In the UK alone, there are now 80 million mobile phones. 37 million consumers have opted to receive mobile marketing through SMS as their preferred way of receiving notifications from businesses. This is according to a report from Textlocal, one of the UK’s top SMS marketing platforms.

Now, with these figures being so high, you would naturally assume that all businesses are jumping on the band wagon and trying to capitalise on this – but you’d be wrong. Out of all the businesses surveyed, only 50% of them actually have an SMS marketing strategy in place.

If things continue to progress the way that they are, Textlocal estimates that the total number of consumers that are opting in to receive business communications will rise to a whopping 48.7 million by 2020. If these estimations are correct, that would mean that SMS would become the fastest marketing channel in the UK.

According to Ofcom, the UK’s regulatory body, 93% of the country now own a mobile phone. This figure alone shows the real potential for marketers.

What do professionals say about mobile marketing?

The managing director of Textlocal, Jason Palgrave-Jones said:

“Britain is fast becoming a ‘mobile first’ society as mobile phones are often the first and last thing people engage with each day. By their very nature, mobile phones are to hand and provide an unrivalled platform for brands to communicate directly with their audiences. These are exciting times for those involved in the mobile industry as the benefits to businesses and consumers are realised.”

Due to the sheer amount of people that own a mobile phone, and even more so because of the amount that people are constantly checking them, it is a medium that naturally has an extremely high degree of visibility.

Out of the 93% of people that own a mobile phone, the report has estimated that 98% percent of texts relating to business or brands are opened. Not only that, but 90% are opened in the first 3 minutes.

Of course, there is a high percentage of these messages that will swiftly be deleted. In fact, I have already received a text today from my local pizza delivery service offering me a 2-4-1 discount. Tempting, but deleted nevertheless.

Although a clear majority of these messages are deleted, there is a significant response rate. The report indicates that out of the 7 billion business texts sent in 2017, 23 million consumers responded.

Mobile marketing at rise.

Direct Marketing Associations managing director, Rachel Aldighieri, stated:

“It’s clear that mobile marketing and SMS is set to rise as UK consumers remain intrinsically linked with their phones.”

“The medium is already widely used for sending marketing messages, however as technologies grow we expect to see an exponential rise in its use amongst businesses and consumers.”

Here at Made In Scotland, we always try to keep on top of all of the latest digital marketing trends. If you would like some advice on how you can be more successful with your marketing, get in touch today.