How accurate is the 98% open rate?

How accurate is the 98% open rate?

Last Updated: August 2019

The statistic of a 98% open rate gets thrown around a lot in the SMS industry, but have you ever wondered how this came to be? SMS messages essentially have a guaranteed read rate, because you can’t delete a message without looking at it.

Most messages get delivered as a push notification, or are so short that you digest it in one glance - whether you want to or not. The real measure of SMS effectiveness is based on content engagement.

How do we measure this?

  1. Clicks on a URL in the message
  2. Replies to the message
  3. Opt-out %
  4. Redemptions of a unique offer in the message
  5. Calls to a unique number in the message

By looking at these elements, we can gauge how well an SMS campaign is doing. This can be applied to a reminder process as well. Click here to see how Kobe Jones applied this measurement process.