8 Reasons Why Text Message Marketing is Very Effective & How to Start Immediately in 2024

Text Message Marketing is quickly becoming the preferred means of marketing for small businesses.

Text Message Open Rate

Text Messages Read Within 3 Minutes

Marketers rate Text Marketing as “Very Effective”

Why text message marketing?

Text message marketing also referred to as SMS Marketing is currently the most effective way for small businesses to reach their customers. Did you know that text messages have nearly a 100% open rate? People will ignore phone calls, emails, social media messages, but not a text message. Therefore the use of targeted and personalized text messages to advertise or promote a product, service, or event is quickly becoming the most effective way to get your message heard.

According to the New York Times, American’s check their cell phones 80 times per day. That’s about once every 12 minutes! Most people have their cell phone within arms reach even when they are sleeping. By texting your customers you can be assured that not only will they get it, read it, but it’s also the #1 way to increase engagement because 45% of text messages are responded to within 90 seconds.

What is text message marketing?

Text message marketing – or SMS marketing – is the act of sending coupons, special deals, announcements, current events and other information to your customers via text message. Not only can use SMS text messaging which is for messages less than 160 characters, but you can also use MMS – Multimedia Messaging Service which allows you to use pictures & videos and much longer text messages.

It’s often referred to as Mass Texting or Group Texting which allows you to reach all your customers at once by composing one text message or text campaign. This will not be group texting like you can do on your personal cell phone. It will be sent to each person in the group individually, and each message can be personalized with their name and other personalized custom data fields.

8 Reasons Why Text Message Marketing is Very Effective

Reason #1 – Because everyone has a mobile device on them nearly all times. According to Statista, this graph shows the number of smartphone users in the U.S. from 2010 to 2023. For 2018, the number of smartphone users in the United States is estimated to reach 257.3 million and it continues to grow year over year.

Reason #2 – Text Messaging is still the #1 mobile device feature used today. The only thing more personal than the phone itself is the standard messaging app, where users spend more time than anywhere else on their device. Ninety-seven percent of all smartphone users text their contacts at least weekly.

Reason #3 – 75% of people say they prefer a text message over other forms of communication like emails or phone calls. Do you know that Email Marketing ONLY receives a 14.79% average open rate? And with the sky rocketing number of robocalls no one answers their phones anymore.

Reason #4 – No Additional Mobile App needed. Users don’t need to download an additional app to store on their phones like you do with Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, etc. Users don’t need to sign up for an another account. Every smart phone automatically comes with a text messaging app.

Reason #5 – 75% of people say they prefer a text message. Communicate with people in the way they prefer to be contacted. People don’t want to called or emailed. They prefer the quick, short, and immediate messages you get with texting.

Reason #6 – Texting promotes quick and easy engagement. According to Digital Marketing Magazine, on average it takes 90 minutes for someone to respond to an email, but of course some people might takes hours or days to even look at it. With text messages, the average response time is 90 seconds.

Reason #7 – Text Messages get a 98% open rate. When you compare text marketing to email marketing, nearly all texts are opened and read, vs only 20% of emails are even opened. While email marketing obviously has its merits, it seems that your message is much more likely to be received and taken in if it’s delivered via SMS. It’s a similar story for social media too; only 12% of Facebook posts and 29% of tweets are read. Remember that it’s pretty difficult for someone to ignore they have a text message, but because thousands of social media posts are published every day, your customers will probably just scroll past the majority of them.

Reason #8 – Texting sales prospects can double your conversions. Studies have shown that combining texts with other forms of communication like phone calls can more than double your conversion rate. Texting is a great way to follow up with sales prospects as well as your existing customers.

How to Get Started Immediately with Text Marketing

The next step is to decide which platform to use to run your text message marketing campaign. We highly recommend our system, TextP2P – Group Texting Made Personal.

TextP2P is an easy to use web application designed to used on a computer or mobile device. TextP2P provides a SMS & MMS text marketing system designed to help small-midsize businesses cultivate better relationships with customers and streamline follow-ups. Send your customers text messages from a virtual 10 digit local number with a maximum of 1600 characters! It offers features like: Sending bulk personalized texts, surveys, drip campaigns, Ringless Voicemails, keyword signups, scheduling, and more.

At TextP2P we offer a FREE 14 day trial where you will receive 100 text credits to use.

How Does the Free Trial Work?

✅ Sign-up for a FREE TextP2P account. Take a tour of the system and watch a demo.

✅ Sign up for a FREE trial by entering your credit card to start and immediately receive a local area code phone number matching your cell phone and receive 100 FREE text credits. You credit card will not be charged until your trial is over unless you go over your 100 free texts. After the trial ends your membership begins for just $20/month with our Starter Package Plan.

✅ You’re in control! Upgrade, Downgrade, Buy Additional Credits, or Cancel at Anytime.

Creating Your First Text Marketing Campaign is Easy

Once you have activated your account by starting your free trial or subscription, you easily send your first text message marketing campaign in just 3 simple steps and in less than 2 minutes. Watch the video below to see an example of how easy it really is.

Step 1 – Create New List

The first step to simply create a new list to organize and store your contacts. You will name your list whatever you like, optionally indicate what website the contacts came from, and then check the box that the contacts have opted-in to being contacted by you.

Step 2 – Import Your Contacts

The next step is import your contacts from a .csv (Comma Separated File) which can be created from Excel or Numbers. Most CRMs and existing systems support exporting data directly to a .csv format. When you import you will asked to label / map each field. Any fields you don’t want to import can be set to ignore.

Step 3 – Create New Text Campaign

The final step is to create your text message campaign which will be sent to your entire list. Simply name your campaign, select your list, and type your message. You can optionally schedule your message to go out at a particular date and time, add multimedia like pictures, videos, pdfs, or audios), and filter your contacts further by tags. Once you are done editing, hit SEND… and you’re done.

Learn why hundreds of small businesses are converting to Text Marketing with TextP2P

TextP2P is new text marketing platform designed to be better than the competition. It’s very easy to use, affordable, and has every text messaging feature you will need including: sending bulk personalized texts, surveys, drip campaigns, Ringless Voicemails, keyword signups, scheduling, and more.

What You Need to Know About Text Message Marketing

Text Message Marketing can NOT be used for SPAM as there are very strict rules against that are defined in the CAN-SPAM act. All your text message recipients must have given you their number and have agreed to allow you to contact them.

At TextP2P our text messaging system service may only be used to send messages to verified opt-in subscriptions. Further, it is designed so that all subscribers can opt-out quickly, easily, and permanently from unwanted messages. This is done by simply replying to any message one of our clients send to you with the word STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT. You can read more at our anti-spam policy page.

How to get verified opt-in subscriptions?

You can get your contacts into TextP2P in the following ways:

How Text Marketing can be Used by Different Industries

Restaurants & Breweries

Restaurants can ask customers to Text a keyword to sign up for the loyalty program and they could automatically receive a coupon as a response. They could text their customers to let them know of special events or new menu items. They could text their customers to remind and confirm their reservations. They could text their customers coupons

Gyms

Gyms could text their members to remind them of classes or membership dues. They could text their previous members to offer them special promotions on new signups. They could collect opt-ins from their webpages and automatically send coupons to interested leads. They could check in with members who have be absent for a long time.

Realtors

Realtors could use text marketing to tell their clients about an open house they are listing. They could advertise to people looking to buy or sell by asking them to text a keyword to their local number for more information. They could use their website forms to gather new leads to immediately text and carry on a two-way conversation. They could use text to ask for referrals and reviews from their previous clients.

Non-profits

Non-profits could use Text Marketing to text donors about fund raising events and activities. They could use the use the keyword to ask people to text the word DONATE to get a link to the donation page. They could use text to coordinate volunteers to help when needed. They could use text to reach out and communicate with those in need.

Network Marketers

Network Marketers could use Text Marketing to market their products and promotions to their clients. They could also use text drip campaigns for onboard training of new distributors. They could use text to follow up with their customers by automatically scheduling text messages.

Retail Shops

Retail stores can ask customers to Text a keyword to sign up for the loyalty program and they could automatically receive a coupon as a response. They could text their customers about special sales like Black Friday. They could text their customers to remind and confirm their reservations. They could text their customers coupons to drive more traffic and sales.

User Reviews

Better Engagement for our Team!

We've seen an immediate increase in engagement on our team with information we send out through Text P2P. We are confident it will be a game changer for our business moving forward. Truly we have found it to be very user friendly. We have had more people take action on the business initiatives we are creating than ever before.

Joy Bowen

Owner of Fitness Business

Revolutionized the way we communicate

There are so many cool features that make communication easy and effective. We've especially enjoyed the ringless voicemail features. We used to depend mostly on email communication, but now we're able to send text messages or voicemails in an instant, and with a nearly 100% open rate. TextP2P has been a phenomenal tool for our corporation.

Craig Coylar

General Manager, Modere

Following up made easy

Easy to use , lots of features, extras, and personal service. The TextP2P system has improved my follow up and gave me an easier way to organize my leads and contacts. Helping me build and maintain more relationships. Very efficient, easy to use, and my sales have increased.

Kerri Spencer

Salon Owner