Business Texting Statistics, SMS Marketing Statistics & Mobile Messaging Trends
Looking for the latest text message statistics and SMS marketing facts? I’ve got you covered.
In this collection of SMS statistics, facts, figures, and insights you’ll find:
Business text messaging stats
SMS marketing statistics
Mobile messaging trends and stats
Read on for more.
Try Business Texting Sofware for Free
Get started with a 14-day free MessageDesk trial. No payment required. ❤️
Business Text Messaging Stats, Facts, and Figures
The latest business texting stats and text messaging trends indicate that SMS usage is on the rise. More businesses and organizations are now texting.
Texting facts and statistics also show that SMS messages are an effective way to reach people. SMS is one of the easiest ways to communicate with contacts, customers, clients, teammates, and employees.
Despite these SMS facts, business text messaging software hasn’t yet reached mass adoption amongst all businesses, organizations, and texting demographics.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic did hasten this transition. More businesses and organizations adopted business text messaging as a new way to keep connected.
Key Business Texting Stats:
Around 39% of businesses and organizations use SMS text messages to communicate.
63% of businesses that text are considered SMBs.
58% of people say that texting is the most effective way for businesses and organizations to reach them.
63% of businesses and organizations say they use text messaging for scheduling and reminders.
34% of employees at businesses use business texting software to text customers.
34% of people say they’ve started a text conversation with a business or organization within the last year.
56% of people receive texts from businesses or organizations at least once a month.
42% of businesses and organizations don’t know why they haven’t adopted texting.
34% of businesses say they adopted texting because of the pandemic.
Are businesses texting businesses or consumers?
Around 39% of businesses and organizations use SMS text messages to communicate. 21% of B2B organizations send text messages. 42% of B2C organizations send text messages. And 37% of organizations send both B2B and B2C messages.1
How big are the businesses that text?
Of the 39% of businesses and organizations that text, 63% are considered SMBs. The remaining 20% and 18% are mid-market and enterprise organizations respectively.1
What types of businesses and organizations are texting?
The types of businesses and organizations that use texting vary. 73% of organizations in the real estate vertical say they text. 65% of agriculture businesses text and 63% of entertainment-based organizations send texts.1
Some 57% of trades and service-based businesses text their customers. 50% of logistics and support-based businesses send texts and 50% of nonprofits text. 48% of the automotive industry including car dealerships text. 47% of organizations involved in education are texting.1
What types of businesses and organizations are texting?
1. Real Estate 🏠
73%
2. Agriculture 🌱
65%
3. Entertainment 🎥
63%
4. Trades and Services 🔧
57%
5. Utilities ⚙️
53%
6. Airlines and Aerospace 🛫
50%
7. Logistics and Support 🚚
50%
8. Nonprofit 💗
50%
9. Automotive 🚗
48%
10. Education 🎓
47%
What do businesses and organizations use text messaging for?
30% of organizations said they use SMS for texting employees and staff. While 25% said marketing and promotions and 22% use texting for inbound and outbound sales.1
What are the most valuable texts people receive from businesses and organizations?
64% of people say that an appointment reminder is the most valuable text they’ve received from a business or organization. 48% of people say an update on the status of a delivery or item shipment was also helpful to them. Another 29% say discounts on a product or service was helpful.3
What are the most valuable texts people receive from businesses and organizations?
1. Appointment reminder
64%
2. Status and delivery updates
48%
3. Discounts and offers
29%
4. Prescription refill alerts
16%
5. Quick answers to questions
15%
6. Booking confirmations, changes & cancelations
10%
7. Last minute appointment openings
8%
8. COVID-19 updates
4%
9. other
4%
10. Transit or commute notifications
2%
How many people received a text message from a business or organization last year?
83% of people say they received a text from a business or organization within the last year.2
How many businesses and organizations use business text messaging software?
There are a variety of ways to send and receive text messages. But 68% of businesses and organizations use business text messaging software to text. 13% use a CRM or API. 6% use a point-of-sale system (POS). And 14% use something else to text.1
How many businesses and organizations use business text messaging software?
Business text messaging software or app
68%
CRM or API
13%
Point of sales (POS) system
6%
Other
14%
What types of SMS phone numbers do businesses and organizations use?
Businesses and organizations use a variety of SMS phone numbers including 10-digit local numbers (10DLC) and toll-free and shortcodes. Most businesses and organizations (65%) use 10-digit local phone numbers to text.1
Additionally, 61% of people think businesses and organizations should use the same phone number for calling and texting.1
What types of SMS phone numbers do businesses and organizations use?
10 Digit Long Code (10DLC)
65%
Short Code (5-6 digit)
13%
Text Enabled Toll-free Number (TETF)
4%
How many businesses and organizations text from a company mobile phone?
How often do employees give their personal phone numbers to customers and clients?
29% of employees say they give their customers a personal phone number very often or often. 43% of people give their personal phone numbers to customers sometimes or rarely. And 26% of employees say they never give their personal numbers to customers.3
How many people start text conversations with businesses or organizations?
Building an SMS subscriber list by using the home page of a website or other high-traffic page is one-way organizations are marketing texting capabilities.
How often do people send or receive texts from businesses or organizations?
14% of people report sending or receiving text messages from a business or organization at least once a day. 28% say they get a text once a week. Another 14% say they get texts once a month. And around 44% of people say they sporadically or never text with businesses or organizations.3
How often do people send or receive texts from businesses or organizations?
1. Once a day
14%
2. Once a week
28%
3. Once a month
14%
4. Sporadically
34%
5. Never
10%
Which type of business communication is the most effective for reaching people quickly?
58% of people say that texting is the most effective way for businesses and organizations to reach them quickly. An equal 21% and 21% say phone calls and emails respectively are the fastest way to get in contact.3
How often do businesses and organizations “play phone tag” with customers and clients?
Call management and reducing phone calls are ever-present problems for businesses and organizations. Not getting an answer or having calls go to voicemail is becoming increasingly common.
21% of businesses and organizations say they play phone tag with customers very often. 29% and 28% say they play phone tag often or somewhat often. And only 22% of businesses say they don’t often play phone tag with customers.2
How often do businesses and organizations “play phone tag” with customers?
Very often
21%
Often
29%
Somewhat often
28%
Not often
22%
Why haven’t businesses and organizations adopted business text messaging?
22% of businesses and organizations haven’t adopted text messaging. They don’t believe their customers want to text.2
17% say they’re concerned about customers’ thinking their texts are spam. 25% say they’re worried about having to set up and manage another communication channel.2
Finally, 16% of people say they don’t have a budget for texting or didn’t know it was a possibility.2
Why haven’t businesses and organizations adopted business text messaging?
1. Don’t believe customers want to text
22%
2. Think texts would be interpreted as spam
17%
3. Worried about managing another communication channel
14%
4. Concerned about setup and implementation
11%
5. Didn’t know that businesses could text
9%
6. Don’t have budget for texting
7%
7. Don’t know why they haven’t adopted texting
42%
How many businesses and organizations adopted business texting because of COVID?
70% of businesses and organizations used text messaging to communicate with customers or employees because of COVID-19.3
34% of businesses say they adopted texting because of the pandemic. 77% of businesses and organizations say they will continue to use it after the pandemic ends.3
Try Business Texting Sofware for Free
Get started with a 14-day free MessageDesk trial. No payment required. ❤️
Text Message Marketing Statistics, Facts, and Figures
Text message marketing statistics show that amongst marketers SMS marketing growth is increasing. Many marketing strategies took advantage of text message marketing and text message broadcasts following the pandemic.
Automated text messages and peoples’ preference for texting means that more marketers are looking to use text messaging. Digital marketers regard text messaging as an important marketing channel.
However, people do opt out of unwanted and unsolicited text messages at a high rate. They also don’t tend to enjoy the texting experience with one-way 5-6 digit shortcode messages.
Key SMS Marketing Stats:
SMS text messaging is one of the top four most adopted mobile marketing tactics.
Amongst marketers, 53% currently use mobile messaging to reach out to their prospects, leads, and customers.
56% of organizations say SMS and MMS perform well in improving customer engagement.
More people prefer texting for scheduling, sales inquiries, customer support, and marketing compared to email and voice.
96% of people use their cell phones to send text messages.
The average person sends around 13 SMS text messages per day.
74% of people report having zero unread texts
74% of people respond to text messages from a business within an hour.
31% of people say they like to have the option to call, text, or email a business or organization.
53% of businesses and organizations report that they’ve never sent a text to someone who hasn’t already opted in.
Only 22% of businesses say they’re very familiar with TCPA compliance.
65% percent of people say they’ve unsubscribed from a business’s texts.
Only 16% of businesses and organizations say they’re using one-way short-code texting.
Nearly 75% of people say they get frustrated with shortcode text messages.
Text vs email vs phone calls - what do people prefer?
People say they prefer to receive texts over phone calls or emails for scheduling, sales inquiries, customer service and support, and marketing and promotions.
SMS marketing data indicates that texting is one of the top four most adopted mobile marketing tactics.5
Amongst marketers, 53% currently use mobile messaging to reach out to their prospects, leads, and customers. 31% plan on adopting the technology in the next 12 months.6
23% of marketers are planning on using AI to automate customer interactions over social channels or messaging apps. 57% plan on doing so within the next two years.6
68% of businesses and organizations expect advanced mobile messaging apps to play a highly important role in online consumer marketing within five years.5
58% of consumers said they’ve tried to reply to a missed call via text.1
1 in 4 customers won’t listen to voicemails from unknown callers.1
Texts from an unknown number are 7 times more likely to get a response than a voicemail.1
3% of voicemails from unknown callers get a callback.1
74% of people say they have zero unread texts.1
17% of people say they have zero unread emails.1
Text
Email
Phone call
1. Scheduling
70
25
5
2. Sales inquires
55
37
8
3. Customer support & service
53
42
5
4. Marketing & promotions
52
23
25
5. Billing & payment reminders
27
55
18
6. Recruiting & staffing
23
31
45
7. Returns
23
70
7
8. Shipment tracking
20
60
21
9. Alerts & reminders
19
60
21
10. Account security notifications
17
63
20
Text message marketing vs email marketing engagement rates
Text message open, delivery, response, and spam rates are all superior to email. Text messages have up to a 98% open rate. Emails average around 20%. Overall, text messages have much higher conversion rates and response rates than emails.1
Open Rate
Click Through Rate
Response Rate
Spam Rate
Text message marketing
98%
36%
45%
3%
Email marketing
20%
2%
6%
53%
What kinds of devices do people text from?
96% of people use their cell phones to send text messages. 22% send text messages from their laptop or desktop computer. And another 16% send texts from their tablet or iPad.1
How many texts do people send per day?
The average person sends around 13 SMS text messages per day. But the average person only sends 3.3 emails per day. This means that people send 4x as many texts as emails on any given day.2
How many unread text messages do people have?
74% of people report having zero unread texts, and only 4% report having 7 or more unread texts. 17% of people report having zero unread emails, and 50% report having 7 or more unread emails1
How long does it take people to respond to a text from a business?
74% of people respond to text messages from a business within an hour vs. 41% via email. 85% of people respond to a text message from friends or family within an hour vs. 38% via email.1
SMS text marketing statistics around texting demographics
SMS stats show that 61% of Millennials and Generation Z want to use the same number for calling and texting businesses.1
3 out of 5 Millennials will reply with a text after choosing not to answer a phone call.1
Text marketing statistics indicate that millennials are twice as likely as Gen X’ers to reply to an unknown sender’s text message.1
Millennials are 4 times more likely to respond to a text message than call back to a voicemail.1
What is the most important thing for people when communicating with a business or organization?
31% of people say they like to have the option to call, text, or email a business or organization. And other 27% say that personalized communication is important to them.2
28% of people say that having easy, clear opt-out and choosing messaging frequency is important.2
Finally, 14% of people say that having the ability to reply to a message is the most important thing when messaging a business or organization.2
What is the most important thing for people when communicating with a business or organization?
1. Options for communicating (phone, text, email)
31%
2. Personalized communication
27%
3. Easy and clear opt-out
18%
4. The ability to easily respond to a message
14%
5. Being able to choose messaging frequency
10%
How often do businesses and organizations send texts to people who haven’t opted in?
53% of businesses and organizations report that they’ve never sent a text to someone who hasn’t already opted in. Another 20% aren’t sure if they’ve sent texts to non-opted-in phone numbers.
Text marketing stats also reveal that 27% of businesses and organizations have sent texts to contacts who haven’t opted in.3
How familiar are businesses and organizations with TCPA?
Text message marketing stats indicate that only 22% of businesses say they’re very familiar with TCPA compliance. 35% said they are somewhat familiar, but 44% reported being not familiar at all.3
How many people unsubscribe and opt-out of receiving marketing and promotional texts from businesses and organizations?
65% percent of people say they’ve unsubscribed from a business’s texts. The top two reasons for unsubscribing include spam at 31% and receiving too many texts at 30%. 18% of people opt out because they don’t find certain texts relevant to them.3
How many people try to respond to short code text messages?
SMS mobile marketing statistics show that 16% of businesses and organizations use one-way short-code texting to send text message blasts.3
The low usage is likely due to consumer demand for conversational two-way texting with businesses and organizations.
Additionally, 33% of people have tried to reply to a short code text message with something other than a text autoresponder keyword.1
How many people get frustrated with shortcodes?
Shortcodes are great for alerts and mass marketing. But texting software offers a better customer experience. With two-way texting, customers have the option to initiate a conversation if they need further assistance.
Nearly 75% of people say they get frustrated with shortcode text messages.3
Try Business Texting Sofware for Free
Get started with a 14-day free MessageDesk trial. No payment required. ❤️
Mobile Messaging Trends, Facts, and Statistics
Mobile messaging statistics show that much of the US population owns a phone capable of receiving text messages. Additionally, people spend a tremendous amount of time checking and engaging with their phones.
Mobile messaging app statistics also show that people don’t want to give up human interaction. Out of all the apps on their mobile phones, people use their native text messaging app the most.
Businesses and organizations have also adopted chatbots and branded apps to communicate. But people also feel burdened by having to download special apps to talk with businesses and organizations.
Key Mobile Messaging Statistics
77% of Americans own a smartphone.
63% of people use the SMS text messaging app the most on their personal phones.
61% of people spend at least 3 hours on their mobile phones every day.
67% of people check their phones within at least 5 minutes of waking up.
The majority of people check their phones more than 20 times a day.
54% of businesses say it's very difficult or somewhat difficult to get a response from customers.
18% of businesses and organizations say they use a chatbot.
74% of people say they prefer to speak with a person when conducting business.
64% of consumers said they’re unlikely or very unlikely to download a business or organization’s branded app.
61% of people say they’ve often deleted branded apps shortly after use.
How many smartphones are there in the United States?
5.1 billion people use mobile devices globally. The CTIA predicts there will be 31 billion connected devices by 2023.4
From 2014 to 2017 the number of active smartphones in the US grew 31% to 273 Million.4
77% of Americans own a smartphone compared to 35% in 2011.4
In 2018, Americans connected another 21.5 million mobile devices for a total of 421.7 million devices. 284.7 million of those devices are smartphones. That’s 87% of the U.S. population.4
67% of Americans value reliable wireless service more than affordable housing, good schools, and good commute times.4
72% of consumers said they would give up chocolate over their smartphones. 65% said they would trade TV. 63% said they would give up coffee.4
80% of Americans consider wireless service indispensable.4
89% of people can’t live without their smartphones or always have them within arm’s reach. 4
What messaging tool do people use the most on their personal phones?
63% of people use the SMS text messaging app the most on their personal phones. Facebook Messenger is the second most popular messaging app for 15% of people. This is followed by WhatsApp at 8% and Snapchat at 5%.2
What messaging tool do people use the most on their personal phones?
1. Phone’s native texting app
63%
2. Facebook Messenger
15%
3. WhatsApp
8%
4. Other
6%
5. Snapchat
5%
6. Line
2%
7. Google Hangouts (Gchat)
1%
8. WeChat
1%
How much time do people spend on their phones each day?
35% of people spend 3 to 4 hours on their phones each day. Another 26% report that they spend more than 4 hours per day. While 39% say they spend just 1 to 2 hours on their phones per day.3
How soon after waking up in the morning do people check their personal cell phones?
34% of people immediately check their personal cell phones soon after waking up in the morning. 33% check their cell phones within 5 minutes. That means 67% of people check their phones within the first few minutes of starting their day.3
How soon after waking up in the morning do people check their personal cell phones?
Immediately
34%
Within 5 minutes
33%
More than 5 but less than 30 min
20%
30 min to an hour
8%
More than 1 hour
4%
How many times per day do people check their cell phones?
The majority of people check their phones more than 20 times a day. 16% say they check their mobile phones more than 50 times per day.2
How difficult is it to get a response from contacts, customers, clients, and employees?
54% of businesses say it's very difficult or somewhat difficult to get a response from customers. 36% say it's somewhat easy, while only 10% say it's very easy.2
How difficult is it to get a response from contacts, customers, clients, and employees?
Very difficult
9%
Somewhat difficult
45%
Somewhat easy
36%
Very easy
10%
How many businesses or organizations use chatbots?
18% of businesses and organizations say they use a chatbot. But only 51% of those can transition those conversations to a real person.2
Do people prefer to communicate with chatbots or people?
74% of people say they prefer to speak with a person when conducting business. 23% of people say they prefer to start a conversation with a chatbot. But they still want to transfer to a human at some point if necessary.2
How willing are people to install a branded app to communicate with a business?
64% of people say they’re unlikely to download a branded app to communicate with a business.2
How many people have downloaded a branded app just to communicate with a business or organization?
61% of people say they’ve often deleted branded apps shortly after use.2
How many people have downloaded a branded app just to communicate with a business or organization?
Yes
61%
No
39%
Try Business Texting Sofware for Free
Get started with a 14-day free MessageDesk trial. No payment required. ❤️
Final thoughts and next steps
Ready to try business text messaging? MessageDesk is here to help with business texting software.