According to recent research, badly done SMS marketing discourages customers from making purchases, which reduces sales in the face of an impending recession.

The results of Validity’s latest State of SMS Marketing in 2023 analysis were just made public. Validity is the industry’s top provider of data quality and email deliverability solutions. The results of a survey of more than 1,200 SMS, text, and WhatsApp users in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand show that when done correctly, SMS marketing promotes customer engagement and expenditure. On the other hand, if done incorrectly, it may have disastrous effects on a business’s bottom line.

SMS marketing has gained popularity and, when combined with email marketing initiatives, allows businesses to contact a large range of consumers right on their own mobile devices. SMS and messaging encourage customers to make purchases by sending them timely promotional pings and cart abandonment reminders. Actually, 38% of consumers and 50% of consumers, respectively, have been persuaded to make a purchase by a brand message they received via SMS or WhatsApp.

When it comes to SMS, there is a thin line between good and bad brand experiences. A serious issue is the seeming ignorance of customer communication preferences and purchasing histories. Why is this important? If marketers don’t produce targeted messages that are delivered at the correct cadence, they run the danger of losing clients and significant income as customers are inundated with more mobile communication than ever before. Interestingly, 96% of consumers say that SMS marketing annoys them at least occasionally, especially when the messages are irrelevant to their needs or feature items that they have already purchased.

Some consumers become so irritated by a brand that they decide to stop using it. In fact, 28% of people who have been irritated by brand messages have completely stopped doing business with organisations, and 28% report making less purchases as a result. What’s worse, poor SMS practises affect more than just one dissatisfied customer: 14% of consumers who have been irritated by brand messages report leaving a negative public evaluation of a company as a result of their displeasure. Implementing poorly thought-out SMS methods causes a cascade effect of negative customer experiences, customer loss, decreased revenue, and brand reputation damage, all of which may be avoided by respecting client preference.

“With bleak economic conditions projected for the coming months, it is increasingly critical to reach customers where they’re at – which in today’s world is via SMS”, “Marketers who’ve mastered the art of SMS are able to create campaigns that increase customer engagement and satisfaction, and ultimately drive revenue for their business. But the findings of this report are also a cautionary tale because the opposite is equally true. When SMS is done poorly, businesses risk alienating large swaths of customers. Unfortunately, many marketers don’t know how to incorporate SMS effectively, and often attempt to apply age-old email marketing tactics – which aren’t effective in this medium. It’s crucial that businesses invest in training for their marketing teams so they are able to effectively adjust how, where, and with what frequency to employ SMS messaging tactics.”

Kate Adams, SVP of Marketing, Validity

Other significant report findings include:

• SMS is cited as the favourite brand communication channel by 19% of respondents (ranked above email, social media, direct mail, or app notifications). In fact, 16% of consumers say they would prefer to hear from companies on average twice a week.
• The majority of respondents (49%) said that what irritated them the most about SMS texting was that brands messaged too frequently.
• Brands could think about allowing customers to choose how frequently they hear from them in order to address this problem. In fact, 97% of respondents indicate they would prefer this feature, and of those, 81% think it would increase their likelihood to use a brand’s products or services.
• Customers are also at danger from data privacy, with 70% expressing concern that texts from brands could compromise their data. Sixty-six percent of those are worried about corporations selling their data and/or following links within brand communications because of the possibility of being conned.
• However, the majority of customers are prepared to take a chance, with 66% of respondents reporting they still sign up for texts, SMS, and messages from brands despite thinking they pose a data risk because of the potential benefits, which include business updates, shipping alerts, and free merchandise.