Chapter 2
5 Reasons why you should use SMS Marketing
2.1 Reason #1: Reach customers almost anywhere
The world is becoming more mobile by the minute.
According to the 2019 Mobile Economy Report, the number of unique mobile subscribers worldwide is at 5.1 billion. They expect it to reach 5.8 billion by 2025 (71% of the population).
Source: GSMA 2019 Mobile Economy Report
2.2 Reason #2: High Engagement Rate
Email marketing has an open rate of 21.33%, according to MailChimp’s 2019 Email Marketing Benchmarks.
SMS marketing, on the other hand, has a 98% open rate. Within three minutes of delivery, 90% of recipients open the text message. Consider this a guaranteed read rate.
It’s no surprise since some people check their phones over 50 times per day. SMS is one of the quickest and most affordable tools to help you reach your audience.
Our online SMS service also provides real-time statistics, which include handset delivery reports, bounce, opt-out, and click-through rates, and SMS replies. All the information is there to help you make smarter, data-driven marketing decisions.
| CTR | Open Rate | Reach Time | Opt-outs | Complaints | CPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMS | 9.97% | 98% | 3 mins | 2.21% | 0.21% | 1.6¢-7.9¢* |
| 2.43% | 20.81% | 47 mins | 0.28% | 0.37% | 1¢-3¢* |
Elements of Control:
_To accurately compare email and SMS pricing, the above CPS price is from a prepaid pricing model.
- SMS CPS: Pricing varies per country (eg. US: 1.6¢-4.9¢; AU: 4.9¢-7.9¢; UK: 1.9p-2.5p; SG: 4.9¢)
- Email CPS: Pricing based off MailChimp’s publicly listed pay-per-use pricing structure_
2.3 Reason #3: Simple setup process and fast results
In a recent client survey, our respondents told us that Google Adwords and Facebook Ad campaigns took longer to set up than SMS campaigns.
Over half of them said that it takes them under 10 minutes to create an SMS campaign. It’s no surprise since most campaigns are less than 160 characters long.
Source: Burst SMS
Creating one is almost the same as composing a tweet. As mentioned, one text message has a length of 160 characters, and it’s usually enough room to fit in a message, call-to-action, URL, and opt-out. Check out our SMS Templates. Many of them are under the limit.
If you need more characters, keep in mind that you can go up to a maximum of 612 characters (4 text messages) via a concatenation process.
To save even more time, check out our 1500+ Zapier SMS integrations. Connect Burst SMS with popular web apps like Hubspot, Infusionsoft, MailChimp, Salesforce, and PayPal.
2.4 Reason #4: SMS is highly effective
People don’t just use their mobile devices for socialising. They also engage with and purchase products from their favourite brands. During the 2018 holiday season, smartphones generated 31% of the total purchases and 51% of total web traffic, according to Adobe Digital Insights.
2.5 Reason #5: SMS campaigns are affordable
You don’t need a big budget to start. A text message costs a few pennies to send.
Based on the table above, you may believe that a text message costs more to send than an email, but that’s true if you don’t factor in the time it takes to create an email marketing campaign. Plus, text messages get more affordable if you plan to send higher volumes.
Also, let’s compare SMS with leading cost-per-click advertising like Google Adwords. You’ll find that it’s much more affordable to get your customers' attention.
| **Average CPS/CPC** | **Average CTR** | **Average Cost per 10K CPS/CPC** | |
| **SMS via Burst (CPS)** | **$0.069** | **9.97%** | **$690** |
| Google Display Ads (CPC) | $0.34 | 0.55% | $3,400 |
| Twitter (CPC) | $0.40 | 1.33% | $4,000 |
| Facebook (CPC) | $0.62 | 1.34% | $6,200 |
| Instagram (CPC) | $0.81 | 0.62% | $8,100 |
| Google Search Ads (CPC) | $1.39 | 2.65% | $13,900 |
| Bing Search Ads (CPC) | $1.67 | 3.14% | $16,700 |
| YouTube (CPC) | $2.37 | 0.34% | $23,700 |
| LinkedIn (CPC) | $3.87 | 0.21% | $38,700 |
CPS = Cost per send • CPC = Cost per click • CTR = Click through rate Sources: Adstage 2019 Q1-Q3, Burst SMS