Salesforce Finds SMS Messaging a Growing Part of Mobile Marketing Strategy

What do 5,000 marketers from ten different countries say about SMS? It’s great, and we’re going to do more of it. Well, that’s the gist of the results in the Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing Report. Mobile marketing has taken a central place in most company’s strategies, and SMS is a growing part of it. Here are some key statistics from the report.

Currently about 24% use SMS messaging, but another 31% plan to add it into their mobile marketing mix in the next 12 months. Around 58% plan to increase their budgets and 34% are staying about the same. This is a good indicator that SMS is still near the beginning of the marketing trend. It’s commonplace, but not oversaturated.

When asked what uses of various marketing channels are most effective, respondents said their primary effective uses of SMS were promoting email subscriptions via SMS and sending mobile SMS welcome messages. But the most effective mobile campaign revolved around loyalty – however the report isn’t specific on what channels the loyalty campaigns were using. Many companies use SMS as a key component of loyalty campaigns.

The survey also revealed marketers’ impression of SMS effectiveness overall. But they also tied the question into whether mobile marketing was integrated into their overall strategy. When mobile was NOT integrated, 50% of respondents said it was very effective/effective. Another 34% said it was somewhat effective.

However when mobile was integrated, 73% said SMS messaging was very effective or effective and 21% said it was effective.

How the marketers measured that effectiveness is also listed, though not correlated to specific answers. The “number of SMS opt-ins” was one of the top 10 metrics used. But the most used metric in general was “traffic to a mobile website or app”. SMS messaging is one of the many methods you can use to drive traffic.

Overall, the Salesforce report paints a really rosy picture of SMS messaging in particular and mobile marketing in general. No surprise to us!

You can learn more by downloading our “Mobile Marketing Guide“. This offers a wealth of insights on how to get started with mobile marketing, what part SMS messaging plays in your strategy. It’s free and easy to follow and could help you give your business an immediate boost.