of consumers say they want the ability to text a business back.
- In 2022, 55% of businesses text their customers.
- The majority of businesses report SMS click-through rates between 20 and 35%. 60% of business owners who text their customers plan on increasing their SMS maketing budget in 2022.
What do reply rates look like when zooming in on text vs. email?
Consumers largely reply to an email within a few hours (35%), and for 16% of consumers, it can take a whole day or longer for them to reply.
When we look at reply rates for texting, this time radically decreases. Over half of consumers (51%) reply to a text message within 1-2 minutes, and 33% reply within 5-10 minutes. These stats bode remarkably well for businesses interested in two-way messaging to build stronger relationships with customers, leads, and employees.
Consumers open their text messages much more frequently than their email, and 98% of those text messages aren’t just opened––they’re read.
According to survey results, 53% of consumers check their text messages 11 times a day or more––only 29% of consumers check their email at the same rate. What’s more, consumers are more likely to have push notifications turned on for text notifications than email.
With digital marketing channels like social media, you could have the greatest marketing messaging in the world—but the algorithms only show your content to a fraction of your followers.
And with email, you can spend a lot of time on design and copy that ends up in a spam folder or is just plain ignored. That’s why text message marketing is the ultimate medium. They’re easy to send and are almost always read by your audience.
Customer receptivity to SMS marketing is growing more and more each year. In a 2021, 62% of consumers had subscribed to receive texts from businesses. In 2022, 70% of consumers subscribe to SMS marketing, indicating a 12% year-over-year growth in opt-in rates.
The majority of consumers (55%) are currently subscribed to receive texts from 1-5 businesses, largely for things like shipping notifications, appointment/reservation reminders, special offers, and promo codes.
On the whole, consumers are most likely to receive texts from businesses in the e-commerce and retail space (52%), followed by healthcare (49%), banking/finance (47%), and travel (26%). E-commerce and retail work symbiotically with texting for things like order notifications, shipment tracking, sales/promotions, and post-purchase reviews.
E-commerce businesses see 98% open rates and 36% click-through rates because consumers can quickly and easily find special offers in their text messages, rather than sifting through websites, email inboxes, and social media feeds for the best sales.
What’s more, younger generations are warming to text-to-buy options with the brands they trust most, removing the need for traditional mobile checkout. 20% of Gen Z consumers say they’re likely to use a text-to-buy functionality where they can make a purchase with a business directly through text.
At the same time, consumers are likely to subscribe to text messages from hospitals, doctor’s offices, or medical clinics for helpful reminders related to appointments, prescriptions, test results, and bills. The focus of healthcare staff can then shift from administrative tasks to patient care.
The majority of consumers value two-way conversations with businesses––61% of consumers say they want the ability to text a business back largely for things like appointments, reservations, and event reminders, as well as customer service.
Surprisingly, baby boomers want to text businesses back more than any other generation! When asking consumers, ―how would you like to contact a business when you have a question, the largest portion (41%) say through text, followed by 35% through email, and 23% through phone calls.
Consumers value mobile messaging support because it’s both responsive and convenient.
Where emails and phone calls can have larger-than-life lead times, texting lets consumers get in touch with businesses quickly with minimal disruption to their days. In 2021, 42% of business owners and digital marketers texted their customers using a text messaging service. In 2022, 55% of businesses use text message marketing with their customers, indicating a 27% year-over-growth in SMS adoption.
To boot, 60% of business owners who text their customers plan on increasing their SMS marketing budget in 2022, in part because they’re seeing their opt-in rates increase as well as stronger conversion rates attached to integrated marketing campaigns that include SMS
According to survey results, 1 in 3 consumers check their text notifications within one minute of receiving a text, and 85% of consumers check their texts within 1-5 minutes of receiving a text. When it comes to age differences, younger generations are the speediest at checking their text messages throughout the day.
44% of Gen Z consumers check their text notifications within one minute of receiving a text, that’s 27% faster than the national average.
About the Author
Dave Charles, President Media RESULTS Inc. 
Mobile: +1 289 242 8313.
Email: [email protected]