Open rates, just as the name goes, is the frequency(rate at which) SMS is opened. Open rates varies from one marketing medium to another. Today, we will focus on SMS marketing.
Today, with the expansion of mobile phone communications and the increase in the mobile phone industry, SMS marketing has become the most widely used method by companies to advertise their products or services. SMS messaging is one of the most efficient ways of reaching customers and informing them about a company’s latest news, such as special offers or the launch of a new product.
SMS Open Rates vs SMS Read Rates
Many SMS marketers commonly confuse SMS open rates and SMS read rates. In email marketing, the two terms are defined as the following:
- Email Read: The total amount of people that open an email marketing message.
- Email Open: The amount of people that open an email marketing message with images automatically enabled or click to enable the images on your email when opening. In most cases the open rate for email marketing will be less than the read rate.
In SMS marketing though open rates and read rates are defined differently. A “read” for an SMS marketing message is the total amount of people that see the SMS message, including a preview of the message.
What medium of marketing has the highest open rate?
The open rates for SMS messages are amongst the highest across any form of marketing. Frost & Sullivan 2010 & Epsilon 2009 reports found that compared to email marketing, which has an average open rate of 22%, the huge 98% open rate of SMS messages is even more impressive.
However, there is no average response rate that can be given with any exact certainty. The success of SMS marketing varies and depends not only on the product/service being sold & the audience and their receptiveness, but the wording you use, the time of day you send the message and how you require people to respond to acknowledge interest.
The average open rate for SMS marketing is higher than the rate for other advertising methods such as e-mail messages, or Facebook/Instagram ads. SMS texts are more efficient thanks to their instant delivery. Cellphone users can read them on the spot by just tapping on the screen.
It is also true that SMS messaging is not as heavily used as other methods and, as a result, customers won’t feel overwhelmed by the number of ads they receive, as it happens on social media such as Facebook or Instagram. In other words, advertising through SMS is less intrusive and more personal as well.
Why Are SMS Open Rates So High?
The main reason SMS open rates are so high is that SMS marketing requires a strict opt-in from customers before you can message them. How strict? It’s actually federal law that requires businesses to get an opt-in from a consumer prior to sending them an SMS message.
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