Millennials have the habit of engaging themselves with their smartphones for approximately 6-8 hours a day. A simple “Ting” and they will quickly pick up their phone. They are always eager to see what’s in there. As businesses have started adopting different strategies to bring a smile on customer’s faces, you as a marketer can’t afford to miss the latest trends and any means of marketing tricks.

Customers’ behavior keeps changing, which is why you have to keep track of it. As they are busy with their cell phone, it is critical to engage with them on their preferred medium Text(Smartphone) to get their attention & drive a conversation forward. 

SMS Marketing for startups or established firms is an age-old practice ( Circa: 1992.) Courtesy, the advancement in technology and evolution of text messaging in the last couple of years, and SMS’s still have a better open rate than emails; a large number of businesses are starting to embrace SMS 3.0 to drive communication with their customers like never before. 

The revolution of SMS Marketing is happening now. With more and more businesses getting connected to the best SMS marketing platforms, marketers are becoming aware of tweaking their strategies and making a powerful online presence, thereby retaining their customers.

So let’s take a look at SMS Marketing Trends for the year 2021.

1. Consistent growth of SMS as a customer service channel

Customer service is a critical aspect as it plays a supporting role in marketing. Approximately 70% of the customers rely on a business that offers excellent customer service. 42% of satisfied customers certainly return to the brand that provides instant responses to their queries.

Every customer expects an instant response to his/her issues.

Customers don’t hold back if they had a bad experience, and they quickly share the same on social media platforms.  

As per SMS Comparison 2021, out of 10, 9 consumers prefer to communicate with businesses through text messages. These messages can be alerts, reminders, deals, order confirmation.

SMS’s are capable of facilitating customer services like:

• Sending order confirmation details
• Sharing shipment tracking information
• Delivering appointment reminders.
• Queries regarding product and service feedback

Texting helps customers to resolve issues quickly without enduring long hold times. Messaging can encourage consumer trust while helping boost the bottom line.

2. Promotion and sales growth

SMS has a high conversion rate, which is one of the key reasons it is becoming a popular marketing channel among businesses worldwide. Marketers feel it is the easiest way to generate revenue through sales and promotion. And this is one of the top SMS marketing statistics 2021.

Besides this, savvy marketers will leverage SMS for marketing by giving cart abandonment deals. They will make customers feel valued using loyalty programs and giving away deals, coupons or discount vouchers on their birthdays and anniversaries.

Text marketing generates the highest response rate compared to other marketing channels like emails, phone calls, etc. As the SMS marketing response rate is excellent, making it a part of your promotion will be an obvious choice for all businesses regardless of their types.

3. RCS will live up to the hype

Rich communication service is a new technology set to enable brands to get access to features like maps, videos, carousels, etc.

For example, instead of getting a boarding pass from a particular airline, you will receive it directly inside the texting application.
A survey result indicates that 75% of customers are more likely to engage with the businesses that use RCS. Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives. There are 4.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide, yet only a few enterprises have switched to RCS. RCS will play a significant role when it comes to the future of SMS marketing. We would advise you to consider it.

4. Cross-selling on the rise

77% of customers feel valued when companies inform them regarding offers, deals, and updates via texts.

With more and more cluttered email inboxes, customers prefer SMS to track their order and receive updates.  These status updates allow companies to cross-sell or give away discounts for future orders when customers are already interested.

5. AI-Chatbot availability

SMS chatbot is a popular marketing trend that has recently come into existence. Businesses prefer chatbots as they save time and effort by providing instant answers to common user queries.

As per a Business Insider Report, our reliability on chatbots will increase up to $142 billion.

Right now, SMS chatbots are not as popular as Facebook chatbots. It’s because there are fewer businesses that make it easy to implement an SMS chatbot quickly. So, this is the time to grab the opportunity. By taking advantage of AI SMS chatbots and making your businesses text-enabled, you can blow your competition out of the water. 

Soon you will see AI-powered chatbots respond to customer queries, complete tasks, facilitate orders, deliver personalized messaging, and engage in meaningful interactions with your customers. 

6. Trigger-based text messaging

You must have heard that email automation allows marketers to scale communication. But did you know, trigger-based text messaging has the same advantage? You can set up triggers that get activated based on events like anniversaries, automate abandon card alerts, notify price drops, or request feedback on the completion of a purchase. Undoubtedly, SMS adds a personal touch to automation, so your users may feel valued, leading to a better connection with your brand and more transactions. So, relying on the top SMS marketing company 2021 is equivalent to hitting a bull’s eye. 

7. Adoption of SMS marketing approach among B2B businesses

Most of the B2B companies believe in relationship building and target-based marketing campaigns to grab the customers’ attention. If you want to win, establish assertive communication and provide value. As a B2B marketer, here are some creative ways to use SMSs:

• Sending over product updates
• Generating new leads
• Gathering client feedback

8. SMS for Influencer Marketing

Over the years, influencer marketing has grown by leaps and bounds. A large chunk of a companies social media marketing budget gets spent on influencer marketing. 

All of this is about to change. By the end of 2021, brands will offer performance-based deals to these influencers instead of a rack rate for a shout-out or an IG post. Businesses will tie these performance-based deals to the number of transactions, revenues generated, or traffic directed. 

A new trend to have caught the frenzy amongst brands is to connect their buyers/ followers with different celebrities. These celebrity influencers are promoting products, and text messages regarding the same get sent over to customers.

Although there is no one-on-one communication, you can send bulk messages to the customers directly.

The Future of SMS is bright.

As per a new CNBC report from Forrester Research, customers will receive more SMS than ever in 2021. This is because brands will create direct relationships with the customers. As more and more marketers are becoming aware of SMS marketing, and as marketing gets more result-oriented. Businesses & Marketers will continue to look for channels that provide value to themselves and their customers. 

CapitalizeROI with SMS Country

A successful SMS campaign takes place when you have the right SMS marketing service provider. Regardless of if you are a startup or an established firm in the market, employing SMS marketing in your strategy will reap benefits. SMSCountry gives you the flexibility to accomplish your goals.

We provide simple easy to set up SMS solutions so that you can kick start right away!