75% of consumers made purchases as a result of SMS marketing

60% expect brands to text them at least once a week, but 71% said too many messages are why they no longer want to get them.



Three-quarters of U.S. consumers say they buy things as a result of SMS messages from companies, according to a new study. 


What’s more, 60% say they expect brands to text them at least once a week, according to Vibes’ Mobile Consumer Insights Report. On the other hand, 71% cite too many messages as the main reason they no longer want to hear from brands. Still, 25% said it didn’t matter how often they were contacted as long as it was relevant to their interests.


Why we care. Surprisingly, the popularity of SMS (and other channels) is driving improvements to email. Earlier this month, Google and Yahoo tightened the rules around authentication of outgoing emails, reported spam rates and the ability to easily unsubscribe from email lists. The tech companies are trying to stop the flood of emails that is pushing people to other channels and costing them money. The more effective text marketing gets, the worse it is for them.


 


One of the reasons for SMS’ success is that consumers, for the most part, only agree to receive messages from companies they plan on buying from. Sixty-eight percent said they only sign up “for text message communications from brands that I’m confident I want to buy from within the next year.” 


Also, while the likelihood of someone purchasing because of SMS increases along with income, it never drops below 69% for any cohort.


Vibes’ Mobile Consumer Insights Report (registration required) is based on a survey of more than 1,000 “mobile-centric consumers” in December of last year.








 


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Constantine von Hoffman is managing editor of MarTech. A veteran journalist, Con has covered business, finance, marketing and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been city editor of the Boston Herald, news producer at NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and many other publications. He has also been a professional stand-up comedian, given talks at anime and gaming conventions on everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the history of dice and boardgames, and is author of the magical realist novel John Henry the Revelator. He lives in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either too many or too few dogs.

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