The state of SMS marketing in Australia
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Zipform Digital’s exclusive consumer research from last month into the state of SMS marketing in Australia revealed some startling insights into the mindset of consumers. Read the full report now.
23 billion text messages are sent around the world every day, so it’s not surprising that SMS is now an important, low-cost communications tool for businesses. In fact, 60% of people we surveyed had received text messages from a brand they had a relationship with during the past month alone, with the majority being a promotion or sales offer.
But does this actually translate into sales, and how wary are people of text messages?
More men (42%) than women (29%) reported receiving scam text messages during the past 4 weeks
The announcement in December by the Albanese Government of a mandatory SMS Sender ID Register, requiring mobile providers to check whether messages being sent under a brand name such as a bank, correspond with the actual registered sender. The hope is that this initiative will disrupt the business model of scammers and stop them from using trusted brand names such as ANZ, Linkt and myGov.
Millennials (29-44 years) and Boomers (61-79 years) were most likely to receive a scam message
When it comes to text messages, age doesn’t seem to impact the probability of receiving a scam message, though that likelihood increases on social media platforms with people over 65 recording the highest financial losses of all age groups.
53% of people said they tend to treat all text messages they receive as spam if they aren’t from people they know
With both iPhone and Android smart phones providing the option to filter unknown senders, and set spam filters, it can be a challenge for businesses to get through to customers.
Unlock your business growth potential – 36% of those surveyed actively want to receive promotional offers via SMS from businesses, and 44% told us they have gone on to redeem a special offer sent to them through SMS.
Texting your customers is essential – whether it’s a promotional offer, payment reminder or appointment confirmation – people prefer SMS as their communication channel of choice from businesses.
Whilst we often recommend SMS to Zipform Digital clients due to the incredibly high open rate of 98%, immediate delivery and low cost, 57% of people told us that SMS was their preferred way of receiving communications from businesses.
Of those people, more women (39%) than men (18%) prefer to receive SMS communications from businesses.
When asked about the value of SMS payment reminders, 81% of respondents value the SMS reminders that they receive. Delving further into the statistics and looking at the gender split we can see just 29% of men compared to 53% of women agreed with this statement.
Women appear to value SMS reminders much more than their male counterparts – whether it’s to pay a bill or be reminded of an appointment (55% vs 33%).
SMS remains a powerful tool for businesses when developing their customer experience journey, with this research revealing several opportunities to do more with this channel ranging from business updates (20% would like to receive these via SMS), or customer research.
When setting out on your customer messaging journey, it remains critical to ensure that you have the right partner on board who understands not only the messaging options available, but the legalities involved.
Zipform Digital has more than 40 years’ experience in managing customer communications for businesses around Australia.
With world class data security accreditation, bespoke campaign management tools and dedicated account managers, we help our clients bring SMS strategies rapidly to market every day. Our tailored messaging solutions offer the ability for businesses to create different messages for every single customer, and for those operating in highly regulated industries, we also offer automatic SMS archiving.
Ready to modernise your customer communications? Speak with Zipform Digital about secure, tailored SMS solutions for your business.